As an afterlife scion, making your way through the realms below in a roguelike graveyard shift might sound familiar. I also played Hades. But in Have a Nice Death, let Death himself rule, your boy who runs a wacky new underworld order of a very different kind. Full of dark, dry workplace humor, this cleric reimagines the afterlife as a soulless enterprise, forming the backdrop for evil, hard, and frantic side-scrolling combat. At its best, it’s a killer time, even if it doesn’t do its best job of providing good motivation.
Throwing your way through randomized levels and placing Smackdown on deadbeats of varying ranks and files is the highlight of this Stygian adventure, fast and responsive with a variety of techniques to master. It features combat. A variety of interchangeable scythes, each with multiple special attacks, is just the beginning. You can also bring the undead back to life with magical spells and secondary weapons found randomly throughout levels, from big, beefy hammers to sorcery that summons hordes of hungry ravens. Responsive jumps, dashes, and powerful ‘frenzy’ finishers, plus no dust-ups for lack of variety.
Based on different methods of death, from war to food poisoning, each chapter is distinct and full of new enemy types. One moment I was whacking a slimy seagull that died in an oil spill, the next I was in a dogfight with a bubble-headed nerd who was choking on chewing gum. The designs are consistently creative and engaging, both visually and in terms of attack methods. And the excellent soundtrack complements all of the mayhem very well.
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Collect red, green, and blue curse cards along your descent into darkness. This sounds bad, but it’s actually his main passive bonus that you can stack while running, like adding bloodshed to your weapon or restoring health. you beat the boss And that difficulty really arises in the brutal Tanager and Sorrow’s office. These are incredibly unforgiving battles and can be very frustrating given the very limited defensive options. Memorizing the pattern is essential. This can be exacerbated when the run ends with a mini-boss you haven’t seen in a while due to randomized floors.
off their heads
Of course, for uppercase D-Death, lowercase d death isn’t that big of a deal. Because you will be sent back to your office to live again and hopefully take revenge on your disobedient subordinates. You’ll also hear a catchy little jingle every time. The main problem I’ve encountered is that the long-term progression system doesn’t really give you the momentum that would have been very welcome given the steep difficulty curve. Almost everything you earn is lost.
With that said, we can divide the types of permanent upgrades you get in roguelikes into three categories. First, your stats are permanently increased. The second is like a reroll, which doesn’t necessarily make you stronger directly, but increases your chances of doing well with good items. There are unlocks. Have A Nice Death focuses heavily on the last category, with very little meaningful power to be gained in the other two. When he uses one of the level up perks, he increases his chance of finding rare weapons by 1%. It feels like a joke!
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I usually don’t really care about punishment games. I like to be challenged and am always captivated by my ambitions. But at least with things like Hades and Elden Ring, all my many defeats feel like they’re piling something up. Like the first boss kicking my ass every time I see him When you see it, it takes the stabbing pain out of those lose-lose days. It took me over 100 times to see the final boss and I was exhausted before that.
cursed night
You can eventually unlock the elevator to skip many of the normal stages and go straight to some big bosses, but you’ll miss out on all the currency and upgrades you can earn on these floors, so This ends up doing more harm than good. You can choose which level type to visit next, with the exception of those that lead to area bosses. Theme. So knowing which floors are more valuable in which situations is a big help.
If you’re really stuck, you can activate the optional “self-actualization mode”, which provides extra healing items and can weaken regular enemies slightly, but the boss fight doesn’t change at all, and it turns out that’s not the case. I understand that much. It’s definitely not “easy mode”.
Even when I felt stuck, at least I was always rewarded with new lore. terrifying you again unlocks amusing snippets of how this post-mortem corporate bureaucracy works. You get dialogue too. Some of them even follow humorous long-term stories.
These have made me laugh many times, and at the heart of it all there is a powerful plot to uncover. There are some that feel a little tired. But the quirky setting and quirky tone keep things interesting.
