Dead Cyborg Review

Endre Barath really likes the Old School adventure games, especially the inventory-based puzzles found in the old Interactive Fiction classics.

Endre Barath also likes the the 3D exploration style in classic FPS games such as Quake and Doom.

And Endre Barath likes to play with Blender rendering software.

So it was just natural that Endre would use his Blender talents to create an adventure game just the way he liked it.

Dead Cyborg is a classic science fiction setting with some horror elements. You wake up in a cryo-suspension tank all alone with no memories of your past. The place you find yourself in is deserted and badly run down. Where is everyone? What happened? How do I get out of here? How do I survive?

The complex is filled with clues as you find memory holographs (diary pages) of the others who had once been in the tanks with you as well as the memories of… someone else. There is also robot graffiti and some of the computer monitors are still active. There are also bodies which have some of their parts missing.

The story waxes philosophical as the others who went before you confront their own mortality and wonder what the true meaning is of life and death.

The game is short. If you take your time and try to uncover every clue it should take you two evenings to complete. But it can be downloaded for free for Windows (Linux and Mac versions out soon) or played directly with a web browser* (plugin for Windows or Linux required).

The graphics will remind you of the early Quake games. The puzzles are easy to medium in difficulty and are mostly inventory-based. The story moves along at a nice clip and there is a lot to explore.

I said that you can download the game for free, but donations are expected. While not exactly shareware, Endre is using a payment model I will call Ransomware. You see, he is well into the development of Episode 2, but will not release it until the donations for Episode 1 total the magic number he wants. As of this writing, the web site shows donations at 30% of that total. Endre plans to complete the game with Episode 3.

So we have a delightful little game which is fun to play, does everything the author intended and the price is right. Also, it is the work of a single individual. All that gets an “A” in my book. Find out more about our grading system.

System Requirements (according to “What is the minimal hardware to run this game?” in Dead Cyborg Technical FAQs):

It will run fine on a 1.5Ghz processor and a Geforce7600 or equivalent ATI videocard. But better to try it yourself, it is free to download.

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*Editor’s note: As of the date of this review, browser versions of the game for Windows and Linux are still in Beta. Chrome, Firefox, Opera and IE are supported. Click here for more info.