Black Death: A Strange 10 Minute Experience

A short & disappointing experience surrounding the killer plague that swept Europe in the middle ages.

Black Death: A Tragic Dirge recently released on PlayStation 4 lasts roughly ten minutes long. Developed by Playstige Interactive this game is one of the easiest platinums to obtain. There is very limited information about this game which has led players to believe it may be testing for a bigger release in the future but nothing has been confirmed. The game takes place in a mysterious town named Clayton where it’s noted that the black death AKA the plague has swept the land. Join us here at VIBE as we carry out a short and sweet review.

Lack Of Story

Unfortunately, Black Death has a limited story. The game has a monotonous narrator telling a short approximately ten minute tale about the town of Clayton. However, there is no succinct story and it’s more about what happened when the plague hit the town. This would be interesting if the environment was also reflecting this but alas, it was not. The environment featured stationery NPCs who didn’t speak. Additionally, there were several animals such as rats, pigs and horses but they did not move or make any noise either. The narrator was extremely vague about the town Clayton and the inhabitants. Therefore, leaving players frustrated and confused for purpose of the narration.

The black death was one of the most morbidly fascinating diseases to ravage the world and this game presents it as a dull and tedious confusing experience. Once the narration finishes the game goes mute with sound and there was no resounding music to fill the gap from the narration.

Gloomy Gameplay

Overall, the game play for Black Death is shockingly dull. It involves the player collecting drawings of various items throughout the game. The narration does not change to reflect the retrieval of the drawings. The drawings are scattered throughout the town of Clayton in no particular order and they do not need to be retrieved in any order. Each collection of a drawing will award the player with a PlayStation trophy. Ultimately, the game play could have a lot more content especially with the potential in the story. However, for some reason this is all players are subjected to in this play through of the game. It’s important to note this is not an early access game so it can’t even be attributed to that.

Glitchy Graphics

The graphics can be described as standard. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t show any dynamic graphics as the NPCs don’t move and neither does anything in the environment including the animals or trees. There is no weather changes, no indications that the map is anything other than a paused game. At one point in the location the player can cast their eyes to the side and see several floating stumps and what can be a kin to a barren wasteland stretching out. There is no atmospheric attempts to hammer home the plague theme and it leaves a very disappointing feel that the graphics are just mediocre.

Trophy Hunters Saddle Up

The one redeeming quality for all you avid trophy hunters is the easy obtainable platinum. The platinum literally involves the player collecting all the drawings which are not in hard to find places. If you have no interest in listening to the story you could easily speed around and collect all drawings, gain the platinum and exit the game. To date 90% of players currently have the platinum.

Potential

Black Death could advance into a great adventure action game highlighting the tragedy and destruction of the plague. However, it would take an expansive restructuring of the town, interactive NPCs and an addition of any sort of game play. The story would need molded and actually presented with a functional plot and characters. Furthermore, the type of gameplay can be enjoyable but not when its as short and confusing as it was. More reaction to picking up the drawings would have helped players feel more like they were part of the game instead of it feeling like an interactive wallpaper.

VIBES SCORE

4/10

THANK YOU

I’ve been writing with VIBE for a while now and I can’t thank you all enough for every article view, every comment or like. I hope you have enjoyed this review on Black Death and despite it receiving my lowest ever review score you will check it out. Right now its available on PlayStation 4 and 5 now at a very low price : https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP8070-CUSA35290_00-8072159598855675 Additionally, check out the trailer below to get a quick insight into the game before you try. Lets hope in the future we hear some developments from Black Death: A tragic Dirge.