< Back         Touch the Dead - Review

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Over the years rail shooters have come to hold a special place in the hearts of many gamers. Whether it is from playing Time Crisis or House of the Dead at an arcade, or the quirky Typing of the Dead or Rez on home consoles, the genre has come to be loved by many by offering fun and fast paced gameplay. Touch the Dead, a new rail shooter from Eidos, doesn't fail to deliver that same gameplay; but does so in a very new and interesting way.

Touch the Dead utilizes the Nintendo DS' touch screen in place of the traditional light gun which has players tapping where they want to shoot in order to blast your way through the on coming hordes of zombies. The touch screen also manages reloading in which players drag bullets from the bottom right of the screen to a gun clip in the bottom left of the screen. Although this does add to the challenge of the game, the reloading isn't always as accurate as it should be which leaves your character vulnerable to attacks given your not exact with the reloading.

The story of Touch the Dead really takes a back seat to the action, and at times it feels as though the plot was left unfinished which does take away from the game. You take on the role Rob Steiner, a prison inmate who wakes up to find his cell door opened and the prison infested by zombies. The whole idea behind the game is to help Rob escape the prison and also survive the waves of zombies which bear down on you; but that's as far as the story goes.

Though Touch the Dead does lack in narrative, it makes up for it with solid gameplay and fast paced action. Many times you'll be put to the test by a large group of zombies with only a handgun at your disposal. As you progress through the levels, you discover a shotgun, crowbar, and also a sub-machine gun to help deal with the on coming waves of the dead, but the shotgun and sub-machine gun all have limited ammunition so you will be left conserving that for larger groups of zombies while you rely on the handgun which luckily has an unlimited supply of ammo.

However, as soon as you get underway with the game, it shortly comes to an end; with only four chapters which consist of three levels each, Touch the Dead doesn't offer long play time and feels as though there should be more to the game. The developers did include hidden art work in each level which you unlock by finding where it is hidden which does offer some replay value, and there is also another difficulty you unlock after beating the game.

Touch the Dead also seems slightly flawed by the bland graphics and lack of variety. Numerous times you'll find yourself moving down a hallway which looks exactly like the one you just came from or fighting a group of zombies that are all dressed, and look, exactly the same. Though this isn't a huge fault, it does take away from the feel of the game and leaves it feeling plain and featureless.

Putting those faults aside, Touch the Dead does offer an enjoyable gaming experience with a short learning curve which allows for many people to easily pick up the game and start blasting away zombies with ease. With solid controls and an interesting take on the genre, Touch the Dead does establish itself as an entertaining rail shooter; but with the lack of variety and incomplete feel it does fall short which takes away from the game and leaves a lot to be desired.

5 / 10