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After Tales of Kenzera: Zau, an emotionally charged adventure inspired by the lead developer’s loss of his father, Dead Take feels like a hard right turn. As a double threat, at least, Abubakar Salim’s connections within both the video game industry and Hollywood has provided a rare, narrow path through which Salim melds the two worlds together, drawing on a different, more sinister, kind of lived-experience to craft, along with a cast of his mates, one of the most compelling horror games of the year.
As Chase Lowry, a budding actor in a cutthroat town, you explore the aftermath of a typical, confetti-strewn soirée, long after the elite have retired and tired of pressing the flesh, in search of fellow actor and friend, Vinny, played by the heir apparent to Troy Baker, in terms of being cast in absolutely everything, Ben Starr. Pulling from Salim’s own experience in TV and film, after stints on House of the Dragon and Raised by Wolves, the game serves as a biting commentary on the across-the-board excess within Hollywood and how it can turn good people cruel.
Set entirely within a decadent, palatial manor within the Hollywood Hills, Dead Take unexpectedly delivers an unnerving first-person psychological brand of horror that doubles down on mystery and answers the question: “Where is Vinny?”
The game satisfyingly lurches from one room to the next, as you follow the breadcrumbs, piecing together the prior night’s events to learn your place in the grander conspiracy. The manor itself feels eerie, ethereal, and almost unmoved by the passage of time—it’s an ideal setting for what is, for all intents and purposes, an escape room where every question leads to another. With Dead Take only being about four hours long, it’s one I’m eager to play again, if only to pick up on hints toward the bigger picture in the opening hours.
Moment to moment, Dead Take reminded me a little of Gone Home. Although it has brain teasers that settle into the story’s pauses, which all test your attention span and logic, the game still probably earns its place in the walking simulator sub-genre. It’s exploratory and it leaves as much lore scattered within the manor’s walls as you care to find.
All of the bigger beats and solutions reward you with a thumb drive that contains footage that’s integral to unspooling the larger plot. Individually, some of the clips are just one-sided reels and screen tests that came about when casting The Last Voyage, the grand Duke Cain-directed feature that’s central to Dead Take’s story. The game introduces a splicing mechanic that, while pretty fascinating in theory, doesn’t quite live up to being the vehicle of these pivotal narrative moments.
The echoes of festivity that linger in the manor make for a terrific atmosphere that does persist throughout Dead Take’s four, or so, hours. The game periodically, and more than periodically as it nears its end, resorts to some cheap, unnecessary jump scares—not unlike Alan Wake II—which felt at odds with how hard they’d earned the unease felt while exploring the manor; I felt as if eyes were on me at all times. It’s an eclectic, strange estate that reads more like a labyrinthian Saw trap than it does a home, but the game’s better for that.
Despite the mystery at hand, the home’s overstated elegance is in keeping with the game’s thematic throughline, and it’s a spectacularly realised setting. From the spacious, deserted foyer to the spa, to the home theater, which plays a titanic role in Chase’s investigation, it’s gorgeously put together. For a game with no heads-up, the signposting is also first-class. From the moment you walk in, an entire manor on offer, and the ominous red light beckons you down the stairs towards step one, I was impressed with how intuitive Dead Take felt from stem to stern.
Something has to be said for Salim’s clout within the industry, because this game’s cast is a literal who’s who of names that have become synonymous with acting in video games. Funnily enough, he cast the most British co-leads on offer in Neil Newbon and the aforementioned Ben Starr as upstart actors finding their way in Hollywood and trying to ingratiate themselves with the “power” in town; however, it’s what the story demanded. Their performances in particular are suitably troubled, compelling, and, similar to Salim’s impetus to write the plot, feel steeped in something very real.
They do a lot of the heavy lifting, however, bit parts from the likes of Jane Perry, Laura Bailey, Matthew Mercer, and even Sam bloody Lake make this feel more like a nice little get together between friends. The direction of the FMV portions feels authentic, and the way clips find new context when spliced with another creates a satisfying loop of narrative subversion that feeds into the mystery itself.
As a successor to Tales of Kenzera, I do commend the wild swing that Dead Take is on paper. I expect that, for a few reasons, it’ll enjoy more success than the studio’s debut effort, and with any luck, that’ll mean their next idea will be as unexpected a direction. For what it is, a bite-sized experience that’s almost Cluedo-meets-escape room, it’s a remarkable little game. It’s also a vehicle for two irresistibly raw performances, especially given the theme of creation born from personal sacrifice. It’s an easy recommendation for fans of horror, tight narrative mysteries, and impassioned acting.