Dead Man´s Diary Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published February 5, 2024 · Updated February 2, 2024

Dead Man´s Diary Review, You’re on your own in a world full of danger! You can drink only if you discover water, survive the night only if you have a safe place to sleep – eat only what you have found or hunted. Explore a destroyed world and experience a dark story.

Dead Man´s Diary Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
10.60GB download size.
24 trophies.
Controller settings – vibration, adaptive triggers, Haptic when walking, Haptic when collecting, Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, and toggle run/walk.
Graphics settings – brightness, contrast, colorblind mode, colorblind strength slider, and motion blur slider.
Photo mode can be enabled and disabled.
Tutorial and dynamic help options.
Great voice work.
Survival gameplay.
First-person view.
Horror elements throughout from jump scares to noises.
Lock picking mini-game with each lock pin having a durability circle until it breaks.
The d-pad acts as a hotkey for the menus.
Loot boxes are hidden everywhere and have random loot in them.
The story is the world has gone to pot and you are a survivor in a bunker and got the short straw and must go out into the world to find supplies for the bunker. To make it worse they blindfolded you and dumped you in the middle of nowhere with no food or water.
Your character is voiced and called out but also does the inner monologue.
Button prompts show up as needed.
The tutorial is pop-ups and signs found when playing.
A full 3D world with 360-degree camera control.
A semi-open world that is split up into areas.
Play how you want in terms of how you go about everything.
Camps are used to progress the story and can heal you at the same time.
You have water, disease, radiation, and hunger meters to manage at all times, you can find food and cook up new dishes.
Day and night cycle with different weather effects, you use a torch at night.
Many secrets and alternate routes.
Handy arrow signs help guide you forward.
You can freely walk around an area and get plenty of warning if you are about to leave the area.
Playing without dynamic help makes it a much harder experience.
The game has you opening a lot of boxes, lock-picking car boots, and scavenging for food and materials.
A Geiger counter is needed to scan food and drink to check if it is safe to eat or drink.
You pick up notes and diary entries to learn about what happened to people and some people in particular.
When it’s raining you get more radiated and have to stay under cover to bring the radiation down.
Chase sequences.
At times the game will play out automatically.
Stamina is used for running.
Collectible books.
It is a great-looking world that you want to explore.

Dead Man´s Diary Review Cons:

No Platinum trophy.
Cannot rebind controls.
The cutscenes especially the opening one cannot be skipped.
No field of view slider.
To make you look somewhere the game takes control of the camera and points it where they want you.
Without dynamic help, the game is nigh on impossible as areas are big and materials are small and hidden away.
It bugs me that I can carry a handful of metal rods in my inventory or two haystacks but I can only carry 3 lock picks!
After using a menu the game freezes for a brief second every time without fail.
Slow starter.
Doesn’t always explain things well.
The hunger, thirst, etc bars are on a menu and not on the Hud as standard and you need to dig into the settings.
Using a Geiger counter is fine but you do it a lot and the swapping of tools is less than ideal.
Med packs or healing items are very rare.
Invisible walls get more prominent as you progress.
It doesn’t have any survival gameplay outside of topping up meters.
At times you get lost without a lot of help.
House interiors all look the same with the same Interactive points.
Cannot grab onto ledges.
It all gets very repetitive with very little payoff.

Dead Man´s Diary:

Official website.

Developer: TML-STUDIOS.de

Publisher: TML-STUDIOS.de

Store Links –

PlayStation

7/10
Graphics - 7/10
6/10
Sound - 6/10
6/10
Accessibility - 6/10
7/10
Length - 7/10
6/10
Fun Factor - 6/10

6.4/10

Summary

Dead Mans Diary offers a survival gameplay experience in a semi-open world that is split into areas. It features a first-person view, with horror elements throughout, from jump scares to noises. The game allows you to play how you want, with camps used to progress the story and heal you at the same time. You have water, disease, radiation, and hunger meters to manage at all times, and you can find food and cook up new dishes. The game also features a day and night cycle with different weather effects, and you use a torch at night. There are many secrets and alternate routes, and handy arrow signs help guide you forward. However, playing without dynamic help makes it a much harder experience.

The game offers a variety of controller settings, including vibration, adaptive triggers, haptic feedback when walking and collecting, invert axis and sensitivity sliders, and a toggle for running/walking. The graphics settings include brightness, contrast, colorblind mode, a colorblind strength slider, and a motion blur slider. The D-pad acts as hotkeys for the menus, but the controls cannot be rebound.

The story is set in a world that has gone to pot, and you play as a survivor in a bunker who must go out into the world to find supplies for the bunker. The world is a full 3D world with 360-degree camera control, and it’s a great-looking world that you want to explore. However, house interiors all look the same with the same interactive points.

Some issues include a slow start, a lack of explanation for some mechanics, and repetitive gameplay with little payoff. The game freezes for a brief second every time after using a menu. The hunger, thirst, etc. bars are on a menu and not on the HUD as standard, and you need to dig into the settings to change this. Med packs or healing items are very rare, and invisible walls get more prominent as you progress.

Overall Dead Man’s Diary offers a unique survival experience in that survival boils down to just replenishing your hunger/thirst levels with a rich world to explore. I just found the game to be the same gameplay loop over and over with very little action and no sense of reward.