Have a Nice Death Review
Have a Nice Death Review
Have a Nice Death features all of the usual suspects of the rogue lite genre, but the most important aspect is that it has the addictive qualities needed. As the Grim Reaper, CEO of Death Inc, you constantly want to go for just one more run.
One Hell of a Rogue-lite
Imagine the roads of Cuphead and Dead Cells meet and you will find yourself at the crossroads of Have a Nice Death. You play as a charming version of the Grim Reaper who is on the brink of burnout and your job is to get the eight top executives from eight different departments at the company back on track with a Dead Cells inspired gameplay, which was likely aided by having the lead developer as a consultant. When you combine this with years of experience working on games like Rayman Origins, Legends and the studios first game, Unruly Heroes, the result is one of the tightest controlling rogue-lites on the market.
Not only does that give the Grim Reaper a leg up on the competition, but the audio and visuals of this game are phenomenal across the board and this is what truly separates it from the crowd. Have a Nice Death embraces the darker side of things with its art style, similar to games like Hollow Knight and Limbo. However, it’s the art direction built around this palette of darkness that makes Have a Nice Death pop off the screen.
The stunning 2.5D environments are basically monochrome. This gives each of the eight areas a unique and distinct feel when they have slight color modifications. When the action gets going, it’s the lack of color in most areas that not only make the game visually distinct, but also helps the player decipher all of the information on screen thanks to the attacks and enemies being animated using bright punches of color.
Audio details are not forgotten, the light and spooky score accent the gameplay perfectly. Chunky sounds that give your weapon weight, all the way down to the smaller details including muzak when you take the elevator to get to another floor of Death Inc.
The other integral part of a rogue-lite is to have proper systems in place for your arsenal, upgrades and the gameplay loop. You begin with your standard weapon, which is your scythe as expected, but then you have the ability have different forms of your main weapons, cloak weapons, which are basically magic spells that don’t use mana and magic spells that do use mana. On top of the these three items, during each run you will find curses that act as buffs but be careful as some come with negative side effects that create a risk/reward scenario.
It wouldn’t be a rogue-lite without currency and Have a Nice Death features three different types: Gold, Soulary and Prismiums with only gold carrying over between runs that will help you purchase permanent upgrades when you start each run. These upgrades start at full price, but the more you play the game and accomplish certain goals, the cheaper they become, which is a smart incentive to give the player.
The choices you are given on your journey break the monotony that tends to happen with many in the genre. Even returning back to some of the bosses, you might encounter a different form which is a very refreshing change for a rogue-lite. All of the systems in Have a Nice Death could have been overwhelming, but they are laid out extremely well and you also have an employee handbook that helps explain anything you might have missed.
Being Death Isn’t All Fun and Games
Have a Nice Death spent about a year in early access refining the gameplay and systems with the result being a very polished game, but there are still some minor gripes. One of the biggest issues is the erratic spikes in difficulty. On the way to fight each of the eight bosses, each department is filled with minions that are mostly a breeze to steamroll over. The problem is when you get to the bosses and mini bosses that the difficulty spikes way up.
With the increase in difficulty and the nature of the genre, if this is the first attempt, odds are you are going to die quickly and this leads into the other two issues. Health or Anima as it’s called in the game is very hard to find and even when you do find it, the result is unsatisfying. Even between departments after bosses when you head back to the break room, you almost always arent able to get your health back to full and if you get close, it will have cost most of the soulary you had been collecting.
Have a Nice Death takes a satirical look at difficult working conditions that include some heavy topics including harassment, burnout, addiction, anxiety and suicide. The dark comedic lens in which this story is told can make it easier to talk about uncomfortable subjects but the overall plot can sometimes hard to follow.
To Hell and Back and Back
There has been no shortage of action roguelites over the past decade or so since the genre exploded with games like Rogue Legacy 2, Hades, Dead Cells, which leaves the question if there is room for another? With such a high level of polish across the board, ultra tight mechanics, and stunning art direction, Have a Nice Death is easily in the conversation for greatest action rogue-lite and another strong case study for early access.