Parent's Guide: NeverDead - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

NeverDead is a third person shooter that sees you playing as an immortal demon hunter named Bryce. Thanks to his aforementioned immortality, he's the one who always gets saddled with the dangerous jobs, whether it's making a connection between two wires using his own body as a conduit, or simply taking down the demons that seem to be popping up all over the city.

There's little in the way of puzzles here, as most of the game sees you simply wandering around various buildings, cleaning out the demons who're popping out inside. Seeing as Bryce is immortal, the combat works a little bit differently to other games - when you get attacked by enemies, rather than kill you, they'll instead take your limbs off. A particularly aggressive enemy can rip your arm, or head clean off - and although when you're down to your head, you can roll around freely, it's not a situation you want to often find yourself in, as a small, annoying enemy can vacuum you up. To escape, all you have to do is stop an on-screen line in the right place, and you'll be fired back into the world - but if you don't manage it, you'll be trapped inside the demon forever, netting you a game over. Should you survive for a certain length of time, however, a quick click of the analogue stick will see you regrow the rest of your body.

In terms of how easy this is to play - sadly, things are a lot more confusing than they really should be. The game drops you right in at the deep end with next to no explanation, and the combat's a lot more confusing than it really should be. Attacking an enemy with a sword requires you to first press a button, then hold another whilst wiggling the analogue stick in the general direction of your enemies. Things aren't quite as smooth and easy to pick up as you'd hope - and some of the boss fights are downright frustrating, which leads to our age recommendation.

Despite its main character being immortal, NeverDead is actually full of decapitations, dismemberments, and more, partially because it's key to how you play the game. Several puzzles will require you to tear your own head off, in order to roll through a previously inaccessible area, so it's certainly not for the squeamish. And while tearing your own head or arm of will produce a moderate amount of red blood, the end of your head, arms, and legs (or holes where they used to be) actually aren't all that gory when they've been dislodged, as rather than having arteries, bones, and everything else you'd expect, they instead have a fairly clean looking, blue, sort of cybernetic style effect.

Similarly, the enemies you come across bleed blue goo when you shoot them, which certainly helps things feel less violent - although it's entirely possible to slice enemies in half (or smaller chunks) with your sword.

Full of decapitations and dismemberments of both human and demon alike, NeverDead is certainly not a game for the squeamish or young.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360