Metareview: Touch the Dead
by Alisha Karabinus 
{ May 22nd 2007 at 6:00PM }
The reviews were slow to come in on Touch the Dead -- which usually indicates a dud. From the scores, it looks like that cliché may really be a fair assessment of the title's merits. With a current metascore of 58%, Touch the Dead is less OMG-zombie scary and more scary like Grandma's lingerie. Game Informer: 66% (average of two reviews) - "What you imagine to be headshot city is, in reality, the most challenging zombie game to come along in quite some time. As the zombies struggle to walk, their heads jerk about violently, making it an incredible test of skill ... this is a game that every zombie fanatic could love, but only the hardest of hardcore gamers can excel at." (Issue 170, p117)
Game Almighty: 45% - "The first thing you notice when the game starts is the awful graphics. Touch the Dead reinvents what it means to have jaggies. Everything is pixilated and bland and the closer the zombies come, the worse it gets. Ironic, because the bad graphics actually inspire you to kill the creatures when they're as far away as possible, lest you think your DS has a broken graphics chip."
GameSpot: 55% - "Every time you empty a clip, you have to manually reload by dragging the stylus from the ammo icon on the lower right-hand part of the screen to the clip icon on the lower left-hand part of the screen. While it certainly injects a little tension into the game, you quickly get to the point where you have to reload your clip after every zombie you take down, so you actually end up spending more time reloading your weapon than you do shooting zombies. It feels unnatural and can be difficult to consistently reload fast enough when you have a swarm of zombies bearing down on you."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
josh @ May 22nd 2007 6:33PM
Sadly, the reviews are too true. What really gets annoying is that zombies spawn seemingly out of the walls. You'll be in an empty room, turn your back for a moment, turn around, and you'll have 10 zombies on your ass. The reloading is the worst though, because even if you get a headshot, you'll still almost empty an entire clip. Reloading takes just long enough so that the next zombie is already attacking you by the time you can shoot again.
Alisha Karabinus @ May 22nd 2007 9:07PM
The GameSpot review touched on that very thing -- magical walls that seem to produce zombies.
MK @ May 22nd 2007 11:50PM
Why do I feel like I'm the only person who REALLY liked Touch the Dead? It really taught me how to manage my clips, and House of the Dead is a piece of cake for me now.
It's truly challenging, and there's a lot of strategy involved with taking out crowds of zombies. Blowing off their arms makes them pause for a second, giving you time to reload.
Bert @ May 23rd 2007 1:54AM
I don't always trust rewiews(Metropolismania WAS good, no matter what they said!), but after downloading and sticking it on my DS-X, im gonna have to agree with them for once.
Bert @ Jun 21st 2007 6:15PM
I don't always trust rewiews(Metropolismania WAS good, no matter what they said!), but after downloading and sticking it on my DS-X, im gonna have to agree with them for once.
Plastic Rat @ May 23rd 2007 3:17AM
Dunno, I say give this game a chance. I played er... somebody else's copy... (that's the story I'm sticking with anyway) and after 15 minutes of playing knew I had to have it and ordered it off the net.
Graphics may not be amazing, but that's not what it's about. It's definitely got gameplay in my opinion. It might just be a love it or hate it game, but you'll never know unless you try it first.
ssuk @ May 23rd 2007 7:23AM
I don't think Game Almighty has clocked that the DS doesn't so 360 like graphics.
thisguyrighthere @ May 23rd 2007 8:31AM
I love this game. Its fast, hard as hell and the tension is great. If you fail to reload its because youre freaking out and not paying attention. In later levels having 3 guns is awsome. I start on them when far away with the pistol and as they close out comes the shotty then the machine gun if theyre still not dead. You have plenty of time to reload all of those weapons when empty. The shotgun pushes them back so you get more time.
I love this game. Anyone who likes arcade shooters like House of the Dead should at least enjoy this game. I dont know what all the bad press is about.
Its great and everyone I know is bugging me to borrow it. This game gets bad reviews now but I bet it'll become a cult hit over the Summer.
burgerbat @ May 24th 2007 8:00PM
I agree with thisguyrighthere. This game is really fun. A mature-rated light-rail zombie shooter on the DS. What's not to love? And it's challenging. Harkens back to the period in game development when games were meant to be replayed because of the difficulty and fun gameplay mechanics. It deserves to be checked out by any fan of adult DS games.
burgerbat @ May 24th 2007 8:02PM
Oh, and co-op, if you can manage it, is amazing.