Bold, gory action: putting Romeo is a Dead Man to the test

Simon Balissat

10/2/2026

Translation: Natalie McKay

Romeo is a Dead Man’s a blood-filled LSD trip through space and time. The new game from Suda 51 thrills with its absurd style, but doesn’t offer anything new.

Romeo’s a policeman in a small town in Pennsylvania, and he’s in love with Juliet. But Romeo’s also Marty McFly, Starlord, RoboCop and Kamen Rider. And Romeo’s dead.

Well, half dead.

His grandfather, who’s roared in from the future and looks suspiciously like Doc from Back to the Future, has saved him from a real death. How did he manage this, you ask? He put half of Romeo’s face in a mask and gave him a robotic arm. Then grandpa sewed himself onto the back of our protagonist’s baseball jacket. Now Romeo’s travelling between space and time for the FBI, searching for his Juliet, to thwart time-travelling villains and prevent space-time being disrupted.

It’s all far weirder than it sounds. Anyone who likes earlier games by Goichi Suda (also known as Suda 51) will love Romeo is a Dead Man. It’s intense, it’s blood-soaked and it’s trashy. But behind the flashy façade is a bang average action game with poor performance and graphics from the last console generation. And yet Romeo won me over because it’s so crazy.

Here I take control and fly through space on my spaceship called the Last Night. Why does the Last Night deck looks like a JRPG on the Super Nintendo? Why do I have to play Pong to find new locations? And why do I have to wander through a Pac Man-like labyrinth for upgrades? Beats me, but I think that’s part of its charm.

Time’s all out of whack

Finally, I fly through wormholes back to earth, where I end up in random places like in a mall in 1983. Of course, like in Dawn of the Dead there are plenty of zombies I have to kill. There’s one twist: old CRT TVs take me to a parallel world that could’ve come straight out of Tron. My sword gets stuck there, and I have to solve really simple platform puzzles to reappear at the other end of the real world. A boss awaits me at the end of these levels, taking the form of a wonderfully bizarre mutant creature.

During the breaks, I can work as a gardener on the spaceship, and grow zombies instead of plants. I summon my helpers, called «bastards», in battle, where they slow down time or act as automatic weapons, for example. This offers fun combos, such as slowing down time, then shooting laser beams in all directions and simultaneously hitting my enemies to generate blood. Out of my arsenal of weapons, this is the ultimate unblockable power move. It destroys everything, but I first have to knock out enough enemies for blood.

More art, less content

Romeo is a Dead Man doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to gameplay. The fight sequences are too simple. Too few enemy characters attack me. Variety comes in the form of the episodic levels (including end credits), which differ in terms of gameplay and provide surprises. After around 18 hours, that’s not quite enough for a New Game+.

Also because the graphics of Romeo are stuck in the era of the PlayStation 4. I tested it on the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 5 Pro. Performance mode is almost essential here, as quality mode stutters along at a maximum of 30 frames per second. The two modes have different lighting in particular, which is noticeable in the mall level. There are washed-out textures in both quality and performance modes, while objects constantly popping up or changing detract from my overall enjoyment. Finally, I had noticeable frame drops in several places, especially when switching between rooms or areas. In short: all familiar Unreal Engine 5 problems.

With all the graphic glitches and the repetitive gameplay, the artistic direction has to save the game – and it does. Never before have I seen such a creative mishmash of artistic styles, ranging from pixel graphics, comic strips and anime sequences to mandala kaleidoscopes in a single game. Gory trash with pop references galore, it’s my greatest pleasure.

Romeo is a Dead Man was released on 11 February 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox and PC. The PS5 version was provided to me by Grasshopper Manufacture.

Simon Balissat

Teamleader Editorial

Simon.Balissat@digitecgalaxus.ch

When I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast. more

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