Touch the Dead

"Touching this game will bring Death"

Back in the 90's and the earlier 2000's, Sega and Namco have dominated the light-gun arcade scene with some great on-rail shooters like the "Virtua Cop" and "Time Crisis" franchise. They were exciting, fun and got the adrenaline pumping. "Touch the Dead", on the other hand (the free hand that's not touching the dead), has all the hallmark of another Sega classic "House of the Dead" written all over it. It didn't even try to hide that fact, most evidently in the title. Where is the originality?

Plot

You play as a prisoner jailed in a maximum security prison for God-knows-what-horrible-crime-you-have-committed. One night, you were sleeping when your cell door suddenly swung open. Being the evil criminal that you were, you escaped from your cell only to find yourself... a handgun in the men's toilet (or was that a storage room?). Surely, you would know that the handgun would be put to good use shortly after as the whole prison population turned into mindless lunatics that wanted your blood because, you know, they were all hardcore criminals and corrupted prison guards. Even if they didn't turn into zombies, they would still come after your blood anyway.

As to why you were the only one not affected, or why the whole prison was infected, I didn't live long enough to find out.

The plot is as dramatic as counting leaves on trees. The plot is formulated, cliche and cheesy. But that's not really why you would play these kind of games. On rail shooter does what on rail shooter does best - blast the crap out of everything that moves. But "Touch the Dead" is not quite a blast-fest.

Gameplay

As the name suggested, you don't really 'shoot' the dead, you 'touch' them with a stylus. It might have been a good idea on the DS, and it is. It is much more accurate, head shots are easier to execute. However, in exchange for all that accuracy, you lose the fun of pulling the trigger.

And that is not a problem. No gunning action, big deal. The biggest problem with this game, and by far, the most annoying and frustrating aspect of this game lies in its reloading operation. The reloading mechanism is done in two stages, and both of them are infuriating. First, there is the action that you take to reload the weapon, and second, the action taken by your on screen character to do the reload animation.

Take '"Virtua Cop", for example. To reload, you simply pull the trigger while pointing the gun somewhere else off screen (point it at your pet, for example). Your weapon is instantly reloaded. This is done in one swift motion and only takes a split second.

Take "Time Crisis" as another example. Step on the pedal, and viola, your weapon is ready to go again. Again, one swift motion.

But in "Touch the Dead", you have to physically drag the clip from the right corner of the screen all the way across to the left corner where the gun barrel (or whatever it is that represents the gun) is. It is repetitive, slow and annoying. It didn't help that the capacity of the gun is limited. So you always find yourself constantly reloading every few seconds. It might be fun for the first 3 minutes, but after that, you will start throwing profanity at the developer(s) who thought up of that stupid idea. The time it takes to drag the clip only adds to the frustration. Sometimes, you cannot even drag the clip because it was unresponsive or you didn't hold on to it properly. You ended up firing a bullet instead. And in the middle of the struggle between man and... deformed man, it can be crucial to your survival.

And that's only half of it. The second part is not as annoying, but just as trying. The animation of your on screen character loading the weapon is unnecessary and slow. Again, this adds to the reloading time (albeit less than a second) and could mean death if your weapon runs out of bullet at the most inconvenient time, as I have experienced many times.

Being an on rail shooter, you are destined to travel from A to B on a predefined course. Like other on rail shooters, "Touch the Dead" gives you the illusion of an option to choose your own path in the way of signage that are scattered around the place. But in the end, all alternatives are more of the same environment, the same enemies, the same stuff.

To its credit, zombies have multiple hit areas on its body. When you blow its bloody head off, it shows. Limbs also come off when you shoot them away, but it will only be noticeable if the mindless deformed man comes close.

At the end of each segment, you will be given statistics on the number of shots you have landed on their bodies. Accordingly, you will be replenished with a number of lives that you would undoubtedly lose during the previous encounter.

Graphics

What makes Resident Evil such a good game is the environment that it presents to the players. It gives the players a reason to be scared. Even though it's not colourful, the environment is rich and menacing. But in "Touch the Dead", everything looks crude and lack details. The texture is bland, and blocky.

Enemies lack variety. A horde of them might come after you, but all of them look just the same. You will soon develop the why-am-I-still-killing-the-same-horde-of-zombie look on your face.

While they are bloody, they look ugly, as in they-are-so-blocky kind of way, not it's-going-to-scare-little-children kind of ugly. Especially when they are up close and personal, which is a lot of the time, the low polygon count really stands out like a sore thumb. The character model feels very messy. It does not scare players like what a horror game should do.

Even though the DS is not known for its graphical prowess, the graphics could have and should have been better.

Sound

Sound is not much better than the graphics. Indeed, the quantity is there. You can hear the zombie growling as they come and screaming as they die, or the gun firing off as you pull the trigger, or the reloading sound of your weapon. But the quality is unfortunately lacking. They are all very generic. Every enemy growls and scream much the same way. Loading a shotgun sounds exactly the same as loading a handgun.

Music is almost non-existent. It comes to life when you are facing the boss, but during stage, it's no where to be found. It would have been very welcomed as music is a vital part of any good horror game. Unfortunately, it is missing here.

Replay Value

After you have completed a stage, you can replay any part of it. However, there is no particular incentive to do so other than trying to improve your accuracy. Wi-Fi option is available for those inclined to have a two player game. It does not differ much from Solo play, except now you have an extra hand to deal with the flock of blood hungry individuals.

Overall

Due to the nature of the genre, you do not get much chance to explore the world, but then again, there is not much for you to explore. The environment is not as scary as it should be; the enemies are too common, and the graphics are crude.

"Touch the Dead" follows a very standard formula. While the developer tried something different to distinguish it from its bigger arcade cousin, the reload mechanism has broken this game in more ways than one. It has ruined the thing that makes light gun game a joy to play.

For me, I could stand the crude graphics, and the basic sound titbits, but I cannot stand the wait I need to endure before I can blast the heads off the walking cardboard cut-outs.

Good:

* Easy gameplay

Bad:

* Reloading is repetitively annoying
* Blocky graphics
* Generic sound

Score (out of 10)

Plot: 2
Gameplay: 4
Graphics: 4
Sound: 3
Replay: 2

Overall: 3

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/09

Game Release: Touch the Dead (US, 05/16/07)