Truly original artworky his hard to come by. Veteran game designer David Jaffe pulled it off with “Drawn to Death”, but didn’t really care too much about other features.

For just about five years nothing was heard of game designer David Jaffe. To jog your memory. Twisted Metal and none other than God of War were among his works in the past (honestly I didn’t know that either, even though I love hacking and slashing with Kratos. For crying out loud, the white tinted baldy is even my PS4 icon).

Drawn to Death looks like the doodles of a twisted teenager.

This said: Jaffe is not a nobody. He knows his stuff and that’s clear from the get-go. Drawn to Death looks like a horrible little gem, set out to disturb squeamish parents. It reminds me very much of my own time in gymnasium (high school), where I was knee deep into splatter and slasher movies. I wanted to become a sfx artist or an oral surgeon, now I am a master of law and cyberculturist. So much about agenda setting.

Original visual, but nothing to back them up

During my school years I loved to doodle on my note pad. I sketched out rather violent scenarios, inspired by stuff I had read in the newspapers or that just crept out of the dark side of my fantasy. Drawn to Death looks like a sketch book of a talented, but twisted teenager. The hellish characters come to life and dish out slurs and profanities left, right and center. They sport weird weapons like murderous guitars or the torso of a dodge ball player. The sets are like warped black and white cardboard models that were glued together in a hurry.

The original visuals Drawn to Death dishes out ask for an accordingly well thought through gameplay. Unfortunately that’s not really the case. Jaffe invested heavily in the look and didn’t seem to care about the rest.

So why is Drawn to Death part of the selection? Good question. It is one of those titles you want to succeed. I would have loved to spend more time with these bizarre and foul-mouthed creatures. But the flawed mechanics – there is no way to remap the buttons. Really? Come on. – and other issues with the unbalanced gameplay wont keep you longer engaged than couple of minutes at a time.

Drawn to Death, SCE/San Diego Studio, PS4, 16+ years,