Drop Dead Fred
Most games end when you die, but Dead Head Fred begins with the unfortunate news of Fred’s demise. Turns out Fred was some hot shot detective who met his unfortunate end at the hands of local mob boss, Pitt. Fred’s head was removed in the process, but resident mad scientist Dr. Steiner was gracious enough to salvage Fred’s body, brain, and eyes and – viola – reanimate Fred. As Fred, you’re charged with the task of scouring the boroughs of the city of Hope Falls and reclaim your identity along the way.
This is done primarily through the usual suspects of the action/adventure genre; meet some people, get some new info, fight a boss, move onto the next area, rinse, and repeat. The main quest offers a healthy mix of combat, exploration, and puzzle solving, each with limited degrees of success, to help Fred solve the mystery of his own death. Dead Head Fred could have done without a couple of the extensive fetch quests and kill-yourself-till-you-get-it-right platforming sessions, but they’re minor qualms in an otherwise competent and engrossing adventure.
Along the way, it becomes entirely clear that Hope Falls is just about as screwed as Fred; most the of the city, and its inhabitants, lie in a state of decay. Hope Falls needs saving as well, and Fred is granted the opportunity to help its residents through a gracious amount of optional tasks. Most of these miniquests involve fighting off a horde of baddies or collecting an arrangement of special items. Backtracking for items is an unfortunate byproduct of some of these extra tasks, but, thankfully, you won’t have to walk across the world to get there – a shiny teleport system, via sewers, is in place.
You can do a lot of things with a dead head, Fred
As the title would imply, the main draw of Dead Head Fred is the revolving door of, well, heads. Though initially sparse, Fred eventually winds up with a grand total of nine interchangeable head pieces. Unique to each head is a skill set comprised of O-button assigned special abilities (such as the Jar Head’s option to turn invisible), and passive abilities (such as Crow Head’s instant human torch). On top of that, each head is also blessed with a rage attack, which can be collected by decapitating enemies and stored for later use. As if that wasn’t enough, each head can also receive two upgrades, assuming you find enough gold worms to meet the assigned quota.
As if they didn’t already have enough to do, each head is also instrumental in solving the smorgasbord of puzzles thrown your way. Some are inherently obvious, such as the Stone Idol Head’s ability to break down doors and walk under water, but others offer a much more subtle way of navigating the terrain of Hope Falls. The biggest winner here is the Corpse Head, which can absorb nearly anything and pack it for later use. Sure, sucking up water to put out a fire is pretty obvious, but siphoning gas, knocking over a candle, and blowing out fireballs to destroy a barrier make for a rousing good time (though my personal favorite is still inhaling the fumes from an air conditioner, which inflates the head and allows Fred to fly – genius). Runner up goes to the Shrunken Head, which miniaturizes Fred and often sets him into small bits of genuine old school platforming goodness.
Some of the heads are also particularly adept at dispatching a certain type of enemy, which brings us to one of Dead Head Fred’s missteps, combat. Aside from some slight control issues, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the combat system; it’s just feels like you’re never truly utilizing your diverse army of heads and their respective powers. Most contests usually degenerate into a button mashing beat ’em up, where you slowly pulverize an enemy before they’re weak enough to be decapitated. From there, Fred rips their spine with enough ferocity to make Sub Zero blush, but it’s all of little substance. The instant respawn rate (whenever you leave the area) lends itself to a lot of item drops, but, on the whole, the combat system isn’t deep enough to generate a significant amount of fun with each repeated altercation. Toward the middle of Fred’s quest, fighting is done more for necessity and less for pleasure, which is a shame given the general ambition of the rest of the game.
Death with a Dose of Meth
This audio/visual package is one of Dead Head Fred’s more inviting qualities. It’s in these (and only these) built-from-the-ground-up PSP titles that the power of the system really shines. The extended outreach of Hope Falls, from the decadent Zombietown to nuclear wastelands of The Boonies, are all ripe with attention to detail. Sure, certain environments, such as Freak Farms, may feel a little claustrophobic at times (a fact which the highly detailed backdrops often conceal), but there isn’t an unnecessary scrap of land in Hope Falls. The background music for each area perfectly accentuates the mood for the surrounding environments. There’s enough variation in each track to keep your ears from getting bored and enough individuality to perfectly accent Hope Falls’ atmosphere.
Dead Head Fred’s visual splendor isn’t spent entirely on the environments; there are plenty of other cool tricks up Fred’s sleeve. The draw distance is satisfying, it’s easy to see foes staggering around in the background, and pop up is kept to a minimum. Even minor visuals treats, such as watching Fred’s brain slosh around in the jar of green formaldehyde or the crows the circle the Scarecrow head, are also pleasing. One would expect the load times to be horrendous, but, with one glaring exception, they fail to take longer than five seconds. The exception to the rule is when Fred enters a door. Resident Evil is a fine game from which to draw influence, but, of every gem that PSX classic produced, Dead Head Fred has chosen to emulate the “Enter a door, loading screen, footage of door being opened, loading screen, what’s behind the door,” progression of events. The development team tried to subvert this by adding an option to skip the door screen, but you’re still looking at two separate loading screens to enter a building. It’s disappointing, but not entirely distracting, to the entire experience.
While the art direction isn’t entirely original, careful steps have been taken to deflect much of the sure fire Burton rip-off criticism. Yes, your character is post mortem and spends a majority of his time fighting zombies and other Halloweenish fiends, but mixed in with each Nightmare Before Christmas callback are overt references to 40’s and 50’s film noir detective stories. Every horror facet is supercharged with a shot of criminal fiction; dames, grim reapers, gangsters, the living dead – it’s all blended seamlessly into the world of Hope Falls. It’s through these references that Dead Head Fred successfully develops an engrossing atmosphere on par with peers such as Death Jr and Daxter. By weaving a collection of unlikely influences together, Vicious Cycle has cranked out wholly original world ripe for exploring.
Right Said Fred
Of course, the ease of slipping into Dead Head Fred’s noir/gothic atmosphere is dependent upon its script and voice team. Michael Cornacchia and Jon Polito both turn in bustling performances, but the success of Dead Head Fred lies in the perfect mixture between the talent of John C. McGinley (who voices Fred) and the overt use of profanity. McGinley definitely brought his A game to the project; his spot on delivery is punctuated with an acerbic gut punch of intensity. Profanity in videogames is often used as a means to generate artificial coolness – a way to hastily “adultify” a game. Dead Head Fred sheds this stigma through a script that utilizes every ounce of McGinley’s perfect timing and delivery. The profanity isn’t shoehorned in for shock value; it’s an essential part of the package and wholly defines Fred as a character. Besides, what sort of vocabulary would you use if your head was cut off?
Dead Head Fred, clocking in at 10-15 hours, is a fairly lengthy title for a handheld. Additional time can be added on by completing all the side missions, but the relative lack of diversity in doing various favors for the community might discourage such tasks. What is worthy of your attention, however, are the surprisingly fun assortment of minigames. A couple different pinball games and a billiards minigame are at your disposal, each with enough depth to happily consume an hour or two. The big winner, by far, is the mutant cock fighting. No, the last statement wasn’t an attempt to get myself fired, but an honest to god description of one of the most bizarrely awesome minigames ever created. It’s toward the end of the narrative, but just the concept makes it worth the time it takes to get there. Anyway, a second run through probably isn’t in the cards (as it seldom is for lengthy action/adventure titles), but McGinley’s dialogue might make a repeat trip bearable.
