With the recent release of Have a Nice Death on the Nintendo Switch, I wanted to pick it up and see what it would be like to play as Death. This Roguelike game has been out for a while on the PC but I never got around to picking it up and playing it.
I recently bought an OLED Switch so at the moment a lot of my time playing games is on that. Have a Nice Death drew me in with the concept and fantastic art style but later grow on me even more with its brilliant combat and interesting character concepts. For an asking price of £21.99, I wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to become Death and the CEO of Death Incorporated.
Have a Nice Death is a 2D action Roguelike where you get to play as Death, which for me, is a winner. Who wouldn’t want a chance to play as the Grim Reaper? Being on the verge of burnout, his top executives (The Sorrows) have been running rampant on Earth’s surface, which has caused mountains of paperwork to build up in the afterlife. To restore order to Death Incorporated, you will have to visit the various departments and remind his workers who’s boss. This 2D side scroller is packed full of story, workplace humour, and combat that is so awesome I could play for hours.
In Have a Nice Death be prepared to die, a lot. In this Roguelike I found myself dying more than I wanted even to the point of the game suggesting an Easy mode, which didn’t feel that much easier if I’m being truly honest. I manage to get through the rooms of enemies with no problem but it always goes downhill when a boss is thrown into the fray. I understand boss fights are meant to be tough but some of them are just ridiculous.
When you die in Have a Nice Death you go back to the beginning and start again, this can be frustrating when you have worked towards a certain build or got to a certain level and it slips away. When you manage to kill bosses you get an elevator that let you skip straight to the fight but by doing this can hinder your progression as you miss out on items that could be used to upgrade Death or improve your loadout.
While progressing through the different departments you will come across many different enemies that have fun designs based on the department they work in. I love exploring the different departments and getting little bits of lore from them every time I die. This is one thing that Have a Nice Death caters to when you do die, it adds story dialogue so it makes a new run have new things to interact with.
I felt that the way to have good runs and success in Have A Nice Death was to get lucky with the drops and the weapon you pick at the beginning. I felt I got further with other weapons than I did with others and it made for some runs to not be as enjoyable as others. The faster-paced weapons were really enjoyable to use and when I managed to get my preferred loadout it made progression a lot easier.
You can buy upgrades, healing items, and other useful items with in-game currency that you earn, there are also curses that you can use that help your stats and make you stronger but they do come with negative effects. Sometimes they will penalise you or make the shop prices more expensive. Choose wisely which ones you pick or whether you even need them at all.
I love the art style so much in this game, games don’t need to be realistic to be gorgeous, and Have a Nice Death is a good example of this. The character designs, environments, and weapons effects are stellar and look best in handheld mode for the Nintendo Switch. The one thing I will say is that while playing in Handheld mode and Docked there were some performance issues where the frame rate would drop or the gameplay would lag.
This was quite annoying as it seemed to be random but would happen during boss fights which on a few occasions did lead to my death. On top of this, I did get a few game crashes where the game fully crashed and closed. I’m not sure why this happened but it only did this during the handheld mode. I like the soundtrack and find the dialogue entertaining even if it does get a bit repetitive later down the line. Even though there technically isn’t voice acting the characters do make sounds that add to their character.
Have a Nice Death is so much fun and I can see myself coming back to it again and again even after completing a playthrough. There are so many weapons to use in the game that you could do multiple playthroughs with the different weapons and get a different experience each time. Even if it does feel repetitive after long sessions of playing the combat does enough to keep me engaged as I love how fluent and faced paced it is. With it being on the Nintendo Switch, I also have the advantage of playing on the go, which is fantastic as Have a Nice Death is perfect for dropping in and out of.
Conclusion
Have a Nice Death is a brilliant roguelike even if you end up dying more times than in an Elden Ring play-through. Some super tough boss fights had me pulling out my hair but when I finally defeated them it felt so satisfying. Add in the office humour and department settings it makes for a charming take on the afterlife that is quirky but believable. Like Death as a CEO managing workers seems really funny to me.
Combat is the selling point with its array of fun-to-use weapons that make every fight an epic battle. It would have been nice to get more defensive abilities or healable but then it wouldn’t make every encounter tense. If it wasn’t for the lack of long-term progression and performance issues, I would have been tempted to give it a 10 out of 10 but because these things are present, I will be knocking it down a few and giving it an 8 out of 10.
Have a Nice Death Trailer
latforms: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Grab your copy here https://www.haveanicedeath.com/
For more reviews head here https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/category/review/
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