Sometimes, a game just fails to sell. My first exposure to Keldyn Interactive’s age-of-sail zombie masher Dead Meets Lead was via our own site here. And after that? Nothing. It’s entire existence flew under the radar for most after it’s release last year. It also completely failed to sell, despite a strong showing at the Swedish Game Awards. Now, at the end of a long and troubled road and after a rather damning postmortem, the developers are disbanding and releasing the game as freeware.
Keeping with this week’s theme of Zombies: Where Are They Now? Keldyn Interactive has announced the digital release of their colonial zombie slayer Dead Meets Lead, which Scott first spotted back in October.
The top-down slasher is available now for $20 on Impulse, GamersGate, Desura, and Direct2Drive, and bears a bit of a visual resemblance to Diablo…well, that is if you were playing as Diablo himself. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but here’s my take from watching the release trailer:
As a seafaring, super-strong captain marooned on an undead-infested island you were supposed to rid evil voodoo from anyway, you’re already a driven, agitated individual. Apparently hordes of zombies cause you to have progressive levels of rage (hell, I can’t even begin to question that because it’s just innately brilliant stuff.) As far as slicing and shooting goes, that’s good for you, bad for them, and horrible for your relationships with loved ones — who; thankfully, don’t seem to be running around anywhere in the game. Your red coat is awesome, and clearly resolves any issue of unsightly blood stains. Also there’s a cool killshot zoom feature, maybe? I’m a good journalist.
The dev also offers “The Challenge”, which acts a playable demo of the game that has you taking on one of the maps in a survival mode setting. The file weighs in at 132 MB, you’ll be prompted to join a facebook event upon arriving at the demo page, but note you can simply bypass that to the download if you like. If I can’t get my hands on a copy of the proper game, I’ll definitely be checking this out and reporting back with some thoughts.
Have a look at the aforementioned release trailer as well. See that the captain’s attacks are indeed fierce and motivated. Seriously looks like there’s a lot of fun to be had here:
Sure, you’ve probably played more than your fair share of zombie games already, but I doubt you’ve ever played one like Dead Meets Lead. At least, I can’t think of any other zombie games featuring a powdered wig wearing, musket and cutlass wielding, British soldier fighting hordes of the undead in good old 1716. Muskets can take over a minute to reload you know, though I have a feeling that the developers at Keldyn Interactive might take some liberties there for the sake of gameplay.
If you want an early taste of the 18th century zombie apocalypse, head on over to here to sign up for Dead Meets Lead‘s upcoming closed beta. In the mean time Keldyn Interactive has released its first trailer to help whet your appetite.
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