DEADCAM, developed and published by Joure Visser, looks to bring five short horror experiences to players, each with its own genre to explore. With its early access release, the game comes with its first mission that tasks players with surviving the dangers of a haunted school in Japan until a helicopter can arrive to save them.
The standout aspect in DEADCAM is its setting. The multi-story school building is horrifying to navigate. Blood, graffiti, and ruined furniture litter classrooms and halls alike, firmly driving home how terrible recent events must have been.
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The lighting combines with the excellent world design as well. Sporadic emergency lights still bathe chosen areas in crimson, and large flashlights, abandoned by their owners, cast their light out, creating both direct and indirect atmosphere as they cast harsh lights and hint at what may have befallen their users.
Joure Visser perfectly captures a horror setting that you can’t forget easily.
The player’s flashlight also adds to the malevolent ambience. As you maneuver down darkened corridors, your flashlight will occasionally flicker and go out for a moment. With the pitch blackness that often surrounds you, these moments are always chilling, even if you are confident that nothing is waiting to jump out at you.
The final element of the game’s fantastic mood setting is the way it displays the world. Set in the 1990s, the visuals aim to recreate the graininess and imperfections of VHS recordings. Static dances across the screen, and areas of the display will occasionally warp in a way that will be familiar to those old enough to have experienced worn-out VHS tapes.
While the setting and presentation provide a solid foundation, actually playing DEADCAM is where the experience begins to fall apart. In your spawn point, you always find a med kit and three weapons: a pistol, a shotgun, and a katana. Wielding these in the game’s first-person view is a bit clunky, as aiming is less than responsive. Once the player opens the gate, enemies spawn into view to beset the player. And they will do this a lot.
DEADCAM is a master at setting up the horror that inspires it.
Throughout the 15 to 30 minutes a game can take, players will periodically be set upon by demonic Japanese school girls. Always teleporting in, there is no set placement or paths they patrol; no enemies are just found within the school itself. This leaves the space incredibly empty. The enemies come in two varieties, standard and sword-wielding. The only real difference is visual design and how much damage they do. Everything else seems swappable.
This approach to enemy engagement feels contradictory to the survival horror genre that the game strives to be. Typically, one looks to avoid confrontation in such games to conserve ammo and health. By having enemies frequently teleport right on top of you, there is no way to avoid conflict. And that conflict is unforgiving, creating a more attrition-based struggle.
On normal mode, I frequently found myself low on ammo after the first engagement. Ammo can be found around the school, as can med kits, but the rush to find more before more enemies appear gets old quickly. And rushing itself is equally frustrating.
Despite having a run option, DEADCAM always feels like you are walking through waste deep molasses. You do move faster enough to stay ahead of enemies, but it feels lackluster. I’d rather have a bigger space and faster speed. Especially since frenzied movement can help build a sense of panic and terror.
DEADCAM’s early access locks players into a slow pace and a small space.
While navigating the school, players will encounter keycarded doors and password-protected objects like safes. Unlocking these items and spaces plays into a key aspect of the experience. One that is not made clear when playing through the game.
A key aspect of DEADCAM is its multiple endings. What you accomplish through your search of the school can bring you to three different endings. But the game doesn’t tell you that. Or if it does, it managed to slip past my notice. And that’s an element that shouldn’t be missable. I only knew it through external sources. Without this knowledge, you will wonder why you shouldn’t just wait in the spawn room till the helicopter arrives on the other side of the roof.
Ultimately, I can see what DEADCAM is trying to accomplish with this early access. It lays out a great horror foundation through its setting and presentation, but playing the game falls short of the bar this groundwork initially creates. However, if you are a die-hard horror fan looking for something new, the low price point and potential for improvements and more stories as the game continues its development may be worth it to you.
