Stay Dead is an FMV (Full Motion Video) fighting game with the gameplay style of a non-stop QTE (Quick Time Event). Believe me when I say that while this sounds like video game hell, it actually holds up pretty well and is rather fun. Each fight sees your main character standing opposite an enemy, and three choices pop-up on screen for the types of attacks you can make. You select one with a quick button press and have to go through varying lengths of QTE depending on what type of attack you selected. If you fail any of these then the enemy gets the hit on you and you lose some of your life, if you are successful then he takes the hit.
The game has five enemies total, all with a different fighting style. The varying styles mean that the video sections don’t get dragged down with the familiar, it’s always a different type of battle you get to see playing out and I honestly liked this touch. The game’s difficulty comes in the form of much faster QTE’s, imagine the change in note speed as you move up the difficulty ladder in Guitar Hero and I think we have a pretty good representation of how fast this game gets. While I do like that it gets harder over time, I feel like the final boss moves too fast compared to the rest. The learning curve there becomes ridiculously hard to get over, as if the developers wanted to extended the length of the game and had no better ideas.
The biggest flaw to Stay Dead is the storyline, it has none. I’m generally okay with fighting games lacking a narrative but I would think that a big draw to an FMV game would be the fact that they can tell a story with live actors. This would have also been a great way to extend the length of the game without having to resort to cheap tricks reminiscent of the NES days (Games were made harder back then to extend the length). I’m seriously let down by the lack of cheesy dialog and acting that has become a staple of the FMV game genre as I think it would have added a whole lot more to the loveable style.
FMV games are always that special kind of fun, cheesy to the core but that’s why you love them. While I do want to see a revival in the FMV game market, I don’t believe Stay Dead will be bringing it back, despite it being an enjoyable fighting game. The lack of story and steep learning curve are a bit of a let down but overall I had fun with the title despite it being pretty short. I’m interested in seeing what the developers come out with next but I cannot recommend buying this for anything more than a quick FMV nostalgia hit.