ZackFurniss
Now here’s a combination I wasn’t expecting to see: DEADSKINS is a Native American Psychedelic Horror-ish FPS/TPS/side-scrolling game set in pre-Whitey America. Native American warriors are battling a Tribe of the Undead for their homeland. Creator Chris Garnaas has cited influences such as Halo, Gears of War, and Left 4 Dead on the Kickstarter page, stating that his goal isn’t to ‘re-invent the wheel’ but to instead build an amalgamation of his favorite multiplayer experiences. Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Survival modes will all be featured with interesting additions such as scalping opponents to make them join your team and the chance to ride zombie animal mounts. The dynamic HUD is going to be integrated into each player’s shield; in first-person you can only see health, ammo and radar while blocking, and in third-person you can see your status on your back.
DEADSKINS isn’t all about multiplayer though. It also features a single player campaign focusing on portals leading to a Spirit World. Behind every portal is a land where you can gain a new animal’s spirit power and shiny tattoo on your back that glows when activated. Here’s the story that will throw you into the world:
Deadskins is a work of fantasy set primarily in a fictional Spirit World…
The story begins in a fictitious past of North America. Back in a time when it was primarily inhabited by early natives.
It centers around a young brave whose tribe has just been massacred by a war party of mysterious origins. Shaman from many tribes come together, to discuss in a great meeting of medicine. Some describe seeing a blue man walking the earth, and wherever he touches, the land becomes sore. While others share visions of a world turned upside down and where everything living falls into the sky. “Our Mother is sick and the Great Spirit seems to wander without purpose”.
Using the powers and secrets of your elders, you must journey on a vision quest to repair the Spirit World and heal Mother Earth. Quickly become a warrior and fight a psychedelic battle against a man who has forgotten that he has died. He is a man known as the Dead Skin walker. And his power over the dead, was strong enough to punch a hole through to the land of the living, sending many lost spirits in search of revenge.
Ancestral spirits come under an evil spell and begin to rise from the earth and mount war parties of the Undead. This ravenous group of zombies attack everything they see and they become many like the stars. They are the DEADSKINS; a crazed and bloodthirsty tribe of the undead. Mounted on zombie beasts, the demonic warriors begin to cross over to the land of the living and curse all creatures they encounter. You must follow the smell of death and leave it your trail.
I’m in! It does help that the world looks like Tron (the “Pink Elephants on Parade” scene from Dumbo is specifically mentioned as an inspiration) and it’s hard not to be excited by the prospect of firing arrows while mounted on the back of a zombie eagle. Sprinkle in some side-scrolling Contra-esque stages and you definitely have my attention. Hopefully the horror themes are more than just window dressing and will seep into the general atmosphere as well. The Kickstarter has less than a month to go and DEADSKINS still needs a large sum of money to come to fruition, so if this sounds interesting to you, check out the Kickstarter page here.
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