Fred certainly has his hands full in trying to piece together his memories, and along with his own quest, he can choose to help out the various town residents, obtaining items in the process. Most side quests involve beating up some enemies and returning whatever odd piece of stuff they’ve stolen, and the reward for these quests is never particularly interesting or worth going that far out of your way for, so the value of these side quests is debatable. Fred can use some items to create various potions at the town’s local café, however given that there’s no easy way to tell where you’re going, tracking down the enemies in question to complete the side quests can be too much trouble, and certainly more of a hassle than just buying health potions. Along with the side quests, Fred can find various colored worms and via a mini-game, pluck them out of the ground to be used in the fishing mini-game, or used to make potions. Like items, fish can be used to make sushi, much like how items can be used to make various potions. If worm pulling and fishing aren’t your thing, Fred can also play pool and pinball as well as engage in some cockfighting.

With all of this, the game is fairly lengthy, especially for a portable and throughout the 20+ hours you’ll be treated to some impressive visuals and a very distinct sense of style. Each area of Hope Falls is rendered nicely with a creepy, twisted 50’s pastiche to the areas and characters. Unfortunately, all of these great visuals are accomplished via coming across a loading screen every time Fred opens a door, however the load times are fairly short and your entry into a new area also saves the game automatically, so you’re never that far away from your last checkpoint should you perish in your travels. Enemies are all done very well with a nice variety of attack and defense animations. The various Rage, special attacks and attack counters are all fun to watch and never get tiring as you rack up kills.

Dead Head Fred’s voice work is on par with the visuals with John C. McGinley voicing Fred and bringing his trademark attitude to the character. The side characters are all voiced equally well. The game makes no bones about being rated M, so swear words are frequent, however they’re never overused or seem out of place. The guy was decapitated and dumped in a sludge pit. He has a right to be miffed.

Dead Head Fred is a perfect example of a game whose strengths far outweigh its minuses. The great visual style, graphics and voice acting, along with the head switching mechanic certainly makes up for the less than stellar platforming and slightly repetitive combat. Gamers that have a soft spot in their hearts for horror-comedy mash-ups will be entertained by the game’s setting and attitude and as long as you don’t expect this to be an epic beat ‘em up, the game offers an enjoyable, albeit slightly twisted, adventure.