Deadbolt is a game I didn't even know existed until a few days ago when I got a Steam coupon for it for owning Risk of Rain. Deadbolt is another game by the Risk of Rain guys, so they gave out coupons to everyone who owned either for the respective other game, and it certainly worked on me this time :P . It's a fun but short game that was well worth the $5 I paid for it.

Deadbolt Is like a more action-focused Gunpoint, so it's a 2D, stealth-based action game but with a far heavier emphasis on combat and gunplay than Gunpoint (ironically enough). The plot is something like you're a kind of grim reaper-type hunting down unruly undeads for some unnamed candle-god thing, but it's not terribly important. Hunting the monsters is still pretty fun though, and it gives excuses for enemy types like vampires that come back to life until you break their phylacteries. All the guns don't feel exactly balanced, as I ended up using the scythe for most of it, but even then the game almost became a kind of puzzle on how I could manipulate the AI to allow me to use the scythe for like every level x3. You can't jump, but you can turn to smoke to dash through vents really quick, which makes outmaneuvering your enemies something that's always a fun trick. You DO die in one hit (generally) though, so you can't get tooo crazy with how you move x3

There are a dozen or so guns and like half a dozen melee weapons as well as a dozen or so enemy types, but the enemies can't pick up weapons lying around like you can. Most melee weapons can be thrown, as you aim both your gun and the melee throw with your mouse pointer and guns have an accuracy that is variable depending on how far you're aiming and how much you're moving. It's a really fun little system and even though I died a fair bit, going through the enemies again was always fun. You earn "souls" as a currency by completing achievements and beating missions, but all they do is unlock more weapons that you can start missions with. They don't unlock hard-passives or things like that, and given that weapons don't have much ammo, they really don't affect the game that much, for better or worse.

There are 30 or so missions, and I beat the game in about 4 or 5 hours, but it's apparently completable in under an hour if you're really good. Mission types aren't super varried, usually just either accessing "information" (i.e. an interaction point) often in a difficult place or eliminating all the enemies. Occasionally there's a gimmick like doing it in a certain amount of time or eliminating a boss character, but the bosses are either literally normal enemies but different looking or taken out just as easily as a normal enemy. It's more than serviceable for the fun combat and stealth stuff though.

Verdict: Recommended. This is a fun stealth-action game you can knock out in an evening, and the game grades you on stuff like time, accuracy, and head shots, so if you're someone who likes 5-staring things, this game has you covered for replaying levels in the most clever ways you can suss out.