Dead Take review: Neil Newbon shines in terrifying Hollywood horror

While Zau was a 2D Metroidvania that thoughtfully handled themes of grief over a lost parent, Dead Take is an all-out horror game that uses its dark themes as a jumping off point for some properly disturbing first-person experiences.

Dead Take’s live-action scenes tell a shocking tale of Hollywood corruption. The gameplay in between feels very Resident Evil, as you silently explore a movie producer's creepy mansion and tackle increasingly complex puzzles.

It was a very bold decision, which mostly pays off, to separate the gameplay from the performances (which also include turns from BAFTA-winning Returnal star Jane Perry, The Last of Us 2’s Laura Bailey, Alan Wake legend Sam Lake, and many more).

The game’s set-up sees you playing a down-on-their-luck actor, who arrives at a big shot movie producer’s house to try and sneak into a swanky party. Find the key card, get through the door, and... uh oh, it’s locked behind you.

As you begin to explore the house, you notice that nobody else is here. It beings to feel like an escape room type scenario, but one that could have deadly consequences. Maybe even supernatural undertones. Or is it just human evil at play here?

The confetti on the floor seemingly confirms that a party did take place, but there’s nary a soul to be found as you poke around, develop your theories and gradually unlock more areas.

With no other characters to talk to, you're left to broil in the creepy atmosphere, wondering exactly what went wrong — and how bloody things got — in the pre-production of this famous moviemaker's much-hyped new project.

As you explore, you’ll find memory sticks. Bring these memory sticks to the editing suite and you’ll be able to watch live-action audition tapes and other behind the scene vignettes from the casting process of an upcoming movie.

You’ll gradually come to learn that your character (played by Newbon in the live-action scenes but totally mute as you walk around) is desperate for a role in this film, but a Hollywood nepo baby played by Ben Starr is strongly favoured for the leading role by the money men.

While the contrast between the gameplay and the acted scenes can be jarring — indeed, the cuts between the two are often used as jump-scares — it’s nothing short of a privilege to see these legendary video game actors in full live-action glory.

While fans for BG3 and FF16 will know these guys to be fantastic actors, there’s something special about seeing their actual faces on a huge in-game cinema screen.

You can even walk up to the screen to get yourself an extreme close up, something I found myself doing often, marvelling at the raw emotion on display in both of their performances (desperation for Newbon’s character and flashes of rage for Starr’s).

If you love Neil Newbon, check out our recent Arcade Hang interview with him!

There’s also a cool mechanic in the editing suite where you can splice together two of the clips you’ve found, which will combine them into one video and unlock some extra footage that often pushes the story ahead. (If you’re playing the game and you think you’ve run out of things to do, this is often the path forward, especially towards the end.)

The overall experience of this game is great, and if you’re a fan of Newbon or Starr or anyone else in the cast, you’ll get a real kick out of seeing them at the height of their powers, using their real faces.

The game’s atmosphere is also highly impressive. I properly jumped out of my skin a few times. From the sound design to the jump scares, via eerie mannequins and UV lights, the mansion gets more and more unsettling the more that you unearth its secrets. Never has a robot vacuum cleaner been quite this terrifying.

Some of the puzzles are impressive, too — there’s a spa section involving a steam room, a swimming pool and giant statue — that felt particularly fleshed out, a real example of what this team can do. It’s very cool to see a British studio making their own version of a Resident Evil type experience, with flashes of Alan Wake 2 vibes thrown in for good measure.

All of that said, I do have some niggles with the overall structure of the game. In a bid to never hold your hand or push you too obviously in a direction, the golden path is sometimes overly obscured.

Multiple times, I was sure that I had done absolutely everything at my disposal, and I’d gone way past the point of frustration – or, worse yet, boredom — as I checked every nook and cranny in the mansion for the thousandth time in search of an unturned stone.

It’s admirable that the game doesn’t want to give you an overt objective, and it’s cool that it sometimes uses lighting and audio to guide you to the next clue, but sometimes you feel totally abandoned and unsure if you’re barking up the wrong tree. This plays into the isolated atmosphere, but it doesn’t always make for an enjoyable experience.

Sometimes, it even feels harsh as you realise that the clue you were looking for was actually buried in a video clip that you found several hours ago. (At one point near the end, you’re looking for a pin code, and it was actually mentioned in one of the very first videos you watched at the start of the game).

This is a game that rewards you for remembering things, and it’s definitely the sort of game where you’ll want to make notes — or take pictures — every time a numerical sequence is mentioned, even if it’s hidden in an audition tape.

Another thing that rankled is that, once you’ve beaten the story and seen its somewhat ambiguous ending, you can’t go back to the mansion and finish off collecting things.

Your only options are to start the game again or reload your last checkpoint, which is past the ‘point of no return’ and will only funnel you to the ending again. Do not pass go, do not collect a picture of Sam Lake.

All of that said, when this game coalesces, there's no denying that it really sings. The performances are elite, the atmosphere is perfect, and when that aligns with the gameplay in a satisfying way, it feels like a proper statement of intent from Surgent Studios.

And with their two latest games being total polar opposites that are both great in their own ways, I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Dead Take launches today (31st July) on PC. Check it out on Steam!

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