Losing a loved one and paying the price is a theme that has been used before in numerous videogames (for example, God of War and Shadows of the Damned), but NeverDead has a slight twist to it with the protagonist, Bryce Boltzmann, being punished for centuries with an immortal Demon body but not a Demon mind.

The action-packed fight sequences look great, and the music (composed mainly by MegaDeath) is suitably loud and pumping and what you would think the soundtrack of a Demon Hunter’s life would sound like. Add to this the fact that the character can be blown to bits and still roll around with his head to find his missing body parts and you would think it’s a winning formula. So the question to ask is where then did NeverDead go wrong? Well the answer is it didn’t go wrong all together, just in a few places that we’ll take a closer look at just now.

You’ll face plenty of enemies in this adventure, but please don’t be mistaken in believing that puppies and spoons are harmless, because in NeverDead they’re evil and will stop at nothing to tear you to pieces (quite literally). You can pump them full of lead, but stopping them short in their tracks will be far easier with your Butterfly Blade. Of course every now and again one of them will get a little too close for comfort, and you may just find your head has been knocked completely off your shoulders. Remain calm, it’ll take just a few moments to locate the rest of your body bits (legs, arms, torso), at which stage you can roll on by and collect them again.

During this time do keep an eye open for the Grandbabies which like to swallow head and keep digesting it in perpetuity. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound all that good to me. Luckily you will be given a chance to redeem yourself once swallowed, and because it’s not that easy to avoid a big vacuum when you’re just a head, you may have to do this more than once. Once you’ve been swallowed you will have one chance to match up a slider - press the button at the right time and you will live, miss it and you will be taken back to the last checkpoint.

Luckily for you, you’ll also be able to regenerate (and this is surprisingly satisfactory when you manage to do it just before a Grandbaby arrives on the scene), in which case your body parts will grow back and you can carry on – after all, it’s just a flesh wound solider! Fortunately there is a limit on this regeneration ability, so you’ll have to switch between fending for yourself as a head, trying to locate your limbs, or finding a regeneration vessel if you want to carry on before your ability has reset.

There are also a few staple combat features in NeverDead that you will recognise from other franchises. First is the Womb, which is a large item that resembles an Armadillo of sorts and continues to spew forth enemies until you destroy it. Second is the Demon Seal which is a force field that blocks your escape until all of the enemies within it have been destroyed. Nothing unique here, but that’s OK because it’s a tried and tested formula.

So let’s get down to business and talk about this whole decapitation thing. When you start the game it’s pretty groovy, you get blown to bits and Bryce can find himself hopping around a level because he lost a leg. Shooting while hopping on one leg can be somewhat complicated, so it’s usually best to locate the missing limb and hopefully this will improve your aim. Losing an arm can also be somewhat inconvenient, but as long as it’s not your shooting arm, or you’re ambidextrous, this should be less of a problem. If you lose both limbs the results can be catastrophic, because you’re an easy meal crawling around like that. And then there’s losing your head completely, now that is a very different experience and one that I hope never to achieve in the real world.

The gameplay mechanic of a head rolling around becomes old all too quickly, and the repeated jokes of ‘rolling, rolling, rolling,’ and ‘hope this doesn’t mess up my hair’ become tiring too. The gameplay mechanic is fresh and innovative, and the developers should be given a pat on the back for this, but you can become a bit woozy when you have to roll around as a head for a length of time. With all this being said, however, Bryce somehow still managed to become a protagonist with whom I forged an unlikely bond of affection for.

The wisecrack-like banter between Bryce and his agency lady partner Arcadia works at providing a bit of a comedic break from the violence of being torn limb from limb. But it doesn’t reach the level achieved by Naughty Dog between Chloe and Drake in the Uncharted series. The name Arcadia also reminds me so much of the Resident Evil: Afterlife film that I found this humour a little disjointed. Even worse is that Arcadia is more of a background character, who does little to assist in the game or make it any more memorable.

This is where the game fails to shine, because while the characters are wildly imaginative, there remains a feeling that they don’t really gel all that well together. The story, which can be oddly captivating at times, also feels a little slow, and it’s a combination of these factors, along with the somewhat repetitive gameplay and a camera that doesn’t always oblige, that ultimately lets NeverDead down.

As you explore your surroundings in the game you’ll discover XP and this, combined with the XP you collect when you destroy enemies, can be used to upgrade your weapons and abilities. I feel confident in saying that these ability upgrades are pretty awesome, and will definitely improve your gameplay experience even further. You’ll notice the increased firepower, and enjoy going more head to head with enemies when you’re toting more powerful weapons, while the other abilities really do add to the ‘cool’ factor of the game. Without giving too much away here, the bullet time ability really adds another dimension to the game and I would highly recommend investing in it, if only to see your head flying off your shoulders in slow motion.

As if dismemberment wasn’t enough fun on its own, you’ll also pick up a few other useful abilities thanks to your demonic state, abilities like electricity and fire propagation which you’ll need to use to solve puzzles and progress. This combined with the destructible environments mean that you can run amok causing havoc and unleashing all kinds of revenge upon the demons. I have never seen this level of destruction in a game before, and I just love it!

Shoot down ceilings to bring flying creatures down to your level, take out support beams to crush enemies, and even dislodge walls to find those hiding from you. Its mayhem, pure and simple, and when you combine this with excellent sound effects, awesome boss battles (and more than one!) and upgradeable abilities, you’re in for a non-stop action ride that will have you wondering at your own level of insanity.

And that, dear readers, is why we play videogames in the first place, isn’t it? To escape reality and step into another world that would never have been possible before - to shoot demons, rip our heads off our own bodies, and to take delight in doing it. If this sounds at all appealing to you, you will enjoy being the “kickass knight rescuing the damsel in distress” in NeverDead. Just be prepared for some “serious motion sickness” along the way. If you don’t like to leave your suspended disbelief at the door, you may want to move right along to the next game, because it may just be that this third-person shooter adventure is just a little too kooky for you.

The multiplayer challenges in NeverDead offer a bit more variety to the game, and the chance to play online, either co-operatively or competitively with up to four players. There are 13 different challenges, some of which require you to destroy waves of enemies, some to rescue civilians and others to collect eggs. While this does offer some more meat to the game, it is plagued by the same problems as the campaign, and ultimately doesn’t do enough to save NeverDead and help it rise to the potential it clearly had.

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