Blind Spot Review: Blinded in hell with zombies

LogicDev Studio is a Nigerian-based developer focused on cultural games with global appeal. The team's flagship title Otite Reborn, is currently in development for PC and consoles.

Blind Spot is the team's latest release that traps you in the dark with a clever survival mechanic: a light source that guides your way while announcing your location to the relentless hordes of zombies.

Yet after spending a few days navigating its corridors, the experience ultimately left me stranded in the dark, stripped of narrative motivation, progression, and meaningful tactical choice.

Premise

The premise is simple and short. I found myself in an abandoned mansion with no memory of how I got there. In the middle of zombies that roamed the darkness, my only tools were a light source, a gun, and a hammer. The light helps me see enemies, but it also attracts them. That's pretty much it.

Gameplay and Design

The core loop is straightforward as well, you simply need to survive waves of enemies. For a start, I could only play in the haunted mansion. The other two maps are locked behind a paywall I never got close to breaking.

You move, fight, manage your light's energy, and occasionally collect energy to recharge. The combat is action-oriented, and the game actually respects your time with short, intense sessions.

The light mechanic is the game's defining feature as it creates constant tension. Keeping the light on lets you see enemies but also attracts them, as aforementioned. But there are issues I observed which I'll come back to shortly.

The resource mechanic also adds another layer of difficulty. You need to collect more lanterns to recharge yourself and the light (which is linked to how long you survive), but the funny thing is, they're very scarce.

Most of the time I was forced to choose between fighting enemies or searching for resources, and both options often led me to failure.

While playing, I enjoyed the star blue light, an enhanced attack that improves visibility against zombies. It pops out whenever you have more zombies to fight, as all you have to do is click on the star to activate it.

The development team didn't stop there. A drone weapon is something I wasn't expecting. Its addition to Neo's arsenal helps detect and shoot down zombies.

The weapon used for combat is decent. The swing and swivel detection works well, unlike the hit detection. You don't have to aim perfectly to hit zombies. You just swing and the character figures it out.

The characters' and zombies' movement design also looked fine for a mobile-friendly horror game. The animations aren't perfect, but they're not distracting either.

These are useful tools as well, but they're not enough to balance the game's relentless difficulty.

Characters

The character selection screen suggests variety, but without a story or background information, there's no narrative motivation to care about or invest in any of them.

Neo is the default free character, a balanced marksman built around mobility and distance control. He's equipped with a gun and hammer, alongside a drone that helps detect and kill his enemies.

Elektra and Luiz Armstrong offer different playstyles, but both are locked behind the game's economy. That would be less frustrating if the game gave me a reason to care about these characters. 

Instead, the character select screen shows me variety without giving me much motivation to pursue it.

I used Neo because he was free and that's about all I knew about him. I didn't know his background, his motivation, or why he was in the mansion.

Issues and Missed Opportunities

My experience was hindered significantly by structural gaps in narrative, economy, monetisation, and the game's technical execution.

The story

The lack of story is one of the major issues and missed opportunities that I first noticed when playing. The game doesn't explain who you are, why you're there, or what happened to the mansion that has made it a haunted ground for zombies. 

I kept waiting for something, perhaps a journal entry. A hint of what caused the outbreak. Where exactly did the zombies come from? Was it a virus? An experiment?

The game never tells me. It just drops me in a dark room and expects me to fight till death.

Unexplained level and progression

This is another headache throughout my experience with the game. There are no exit points. No doors to the next level. No sense of progression. I just kill zombies until I'm exhausted, and then I die. Then I respawn and do it again and repeat.

At the end of my third run, I fought a big red-eyed zombie, different from the usual ones. I thought that was the final boss. Interestingly, I killed this particular zombie on different occasions, yet the game session never ended. I got bored.

I kept thinking I was missing something. Maybe I needed to survive just long enough? Maybe there was a specific enemy I needed to kill? I played and hoped, I even prayed. But nothing like that ever happened. For me, the game became an endless cycle of killing and dying with no purpose.

Another issue under this umbrella is the difficulty spike, which I find brutal. The game left me with no option as the buttons weren't responding. I had no idea if I was on easy or hard, it just threw me in.

What if I was a beginner just looking for a game to kill time with? I believed I was playing the easiest level and still couldn't understand what level I was playing. The mechanics never gave me enough room to adapt.

Economy and monetisation

Most times, we hardly notice how beneficial the reward systems are in games. Publishers often use this as an avenue to market in-game items that can be bought for a reasonable price. I don't see that here, despite having a low reward system.

The reward, which you earn by playing, was so small that it felt meaningless. At that rate, my purchasing power in the game was practically nonexistent. 

Do you know how much Armstrong costs? 15,000 coins. Killing a suited zombie earns ten coins. Armstrong costs 15,000. At that rate, I'd need 1,500 rewards to unlock one character, and that's assuming every kill rewards me.

The shop only shows expensive items, with no way to earn coins faster, as I had no option to buy coins directly. Once I'm able to feel the game, I'd love to buy more coins to purchase items or characters for a decent amount in my currency. I'd be happy to buy, while the developer makes more money.

If I'm going to grind, at least let me enjoy the journey. At least give me an edge that will make me want to see what happens next. Blind Spot has neither.

Audio design and atmosphere

Here, the soundscape misses an opportunity to build genuine horror tension. I will have to admit that basic sound effects were present, but the ambient sounds and audio cues, like zombie groans or low-energy warnings, lack the dynamic punch needed to immerse me fully.

The on-screen display also requires clearer layout adjustments. During combat, I had a hard time tracking energy bars and coins, which often hindered my decisions.

Verdict

Logic Dev Studios has built a strong concept, but it needs a complete foundation to shine. To turn it from a basic fighting game into an engaging mobile survival horror game, the developers need to add a stronger story, clear goals, fair monetisation, easy-to-use controls and a difficulty level that feels right.

The light is already there. Now the game needs to give players a reason to keep walking toward it. Right now, it's still finding its way out of the dark.

2/5