Dead Head Fred - PSP - First Look review

Lost your head? Can this game help you find it? Fred hopes so

4 August 2007 9:00 GMT / By Thomas Zecca

Getting straight to the point, Dead Head Fred's storyline is excellent. It's the tale of a detective in a corrupt city that stumbles onto something suspect, gets set up and killed.

But, this is a videogame after all and in a bizarre plot twist, a mad professor steps in, manages to save Fred's brain and attaches it back onto his body - but in jar.

Head screwed back on, all that is left for Fred, now called Dead Head Fred of course, and voiced by Scrub's John C. McGinley, is to seek revenge.

Not happy with just one head, there are nine heads in total to collect, giving the game a Role Playing element. Each head offers different characteristics such as improving your stealth, health or rage attack skills as well as allowing you in some cases to see secret elements.

Head chosen, the gameplay is more puzzle based than over the top action and some areas of the game will definitely challenge.

To progress further you'll need to keep swapping heads to give you different abilities and therefore complete certain tasks.

Gameplay is split up with humorous video cutscenes to jolly the story along and the game takes on a dark humour rather than a horror gore fest approach, though be wary, as some of the language is a bit on the strong side.

Controls are demanding at first, but after a while you should get the hang of them. Those who do master the controls will be able to pull off some great combo attacks in the fight scenes.

Exclusive to the PSP rather than just another port from the PS2, Dead Head Fred graphics are very good with plenty of detail. The games developers Vicious Cycle Software has made a PS2 sized game here but just for the handheld.

First Impressions

On the whole Dead Head Fred is a very good game with a nice graphical touch.

Gameplay is funny, challenging, and easy to get into.

Review Recap

Made by: D3Publishers
Price as reviewed: £35
The good: Option of swapping heads to complete certain tasks, graphics, gameplay
The bad: Controls take a bit getting use to, cutscene are on the long side
First Impressions: Gameplay is funny, challenging, and easy to get into