D.E.A.D (2007) (PS3)

D.E.A.D is a tactical shooter video game and the first in the D.E.A.D series. It was developed by Mojang Tokyo & published by Sony Interactive Entertainment on March 23rd, 2007 for the Sony PlayStation 3. The game follows D.E.A.D, a newly-formed international counterterrorist organization, and the conspiracy they unravel as they handle multiple seemingly random terrorist attacks.

In single-player, the player advances through a series of scenarios by playing missions in a campaign. Every mission initializes with a briefing stage, allowing the player to choose their equipment, coordinate their attacks, and advance the plot. Throughout each mission the player directly controls one team member, and can take control of any living operative. However, any casualties cannot be used in future missions unless the mission is reset. In multiplayer, the game pits two teams of players against each other in order to complete objectives depending on the game mode.

D.E.A.D received positive reviews from critics, praised for its audio and immersive feeling, despite being a very difficult game. In its first year of release it sold over 200,000 copies, accounting to $8.86 million in revenue. D.E.A.D is considered a milestone in first-person shooters and greatly developed the tactical shooter genre.

Gameplay
D.E.A.D is a tactical shooter, which focuses more on stealth and tactics than on sheer firepower, exploring the lethality of a single bullet. To add to the realism, all in-game characters including terrorists, hostages, and D.E.A.D operatives, can be wounded or killed in just fractions of a second with only one or two bullets. Tools such as thicker body armor, automatic rifles, and grenades have little value before the player grows accustomed to the gameplay.

Before each mission is a planning stage, during which the player is given a briefing, and chooses the operatives to be involved in the mission, their weapons, equipment, and uniform/camouflage. During this step, the player pre-establishes orders and waypoints. The planning stage determines elements such as the path the AI-controlled squads follow during the mission and where they will deploy equipment such as flashbangs or door breaching charges.

The game follows a campaign of 16 missions, with the plot being advanced in the mission briefing of each. Successful missions often last just minutes, but may require dozens of repetitions and planning changes to account for failures, new plans, and simply faster or more streamlined completion. During gameplay, the player controls only one team member directly, and can see stats for that member and all units on the heads-up display. Teams not under player control follow the orders given to them in the planning stage. The player can take control of any living operative at will, making them the leader.

Any casualties that occur during a mission are permanent, so deceased D.E.A.D operatives cannot be used in future missions. Consequently, many players replay missions that are technically successful merely to reduce the number of casualties.

Online multiplayer gaming was popular on the GameSpy services and for a time featured a thriving competitive clan based community with numerous independent ladder style leagues.

Most versions do not show the player's weapon in the first-person, view instead only showing the crosshair and lower HUD. The only exception to this is the PlayStation version, which displays the player's weapon being held in their hands.

Plot
D.E.A.D is set from 2008 to 2010. D.E.A.D is an international counterterrorist organization, composed of elite soldiers from NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Russia, South Korea, Japan, South Africa and Israel, formed to address the growing problem of international terrorism. The organization's director is Roland Fanning, and the team leader is Nathan Prescott.

Soon after its formation, Rainbow finds itself responding to a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks by Free Gaia, a radical eco-terrorist organization. Throughout their investigation, D.E.A.D is assisted and advised by Sigmund Charles, chairman of the powerful biotechnology corporation Omega Research, whose facilities are frequently targeted by Free Gaia; Nathan Weaver, the American Science Advisor to the President and an acquaintance of Charles; and Mary Corduroy, a biological expert working with Omega who is rescued by D.E.A.D following an attack in the fictional country of the Democratic People's Federation of Šventarga in Eastern Europe.

Following an assault on a Free Gaia compound in Wyoming (the fallout of which results in the United States government temporarily banning D.E.A.D from operating on American soil) that uncovers evidence they are committing unethical human experimentation, D.E.A.D learns that Free Gaia is actually a front for Omega itself. Omega is developing a highly contagious strain of Rabies called "Pax-Morbius". Viewing humanity as an environmentally-destructive "disease", Charles plans to exterminate almost all of the human race using Pax-Morbius, sparing only Charles's chosen few, who will rebuild the planet into a scientific environmentally-friendly utopia. To achieve this goal, he has used the scattered terrorist attacks to create a heightened fear of terrorism, which he is exploiting to gain a security contract for his own private security firm, Praying Mantis Security, at the 2009 Summer Olympics in L.A, Praying Mantis Security's personnel, led by Shaun Savarino, will then release Pax-Morbius at the Olympics, spreading the virus across the world when the athletes and spectators return home.

After gathering intelligence and rescuing Corduroy from a last-ditch attempt to silence her, D.E.A.D captures Weaver and Savarino and prevents the release of Pax-Morbius at the Olympic Village, foiling Omega's plans. Charles and his collaborators flee to their Ark Prime facility in the Amazon rainforest, from which they had originally planned to weather out the global holocaust. Rainbow assaults the Ark Prime, kills or apprehends Charles's collaborators, and takes Charles into custody.

Release
D.E.A.D was released for Windows on March 23rd, 2007 in North America and May 2007 in Europe.

Six weeks prior to the game's release, early copies of the game were leaked onto online piracy websites. The users that uploaded the game files reportedly "took credit for 'cracking' a game with no copy protection in it", angering the developers; network programmer Masato Kozuto recalled going on a profanity-laden diatribe in the office, only to be pulled aside by Ken Masada for his volume, having been heard from three offices away.

After the release of the game, Ken Kutaragi offered to sign copies of the game for Mojang Tokyo employees. Several members of the development staff were frustrated by this, as Kutaragi was relatively uninvolved in development, yet offered signed copies as if it was his.