Hello everyone, I have been a long time follower of Death Cargo, and have played the Betas that were released in 2011-2012. I pre-ordered Death Cargo and have the DVD edition of the game, and I would like to give my personal review of the game.
Gameplay: Death Cargo’s gameplay is pretty enjoyable and simple to play. It seems similar to SF1 and MK1 where the combo system is limited, but the main goal is about distancing and space control and planning your attacks at the right time. You can do 3 types of Standard attacks: a Fast attack, a Strong attack, and a Lunge(long range) attack, as well as a Throw by pressing the “fast+strong attacks” together. There is also a 4th attack, called the “Thinking Weapon”(TW) attack. Plasma, Aracno, and Nova have a basic combo, hitting Fast 3 times. One thing that was a bit disappointing was how the characters play/feel pretty similar. In the Betas, all of the three characters that were available at one point, played totally different and had different tools, moves, etc. Now, all of the characters have essentially the same tools and overall just feel very similar. As well, many of the characters’ animations look awkward and unnatural. Back in the Betas, this was not the case as the animations looked great. It seems like they removed some of the recovery frames for many of the moves, but it seems they removed too many. Maybe they may look better when the game is running at full 60 FPS, but in my opinion, they just look off.
Graphics/Stages: The graphics in DC are awesome in my opinion. The digitized sprites are super cool, and they very realistic and in great quality. All of the arenas are related with the characters, so each character has a personal stage. Some of the stages definitely remind me of MK1 where there are bodies laying in the foreground, or in the back ground. The effects on the sprites for each character, are great. Especially on some of the projectiles, they are very realistic and have a great look to them. The in-game blood looks amazing, and the right amount splatters for each attack.
Sound Effects: The sound effects in Death Cargo are okay. There are no reaction screams/grunts(when a character gets hit) which is strange because these were present in the Betas but are not present in the final version. Also, many of the attacks/animations use the same sound effects, which is a bit disappointing. I was hoping when a character gets hit, there would be a real strong, heavy and brutal sound. But, that is not the case.
Characters: There are two types of characters in Death Cargo, playable and unplayable characters. There are 6 playable characters in the game, and 6 unplayable characters that have to be downloaded separately. The playable characters are Plasma, Leach, Aracno, Nova, Agent Malcolm, and Silent. The 6 unplayable characters are these really strange monsters/creatures. They are Grotters(a bunch of mini heads with razor sharp teeth, they are a species pretty much), Ice Grotters(the head can control and create ice attacks), Acid Grotters(the heads can control and create acid based attacks), Fire Grotters(the head can control and create fire based attacks), AM-2(some kind of strange space ship that can self-destruct), and Leach-Z(a different version of Leach, that is red and has these eyeballs covering his head, that can shoot/vomit this red liquid). My favorite playable character, would have to be Silent. The fact how he physically moves and behaves like a Zombie, is awesome. They definitely nailed having him behave like a Zombie in-game(and he is VERY slow lol, but I like him). My favorite unplayable is Grotters. The character is very unique and the fact of how it is a species, it just makes it very different. I really enjoy fighting against Grotters. One thing I was disappointed with was with Nova how she has a lot of overused animations , as her entire moveset(6 special moves, 3 basic atttacks, 2 aerial attacks, jumping attacks, crouch attacks) consist of 6 animations :(.
Music: The music in Death Cargo is incredible. The way they were able to capture the sound of 80s-90s movies/sounds is just astonishing, but it sounds so awesome and it really helps with the games’ purpose of having an 80s vibe. A lot of the music really reminds me of some of my favorite old-school movies/games, including The Exorcist, Child’s Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and many more. I absolutely love the Soundtrack in Death Cargo, my favorite theme(though I like all of them) would have to be for Nova’s Stage, Neo Tokyo Skyline.
Finishing Moves: When I first saw Death Cargo, one of the first things that caught my attention was the finishing moves. The finishing moves ended up being one of the most disappointing aspects of the game for me. Originally, all of the finishing moves had different results/a different look depending on the opponent. Very few of them actually have a unique look depending on the opponent, but NECRO said that was because there will be many new characters, so they removed many of the unique ones and replaced them with generic ones :(. Also, some of the Deathrips, are pretty poorly done IMO. For example, Leach’s 1st Deathrip is when he smashes the opponent against the wall. However, he doesn’t actually lift up the character, there is this green ball of energy that he “picks up” and when he is supposed to smash the character in the wall, you can see Plasma’s jacket and it is like this when you perform it on all of the characters. Also, the game doesn’t acknowledge that a character has won a match. If you do a deathrip with Silent for example, it will say “Deathrip Performed” but it won’t say Silent Wins across the top of the screen.
Pros: Great graphics, awesome music, great character design/style
Cons: Lack of content and replay value, awkward animations, no Retry option
Overall thoughts: Death Cargo is a great old-school style violent 2D fighter. NECROSTORM successfully, in my opinion, managed to create a game that has the look and vibe of an 80s-90s arcade/console game with extreme violence. While the game does have quite a few bugs/glitches, NECRO has been actively working with users on their Forum to help fix the issues and to improve upon the game. Death Cargo is also an unlimited fighting game, there will be a infinite amount of DLC coming. All in all, I give the game an 8/10.