It's sad to say, but creativity and passion appear absent from Dead Man's Diary
Set in a grim post-apocalyptic world following a nuclear disaster, Dead Man's Diary sees you controlling a lone survivor as you scavenge for supplies and sanctuary. However, despite attempting to deliver a narrative-driven survival experience, lackluster gameplay and a tired overall design make this a tired journey.
You wake amid the wreckage as an exiled member of a survivor community, with little more than the clothes on their back. Basic survival instincts immediately come into play, with hunger, thirst, health and radiation levels all requiring frequent maintenance. Scouring the ruinous landscapes for food, water and crafting materials becomes the primary and only focus at the outset.
This brings the first issues to light, with a tedious scanning system for checking every item's radiation level dragging the experience down. With the majority of loot irradiated, scouring the same areas grows tiresome quickly. Each "mission" or level, call it whatever you want, involves you looking for a number of crafting elements like metal rods, paper, sleeping bags etc. which are kinda hard to spot on the environment, returning to a set point and holding a button to craft a campfire and shelter so that you can rest/sleep in it. When you wake up, you move to the next area and do that all over again. Crafting shelters each night also lacks purpose, feeling more like a boring checkbox than meaningful gameplay.
While you are exploring these environments, the game throws at you some "jump scares" to make you feel uneasy, but most of them feel uncalled for and they don't do really anything apart from stopping you in your tracks, taking away control from you so that your character can look at the direction of the noise. Like, why? In the second area, a bear starts chasing you, for some reason, and you have to run away and climb up a building to save yourself. But the bear doesn't really chase you and you have a lot of time to run away. I just stopped playing the game after that sequence.
Visually, Dead Man's Diary makes the most of its apocalyptic backdrop. Since it has been rebuilt with Unreal Engine 5, the game often looks absolutely stunning. Gloomy forests, crumbling cities and imposing industrial ruins bring a bleak atmosphere, boosting the survival drama. However, environments lack interactive substance and repetitiveness sets in fast.
In the end, creativity and passion appear absent from Dead Man's Diary. While establishing an interesting premise, its execution lacks depth or enjoyment. Survival games thrive on emergent gameplay, yet this game offers little to nothing like that. Sad to say, but avoid this game. Thanks for reading!
The game was reviewed on a PS5 using a review copy provided by PR. Dead Man's Diary is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox and PC.
