D3AD HAND review

• Reviews by Johnny Nys
• Published:

Comedic Cold War thriller is largely a blast to play as you try to prevent one from starting WWIII

Solo developer Duck Made Of Wood’s D3AD HAND is one of those hidden gems that started off as a jam game. Originally made in two weeks’ time in 2023, this satirical take on the Cold War was later updated for a full commercial release. Even that version was still a rather short experience at launch, lasting only an hour, but since then it has been expanded upon further with a second chapter to the story, “R3D STAR,” which is a far more elaborate adventure and includes extra gameplay elements. You can launch it separately from the main menu of D3AD HAND, but I would have preferred that it continued organically as well, since it is essentially one big story.

You play as Yuri Spraytyvich, a Soviet military man in charge of a nuclear missile base in Siberia. Your direct supervisor, strangely, is a white cat with a black "mustache" patch under its nose named Stalin, whose primary mission is to keep the base rat-free (the literal kind). The computer systems at the base should work automatically, but since they are man-made and therefore flawed, it's Yuri’s and thus the player’s job to make sure no missiles are fired accidentally, leading to World War III and total annihilation.

But before you can settle in for your assignment, you have to puzzle your way inside the base to relieve the other guard still on duty. In order to reach him and convince him of your credentials, you have to tackle a couple of fun obstacles. There's a gear puzzle, a coded lock to break open, and a password system to deduce. The whole game is full of these mechanical/logic puzzles, perfectly balanced with the more traditional inventory puzzle stuff, your numerous collected items stored in a bar at the bottom of the screen.

D3AD HAND’s detailed pixel art, animation and audio wonderfully depict the snowy Siberian tundra and its resident ensemble, both human and animal. I particularly enjoyed the occasional close-ups during cutscenes (like Yuri asleep in the bus), the sound of crunching snow beneath Yuri’s boots, and the very 80s-sounding, synthesizer-heavy soundtrack. The main menu and some other text headers include the occasional English-Cyrillic hybrid, while all characters speak English but have Russian-accented voice-overs – think Peter Stormare in the movie Armageddon. The dialogues are funny without being insulting, and often break the fourth wall, but not to excess.

As soon as you enter the missile base, a pipe bursts and steam blocks your path, so you have to turn some valve wheels to shut down the system. This puzzle kept me busy for a while; I often got close to the solution but then made matters worse again by turning the wrong valve the wrong way. Afterwards, with the route cleared, you finally meet Stalin the cat. But the feline refuses to join the action and catch a pesky rat wreaking havoc until you've fed it, and apparently it only eats rare, caviar-flavored cat food.

Then all hell breaks loose: a missile is about to be launched and you have to reset all systems to prevent catastrophe. There’s no actual time limit, so you don’t have to rush the series of puzzles in order to save the day, though the fast-paced music does add a sense of urgency. I'm still not quite sure how some of the puzzles actually worked, like one involving seismic sensors, but I seemed to click the right buttons by chance and didn't get totally stuck on any.

The base game only features a couple of characters, but the second part has a larger cast joining Vladimir, the bus driver who takes Yuri to the base, as a returning character. There’s Babushka, who is fighting the Soviet government over the ownership of her house and land. You’ll encounter a shaman-type native who assists you after a hallucinatory dream sequence when Yuri almost drowns. And this time there’s an actual villain to defeat as well, in the form of megalomaniacal Major Perestrova. The rats return for a bigger role as well, and there’s a much larger problem – a polar bear to get past.

D3AD HAND

Genre:	Comedy
Presentation:	2D or 2.5D
Theme:	Political, Savior, Team-up, Animal, War
Perspective:	Third-Person
Graphic Style:	Pixel art
Gameplay:	Puzzle, Quest
Control:	Point-and-click
Game Length:	Short (1-5 hours)
Difficulty:	Low

In “R3D STAR” the Sputnik satellite has crashed down to Earth, and once more as Yuri you need to go and investigate. Taking over in the missile base during your quest is the guard you previously replaced. This time there aren't that many mechanical/logic puzzles. Instead, the gameplay consists mainly of inventory puzzles, but a new gameplay element has been added as well: you can now play as Stalin the cat!

Stalin can squeeze through small places and climb on ledges and thus access areas Yuri can't get to. This way you can reach items and make them available for Yuri, or remove obstacles in his path. Stalin can also scratch things open and sniff out clues. As Yuri, any hotspot with multiple interactions will prompt two icons, one for each mouse button, the right one always being “look” while the left is context-sensitive. Mostly, though, only a one-click interface is needed. As Stalin, a thought bubble will appear over the cat’s head when it detects a hotspot, showing what item can be linked to it, informing you what you’ll need to do there or where the scent in question originally came from. You can freely switch between the two characters by clicking their respective icons in the top left corner of the screen.

I must admit I got stuck pretty early on in this part, but that's because I didn't listen very well to my orders. I received a map of the area and was told to explore fully, but the map doesn’t work the same way here as in most games. Instead of just clicking between predetermined destinations, you can have a mini-Yuri explore the map itself. Whenever he stops at a hidden location, he’ll comment on the discovery and it will then be added to the map as well. After I realized that, the immensity of this chapter compared to its predecessor really became apparent. There’s an abandoned mine to enter, a warehouse and communications tower, a campground, cabin, lake, river and of course the Sputnik crash site.

You can no longer enter the missile base from the first part of the game, but you can return to the entrance and call up the other guard to ask for help. This in-game hint system stops being available, however, once you discover another rocket base consisting of five levels, each with a number of rooms, where the villain of the story resides. These rooms are also connected by ducts through which Stalin can crawl to assist in Yuri’s progress. It’s not really a maze, but there are suddenly many different rooms to keep track of, and just as was the case with all the different outdoor locations, you have to go back and forth between the rooms to solve puzzles.

After three hours I finished “R3D STAR,” but my outcome wasn't exactly environmentally friendly. So I dove back in to see if I could play the endgame a bit differently. After all, a scientist locked up in the new base had informed me there are several different tactics I could use to triumph over the evil Major, and the first finale was the result of the most obvious solution.

I was able to figure out two more endings, but between the unused items in my inventory, one chemistry puzzle I skipped because I had no idea how to even start solving it, and a room I was only ever able to enter with Stalin and not with Yuri, I’m thinking there has to be a fourth, more complicated and most likely “perfect” ending to achieve for those who are really looking for a challenge. 

Final Verdict

Lasting at least a puzzle-filled four hours, the two standalone chapters now collectively comprising D3AD HAND are a welcome diversion and some much-needed laughs in our war-plagued real world, gently poking fun at the Russian military machine. Especially in the larger “R3D STAR” update, the ongoing switching between human and cat brings greater gameplay diversity, and overall the combination of humor, wonderful pixel art, exciting music and variety of puzzles makes you wish for an even longer game. Instead I’ll look forward to Duck Made Of Wood’s next game already in progress, as D3AD HAND is such a promising debut for a developer that shows the potential for stardom. 

Johnny played D3AD HAND on PC using a review code provided by the game’s publisher. 

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