Dead Runner

Dead Runner – Dead Scary or Dead Boring? You decide!

This happens to be a superbly atmospheric game, with chilling music, plenty of mist and unexpected twists and turns.

This title offers two types of gameplay; distance and points. Essentially these modes are the same but there are a couple of distinct differences. What you must do is try to run through the misty forest as far as you can without hitting any obstacles (trees mainly and the odd gravestone). To do this, you tilt the iPod/iPhone from left to right to turn that way. Moving forward is done automatically, the only thing you can’t do with the device is slow yourself down (unless you happen to run into a bush which will slow you down momentarily).

As you go, the speed picks up and so your reactions must get quicker to match otherwise you’ll end up face first into an object.

In distance mode you are purely marked on how far you manage to get before you hit something (which ends the game). In points mode, you get scored on the distance and on the bonus coins (yellow orbs), and the multiplyers (2x purple orbs and 3x green orbs). Needless to say you can try to just go the distance but you might score more highly if you take the riskier route and gather all the various point boosting pick-ups along the way.

Although the game never really does do much in the way of offer any real variety, it does offer a challenge nonetheless. For me, it would have been good seeing some moving objects come into play and really make the most of the entire creepy atmosphere. So for this reason I think the developers missed a trick and I can only hope that in a future update it will have zombies, ghouls or bats – even if these are just to make it look more spooky rather than kill you.

Ultimately, this is a title that is certainly going to do well for Halloween and with anyone who likes the thrill of the chase but it just seems like it could have gone a little bit further. For some it’s bound to be highly addictive and for others it’s probably a little bit dull and repetitive.

The most frustrating part for me was that the turning isn’t razor sharp and when trying to collect orbs or dodge objects, the space or orb can be seen but not reached – which normally results in a rather untimely end.

The only reason I found that I would keep playing this game is to achieve all the goals, but to do this could take you quite a while.

Rating 66%

Positives

Good graphics

Very atmospheric

Perfect for Halloween

Plenty of goals to strive for

Negatives

Extremely repetitive

There’s no plot

Seemingly endless

Not enough variation between the two modes