Wow, the Pulsebreaker demo really impressed me. If we start with the typical aspects of a classic Resident Evil survival-horror clone, it has everything that is needed. The game has a moody, short outbreak story, a dirty urban location to navigate, and zombies that just feel right for the genre. However, what Pulsebreaker also has is a somewhat innovative skill-based combat system, on top of the standard stop-and-shoot approach.
Focus of our lives
The new thing is called “focus”, which is something you build up during combat, like blasting the walking dead with your 9mm pistol. When you reach max focus, you can for example use some kind of super-aim that only lasts for a second or so. If you time the shot right, you can do devastating damage. Now, the shotgun is a beast regardless, but check out the clip below. I managed to clear a whole room with one lucky, zombie slaughtering shell.
I doubt I will be able to repeat that shot, but it shows how important this system is to learn—instead of just using the bog-standard setup of pelting enemies until no more ammo. The game itself warns you: to be able to survive, you must adapt, since there will not be enough resources otherwise. The effect of the skill also depends on the weapon. With the pistol you just do increased single target damage and a bonus for critical damage. This is not all, though, as you can use it in cool execution melee moves, but I found that hard to pull off due to inexperience and clumsy panic-stricken fingers (zombies are scary, okay?). So in short, the combat is great; it’s both classic and improved in a skill-based manner that I appreciate.
Retro graphics
Otherwise, the mood is perfect, thanks to the cool retro visual style, and intelligently placed fixed camera angles. Some serious effort has gone in here to capture the atmosphere—and while being a RE-clone, I actually didn’t pick up on the “copy-and-paste” feeling that I get from so many RE-inspired games, which is an excellent thing. Pulsebreaker seems to ditch tank-controls for something more contemporary, but I can see why. The zombies feel a tad faster and come in large packs, ready to tear you a new asshole (and probably eat it).
This is definitely a survival-horror title to keep an eye on, because it was very enjoyable, difficult (I died so many times I started to think I’d joined the zombies), and it genuinely pushes the genre forward with its new combat system. It takes a while to get used to, but when it clicks, it makes fighting the zombies so much more fun. Try the demo for yourself here!
Thanks for reading.
– Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 