In 2019, Magic Design Studios—a brand new staff comprised of many ex-Ubisoft workers—put out the Rayman-esque Unruly Heroes, which we thought was a fantastic platformer with some wonderful visuals. For the following few years, the staff went quiet whereas engaged on its subsequent sport, revealed in late 2021 as Have A Good Demise, a troublesome motion roguelite concerning the grim reaper. Since then, it’s been steadily baking in early entry on Steam and now that it lastly reached 1.0 standing, it’s obtained a console-exclusive launch on Change. We’re glad to report that the developer has succeeded with its sophomore outing; Have a Good Demise is an pleasurable and addictive expertise that roguelite followers ought to be aware of.
It locations you within the function of Demise himself, who has grown uninterested in the exhausting graft concerned in harvesting souls for millennia. To take the load off his shoulders, he decides to start out an organization to rent numerous ghouls and ghosts to do the work for him whereas he can distantly handle affairs from a comfortable govt workplace. For years, Demise enjoys placing his ft up and letting the Kafkaesque group do its factor whereas he simply rubber stamps the paperwork that comes throughout his desk, however issues start to get out of hand when the admin rises to ridiculous ranges. It seems that Demise delegated too many duties; all of the beings he appointed to supervise transitions to the afterlife have gotten a lot too trigger-happy and have been going approach over quota. Demise thus picks up his previous scythe and begins a bit company restructuring, setting out on a journey by each ground of each division to aggressively lay off his misbehaving workers.
There’s not rather more to the story of Have a Good Demise when it comes to plot, however this can be a title that completely revels in its delightfully darkish and morbid humorousness. Whether or not or not it’s a naïve and overworked intern excitedly telling you that she’s going to be hazed tomorrow or an in depth description of the over-the-top approach that an enemy met their unique demise, there’s tons of persona and wit to be present in Have a Good Demise’s writing. Although we sometimes want there was a extra centered narrative to point out us round this fascinating company hellscape, issues like taste textual content within the bestiary and temporary conversations with NPCs nonetheless do a fantastic job of worldbuilding.
Gameplay carefully follows the blueprint of a typical motion roguelite, significantly Lifeless Cells, whereby you try and battle your approach by an more and more tougher gauntlet of randomized ranges as you ascend the flooring of your headquarters and defeat the supervisor of every division. Demise is a nimble and potent combatant armed together with his scythe, and there’s a wide range of secondary weapons and spells—comparable to a robust hammer or a bow—you’ll be able to gather alongside the best way to spherical out your repertoire and offer you extra flexibility within the warmth of battle. Most foes, after all, don’t take quite a lot of blows, however the many bosses you’ll be able to face off towards present memorable and brutal trials that take a look at the bounds of your expertise and construct.
Whether or not you’re going up towards a Thanager (a kind of mini-boss) or the supervisor of the division, we appreciated the sheer selection and creativity current in these boss fights, which introduced the battles of Cuphead to thoughts. Whether or not you’re combating an in-universe tackle the Large Boy mascot or one thing extra low-key like an irate skeletal janitor armed with a vacuum cleaner, each battle affords up a surprising quantity of problem as you narrowly dodge by a barrage of hard-hitting strikes. These bosses positively don’t pull their punches, even when taking part in on the best issue setting, and it’ll take you a number of (failed) makes an attempt to lastly study their tells and timing nicely sufficient to succeed.
This excessive issue is probably going what is going to act as the primary sticking level for a lot of gamers. Have a Good Demise affords a brutal problem on its meant base issue stage, and this isn’t a roguelite that you would be able to finally overcome by grinding meta-progression. Though there’s some gentle character development (extra on that in a bit), most of it solely expands the number of weapons and drops within the loot pool for every run. So, in the event you don’t have the razor-sharp dexterity and reflexes wanted to outmaneuver the various issues that’ll attempt to harm you, you’re in all probability gonna have a foul time right here because it’s not like you’ll be able to finally buff your character’s stats sufficient to completely scale back the problem.
We appreciated this relatively uncompromising problem provided that it makes progress really feel actually earned after you’ve practiced exhausting sufficient, however those that don’t have the time or endurance to grasp the sport mechanics could really feel disillusioned by the unforgiving and unmoving talent partitions they hit.
An enormous a part of surviving the problem is present in being strategic along with your decisions on every run. It’s vital to know what weapons you’re best with and the right way to maximize their usefulness, however there are different elements to think about that may sink or save your run. The rewards that you simply gather on the finish of a stage are a very good instance, and also you’re often given a selection about what rewards you wish to present up on the finish of the following stage earlier than you get there. Generally it is best to roll the cube and hope you’ll get a very good tools drop, generally it’s higher to play it secure with a forex infusion on the finish.
Most notably, you’ll sometimes be given the choice to pick a brand new Curse that’ll straight buff Demise’s stats or efficiency ultimately. There are three varieties—crimson, blue, and inexperienced—to select from every time, and these will do issues like infuse all of your assaults with lightning or lower the cooldown in your dodge. The Curses typically get greater high quality the extra you get of a specific colour, however this comes with a tradeoff or ‘penalty’, like growing the quantity of injury you’re taking from sure sources or hiding all the weather of the UI. Curses are a fantastic addition to the gameplay loop, as they go away numerous room for experimentation and the random nature of them ensures that no two runs will ever provide the similar buffs in the identical order.
If you inevitably fall to some ghoul, your efficiency over the run shall be assessed and was a remaining rating, which is able to then convert to expertise that can each stage up Demise and add to your financial institution of gold ingots. Leveling up will do issues like improve the quantity of ingots you earn per run or offer you an additional heal merchandise to start out every run with. Not one of the buffs are a substitute for you gitting gud, however they do assist to create some barely wider margins for error that simply could prevent afterward down the road. Plus, it simply feels good to have tangible advantages that guarantee your efforts on the final run weren’t completely wasted.
Ingots are the opposite aspect of meta-progression, and these may be invested into new tools and power-ups in a neatly applied system that encourages run selection. Each new unlock may have a sticker value hooked up to it, however you’ve gotten the choice to low cost it by mounted percentages by fulfilling particular duties. These duties ask you to do issues like kill a certain quantity of enemies with a weapon class or defeat a boss a sure variety of occasions. You don’t have to really attain any of the precise objectives, however you’ll knock extra off the worth of the merchandise the nearer you get, so there’s a light-weight sense of technique right here as you establish for your self how miserly you wish to be. Most gadgets are given away for almost free in the event you fulfill their situations, however it would possibly take for much longer to take action.
As for its presentation, Have a Good Demise has fairly engaging and distinctive visuals. The hand-drawn artwork type typically adheres to a monochromatic, and ‘cute however darkish’ aesthetic, not not like Hole Knight. And whereas there’s not a lot colour to visually distinguish every division from the following, we appreciated that there are numerous environmental parts to maintain issues distinct. For instance, the Poisonous Meals Processing Division is full of mountains of junk meals and previous diner indicators, whereas the enemies are themed after issues like cupcakes and cups of soda. Animations are fairly easy, too, which helps to make fight really feel rather more kinetic and free-flowing as Demise easily transitions between combos and weapon varieties.
These visuals are matched by equally distinct sound design that contributes so much to Have a Good Demise’s distinctive character. The music typically sticks to a jazzy assortment of Halloween music rife with theremins and didgeridoos to present it that ‘bizarre’ tinge, whereas some tracks have a extra comical factor to them, such because the muzak that performs whereas Demise chills within the elevator on loading screens. In the meantime, little touches like a document scratch while you get hit mid-combo or the lovable gibberish that characters verbalize in dialogue assist to create a typically lighthearted ambiance regardless of the morbid themes.
All that is nicely and good, however it does must be mentioned that Have a Good Demise might use some tightening up on the efficiency aspect of issues. Although 60 FPS is the goal right here, we famous in docked mode that there have been many cases the place the body fee would tank significantly as a brand new stage took its time loading in. Associated to this, we famous that load occasions may very well be a bit on the lengthy aspect, clocking in at wherever from 15 to 30 seconds lengthy whereas the following ground hundreds. It could not sound like a lot, however every stage solely takes a pair minutes to complete and people load occasions actually begin to add up over time. We famous that docked efficiency was worse on this regard; load occasions are lengthy in both docked or handheld, however they had been typically just a few seconds longer when taking part in on the TV. If you find yourself springing for the Change model, we’d advocate primarily taking part in this undocked.
Conclusion
Have a Good Demise could not reinvent the wheel for roguelites, however this can be a high-quality new entry within the style. The brutal issue, inventive theming, and satisfying fight all mix to make this a memorable and worthwhile expertise, even when we want it had higher efficiency. We’d advocate this to anybody on the lookout for one other extraordinarily competent and humorous motion roguelite so as to add to their assortment, although with the caveat that you must solely make the leap into this underworld in the event you really feel assured within the sharpness of your expertise. There’s so much to like about Have a Good Demise, however because the identify suggests, the bony hand of the reaper would be the just one holding yours.