Dead Format Review

Growing up, I remember wishing I could dive into the whimsical worlds my VHS collection offered, films like Barbie in the Nutcracker to Beauty and the Beast. Well, in Katanalevy’s survival horror game, Dead Format, I finally get the chance to step into cinematic spaces, but they’re nothing like the enchanting, magical movies I listed. No, these three tapes mesmerise you with their terrors, taking you on a nightmarish journey where you’ll fight, hide, and solve your way through cursed footage.

Playing as a silent protagonist, you’ll embark on a search for your missing brother, whose trail is seemingly connected to a television set and tapes that can transport you into their worlds. It’s a narrative told primarily by reading notes your sibling left behind, newspaper clippings, and more. I wasn’t always fond of the writing style, particularly the text written from the brother’s lens, but I did appreciate that it was often concise and that film/item descriptions were done quite well. The storytelling overall is the weakest part of Dead Format, though there is enough mystery to keep you engaged.

That said, the mixed-media visuals are simply amazing. There’s a genre for each tape: Silent Era Cinema, Italian Giallo films, and ‘80s Body Horror. When you slide one into the VCR, you’ll get to view a bit of live-action footage, in which every moment is captivating to watch, and then the apartment door sizzles to life, opening a pathway into the tape’s world. For instance, the first level/movie, titled “Symphony of a Severed Soul”, truly felt like you were stepping into a silent film with its black-and-white colour palette and gothic aesthetics. Each area is an atmospheric treat whilst feeling distinct from one another. Even non-cinephiles can appreciate the level of detail and care put into the visuals.

Dead Format uses its three main levels to their fullest, as the game’s puzzle-solving requires venturing into a tape’s world and finding items that can be used in the other areas to solve puzzles and open new pathways. This does mean that there’s a lot of backtracking, since you often have to run back to the level’s entrance and manually swap tapes from your apartment’s television set; that said, it’s never a long trek and even though you don’t have a map, you’ll rarely get lost with the easy-to-navigate layouts. In fact, progression is pretty satisfying, rewarding you with shortcuts, so backtracking gets even quicker.

If you’re a fan of survival horror, the game’s limited inventory and emphasis on resource management will feel familiar to you. The items you pick up are quite interesting, from Teeth bullets used in your equally disgusting Flesh Pistol to Healing Tapes that you can consume for health. You even pick up plenty of Blank Tapes and Channel Attachments, which you can combine and use in your VCR to spit out a Healing Tape or extra ammo.

I never felt strapped for resources and didn’t feel the typical ramp-up of tension that comes with not having enough on hand. I mostly felt frustrated that I couldn’t carry everything, given the limited inventory space; that said, there is a large inventory box you can access at the hub/apartment to store any extra items for future use.

Enemies in Dead Format perfectly match their corresponding film with their visual designs, and the simple combat suffices, as you can use your Flesh Pistol to shoot and kill most of them. There is a good deal of stealth required, though, as one particular foe will eventually patrol all three tapes and can only be stunned with bullets. This upped the tension a touch, forcing me to note the nearest hiding spots and be mindful of how much noise I made. With this being a horror game, though, I do have to mention that I never felt scared. I appreciated the creepy enemy design and unique environments, but if you’re looking for something that will deeply frighten you, the pacing, level design, and soundscape fall short on the spook factor.

The puzzles are adequate, and you do have to pay attention to items in your inventory or notes for hints on how to solve them. I enjoyed how a solution frequently required travelling to another tape to find something that would work. Overall, they aren’t too hard to solve, and I got through them without much work, but the minor challenge was good enough.

As for the save system, it feels a lot like Amnesia: The Bunker, since you can only save your progress in the apartment. There aren’t checkpoints or auto-saves, so if you die inside a tape, you’ll lose your progress. With the way the gameplay is paced out, you’re returning to the apartment often enough that you do get many opportunities to save. However, if you dislike having a singular safe spot to save or only have a few minutes to play, that’s something to be aware of going into it.

Dead Format is a decent survival horror game that has striking visuals. I’ll remember it most for its live-action, bite-sized movie scenes, which complement your romp through the tapes’ interesting worlds. It’s really great to see a mixture of media in a game. When it comes to combat, I like the simplicity of it and the gross weapon you’re armed with; the puzzles, however, could be a bit more challenging to scratch that thinky itch. The weakest elements are the storytelling and scariness, so it’d be nice to see those improved in a future title, but they don’t detract too much from the game. All in all, I’m excited to see what comes next for Katanalevy, especially when it comes to blending film and gameplay together.