What if MadWorld was a 2D platformer? With a gun instead of a chainsaw? And really, really weird?
OK, this is nothing like MadWorld at all. Well, aside from sharing a monochrome-plus-red colour scheme, that is.
All Of Our Friends Are Dead is not actually an pretentiously-named post-rock band. Rather, it’s a quite startling platform shooter.
At a control level, it’s reminiscent of 90s cult classic PC game Abuse in that it co-opts the traditional FPS controls in a side-scrolling platform environment. WASD lets you run left and right and jump, while the mouse moves your crosshair around the screen and left-clicking fires your gun. This means you can be running one way while simultaneously shooting in another.
Things start getting weird immediately. The sound effects are raw and unnerving, while some Silent Hill-style static buzzes in from the periphery. A visual noise filter causes objects and architecture to flicker. Bubbling pools of water are coloured blood red. Skeletal figures huddle in corners of the map before dissolving as you touch them. Cryptic phrases are etched into the backdrops. “Watch the cowards run.” The first level ends with you running into the mouth of a giant white face that’s frozen mid-scream.
It’s brutally difficult in places, but that somehow suits the atmosphere perfectly. You can download it the release version here or here, read the development thread over at TIGSource via the link below and watch a quick playthrough of a two-month old build right here.
All Of Our Friends Are Dead [TIGSource]
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