1992 -- PC98 -- 7.5 / 10
IMPORTANT NOTE: While this review doesn't contain any overly gorey imagery or imagery of a sexual nature, the game focuses a lot on gore/horror and contains nudity. There is also a brief scene in the game of attempted sexual assault. Please be cautious to this while proceeding. This is also NOT spoiler-free.
PC-98 games... How I love the look of them. I'd say love in general, but in reality, I've only played two so I'd rather not overstate myself. Dead of the Brain has been on my radar and on my computer for probably months now-- I spent a while downloading games to emulate. Anyway, finally, after so long, I got the urge to play it.
As I always do, I went in absolutely blind. "What's the purpose of going into things knowing anything?" Is perhaps a shortsighted thought process, but mine and mine alone nonetheless. Immediately, I fell in love with the art of it-- absolutely mesmerizing and inspiring, from the UI, to the art surrounding the game "window" to the "in-game" art itself.
The first point of amazement and the first annoyance came quickly. I was shocked at the animation, no matter how overall miniscule it was. It was absolutely thrilling to see just the slightest thing move! It really added a lot. The first annoyance, however, was the police man's dialogue. Man, did that go slow! Even upping the speed in options, I still felt like it was an eternity to get through. I'm guessing it was what the developers wanted, but their thoughts were lost on me as I waited and waited and waited for this guy to shut up. When he came into the room, I was hoping he would talk faster, but no dice. When he came back to life, man he still talked slow as molasses! Absolutely annoying, could not wait to not see him again!
The next scenes finally went into the title screen, with some really cool animation of a hand moving. I still don't know what that weird light thing was poking into it, but it's neither here nor there. It looked sick as fuck, and that's the main take away. Going back to the apartment was fun, up until I had to click nonstop to figure out when I could actually get the telephone moving to get to the next part (lots and lots of back and forth clicking...).
The police station was next; cool, bane of my existence with this game. The first section is fine, it's just the next part that drove me insane. On the second floor of the police station, there are 5 doors: 2 right, 2 left and one at the end of the hall. The main points of this section are to grab the flashlight in the conference room, look at the piece of paper in the police chief's office, and talk to the dispatch on the radio in the call room. The fourth room I don't think there's anything special in, aside from the protagonist, Cole, being like "well I can't have any use for a gun with no bullets!" Stupid as fuck, but I know they're going for old-school zombie movies, so I can't be so mad.
The last door, the one at the end of the corridor, is where my troubles began. Once I got the flashlight from the conference room and lit up the room, I thought it was smooth sailing. Oh, I could not have been more wrong. Despite Cole seeing the blood trail and hinting there was more to the room, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get back there. I re-searched all the rooms, looked up guides and tutorials (no English ones providing help, and hell, not even the one in Spanish or any in Japanese helped either!). I went through all the rooms for over an hour trying to figure this out. I got the necessary information, I looked around, what was I missing?
Well, I ended up restarting the game, as my girlfriend suggested. It was painful, knowing I'd have to listen to the police officer talk at a word per minute pace again. But, it ended up fruitful. I don't know what was different this run, my ideas are the following: I didn't inspect the flashlight before grabbing it the first walkthrough, I entered that back room without the flashlight first. Genuinely, no clue. Either way, that issue was done and it was onto the next...
A quick time event! Now, I'm familiar with quick time events, especially as someone who loves RE4... But I can't say I'm good at them. I do like how the game gives you a timer to show how much time you have left. However, I probably failed the first part of that QTE 4 times, and the second part a good 10. Why? Well... I didn't realize until this point that you could move your cursor faster with shift! I couldn't help but laugh at myself, especially as I still failed around 3 more times. I did get past it though, and that's what matters!
After that, it was onto the hotel. Another learning curve of input, this time for the keypad input. It was more or less figuring out how to input the actual numbers than anything, but it was only a small bump. Going in was fine, but it took me a hot second to realize I had to look at the monitor again after the game (Don't remember who) said we had to use the stairs. The game bugged out after this, but the README luckily had a way to fix it, so it wasn't a big deal. Then, the new struggle... Keycard? Input? How do I open this damn door? Move didn't work and I looked all around. Finally, I realized I needed to inspect... The floor! Of course...!(?)
We meet up with other survivors and join them. They all have very normal names like Killer, Ghoul and Nose-- perfect! After our little meeting, we get a hotel room to chill in before going to the 2nd floor to kill some zombies. There was a very funny exchange where Cole was like "Wow this guy saw his girlfriend turn into a zombie... Sheila, you wouldn't be able to kill me, right?" And Sheila is like, "No, I'd probably be fine." We also get some lore that Cole bought Sheila her dress with his birthday money. You may be dumb as rocks, but I respect you, Cole.
Cole and Cooger head to the second story and first room there's a hanging naked lady. Something gives me the feeling that the zombies didn't do this because...erm...? Why would they? They just can eat people? Is there a murder going on...? Something? This is never expanded upon. Either way, another room and finally--zombies! However, I'm not on a timer this time, which is great because while one zombie was easy to kill in the room, the other I needed to get perfectly centered to kill-- even if my cursor was on its head fine. Oh well, old game, of course it's a little janky. The next shooting part is also a little janky-- still, I get more time than the first.
So, the doctor dies and we get a little backstory on that. Then, we get jumped by a zombie and Cole brings up again how some of these ones have some sort of sentience... Creepy! We are saved by resident pretty guy Cain, who seems to be a shady character because he's saying there have been multiple outbreaks for a while now... It's the same night as when we started, so that doesn't line up! Anyway, returning and spending the night and when Cole wakes up... Erm, where the fuck is Sheila? Got a bad feeling about this Scoob...
Anyway, I talk to all the people in the meeting. Cole is very into commenting on how buff the guys are, #bi-king. We then meet Cathy who's very cute!... Until the options are to cheat with her or the game crashes it seems (according to the bug note in the read me). It's the most unsexy and uncomfortable dialogue and I had to just make fun of it while playing. Cole leaves and Sheila still isn't back, so he goes to talk to everyone again. Specifically, he talks to another survivor, Ray, who Cole asks about a gang and Ray in short calls them losers.
We flash to outside to that weirdo Cain, looking at a store. His first thought that we're privy to is "wonder if it's acidic"... This might be a reference that's not clicking, but out of context all I could think of is, "What the fuck, Cain?" I will say, in the first part I didn't even register we switched main characters for a second lol -- my bad, not the game's. Anyway, into... MakeNos'D?... Is that the store name? The font was a bit hard to read in the CG. Make Nose'd Mistake...! Bada bing, bada boom!
Cain goes in and finds a perfectly placed gun... Strange, considering how everything else was taken. At this point, I'm thinking it's a trap or it's game logic. Anyway, there's an uncomfortable assault scene (I didn't see any warning anywhere for this-- even on VNDB when I looked-- So please take caution.) Anyway, you get to shoot one of the guys who's doing it; The other begs for his life and Sheila (who the attempt was made on) is like, "Don't shoot survivors!" Cain goes to put his weapon down and this guy is ready to kill you. With all do respect, this is stupid as fuck and I don't get why Sheila would stop you from killing him. I certainly wouldn't! Either way, pain in the ass too if you fail the second shooting part, which is timed, because it brings you back to the start of the uncomfortable scene.
Sheila comes back to Cole and again due to the current state of the translation, you bring Sheila with you to Doc's house. I do wonder what happens if you don't, however, but that's something for another time. Anyway, you look around to match a key Sheila has from his house. In a sweet but sad moment, we find out Doc has a certain passcode set to his late wifes' birthday. We also get some small backstory with Doc, his wife, Sheila and Cole. We also get a diary and a photo that shows at a science conference... Killer? Somehow, I didn't think the guy named Killer was the "Killer" in this game. It makes me wonder what Nose is... I won't think too hard about that.
Also, my earlier suspicions are thrown off; you're just a normal pretty boy, Cain, not some lying weirdo. Sorry. You meet up with him again and talk shit over. You then head to the meeting room but... Everyone is gone! And in your room, Sheila is gone! You run into Ghoul and you're like "Hey we gotta tell you shit about Killer" and he ignores you and is like "Okay cool we're evacuating btw. Get the fuck out. Also zombies got in, take care of them."
Obviously, things go to shit fast. Not only are the bullets doing jack shit about the zombies, the building is collapsing in. Cole and Cain are like "Wow. Must be Killer." And end up jumping into the river. You head to the hospital and you're met with a jarring and obnoxious noise which turns out to be a helicopter anddd it's shooting at them! Cole and Cain split up because Cain is like "Alright I gotta check out this helicopter, I think I know who owns it." I have a bad feeling that Cain is gonna end up dead, but I don't think I can save him.
You get to the hospital and... 2 of the other survivors, Sally and Ray, are dead and naked. Cole remarks about both guns being in their left hands. Anyway, moving forward, you have to… Shoot? The rubble? In what world that makes sense is confusing to me on a multitude of levels, but hell, whatever gets it done, I guess. You go upstairs-- Hey, Nose is still alive! And Sheila is there, naked, and Killer is there. Killer does his evil little speech before shooting nose and quick--! Shoot! Another case of having to re-do, re-do, re-do. I do wish I didn't have to go through his long spiel again...
Anyway, after shooting him in the head you look around the room... Killer isn't dead yet! He's not attacking, but he does tell you he was acting under Ghoul this whole time, and that he was ordered to follow Doc. He tells you how this whole thing was orchestrated by Ghoul, down to the first police man coming around Doc's place. He warns you Ghoul is, well, a ghoul now and the zombies listen to him. Good to know, bad for Cole. Killer dies conveniently right after giving you all the info though, he's a #realone for getting that out.
Cole and Sheila head out to the research lab that Ghoul is at. At first, I thought you'd have to blow up part of it to get inside, but conveniently, there's a backdoor that's unlocked! Cool! You walk, walk, walk; there are people in cells-- keep going... Aaand finally a lab! And Cain is there, trapped, and dies. Ghoul does his villain speech; and then you have to quickly shoot a machine. This isn't as bad as other parts, but I still tripped up because I was shooting the wrong machine lol (How I thought to choose the thing to the right, not the giant gray thing is a mystery even to myself.) You escape up to another part of the lab and as you're looking around, Ghoul comes up to attack. You tussle with him and then Cathy comes to save the day! She didn't die...! Well...
Anyway, a whole thing ensues where he's a robot...zombie? I don't fully understand it myself. Either way he's stronger than ever and you tussle more. Cathy saves Cole's life fully, and sacrifices herself to save Cole. Cole, king of knowing what to say remembers back on how Cathy told him her boyfriend gave her a lucky coin to protect her life with and says, "Damn, guess that coin wasn't lucky.".. But hey! The day is saved! ... Why the zombies disappear is a mystery to me, actually. Like, Ghoul controlled them, yes, but how does that relate...? I don't know. It's a B-Movie type of plot, so I guess that doesn't matter too much. (In all actuality, there's a good chance I missed something.)
Anyway, that's Dead of the Brain and the plot summary! Now onto an actual encompassing review of the game...
There's a lot to say here. To start with the obvious-- the art is absolutely gorgeous (...gore-gious?). This era has such a beautiful look, it's amazing. I think it made the janky controls worth it because it gave me time to look at the intricacies of the art. It definitely was an inspiring experience, and I'll definitely be thinking about that. I have to say, I'm someone who doesn't get so creeped out easily, but I think some of the images from the game are stellar in actually being creepy. It's well done, to a point where it's uncomfortable, but not cheesy or overdone. It reminded me a lot of my nightmares as a kid, so maybe that skews things.
The controls are a hit and miss; I will overall give them leeway because it was made in 1992-- I'm fine with looking the other way on how annoying it can be sometimes. I really did warm to the functioning of the controls though by the end, once I figured them out better. I really find the concept of mixing looking and talking by clicking on screen to add to the experience. It really encouraged you to look at the art and carry yourself through the images by looking for spots where you could get even the slightest bit more of information. I also really liked the map feature in-game. It was a small part, but I think it really added a lot of fun.
The sound design is also really amazing. I think it works really well for building up tension and intrigue. I tend to 50/50 play games with sound on, but I'm really glad I did for this one. I wanted to specifically because I wanted to get inspiration from it-- and it served that up perfectly!
The plot itself is honestly? Kind of fun. I didn't expect much, if I'm being honest. I ended up really having fun with it. Is it the most nuanced, most complex and deep story? Nope! But I'm fine with that. Like I said before, it's like a B-Movie, but in game form. It was interesting enough for me to continue and I had a lot of fun. The dialogue is fun and charming, and really added a lot to the atmosphere. I think I overthought a lot of the plot as I was playing, but I still think it was interesting enough that set it apart. The plotholes are fine, honestly. It doesn't matter, because to me, it was really about the journey of experiencing the game.
All in all, it was really fun. I hope the patch continues to get worked on more, so maybe I can see what happens when you go down the 2 other routes. I think if you're able to handle the mature and uncomfortable themes of the game, it is worth the time. I think it probably took me around ~4-5 hours of gameplay, but it seems the average, if YouTube is to go by, is 2-4 hours? VNDB says 2 hours and 38 minutes.
10:42pm .. .. // 4.24.2024