Beautiful artwork is one of the few assets “Death or Treat” (Perp Games) has going for it. But that’s not enough to redeem this slightly macabre 2D action game, which otherwise feels feeble.
Set in the hamlet of HallowTown, the narrative – which features no spoken dialogue, so everything must be read in text boxes – centers on a ghost called Scary. An entrepreneurial sprite, Scary is a world leader in the production of Halloween candy. But he’s facing a couple of challenges.
Recently, his clients, along with everyone else, have become hooked on a nefarious drug called “storyum,” and confection sales are suffering. Large-scale corporations, moreover, are poised to crowd out mom-and-pop vendors in the market.
Determined to save both his community and his business, Scary decides to go straight to the top of the corrupt, hidden bureaucracy behind storyum by taking on its evil boss, Clark Fackerburg.
Players will easily recognize that moniker as a play on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg’s handle. The joke is of a piece with the punning names given to several fictional corporations, including Faceboo!, the front company Fackerburg uses to disguise his involvement with narcotics.
A few such gags can be amusing. But the designers carry the routine too far and it becomes tiresome after a while.
The delightful hand-drawn visuals are evocative of movie director Tim Burton’s style. The mechanics, by contrast, are lackluster and combat can be drearily repetitive, inspiring little appetite for replayability.
Scary hacks and slashes his way through to Fackerburg’s headquarters. While the mayhem he wreaks is hardly graphic, some of the details, such as a chainsaw with minor bloodstains on its blade, are potentially frightening. Unsuitable for kids, “Death or Treat” will have little appeal for their elders.
Playable on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch and Windows.
The game contains frequent cartoonish violence and some crass language. The OSV News classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Entertainment Software Rating Board rating is E10+ — Everyone 10 and older.
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