Konami today announced that the NeverDead Expansion Pack Volume 2 is now available for download.

Highlights of the NeverDead Expansion Pack Volume 2 include:

• New Character: There is a new character available for the online mode, Chief Sullivan of NADA. Utilize his leadership and level-headed nature while trying to keep his body from being torn limb-from-limb.

• Three New Gameplay Challenges – Revisit an expanded Sewers level with 3 all-new challenges:

o Egg Hunt: Scour the expanded Sewers level for collectables by delivering them to designated “Score Zones.” Make sure to hold on tight to your collectibles as opponents can snatch any that you drop along the way. With enemy ambush points and environmental hazards at every turn, this challenge is tricky!

o Fragile Alliance: A competitive race through a number of checkpoints spread across the map. You can interrupt other players’ progress by attacking each other. The increase of environmental hazards and enemy spawn points will keep you on your toes.

o Onslaught: In this challenge, unlock the entire Sewers level by defeating all the enemies. Demon seals that block off areas will dissipate as you defeat enemies from the previous area, providing more controlled player movement and encounters.

• Two Additional Character Costumes: Dress Bryce up in these new costumes before going back into the online fray.

NeverDead is all set to get Expansion Pack Volume 1 which will have a new playable character in Nikki Summerfield, three additional challenges within the expanded Asylum level, and two new online costumes for the main character, Bryce Boltzmann.

In addition to Volume 1 comes NeverDead Expansion Pack Volume 2, available for download on February 28, 2012. In Volume  there will be yet another playable character in NADA Chief Sullivan, three new challenges within the expanded Sewers level, and two additional online costumes for Bryce Boltzmann.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt.com for more news and updates.

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced that the NeverDead Expansion Pack Volume 1 will be available for download on February 21, 2012. Fans will be able to expand their online experience with a new playable character, three new challenges within the expanded Asylum level and two new online costumes for the main character, Bryce Boltzmann.

In NeverDead, players become the immortal Bryce Boltzmann, a tragic hero who has endured a suffering existence due to the murder of his wife at the hands of Astaroth, the Demon King. Moving through life without aspirations other than where he will find his next drink, he fights alongside his partner Arcadia for the National Anti-Demon Agency (NADA), exterminating modern day demonic forces.

Highlights of the NeverDead Expansion Pack Volume 1 include:

• New Character: Play as the fashionable, charismatic pop-idol, Nikki Summerfield in cooperative challenges with your friends through online multiplayer.

• Three New Gameplay Challenges – Revisit an expanded Asylum level with 3 all-new challenges:

– Egg Hunt: Scour the expanded Asylum level for collectables scoring points by delivering them to designated “Score Zones.” Make sure to hold on tight to your collectibles as opponents can snatch any that you drop along the way. With enemy ambush points and environmental hazards at every turn, this challenge is tricky!

– Fragile Alliance: A competitive race through a number of checkpoints spread across the map. You can interrupt other player’s progress by attacking each other. The increase of environmental hazards and enemy spawn points will keep you on your toes.

– Onslaught: Unlock the entire Asylum level section-by-section by defeating all enemies.. Demon-seals that block off areas will dissipate as you defeat enemies from the previous area, providing more-controlled player movement and encounters.

• Two Additional Character Costumes: Dress Bryce up in these new costumes before going back into the online fray.

I’m not quite sure what I expected, going in to NeverDead for the first time, especially after having remained virtually undetected on my radar until playday  I initially thought this could be a good thing, conducting a review with no prior-knowledge or hype about a game can only be a good thing, surely? Well, that teaches me to go against my inner-cynic: a game on a fairly wide-release, with the backing of a major publisher but nairy a whisper of a playable demo and no credible proof of any marketing? It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

The game opens with Arcadia Maximille, Bryce’s buddy-picture partner with a name more befitting of a BBC Radio newsreader, being attacked by a tin-foil clad Fat Dog Mendonza, lovingly know as a ‘puppy’, via the medium of some rather pretty CGI, CGI dubbed in such a manner that only reinforces the notion that Konami couldn’t give a solitary toss about this title.

Our protagonist, if you can call it that, is the MAVERICK Bryce Boltzman, voiced by David Lodge of  ‘various characters’ fame, delivering the sort of dialogue you might find from a particularly unimaginative and angry docker.  The premise of the title is that you, Bryce, are immortal and as such can be dismembered, at will, the only consequence being that you need to retrieve your limbs like some sort of senile, leprosy-ridden dog, a game mechanic which often leads to you consisting of merely a head, a leg and an arm. Whilst serving as a rather original concept in itself, it soon proves to be more irritating, than anything else, creating limitless loops in which the very second I get myself together, you’re immediately ripped asunder. Aside from irritating the very legs off of me, I also wished Bryce would die purely from a gameplay perspective. I can see that ‘Dismemberment’ was initially intended as a means to create flow but it simply has the reverse effect.

Combat is equally marred with niggles and complaints, at the core , it’s a third-person, dual-wielding shooter in which guns feel like underpowered paintball guns, with the feel of being gently slapped in the face with a lukewarm flannel. In addition to these pitiful guns of Bryce’s, he also wields his ‘butterfly blade’, the name suggesting a sense of humour not present in the game. The butterfly blade is essentially a giant sword which, in comparison to the guns, is unbelievably overpowered and for virtually the entire game I decided to use it instead. Unlike the rest of the game, the controls for this blade were given a modicum of considering, enemies targeted with L1/LB and BUTTERFLIED with the corresponding motion with the right stick. Not that the game chose to informed me how to use the butterfly and as with many other game-specific elements, I was left to fend for myself and found this out purely through trial-and-error. A fair comparison of ‘fighting system’ is be the WiiMote, in the sense that it seems to understand the vague gist of the motion you’re trying to perform, if not the little nuances.

The graphics, whilst initially quite vivid are immediately rendered bland by textures seemingly stolen from the previous generation which, combined with an entirely bland and uninteresting level design, creates for some quite bewildering environments. At several points I had absolutely no idea where I was in relation to anything and had no idea wether I was retracing my steps of blindly wondering onwards, the more cynical might deem this as an artificial means of lengthening gameplay.

In a similar vein, Rebellion appear to have kindly ‘taken influence’ from the Devil May Cry school of keeping you in X location by implementing ‘demon seals’, passage-blockers which only disappear once an arbitrary number of enemies are gutted, filleted and served sous vide. Unlike DMC, however, the limited number of enemies, combined with an equally limited number of fighting moves, this generates even more irritating as I’m left blindly flailing the butterfly blade without any style of fluidity. You simply shouldn’t be allowed to simply back into a corner, close your eyes and wiggle the right stick, enemies become a chore-like and ultimately tiresome.

The main flaw in the game; mechanics, bland environments, terrible dialogue, lazy story and all round lack of enjoyment aside, is the sheer fact that a game clearly aimed at the 13 year-old D student, has been created in such a way where it possesses an 18 certificate, almost as if Konami realised what a terrible mistake it was making and rather than do the honourable thing and pull the game, decided to release it so as few people play it as possible. Don’t play this game, let alone part with your begrudging, rather than hard-earned, money.

This game was reviewed on the Playstation 3.

Konami’s new action game, Neverdead is now out for the Xbox 360 and PS3. “The release of NEVERDEAD is extremely satisfying and exciting for Konami, taking the third person action genre to a new level of player interactivity” said Tomoyuki Tsuboi, President of Konami.

“In a destructible environment where even the amputated and severed pieces of the hero can be a weapon, anything is possible,” he added.

Here’s some info on Neverdead as given by the devs:

In NEVERDEAD, players become the immortal Bryce Boltzmann, a tragic hero who has endured a suffering existence due to the murder of his wife at the hands of Astaroth, the Demon King.  Moving through life without aspirations other than where he will find his next drink, he fights alongside his partner Arcadia for the National Anti-Demon Agency (NADA), exterminating modern day demonic forces.

Players make use of the hero’s immortality to tackle obstacles featuring the new and often gruesome decapitation and regeneration mechanic. Rip off your arm to explode a detonation device against an enemy, tear off your head to scout the level, shoot electric bullets by getting electrocuted and brutalize your hero in every way to discover what abilities he possesses.

NEVERDEAD also includes online co-operative and competitive “challenges” where teams of up to four players can compete against each other or the enemy. The destruction of entire buildings, pillars, floors and interior wall sections adds elements of strategy and various abilities needed to destroy players’ foe. Gamers seeking more NeverDead thrills will be able to expand their online experience with exciting downloadable content, including new characters and additional missions within the multiplayer mode. More information on downloadable content will be announced later. 

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Filled with nonstop action, NeverDead offers a radically new gameplay experience within the genre based on decapitation and regeneration. While attacked, players can be torn limb from limb, but can then reattach the parts to their body. Even when all limbs have been removed, players can roll around as a head, looking to reattach lost parts. Featuring third person action gameplay, gamers can also use their amputated body parts as weapons, throwing arms into clusters of monsters, or lobbing their head into seemingly impossible areas to gain access to new sections of the NeverDead map.