Anyone who knows anything about literature, knows about Shakespeare and his most popular play, Romeo and Juliet. Now at first glanced, you wouldn’t be able to make a video game based on this story, but with moderned day tropes and creativity, you can make Romeo a cyborg on the verge of death, fighting interdimensional zombies and trying to find Juliet to see if she is truly the cause of the dimensional collapse.
Romeo is a Deadman, is a third-person, stylish action game where players control Romeo Stargazer, a former sheriff’s deputy turned space-time cop. This concept wasn’t what I was expecting but this was a pleasant surprise. Growing up, I’d always hated zombie movies and games due to me getting scared easily, so any game where I can shred through hoards of zombies with ease will always be a fun time.
After the opening cutscene, you’re immediately thrown into the tutorial and start slicing zombies. However after a while you fight a zombie that seems to be stronger than the others, which I end up dying to. The game continues so I figured it was a forced lose scenario, but according to the story Romeo actually defeated the creature, which really confused me. While a lot of games have scenarios like this, they usually explain in the story how the main character survived or have a different cutscene when you lose.
The story, while understandable, is still very confusing right off the gate. The fact that the game states you defeated the strong zombie even if you are killed has me confused for a while. Then the game starts telling you about the adventures you go on while on a mission to find your Juliet. I say your Juliet because the story states that you found multiple juliets as you explore different dimensions. All of which try to kill you and hate you, unlike the Juliet that Romeo found and fell in love with. Romeo also joins The FBI as a space-time cop to investigate different dimensions and take down an evil organization and to find Juliet and to see if she is a willing contributor to the evil organization or is an unwilling pawn.
The gameplay is your standard action style, you slash your sword using light and heavy attacks and use your energy pistol for ranged enemies. I feel so powerful as I slash and blast through zombies and other mutated monsters. You can even purchase and upgrade new weapons to change up the combat style. You can get weapons like a chainsaw sword and a cyber shotgun and much more, making you feel like a monster slayer.
During your missions, you will find checkpoints that look like a cross that will allow you to save, refill your health packs and return to your spaceship. The trade off is that any enemies that you defeat in the area will respawn but honestly you don’t have to kill all the zombies in the area, unless you need some fun so it’s up to you what you choose to do.
Between levels you will be able to explore your spaceship in an 8-bit over the top play-style. You can talk with the other members of the team and get ideas about your missions, purchase items, and upgrade your weapons, provided that you feel like it since it’s shown that they really don’t like/trust you. You can even find your mother and sister working on the ship as well. This was a pleasant surprise to find the main characters’s family to be safe and sound and even them actually helping out. Your mother will be running the kitchen, which will allow you to cook all the ingredients you collect during your missions. This will create dishes that will boost your stats and other benefits for a short time. Your sister will be running a farm, but not of vegetables, but of zombies called bastards. You will be able to grow bastards by either finding special seeds during missions or purchasing them from the store. You can then grow your own zombies that will help you during battles. You can grow a multiple of different species which all do different things so feel free to experiment and grow your army.
In conclusion, Romeo is a Deadman is an interesting take on the classic play of Romeo and Juliet, while still being a fun game to play. I just wished the story made more sense, but overall I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves taking down zombie-like creatures.
Score: 9 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5