Drawn to Death

Drawn to Death was a third-person shooter[1] combined with a brawler arena multiplayer video game for PlayStation 4, developed by David Jaffe's studio The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency and San Diego Studio, and released on April 4, 2017.[2] It allows four-player multiplayer in an arena shooter type setting and is reported to be set "inside the pages of a teenager's notebook", as such, it features a hand-drawn-looking visual style.[3]

Drawn to Death
Developer(s)The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency
San Diego Studio
Publisher(s)Sony Interactive Entertainment
Director(s)David Jaffe
EngineUnity
Platform(s)PlayStation 4
ReleaseApril 4, 2017
Genre(s)Third-person shooter
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Sony announced that the game's servers would be closing on March 25, 2019, rendering the game unplayable.[4]

Gameplay

Drawn to Death was an arena shooter set in a teenager's high school notebook.[5] The world and action embodied the juvenile tone of the child's illustrations. Players would pick a sketched character and drop them into environments drawn upon the book's pages. Each character had its own behaviors, passive tendencies, buffs and special attacks.[6]

Like previous games by David Jaffe, especially the Twisted Metal series, the arenas were made to feature multiple secrets to be used as weapons against enemies. Weapons and gameplay mechanics represent a juvenile tone. One weapon was "a lizard that doubles as a flamethrower," a power-up in the game summons the child's hand to interact in the game world. The action is said to be "fast and frantic, allowing players to sprint, double-jump, and reach high vantage points with ease".

Regarding the potential of a weapon progression system, Jaffe says "skill should be the only determining factor. If you've been playing this for a year, and I just come in and I'm awesome at these types of games, the only reason you should win is you know the map better and are more comfortable muscle memory wise. It should never be because you have better weapons."[3]

Development

Drawn to Death was pitched and has been in development since early 2013.[7] It was announced at the PlayStation Experience keynote opening ceremony on December 6, 2014. Drawn to Death is David Jaffe's first project at his new studio The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency.[1] where he acts as director.[8] A trailer was shown with its announcement, and a playable alpha was available.[9] A second promotional video was released on December 11 on Jaffe's YouTube account, where a game character reads through Giant Bomb negative user comments about its announcement and insults them.[10][11]

Reception

Drawn to Death has a Metacritic score of 56/100.[12]

IGN awarded Drawn to Death a score of 4 out of 10, saying "Drawn to Death is a mean spirited, misguided mess that falls short mechanically and wants you to feel bad about yourself.".[13] Push Square awarded it 8 out of 10, saying "Drawn to Death's juvenile presentation belies a nuanced shooter that's frankly a breath of fresh air.".[14] Game Informer awarded it 5 out of 10, saying "After a few matches, most players will be ready to move on to a bigger, better game."[15] GameSpot awarded it a score of 4 out of 10, praising the art style and characters but criticising the physics, ineffectual weapons and attempts at comedy.[16]

The game was a runner-up for the "Worst Game (That We Played)" award at Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2017 Awards.[17]

References
  1. Matulef, Jeffrey. "David Jaffe reveals arena shooter Drawn to Death". Eurogamer.
  2. Silva, Marty. "Drawn to Death / 6 Dec 2014 PSX 2014: David Jaffe's Drawn to Death Revealed". IGN.
  3. Reiner, Andrew. "David Jaffe Walks Us Through Drawn To Death". Game Informer.
  4. "Support for games you can play online". PlayStation. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  5. "Sketchy shooter Drawn to Death coming to PS4 in April". Polygon.
  6. Schulenberg, Thomas (December 6, 2014). "Drawn to Death is David Jaffe's sketchbook arena shooter". Engadget (Joystiq). Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  7. Jaffe, David. "Drawn to Death, a Hand-Drawn Arena Shooter, Coming to PS4". PlayStation Blog.
  8. LeBoeuf, Jeffrey. "Twisted Metal Creator Announces Next Game". The Escapist.
  9. Haas, Pete. "Twisted Metal Creator Reveals Drawn To Death". CinemaBlend.
  10. Hillier, Brenna. "Drawn to Death trailer advises you to #GoFuckYourself". VG247.
  11. "Drawn to Death character responds to Giantbomb comments". www.giantbomb.com.
  12. "Drawn to Death for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  13. Rougeau, Mike (April 7, 2017). "Drawn to Death Review". IGN.com. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  14. Barker, Sammy (April 6, 2017). "Drawn to Death Review". PushSquare.com. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  15. Marchiafava, Jeff (April 7, 2017). "Drawn To Death Review". Game Informer. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  16. Clarke, Justin (April 13, 2017). "Drawn To Death Review". GameSpot. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
  17. Giant Bomb staff (December 29, 2017). "Game of the Year 2017 Day Five: Best, Worst, Cast, and Capture". Giant Bomb. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
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