Have a Good Dying is a punishing roguelike with a darkish humorousness

We’ve bought some time to attend till Hades 2, and should you’re in want of a roguelike to fill the opening Hades left behind, then Have A Good Dying ought to do properly. I had the chance to attempt the sport first at GDC after which once more now that it’s out on PC and Nintendo Swap, and I used to be instantly smitten with its darkish humor and easy-to-pick-up (however difficult-to-master) fight.

You play as Dying, the CEO of Dying Included, who has outsourced the job of reaping souls to their trusted underlings who, after untold millennia of processing mortals, resolve to go rogue and gunk up the well-oiled machine of loss of life and dying. As their boss, it’s your job to traverse the bowels of the Dying Inc campus, defeating these so-called “thanagers” (which is a particularly good pun identify). Alongside the way in which, you earn perks, expertise, and weapons that make your job of bringing your wayward staff to heel.

The opening cinematic for Have A Good Dying is extraordinarily grotesque. First, you reap a peasant farmer, sticking round simply lengthy sufficient to see his spouse collapse in tears over her husband’s physique. Subsequent, you’re taking a girl dying in a hospital mattress as her grieving household clings to her in her final painful moments. After that, you’re taking a man who was in a automotive crash, their lifeless physique riddled with shards of glass and hanging out of the windshield. From there, it’s a montage of all of the folks Dying takes, remodeling from particular person tales that we spend a second or two with right into a blur of reaping after reaping, flattening out the dying into a relentless stream of faces with out identify or persona.

I don’t suppose the builders meant this since the remainder of the sport pokes fairly a bit at loss of life and all of the dumb methods people can die, however it was a neat, if unsettling, metaphor for a way we’ve develop into inured to the on a regular basis tragedy of life.

Dying begins every run with their signature scythe weapon. As they work their method via the halls of Dying Inc, defeating the underlings of the underlings who’ve gone rogue, they will decide up magic and secondary weapons that pack an additional punch when executing combos. Fight, due to this fact, will get extraordinarily diverse. I loved mixing and matching weapons and spells that, when mixed with curses that perform just about the identical because the godly boons from Hades, may end up in some fairly distinctive configurations.

The issue is, nonetheless, I die too rapidly earlier than I can actually get a way of what works for me. That is doubtless a “get good” state of affairs, however enemies hit like a friggin’ truck, and my basic technique of tolerating a couple of photographs to the face just isn’t serving me very properly. Moreover, HAND does that cheeky factor the place, after a couple of deaths, it asks, “Would you want to change to simple mode?” I do know it’s not taunting me deliberately, and straightforward modes are a great factor for people who wish to attempt one thing outdoors their consolation zone or the beleaguered online game reviewer, however it appears like taunting and makes me wanna throw my Swap throughout the room. How dare you, inanimate assortment of code and artwork, how very rattling dare you.

It additionally appears like the sport is extraordinarily stingy with the way it doles out therapeutic objects. You begin with one potion and may earn as much as two extra, however they don’t appear to heal you for a lot (and there’s an annoying well being mechanic by which taking harm can scale back your complete HP general that standard potions is not going to restore), and incomes them is a really uncommon deal with.

This seemingly punishing issue is offset by the truth that completely different flooring of Dying Inc, whereas intricately designed with a number of ranges to zip up or right down to, really feel a bit too empty. Enemies don’t come at you in waves; it’s a must to discover them behind breakable obstacles and simply off-screen platforms. Not a deal breaker — it simply feels a bit sparse.

If I can surmount my rising pains with the sport, I believe Have A Good Dying is an ideal little “decide up and put down” sport. It’s not something that feels prefer it should be accomplished and even performed in marathon periods, however somewhat appointment sport in which you’ll be able to chip away at progress for somewhat bit, then put down and decide up once more when the temper strikes. And I like these sorts of video games that don’t make important calls for on my time, particularly as The Legend of Zelda looms very giant within the distance.

Have A Good Dying is out there now for PC and Nintendo Swap.