Surgent Studios’ second title, Dead Take, is a look into the dark heart that beats in the center of Hollywood. Utilizing a mix of first-person gameplay and live-footage video, you will attempt to understand what happened at a movie producer’s mansion shindig. The scares are high, the occasional poor American accents are here, and throughout 4 to 5 hours, you’ll feel both clever and most likely confused.
Vinny Boombatz
Ben Starr’s Vinny and Neil Newbon’s Chase are the standouts of what is a solid all-around cast. You will play as Chase, following in Vinny’s trail at a party he is attending. Things have gone quiet, the house seems empty, and the home’s owner starts to send you chilling voicemails. It’s a solid premise with only one conclusion, which I found to be a little bit confusing.
No spoilers, of course, this is a story-first game. Dead Take features a lot of audio and visual jump scares, so be warned, or be smart and keep the volume down. The entirety of the game takes place in the mansion of Duke Cain. He is a film producer and director whose latest film is celebrating its start of production. As Chase, you’ll show up to this seemingly empty, puzzle-filled abode as you try to find your friend.
Dead Take should be familiar to fans of the horror genre. Your protagonist is silent, and your only interactions are with specific items in the environment. Chase will pick things up, place them down, and watch a lot of audition footage. Take notes of any four-digit numbers, make sure to click items added to your inventory to open them up, and know that while you can be scared, there aren’t any combat or chase sequences of any kind.
Dead Take is a pretty game, seemingly running in Unreal Engine. It ran well on my PC, even at max settings. The textures for the environments and puzzles are helped by a lighting system utilized to its fullest “piss your pants” potential. As stated earlier, while you are playing the game, whether it’s walking around, solving puzzles, or watching film clips, there are a lot of incredibly loud jump scares.
Those clips are the main progression system of the game. Most of the puzzles you solve are aimed at getting you flash drives. Using the flash drives, you’ll then watch clips in Duke’s seat inside his enormous home theater. An AI editing system is there to splice clips together, adding another layer of puzzle on top of it all. There are even side ‘quests’ of a sort, where the other actors in the movie will have extra videos to watch. Seeing Sam Lake and Alannah Pearce was trippy at first. Both do well, with Sam sounding like he always does, and Alannah putting on a decently effective American accent.
Those accents are a mix of excellent and off-putting, as an American born. Ben Starr and Neil Newbon both nail it, sounding natural, effortless, almost. Alannah Pearce, as stated previously, sounds American, though a little wooden in some lines reads. The main issue comes in the form of Duke Cain, voiced by the studio’s founder, Abubakar Salim.
There are numerous line reads where Mr. Salim sounds similar to when our EIC Jon Clarke or Windows Central’s Jez Corden try to sound like they are from the US. It isn’t every line, and I do not think it ruins the performance. I found it stuck out occasionally and pulled me out of the narrative slightly.
The Pain… The Pain…
Speaking of the narrative. Dead Take ends up feeling like a group of actors letting it all out, when it comes to the film and television industries. This is a dark, sad, angry tale about the sacrifice required for art, and how those who perform it are mistreated. While I’m not sure how I feel about the overall narrative and my lack of choice in how it turns out, I respect where it is coming from.
The music and sound effects are effective in building the drama and tension. My main audio complaint is just how insanely loud the jump scares are compared to the regular dialogue and sound effects. I started playing at an audio level that was tough to hear because I knew that once a jump scare came out, it was going to be far louder than anything else. That is the point, most of the time, but it’s slightly louder and still effective in the best games and movies. I got a decent headache after my first playthrough when at 70% max volume the game went from “this dialogue sounds clear” to “this jump scare is so loud that your head is now splitting in half”.
Other than that, playing the game on PC, which is the only platform at launch, it ran without any issues. I had a few visual bugs, like the front of a picture showing up on the back when I rotated it in my hand. Most of the gameplay is essentially clicking on things, and if you pick them up, you’ll probably rotate them to see something interesting. Outside of that, the writing was good with only one goof, having the date on an American NDA give the day/month/year (we do it month/day/year ‘round here, pardner, HOOOWEEE).
Wrapping Things Up
Dead Take is a solid four or five hours of classic horror puzzle fun, mixed with some excellent (and some mediocre) live-action scenes. It isn’t looking to break any ground, instead targeting a good, scary time, and nailing it.
Dead Take
Played on
PC (Steam)
PROS
- Some excellent acting
- 3D gameplay segments look great
- Clever puzzle solutions
CONS
- Some not excellent acting
- Volume mix on jump scares is a bit too high
