Dead Take review

Introduction

Dead Take puts players in the shoes of Chase Lowry, a struggling actor who breaks into the luxurious mansion of a powerful, corrupt film producer to search for his missing friend and professional rival Vinnie. Developed by Surgent Studios and published by Pocketpair Publishing, it released 31 July 2025 to a "Very Positive" reception: 514 of its 579 English-language reviews recommend it, a sample of which this review reads 100 in full. The result is a short, atmosphere-driven psychological horror that leans almost entirely on a genuinely impressive live-action cast to carry its story, with a mixed but generally positive verdict on how well the puzzles and pacing around those performances hold up.

A cast reviewers can't stop talking about

By far the most consistent thread in the sample is enthusiasm for the game's actors, led by Neil Newbon as Chase and Ben Starr as Vinnie, alongside a supporting cast that includes Laura Bailey, Matthew Mercer, and a cameo from Alan Wake creative director Sam Lake. One reviewer opens with "there's actua[l pedigree here]," pointing to Newbon's work as Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 and Starr's as Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI, while another writes that the cast "absolutely knock it out of the park," singling out "the surprise cameo appearances sprinkled throughout" as "a genuine thrill." Several reviewers frame the game explicitly as a vehicle for these performances, with one writing plainly that "if you're an actor, you have to play this," and another noting the acting alone "easily" justifies a playthrough regardless of how the rest of the game lands.

Atmosphere over jump scares, with mixed results

Dead Take's horror leans on tone rather than shock, something the sample is split on. Many reviewers praise the mansion setting and lighting design, describing the game as "creepy, dark, broody and overall unsettling," and several note approvingly that it succeeds as a psychological horror "that isn't 'scary' - at all, really," making it approachable for players who don't usually enjoy the genre. Others are less forgiving of the scares it does include, with one reviewer calling them "admittedly cheap" and another describing the jump-scare pacing as "very early 2010s scaryimage.jpg." A recurring piece of practical advice across the sample is to turn down sound effects for players sensitive to jump scares, since several reviewers note the game leans on audio stingers more than genuine dread-building.

Puzzles and pacing split the sample

Reviewers broadly agree the puzzle-and-exploration loop is functional but light. Positive reviews describe puzzles that "require a bit more thinking than just 'find object, put object here,'" and praise the escape-room structure for staying "just the right difficulty." A significant minority disagrees, with one reviewer summarizing the whole experience as "mostly just about ... rubbing two things together until something works," and others noting the story becomes "fragmented" and "hard to follow" in its second half, particularly once the game leans harder on watching accumulated FMV footage rather than active exploration. One detailed critical review calls the second half's pacing "boring very fast" once the bulk of remaining content becomes passive video-watching rather than puzzle-solving, a complaint echoed by several others who wanted a tighter back half.

A handful of AI-writing concerns

A small but notable slice of the sample raises concerns about the writing's originality, with a few reviewers explicitly stating they "had to look up if AI was used in the writing" because dialogue repeatedly falls into a familiar "it's not just x, it's y" pattern associated with generative text tools. This review cannot verify whether AI was used in any capacity, and the concern appears in only a small fraction of the sample, but it recurs often enough — alongside broader complaints about repetitive, self-serious dialogue from some characters — to flag for prospective buyers who care about that distinction.

What the achievement data shows

Dead Take's 19 tracked achievements show a curve typical of a short, mostly linear experience with an optional collectible layer. Simply entering the mansion sits at 92.2 percent, and most of the core story and puzzle-progression achievements — fixing the projector, soothing the baby, splicing footage, and clearing the main puzzle rooms — cluster between roughly 54 and 74 percent, reflecting a game most buyers see through to completion. The four hidden "tape" achievements tied to unlockable character footage sit in a tighter band around 28 to 41 percent, and the full-lore completionist achievement bottoms out at just 9.6 percent, suggesting relatively few players chase down every optional story fragment even though most finish the main path.

Value

At NZ$22.49 for a three-to-six hour experience, Dead Take lands as reasonably priced for its scope, and several reviewers explicitly note it as good value given the calibre of performances on offer relative to the asking price. A few reviewers who focused purely on puzzle depth or horror intensity felt the length undercut the price, but the more common sentiment in the sample treats the runtime as appropriately matched to a tightly focused narrative experience rather than a shortfall.

Final Verdict

Dead Take is a well-acted, atmospheric psychological horror that earns its "Very Positive" reception primarily through a genuinely stacked cast and a strong sense of place inside its decaying mansion setting. Its puzzles are serviceable rather than deep, its jump scares land inconsistently, and its story loses some cohesion in a back half that leans heavily on passive video-watching, but for players drawn to FMV-driven mysteries in the vein of Her Story or Immortality, it's a short, memorable few hours built around performances well worth seeing.