Deadlink review for PC

I?m a little hesitant to get too excited about Deadlink. After all, it?s still in Early Access, and Steam is littered with Early Access games that showed promise but never went anywhere. Given that Deadlink came out a few months ago and it?s expected to be in Early Access for at least a year, it?s entirely possible that what you see in this game is all there ever will be ? and what?s here isn?t exactly overflowing with content.

That said, based on what?s here so far, Deadlink looks awfully promising. Basically, imagine DOOM reimagined as a neon-drenched cyberpunk roguelite arena shooter, and you?ve got the game in a nutshell.

Or, to put it another way, this is a game where your starting weapons ? the ones Deadlink uses in its tutorial ? are a shotgun and a rocket launcher. There are plenty of shooters where those are the marquis weapons, the ones where you need to wait to earn the serious firepower. Here, by contrast, you get them right off the bat, since this is a game that wants you to run around, blasting away to your heart?s content.

Mind you, this also kind of underscores the main problem with Deadlink, which is that there?s not a whole lot here in terms of lasting content. You get a short briefing, you start a mission, you go into a dimly lit room filled with neon lights and battle androids, and?well, that?s it. True, your goal is to rack up more points and to unlock bigger and better weapons each time, but you?re still seeing everything that the game has to offer during that first run.

That said, if you?re just after a game where the only goal is a high score and unlocking new guns, then Deadlink more than delivers on that. Not only do you have great weapons to start, your character flies with ease all over each room, and for the most part you do that without the game ever stuttering to catch up. Couple that with a pulse-pounding soundtrack, and it?s easy to see how someone could get sucked in.

The only problem, as noted above, is that Deadlink isn?t a finished product, and it could very well change (or not change at all) by the time it makes the jump to a full release. That said, if this Early Access version is any indication, Deadlink is a game to watch.

SuperGG.com provided us with a Deadlink PC code for review purposes.