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- Gearbox Publishing
- Gearbox Publishing
- Gearbox Publishing
- Gearbox Publishing
Have a Nice Death
Released On: Mar 22, 2023
81
7.4
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Where to Buy
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 27 Critic Reviews
81
78% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
19% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 27 Critic Reviews
81
78% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
19% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Here’s to hoping that Magic Design Studios gets the recognition it deserves for crafting one hell of an underworld experience and that it’ll be able to build upon it even more from here.
It has the very best of roguelike genre and this challenge has been accomplished by Have a Nice Death. However it doesn't have any gameplay mechanic that defines it although its excellent art design.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 53 User Ratings
7.4
64% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
25% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 53 User Ratings
7.4
64% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
25% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Have a Nice Death is a good combination of action and rogue-lite, with a good balance between the difficulty of the combat, especially the boss fights, and the pace of the unlocks. It pays to focus on one weapon and really learn how to use it and when to complement it with a spell or secondary attack. Boss engagements are all about patience and pattern recognition. The game’s presentation complements the mechanics and themes well, although some more variety when it comes to the procedurally generated floors is needed. Have a Nice Death knows what fans of its genre want and offers an interesting universe to explore and great mechanics.
Have A Nice Death is a punishing but satisfying roguelike with some diabolically tough boss fights. The darkly dorky setting and office humor lend it more than enough charm to make me want to discover more of its world. But it's made significantly more frustrating than it probably needs to be by very stingy long-term progression and limited defensive abilities in comparison to its huge array of fun-to-use offensive weapons. When I wasn't feeling the discouraging void inside dragging me down, I was reveling in the hundreds of ways I could make these visually and mechanically memorable undead wish they never lived at all.
Have a Nice Death is a gorgeous, weapon-filled adventure that could slice and dice its way to the top of the roguelike genre. Its almost ‘cutesy’ nature plays well against the sometimes dark themes it contains, but the vast array of weapon and spell combinations will be what draws and then keeps players within the walls of Death Inc. It has the rare ability to be enjoyable for both the high-difficulty, build-crafting RNG fans and the more casual crowd. Players will delight with its sublime art, memorable fights, and its well-crafted, lore-filled world. If someone has to be Death, Have a Nice Death is going to make it enjoyable.
Death himself is an amusingly grumpy fellow, in constant need of a cup of coffee to stay motivated. [Issue#384, p.112]
In the end, Have a Nice Death can’t escape its own premise.
Excellent game, but very hard. I have yet to beat it, but that's not stopping me. I love rougelikes. My one complaint is that I wish it were a rougelite and had some form of progression, like Children of Morta. I feel like the Grim Reaper should be stronger than this. Regardless, I really enjoy the game. It has nice dialogue, it's funny, it's endlessly fun, and the graphics are well tuned for the atmosphere.
It is steamdeck compatible with everything maxed.
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PC
I'm trying to be fair because it is subjective.
The game appears very good if you're into that kind of game genre; it's a pure rogue-like gameplay without much getting into the way of that; it has strong platforming qualities and a relatively fast pace if the user chooses to play that way.
However for my tastes it's nothing extraordinary that would keep me playing; the gameplay appears relatively cumbersome to get used to and it has excessive usage of serial platforming which feels repetitive within less than an hour of gameplay and it doesn't feel naturally fast-paced and exciting (you have to force it yourself to go fast which drops the illusion of excitement other games of the genre offer that drop you more readily into the action); the story doesn't feel too engaging other than slightly comedic and the gameworld doesn't feel too dynamic that makes you feel as part of something grande so I would definitely suggest to people to stick to Hades for this genre because this is like a less developed and less fun and less engaging version of that.
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PC
Seems like a well done game, but it severely lacks good gameplay mechanics. It just feels boring, polished but boring.
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PC
Okay let's talk about this game, why 4/10, right?
Good sides:
1. Visuals are cute.
2. Ideas of different horrors of life such as diseases, war etc as a departments in some organisation of Death is pretty cool.
Welp, that's it.
Bad sides:
1. Plot wise, they tried to make it somewhat like Hades, but in Hades we had different famous greek gods and good voice acting. Here we have mumbling instead of voice acting (budget issue, whatever) and absolutely boring dialogs with pathetic attempts of humor with some meta-jokes. I tried to read it, but it's just not interesting, but plot isn't what we come for in this games, right?
2. Gameplay wise this game is just a complete rip off of Dead Cells but ... worse. And ok, devs copied 3 colour progression, unlocking weapons in a shop and many many more things. But they completely messed up healing system. Remember rally effect in dead cells (healing if you attack after getting hit). Here they made some INnOVaTiOnS. Rally effect is no more, but if you keep getting hit, there's a grey zone on your healthbar, which gets smaller after receiving more damage and allows you to heal only that grey zone. Meaning your maximum health isn't really your max health, but a useless thing, because only grey zone matters. And there's SO FEW healing in this game. You can sometimes abuse it (with certain skills giving hp spheres over time and with other few things), but blue healing spheres are really rare to find. But don't worry, devs have thought about how to fix their new stupid system! You can get your ACTUAL max hp back using yellow hp spheres. Buuuut, it can be found once in millenia, or be combined from a 3+ blue spheres (which you must keep not using and collect enough), so don't really get your hopes up.
Also, remember Dead Cells gave you ability to fully heal your hp and estus flask between levels on first difficulty, so you could learn the game and enemy movelist? Forget about it, as i understood we have 11 boss stem cell difficulties (complete rip off but whatever, good mechanic) and even on the first difficulty YOU CANNOT HEAL BETWEEN LEVELS WOW. So you can survive boss on 1 hp and get to next level totally with 0 resources (on a level you visit for the first time). Great idea.
In short, idea of combining Dead Cells gameplay and Hades approach for a plot in an interesting setting of Death is cool, but what came out in the end is just really bad. Don't buy this, it's better if you play these 2 games instead of Have a Nice Death. Seems like developers just didn't have enough experience to make this game work properly.
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PC
Summary Have a Nice Death is a 2D action roguelike where you play as an overworked Death, whose employees have run rampant, completely throwing off the balance of souls - and his vacation plans. In order to restore order, you'll have to grab your trusty scythe and show your employees who's boss. Since Death can't die, use what you've learned...
Platforms:
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
- PlayStation 5
- Xbox Series X
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
Initial Release Date: Mar 22, 2023
Developer:
- Magic Design Studios
Publisher: Gearbox Publishing
Genres:
