Charming, cute, co-op, zombie apocalypse. But this isn’t your straightforward zombie apocalypse. Love is Dead isn’t referring to that infamous saying that Love itself is dead. In this case, you’re dead, but still in love!
It’s not what it seems either. Love is Dead, from Curiobot, is not about mowing down hordes of enemies together, it’s about simply navigating around them and finding one another in different scenarios! Of course it is. What else would it be? Lovely!
Love Is Dead is, first and foremost, a puzzle game. It’s very simplistic in design, but that shouldn’t shy you away from it by any means, especially if you are a fan of puzzle games with a strong co-op aspect. You’re a couple deeply in love, along with your beloved pet dog and cat, who travelled about doing all sorts of lovey-dovey goop.
Then tragedy ensues, and unfortunately our lovely couple come to a sudden end, leaving their cherished pets behind to fend for themselves. However, in this time, the zombie apocalypse breaks out and the dead roam the face of the earth. But, for our lovely couple, this doesn’t quite have the same effect. Since they died with their brains relatively intact, they don’t want to eat brains, they want (you guessed it) to be with each other! As well as finding their treasured pets again. And that’s where this odd adventure begins!
The story is a little silly, but it’s got a nice, light-hearted humor to it. It’s not belly-aching laughter, but it’s cutesy and fits in with the style of the game. I wouldn’t say the story is the reason to buy it; this is a puzzle game that just happens to have a story!
Love is Dead is fun. It’s simple enough for literally anyone to pick it up and give it a go, as you navigate through numerous different ‘worlds’ and the levels within, with your aim being to find each other in each level to progress. It isn’t exclusively co-op, so you can technically play it alone, but I would highly recommend playing with someone (maybe even that special someone, as I can promise even if they’re clueless with video games, they will definitely be able to get to grips with Love Is Dead in no time).
There’s no real pressure in the game; you can fail again and again and you don’t have lives. You can just attempt over and over, which you unquestionably will, as it does become increasingly difficult later on as timing becomes more of a factor, and with each level bringing new hazards to be wary of. As well as being easy to play, there is quite a lot of content in Love is Dead overall. There are about eight worlds in total, and plenty of extra little mini-levels in each world to unlock.
Whilst the graphics aren’t particularly amazing, they’re not ugly, and once you start getting into the gameplay you don’t notice it much anyway. It’s not a priority for the game to look visually stunning if the gameplay itself is fun. For a game that’s supposed to be set in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, it’s all very bright, vivid and pleasing to the eye.
As I’ve said before, your aim is to find your other half. You start at opposing ends of the map and have to navigate to each other. Playing alone, you can control one person at a time; if you’re playing co-op, you control one each.
There are lots of different obstacles: disappearing tiles, moving platforms, moving hazards and humans — both armed and unarmed! You can even turn them into zombies if you make contact (as long as you don’t get shot or smacked with a baseball bat!) and in each level you can find pancakes (I don’t know why. I think the developers just really love pancakes? So why not, really?) which you can use to help unlock further levels, special bonus levels and just progress to new worlds overall.
The gameplay doesn’t require too much concentration until the harder levels and playing with someone does make it a lot more fun, and will prove if you both have good communication skills — or even just basic coordination skills!
I think that Love Is Dead is made with a lot of love. It’s a really charming little game to pick up, whether that be because you’re just a fan of puzzles games or you’re after a fun game to play with a friend or a loved one. The story is cute and the level design is appealing and fun to circumnavigate — it will have you laughing with one another rather than screaming at one another, although that really depends on what you’re both like!
Love is Dead is available now on PC & Mac.
Disclaimer: Jupiter Hadley, one of the website owners, is an Adept Game Wizard for Armor Games. You can read more information on our disclaimers here.
