Life ain’t easy for the Yakuza. Kidnapping, betrayal, gang warfare - all things they face on a daily basis. That’s nothing, though, compared to the latest menace terrorizing the streets, one that makes their earlier lives seem about as dangerous as flipping burgers at McDonalds. That’s right - zombies! Now, a group of four men must rise to the challenge and survive the undead threat, or face the same fate they bestowed upon many others during their years of organized crime. Ironic, isn’t it?
Yakuza: Dead Souls is the sixth title in the Yakuza series, and is brought to us by Sega. It’s certainly a departure from previous installments, as this time you’ll be facing off against never-ending hordes of reanimated corpses. This may upset some fans of the series, but I have to give Sega credit for moving the franchise in a new direction, albeit a slightly overused one. There are four main characters you’ll be playing as over the course of the game, and each has his own story and motivations driving him along the path.
It’s a little tough to classify this game, genre-wise, but I suppose it would be called action, with some serious RPG elements. All the RPG staples are there - you’ll level up, acquire new items and abilities, modify your weapons, and partake in various side-quests. Oh yeah, and watch cutscenes. A lot of cutscens. Thankfully, the plot is interesting enough to keep things moving along, but I hate it when games start with 20 minutes of story before you get to start killing! Just throw me into the action, and I’ll catch up on the rest later, okay?
The RPG side of the game is probably the strongest part of Dead Souls, although there’s nothing in there you won’t have seen before. In fact, this statement pretty much sums up the whole game - it feels not like an original title, but rather a mash-up of many popular games from recent years. Of course the House of the Dead influence is felt, but there are also a number of familiar aspects taken from Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead (and probably other games with “Dead” in the title). Honestly, the Left 4 Dead elements are so pronounced, that I’d say Dead Souls crosses the line from “inspired by” to “blatantly rips off”. I mean, not only will you be shooting your way through thick hordes of zombies who run at you from all directions, but you’ll also have to deal with special types of enemy that were lifted right from the pages of Valve’s excellent shooter - Witches, Tanks, Hunters, and Boomers all make an appearance, and although they have different names, there’s no question where the ideas came from.
We also see elements of other games thrown into the mix. Sure, I think we’ve all accepted that GTA influenced many developers to make open-world “sandbox” games, with mini-maps and side missions dotted around, but it still feels like a slightly lazy design choice to follow this formula (they even included mini games, such as darts and pool). Also, I swear one of the bosses you fight is actually a Licker, straight from the Resident Evil series! It feels as though Sega simply took parts of all the best zombie games and tried to cram them into one, to create the ultimate undead shooter! They didn’t succeed.
Okay, so having complained about its lack of originality, how does it actually play? Unfortunately, not too well. It’s really more of an action game than a hardcore shooter, so you’ll spend most of the time simply running around hammering on R1 to fire your weapons into the dense crowds of flesh-eaters - the characters basically auto aim, so just point yourself in the general direction and start hitting that fire button. You can center the camera behind you, and also plant your feet down in order to aim at specific things (which brings up a cursor), but even these elements aren’t implemented quite right. For instance, most games will have a character turn to face whichever way the camera is pointing when you press the aim button, but in Dead Souls the camera instead swings around behind your character, meaning you must face your target before you aim. Also, Sega decided that manually aiming should be done with the left stick instead of the traditional right one. These factors meant I often found myself pointing my guns in the wrong direction, which quickly became frustrating. Yes, I realize I’ve just spent time complaining about Dead Souls ripping off elements from other games, but if you’re already stealing so many things, how about taking a well established and familiar control scheme too?
It’s not all bad, though. Despite its lack of originality, there were still times when I enjoyed myself. I have to give Sega credit for creating some really nice graphics, which helped suck me into the world quite well. They also included plenty of cinematic touches, such as the slow motion “Heat Sniping” moves your character can pull off after filling up a certain power bar. These target things such as gas canisters and electrical panels, destroying large groups of zombies in one shot, and providing a nice thrill in the process. Presentation-wise, Dead Souls is pretty good, it’s just a shame that the actual content is lacking.
Length is another element that some will praise it for - there’s certainly enough to keep people going for many hours, not counting all the sub-quests and collectibles. Of course, you may find yourself getting a little bored of the repetitive action, which doesn’t change much throughout the game, but if you enjoy it enough to keep playing, Dead Souls should keep you occupied for a while. Personally, I prefer games to be short and sweet, but that’s really just a matter of taste.
So overall, I didn’t much like Yakuza: Dead Souls. It has some fun aspects to it, but just feels so generic. There were many occasions when I thought to myself “Haven’t I played this before?”. I realize that no works of art are 100% original, be they movies, music, or video games, but I expect to see at least a few novel ideas in new releases, or else the products just feels stale and boring. Dead Souls certainly isn’t terrible, and I’m sure there are some who will love it, but for fans of zombie games, it just doesn’t offer anything new. I worry that developers, hell-bent on including zombies in everything now, will quickly run this genre into the ground, but even if they do, I have no doubt it’ll rise again.
