Way back in 2013, developer BadFly Interactive put themselves on the map with their visually impressive horror-themed first-person shooter Dead Effect (Free) on mobile devices. While it certainly used many tropes from horror movies and video games over the years, Dead Effect was a fun romp that we enjoyed in our review. Interestingly Dead Effect prided itself on being a fully premium game upon release, which was becoming more and more rare in those days (and still is to a certain extent), but the following year it switched to a free to play model and that’s when things REALLY took off for it. In 2015 a sequel called Dead Effect 2 (Free) was launched, which unsurprisingly was free to play right from the start, and like the first game it was also extremely popular. While Dead Effect and Dead Effect 2’s original publisher BulkyPix went under several years back, the games are now maintained by a third party called Dualcarbon and are still alive and kicking in the App Store today. Both are very worth checking out if you haven’t done so previously.
Anyway, with two hit Dead Effect games under their belt, BadFly went to work on a brand new project which they originally announced nearly 3 years ago to the day, on August 7th of 2017. That project is called TauCeti Unknown Origin, and it is a spiritual successor of sorts to the Dead Effect games. You play as a soldier aboard the ESS Meridian, the ship from Dead Effect 2. You’re in cryostasis, and just as your ship is reaching its destination and trying to awaken everyone on board from their cryo sleep, something goes horribly wrong and the ship launches you and the others from the ship in escape pods to the planet of Tau Ceti f down below, a planet that has been referenced in Dead Effect before. You basically wake from your slumber by crash landing into Tau Ceti f and discovering a lush jungle environment that is just teeming with deadly plants, creatures, and tribespeople. Your job is to survive long enough to figure out what the heck is going on and how to get off the planet. TauCeti Unknown Origin has been in the works for quite some time now, but today it has hit a big milestone with the release of a new free demo for both iOS and Android that showcases the early parts of the game. And this one is a major looker, folks. Check out the trailer.
TauCeti Unknown Origin is designed from the ground up for high-end mobile devices, and in addition to featuring the first two levels of the planned full game, it also includes a benchmarking feature and the ability to adjust the graphics levels and special features to see how your device holds up. Benchmarking features are common in PC games but I can’t say I’ve seen one in a mobile game before. The real star though is the demo itself, as TauCeti Unknown Origin really feels in line with the previous Dead Effect games right down to the tremendous atmosphere, over the top gore, and cheesy one liners. This is a free demo available now on the iOS App Store, and there are TWO versions for Android available on the Google Play Store, a regular version and a Vulkan version, and all versions feature full controller support if touchscreen FPS controls ain’t your thing. If you want to find out more, there are several more video features on the BadFly YouTube page, a wealth of information on the official website, and a discussion thread in our own forums here. There’s no firm release date for TauCeti Unknown Origin just yet, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on this one. In the meantime, check out the free demo if your device has the muscle for it.
