Dead Reefs Critic Reviews

A solidly entertaining and enjoyable horror adventure that is fairly short but quite engaging while it lasts. The story is well told, even if it travels some familiar territory at times, while the setting, visuals and overall effect of the presentation of the tale make it worth experiencing, despite the poor control scheme.

While the crisp graphics hold up their end, the story deflates through a series of recycled clichés and a gradually diminishing sense of drama and excitement to a rather unsatisfying short — and somewhat hysterical — conclusion that leaves you feeling your time could have been better spent watching folk dance.

An initially engrossing horror mystery takes serious damage on the "reefs" of a confounding interface, frustrating linearity and mind-boggling puzzles.

This game has replay value because of the alternate endings. Let’s hope I have an alternate ending of being able to play this game all the way through without frustration.

Puzzle problems and a terrible interface land Dead Reefs on the rocks.

Despite the good story, great graphics and nice characterization, playing this game isn’t any fun. The interface is painful.

Dead Reefs is about that, pretty dead in the water. If you really enjoy these searching adventure games you may be amused for a while but the keyboard and character issues are pretty annoying.

Dead Reefs has a good game hidden deep down inside, but there are a few layers of obfuscation that disallow the gamer from ever experiencing it.

All harshness aside, I think there is a good game buried deep in there. If just a little more time was spent on programming the game and ironing out the quirks, they could have had a success on their hands. As is, it’s not worth the time or money.

Considering that the gameplay in Adventure Games revolves around exploration and puzzle solving, doesn't highlighting every single interactive object dull the exploratory experience a little?

Most players probably won't have the patience to deal with the controls, which are cumbersome at best, so only the most hardcore adventure fiend will find any semblance of enjoyment here.

I spent my first hour in Dead Reefs spinning my character in circles while trying to WASD him through doors.

Overall, Dead Reefs offers plenty of atmosphere that teases with its potential, but really suffers from its make-shift story and weak gameplay, made worse still with poor controls.

It’s a dull story that takes an unpredictably fantastic turn at the end that doesn’t fit with the rest of the standard mystery presentation. Add to that some boring animations and terrible camera work and you’re on your way to a below average game.