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- Dead Estate – PC Review - September 2, 2023
Genre: Twin-stick shooter action roguelike
Developer: Milkbar Lads
Publisher: 2 Left Thumbs
Release Date: October 19th, 2021
Edited by AlexKnight2005
Dead Estate is an isometric roguelike shooter developed by Milkbar Lads and published by 2 Left Thumbs. Milkbar Lads have released multiple free games on the well-known indie game site itch.io, with Dead Estate being their first Steam title. It was initially a free title playable in the browser, with this version being an expanded paid version. The choice of publisher certainly raises eyebrows as 2 Left Thumbs started as a YouTube channel before venturing into indie game publishing, with Dead Estate being the first such game. It is a rather strange choice, but will it work out?
Though generally light on story, the game starts with an introductory cutscene. Teenager Jules is stuck on the road outside in the pouring rain at night, but a kind old bearded trucker, Jeff, gives her a lift. However, the truck gets punctured, and the duo is accosted by creepy ghouls, forced to flee into the titular Dead Estate.
The game is closer to the standard roguelike formula than other roguelites or roguelikes with permanent upgrades. In Dead Estate, you don’t appear to be afforded any such luxury, restarting from scratch every run. You need to gradually ascend the mansion, killing the wide variety of horrors you encounter in the rooms, then kill the boss to complete the floor and take the elevator to the next level. Merchants on each floor sell a variety of stat boosts, weapons, and other items, but as mentioned above, they do not carry over to the next run.
The only real sort of permanent progression you get is the variety of unlockable characters, their skins, and a secret true ending to the run. You only start with two characters at first, though — Jeff, as mentioned earlier, and Jules. The rest are unlocked via all sorts of interesting and challenging conditions. Each character starts with their weapon and can hold another with limited ammunition that disappears once the ammo is depleted. They all generally feel pretty distinct from each other to play.
Controls are almost pretty much the standard twin-stick roguelike controls, though curiously, the game recommends the usage of a keyboard and mouse. Not an issue for me since I tend to play these games that way anyway, though controller support is an option. Beyond the standard bindings for the standard actions, there is also a binding for a jump action, which may seem superfluous at first until you play more and slowly discover scenarios where jumping is useful, if not paramount, for speed purposes.
Levels are depicted in an isometric style which I am not entirely a fan of. While I do not think this game would work in any other style, this is already flawed in that I find general ‘readability’ hard. The perspective makes it tougher to dodge certain enemies that are moving fast in your direction, and some other hazards, like spinning spike balls, become rather wonky to dodge. Ultimately, this would end up being the key issue I have with the game, aside from the lack of mid-run saving (as a certain mechanic introduced after a few floors can drastically increase the run length).
Compared to other games of the genre, Dead Estate certainly feels tougher than most of them. Even on the standard normal difficulty, I was finding it hard at times to keep up with the pace of the enemies and would more often than not perish on the third floor. I had to downgrade to the “Too Young to Die” difficulty before I finally got a run completion. At the least, that difficulty does not bar most achievements from being unlocked (aside from difficulty-based achievements), so it’s probably worthwhile to downgrade difficulties to learn the ropes before graduating to the harder one. Dropping the difficulty is also not bad when you rapidly learn that Dead Estate partially borrows a mechanic from other rouge-likes. Ever heard of the ghost in the latter game that starts chasing you if you spend too long in a level? Dead Estate’s equivalent is a giant rat named Chunks. Though he can be incapacitated for the floor, he is very tanky and incredibly persistent across rooms, and you are in for a world of hurt when he spawns. It only gets harder and harder to deal with him as the difficulty increases.
All of this overall combines to make Dead Estate an incredibly frantic and high-paced package that can be fun, if frustratingly challenging at times, to master. It only helps that the audiovisual aspects of the game, all done in-house, are impeccable. The gorgeous pixel art style, yet again, is one I would swoon over. The aforementioned merchants? They’re practically all the same witchy lady Cordelia (who can also be unlocked as a playable character at some point) in all manners of different outfits. Her default shopkeeper witch outfit is the most salacious and nosebleed-inducing, showing off her massive cleavage. The chiptune soundtrack by MajorWipeout simultaneously helps to convey the tension (especially in the Chunks chase sequences and some battles) in some songs while being ridiculously catchy in others. Seriously, I can’t get that first-floor tune out of my head.
Pros:
- Delightful pixel art.
- Charming chiptune soundtrack.
- Frantic, high-paced, fun.
Your mileage may vary:
- Feels tougher than other similar games.
- No permanent progression outside of unlocking other characters.
Cons:
- Isometric perspective makes it visually difficult to dodge.
- No mid-run saving.
K3W3L gives Dead Estate a Drastik Measure of 8.5 out of 10.0 (85)
At the $14.99 asking price on Steam, Dead Estate is a worthwhile addition to roguelike aficionados’ collections, even if only for the giant-breasted lady.
