#PGCHelsinki: Dead Effect 2 is the runner-up at the Very Big Indie Pitch
Dead and killing it
It takes quite a lot to make me go "oooh" at a zombie-focused FPS on mobile, but Dead Effect 2 just about managed it at the Very Big Indie Pitch in Helsinki yesterday.
So much so, in fact, that I wasn't surprised to see it in the top five come the end of play.
It's a sequel to the Bronze Award-winning space-based corridor shooter that hit iOS and Android a couple of years ago, and it looks to up the ante in as many ways as possible.
You're not just blasting mutated horrors this time round – there are human enemies to take down as well, and during the pitch we're promised a whole swathe of different creatures and assailants to shoot full of space lead.
There are a number of devices handed around the judges, and the game definitely works best on the clam shell Nvidia Shield I get to play on. It feels slick, and it looks absolutely stunning.
Lights flicker in the grungy metal-lined corridors, flesh creeping horrors burst out of the gloom, and gun fire flashes through the alarm-flashes. There's more of an atmosphere here, a chill in the air as I stalk the corridors with super-powered weaponry.
The usual FPS trappings are in place, from the jam-splatter when I take damage to the twin-stick controls and weapon-swapping. It's not exactly original, much like the first game in the series, but there's a meaty stomp to proceedings that means it sucks you in pretty effectively
As you might imagine the touchscreen controls aren't quite so sharp, but they're still pretty darn good. Still, this is definitely one to dig out your MFi controller for.
Dead Effect 2 is a gory and shiny gout of FPS action, and it'll be hitting iOS and Android for free in the next couple of months.