Wales Interactive isn't primarily a publisher of FMV style games, but it has certainly done more than its fair share of giving the genre a mini-Renaissance over the past few years. The library may be hit-and-miss with the critics, but titles like Late Shift, Five Dates, and Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? have done well enough with players that there doesn't seem to be any signs of stopping the production of more interactive movie-style games. Its latest title, Dead Reset, is a horror game with a twist, and just like the publisher's previous titles in this genre, your enjoyment of the game is going to be depend on your expectations.

The story starts off rather quickly instead of having a slow ramp-up to the action. You play a man named Cole Mason who finds himself being jolted awake on the floor of a mysterious facility. You're rudely hoisted up and forced into a control room and asked to perform surgery on a woman. You quickly discover that the patient has a large parasite in their abdomen. The parasite escapes when the patient is opened up and ends up killing everyone present — including yourself. You then find yourself waking up again, stuck in a time loop, and forced to relive the surgery until you do something to momentarily break the loop and move forward to discover how you got here, why you're stuck in a loop, and what needs to be done about the parasite that grows more dangerous as time passes.

From a gameplay perspective, Dead Reset goes for a very basic approach akin to a visual novel. There are no puzzles to solve and no documentation or other logs to collect, so the main thing you'll do is wait for a choice prompt to appear so you can make your selection and start the process anew. All decisions run on a timer, so waiting for the timer to expire means that the game will make a decision for you, but you can turn on a streamer option that omits the timer entirely with the purpose of giving your audience time to vote on a collective decision if you choose to stream the game. Aside from that, you have a screen that shows you the status of every other crew member you meet, namely whether they're alive or dead. You also have another screen listing out all of the major milestones you've already accomplished. This comes in handy when trying to do another playthrough, so you don't make the same decisions again.

With the gameplay so limited in scope due to the nature of the interactive movie, it falls on the storyline and other major factors to move things along. The good news is that the experience is fun if you're a fan of horror movies or aren't too squeamish about gore. The time loop concept has always been fun to use in movies, with horror movies like Happy Death Day showing that it can be adapted to a genre that's always looking to reinvent itself. The concept works especially well in Dead Reset since you're given the satisfaction of knowing that any mistakes can be seen as part of the plan so you're more apt to experiment with your choices. In a way, the presence of the time loop sometimes transforms the game into a dark comedy, since there's some kind of perverse pleasure in seeing how bad a situation can get before the story kicks you back to a certain spot in the story to choose something different. This is especially true during the different scenarios where you see how many ways the fearsome creature can tear you apart.

The game also does a good job when it comes to effects, as the production leans more toward practical than computer generated. There are copious amounts of blood and gore, but what you're seeing is the real movie stuff rather than CG blood spray that looks artificial. There's loads of splatter seen on the walls and floors, and it's usually accompanied by sounds of bones being crushed or body parts being ripped apart. The monster is also done with practical effects, and while the concept may be cheesy, there's still something about seeing a rubber suit monster obscured by various camera angles and cuts that makes it cooler to see versus something computer-generated.

For the most part, the acting is also well done, especially for a low-budget, sci-fi horror film. The cast of British actors does a fantastic job of giving each of their characters some emotional weight and dimension to their roles. From the utterly confused Cole to Slade's tough demeanor hiding the fact that he misses his family to Fearne trying to repent for her role in this, the characters become ones you care about, making the final parts of the game areas where the decision-making is difficult. Magson is the only one that seems like a one-dimensional, straight-up villain, but the performance is so good that you don't mind it whenever she double-crosses you.

These are the good aspects, but there are a few elements that diminish the game's enjoyment level a bit. The first is the fact that the game really only has four major characters in the whole story. Two of the characters only appear periodically and get talked about even less once they die. This is expected in a horror movie, as there's no way that a large cast of characters stays alive until the end, but it does feel like the story could've used these characters more and given them something else to do aside from being fodder for any deaths.

The second part has to do with the story's immutability, which has also plagued most of Telltale Games' lineup. The game only ever features two choices during any given scene, and a good chunk of those scenes have little bearing on the story. Some of those are intentional, as some kind of death will always happen until a brand-new option appears. Choices that seem like they should branch out further don't actually do that. You'll always be visiting the same locales and entering the same situations, even if the choices you make seem like you should be doing something completely different. Only the ending changes drastically as far as choice consequence goes, so it becomes a big letdown upon discovering this. You might be expecting a slew of completely different footage in new areas upon subsequent playthroughs.

For the most part, the game runs fine on the PC regardless of your rig's specs. It runs fine on a Linux desktop with no need to hunt down a specific version of GE-Protono to make the videos work. There's even the option for crisp 4K video, but the standard 1080p video with works fine even on a 4K TV. The only technical issue has to do with the video once a choice is made. There are moments when the video and audio make a noticeable one-second break before everything resumes. This was something that always plagued FMV-style games back during the CD days, but it looks like even in the age of solid state media, these pauses are still prone to happening, breaking the immersion for a tiny while whenever they occur.

A game like this is well suited for Steam Deck mainly because it doesn't do much to tax any part of the system. Since this is an FMV game, the resolution on the Deck goes no higher than 1280x720, but that's fine since no one expects video to be shot in a 16:10 format. Frame rate isn't important, since this is real video being used throughout, but you'll never notice any drops aside from the previously mentioned video stoppages once some choices are made. Battery life is where the Deck shines with this game, as you'll get roughly four-and-a-half hours of time on a full charge from the LCD version of the device.

In the end, Dead Reset is a fun romp despite its limitations. The acting is quite good and does a good job of carrying a story that contains a few plot holes. The major branching points don't happen until the very end, but this game is enjoyable, and the experience doesn't overstay its welcome . While this isn't the type of game to change anyone's mind about the limitations of the interactive movie, it's fun enough that you'll want to complete at least one run before thinking about moving on to something else.

Score: 7.0/10