Dead Man’s Diary is a post-apocalyptic first-person adventure-survival game, which is a bit of a change for the German developer TML Studios – best known for their series of European bus driving simulation games. Rest assured; Dead Man’s Diary gameplay has nothing in common with a bus driving simulator – but that does not mean it is any less dull in the end.
The game puts the player in the shoes of a nameless, faceless character who has been exiled from his home city in an effort to manage dwindling resources. Our character is dropped off in a remote wooded area in the middle of the night, armed only with a flashlight and a notebook. With only a modicum of direction or instruction, the player must guide the character through the forest to find safe shelter within the world that is contaminated with radiation and pollution.
The gamer first happens upon an abandoned factory, which serves as an unguided tutorial to the basic mechanics that make up a majority of the gameplay in Dead Man’s Diary. The recipe is simple – explore every nook and cranny of the surprisingly large factory, looking for necessary resources to maintain health (water, food), shelter (wood, metal, fabric, bedding), and security (matches, kindling, batteries).
The game has separate water and food meters that deplete over which must be replenished throughout the level. And while plenty of these resources are scattered thought each level – be warned as unless they have been stored protective cases, it is safe to assume it is contaminated with radiation – requiring the gamer to scan all food and water using the Geiger counter found in the first level. But like clean food and water, the Gieger counter itself is a bear to get due to the game’s main puzzle mechanic: lockpicking.
Many of the boxes and doors are secured using locks that must be successfully picked using a screwdriver (found in the first level) and delicate lockpicks that are scattered about. The lockpicking is exceptionally frustrating – especially early-on in the game due to the fact that there is absolutely no guidance. To make matters worse, the lockpicks are so delicate that they can be broken in only a matter of seconds, and the number in each level is limited. I had to restart the first level three times before I finally was able to pick open the shipping container that housed the necessary Geiger counter.
Each level plays out the same – search the level for specific items needed to build a shelter and fire, sleep, wake, and move on to a new level and repeat the whole process. There are a number of jump scares tossed in to give the game a little excitement – noises in the brush, glass breaking behind you, doors rattling, etc. – but for the most part it’s a quiet solitary affair that offers little variety. That all being said, I did find myself engrossed in the gameplay for the first few hours, and found real reward in figuring out the lockpicking, so I wouldn’t say it’s a complete dud. But after the first two and half levels, I could feel my interest waning.
But where this adventure-survival title lacks in adventure, it makes up for in presentation. The visuals are absolutely stunning, which is surprising for an indie title. Equally as impressive is the dynamic backing soundtrack music which changes with the action (or inaction) on the screen, and really helps set an immersive experience.
Sadly, the great presentation is ultimately marred by the horrendous voice acting, which I am assuming is AI generated. The delivery almost never matches the expected emotion that is playing out on screen, instead sounding like a 17yr old reading for a screenwriting class rather than a character in actual urgency. The awkward voice acting only serves to highlight the lame script which is obviously AI-translated from the game’s original German to English making for some really goofy dialog that is rife with references that make no sense, jokes that fall flat, and unnecessary profanity. It was so bad; it actually became fun to see what ridiculous thing the character was going to say next.
Again, Dead Man’s Diary isn’t a total flop – deep within the goofy dialog and repetitive fetch quests there is serene enjoyment to be found. And the fact that it looks and sounds great (other than the voice acting) doesn’t hurt.
