Continuing where they left off with the new ALONE IN THE DARK game, Gamespot has another preview of another horror-themed video game to be shown at E3: DEAD HEAD FRED.
Goofy title aside, this third-person action adventure game for the PSP from D3Publisher of America and developer Vicious Cycle actually has a lot in common with another game in the same vein, STUBBS THE ZOMBIE. Both games take place in a futuristic retro world, both protagonists are a tad on the dead side, and both feature black humour mixed in with the gore. Unlike Stubbs, however, FRED is/was a private investigator in the town of Hope Falls. A ruthless mob boss by the name of Pitt has moved in and bought up all the businesses in town, using them as fronts for an array of illegal activity. To power his empire, Pitt built a nuclear power plant, but like all villains, he cut corners and soon toxic waste began to poison the town. Eventually, all sorts of crazy mutants and zombies infested the place. Obviously, this doesn’t sit well with Fred. Unfortunately, before Fred can do anything, he meets a rather gruesome demise involving his head being lopped off. Mysteriously resurrected, Fred’s body finds itself without a head. Also, since his head holds his brain, which holds his memory, Fred can’t remember anything about his past. For the time being, he uses a brain in a jar in place of a head, and sets out to get revenge on the one person in town who could be responsible for his current predicament.
The game revolves around the mechanic of collecting and using a wide array of different heads. As Fred, you can literally rip the head off of any enemy you see and then use it in place of your own. For each head that you use, you get unique abilities. There are nine heads in the game, and because each head influences everything from the way you move to the way you’re able to interact with the environment, it’s almost like being able to switch between nine separate characters on the fly. The levels are designed to take advantage of the unique attributes of each head, and there are plenty of puzzles in the game that require specific abilities to solve. Head ripping involves pressing a sequence of buttons after grabbing an enemy. After forcefully removing said enemy’s head, you can then assign the appendage to either one of the four face buttons on the PSP. Switching heads is a snap, too. Simply hold the L button, and press the assigned button to pop on your new thinking cap.
As mentioned above, there are a total of nine different heads for you to collect, ranging from a stone idol head that you can use as a club, to the corpse head, which despite being rotten, makes for a great sponge for sucking up water to douse fire, to soaking up gasoline to start ’em. Also mentioned previously, each head will also affect your movement and abilites when you put it on. The idol head makes you move slow, but also makes you heavy and hard to push around (hint, hint). The default jarred brain serves as your health regenerator, and also makes you pretty nimble in your movements. Worms will also serve as health powerups, but are also used as currency in the game for upgrading your severed heads. Very cool indeed.
The main game has different areas that can be played in any order, though since heads must be unlocked and used to solve puzzles to proceed, you do have some linear gameplay thrown in. Along with the main game, you also have some minigames on the side, like a fishing game where you collect fish, then take them to a sushi chef in exchange for worms. Wierd, I know, but breaks up the monotony of saving the world, eh?
While the game is currently scheduled for a January 2007 release, there’s no need to lose your head over it. You can check out the game’s trailer and images from Gamespot’s preview right here.
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