The Haunted Hoard: Dead Head Fred (PSP)

I never thought I’d see the day that the highlight of a video game was a celebrity voice actor, but in Dead Head Fred, the voice work really is the best part of the experience. John C. McGinley, perhaps best known as Dr. Cox on the television show Scrubs, brings the same level of sarcastic wit that character is known for to his role as Fred Neuman while still giving it a new noir detective twist so it feels distinct from his other roles. While quick to deliver a biting quip or an angry observation about the game’s unusual situations, Fred avoids being unlikable by letting things breathe a bit too, not always interjecting even when there are certainly openings for them because some information is best delivered uninterrupted, and he is a man with some heart to him too, hoping for the best for some of his odd acquaintances and always sure to thank people when they help him out.

Being the main character, Fred gets a lot of screentime to deliver the lines that make him a likeable and funny lead, but there is certainly plenty of style to the world around him. Fred Neuman’s life began as a simple detective, but when he started investigating the mob boss Ulysses Pitt, he soon found himself dead. Luckily for Fred, a mad scientist came along and resurrected him, but lacking the detective’s head, Dr. Steiner made do and placed Fred’s brain in a jar atop his body. The odd revival leaves Fred with a fragmented memory of his life, but even with a hazy mind he immediately wants revenge for what was done to him, Fred heading off to take down Pitt in a town the mob boss practically controls. Fred isn’t the only unusual element to this world though, as many more characters and creatures inspired by classic horror roam the city and serve as the main enemies for the revenge-seeking detective. The mix of noir with horror makes for a world that is both grimy and dark but still grounded in some realistic urban settings, the citizens of the city more wrapped up in the dramas of crime than worrying about the creatures of the night. Fred certainly has a lot to work with whenever he cracks wise, with many of the game’s other characters pretty much being designed as excellent targets for it. The gravedigger Sam Spade who looks and sounds a lot like Peter Lorre gives Fred material with his off-putting eeriness, Juju Judy’s odd flirtation leads to clever rejections from our protagonist, and even the Headless Horseman gets an interesting twist to his typical portrayal as here he’s a beheaded mafioso who talks a bit like Joe Pesci.

 

It’s little surprise this game won an award for Videogame Writing with the clever dialogue, but the style does not completely redeem the dull substance at the heart of Dead Head Fred. Dead Head Fred is mostly a brawler, the bulk of the involved action involving beating up the goons and ghouls you’ll encounter as you try to take down Pitt’s criminal empire. Your basic attacks are usually blocked by even the simplest of enemies, and once you start a combo, it can be hard to exit it, especially since Dead Head Fred makes one of the most baffling control decisions I’ve seen in a brawler. Once you’ve started attacking, your jump button, which would be the perfect dodging tool for when a foe switches from guarding to a counterattack, instead becomes an attack button as well. There is essentially no reason you would ever wish to use this feature as it doesn’t even really seem to grant any improvements to the combos your basic attack buttons can already handle, it simply robs the combat of some potential give and take between Fred and his foes. Combat really isn’t put together well even ignoring this quirk, as most enemies guard so often that the best way to deal with them is to bait out their one attack that has a specific counter and then use that to take them down. There are a few ways to deal with some enemies from afar with projectile abilities, but this counter-focused system remains pretty consistent and slow outside of boss battles, meaning that most of the game is spent waiting to do a mildly interactive button mash counter. However, the counter can only be performed if Fred is wearing the right head, the head-swapping the game’s main gimmick that perhaps receives a little too much emphasis in the combat.

As the game progresses, Fred will get new heads he can swap out his main brain for. The different heads will give Fred some visually different attacks that mostly link together in the same combo style, but they also pack their own special abilities, the ones that offer long range attacks like the Scarecrow Head injecting a small bit of strategy into the basic battles. Each head packs some sort of use outside of battle as well, the gameplay outside of battles usually focused on platforming that sometimes struggles with unclear direction or troublesome camera behavior. Fred’s default Brain Jar already comes with a surprisingly versatile cloaking ability, but other heads on his journey include things like a Shrunken Head that lets Fred shrink in size to access areas devoted to platform challenges, a Corpse Head that can suck in liquids to carry around or gas so Fred can float, and a Dummy Head that will allow him to talk with regular citizens who would be too scared of him otherwise. You can even purchase upgrades for the heads as the game progresses, the jar eventually getting the especially useful ability to regenerate health. Some like the Dummy Head are almost exclusively used for interacting with an object or individual, but the game does keep dishing out new heads until you’re near the end, their use in solving puzzles sometimes clever enough to forgive how unimaginative their combat uses are by comparison.

 

If you stick to the story and can manage to follow its path even when its having you run around with little guidance or direction, you’ll mostly find yourself fighting the repetitive battles, doing some occasionally janky platforming, and interacting with some decent head puzzles, but Dead Head Fred also contains an unusual amount of optional activities, the game perhaps hoping you’ll get lost just to see how much effort went into them. From cockfighting with mutant chickens, playing unique pinball tables, engaging in games of billiards, fishing, or completing a rather large amount of simply designed side quests, Dead Head Fred offers a lot to do if this was somehow the only game you owned on your PSP. They’re mostly there for very small rewards or just the sake of playing something different, so they don’t really add too much to the core experience and seem like the developers just got distracted from making the main story more enjoyable.

THE VERDICT: If you play Dead Head Fred for the humor and world, you won’t be disappointed. Noir and horror mix well to make a world with an appealingly grim style that gels well with the biting humor of the angry yet endearing main character, and had this been a point-and-click or some other similar genre focused on characters and stories, it could have been amazing. Unfortunately, your time is mostly spent in boring battles where the game’s head swapping mechanic is often just part of executing a generic counter rather than engaging with a different combat style. The puzzles do make better use of the heads and their unique abilities, but then the platforming often feels just as tacked on as the abundance of undercooked optional content. Dead Head Fred’s focus on story and setting definitely made those elements stand out, but the bulk of the experience is spent with the stuff that wasn’t given the attention it needed to excel.

 

And so, I give Dead Head Fred for PSP….

A BAD rating. The charisma of John C. McGinley as Fred is nearly such a strong salve that Dead Head Fred could have gotten a passable rating. There is a lot of sharply written dialogue and funny interactions between cast members, with plenty of surprises that make this game work as a witty noir story in a world steeped in classic horror elements. Unfortunately, getting to the jokes and delightful surprises requires pushing through a lot of boring play, and the game’s poor guidance at times means you spend even more time involved in the weak fighting and platforming instead of seeing the amusing cutscenes. It’s hard to even recommend watching it instead of playing since there would be so much filler between the highlights, the action just not able to carry the experience despite the head-swapping finding some decent use in environmental puzzles.

 

For the art and writing teams on Dead Head Fred, it was certainly a success, but the gameplay programmers didn’t quite bring the best to the table. The wit injects some life in the experience so things never quite reach the point it’s just mindless monotony, but the head-swapping really could have been so much more if it had been properly explored. The components of an excellent game surround a core of unfortunate failure, with Dead Head Fred possibly able to win your heart but not really able to please a brain looking for thrilling or varied gameplay.