DEATH OR TREAT Review

redandbluedave

Nov 1

Info

Developed By: Saona Studios.

Published By: Saona Studios.

Platforms Available On: Xbox Series X/S and One, PS5/4, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X, a code was very kindly supplied for the purpose of this review.

Overview

Recently, the Halloween spirit is missing and GhostMart may be on the brink of bankruptcy. Clark Fackerberg, founder of FaceBoo! has started to distribute Storyum: a drug that absorbs the will and hope for Halloween from the inhabitants of HallowTown. Now, with the purpose of restoring the spirit of Halloween and his trade, Scary must destroy FaceBoo! and its 3 divisions; Darkchat, Deviltube and RipTok

"Death or Treat" is a 2D action-roguelite and hack & slash, with handpainted environments and traditional animation. Explore all the worlds and defeat hordes of enemies using different weapons and skills.

You will play as Scary, the owner of Ghost Mart, leader in manufacturing candies for Halloween.

Discover huge worlds, explore new maps and try to survive the hordes of enemies. It's not an easy task, every world is even more tricky than the other. Starting with Darkchat, Riptok, Deviltube, and last but not least FaceBoo!, the ultimate epic frontier.

Combat is one of the fundamental pillars of Death or Treat. Choose your favorite weapon style (fast, heavy or ranged) and face a real horde of enemies in the purest hack'n slash style: fly through the air and attack the crowd with force, move nimbly and look for their weak point.

Each one of the stores that you will find in HallowTown can provide different profit for your enterprise. You can create new weapons at Frank's Forge, or buy healing potions at DetoxBucks. Our vampire shopkeeper, Joe Bite Them, will help you get new empty slots for your inventory, and the Pumpkin guys will teach you how to craft magic spells. Finally, go to Pumpkin© to trade your ingredients for more candies!

Overview taken from the official game description on the Xbox marketplace store page.

Review

Every now and then I like to review something a little different especially if it's a 2D side scrolling platformer, Death or Treat is definitely that something a little different, a Halloween themed roguelite platformer with a retro feel to it.

You play as Scary a small ghost spirit in Hallotown tasked to take down the corporate social entities that are threatening Halloween's very existence. You must take down the head of these very familiar sounding corporates ( FaceBoo sounds rather familiar to me ) and the evil owner Clark Fackenburg (again sounds familiar) in this fun action packed spooky adventure.

Straight away I fell in love with the cute but spooky nature of the game, you can't help but love all the interesting characters you come across as you explore the vast spooky areas of Hallotown, scavenge throughout the town to gather supplies to bring back and help grow the town and save Halloween forever. It is a bit of a grind to get the required upgrades but it's a fun grind all the same. It does get ever so slightly repetitive as you progress through the game but as the game is light hearted it still feels a pretty fun game all in all.

The game isn't just about the grind there is also a very cool combat system as you take down the various goes you come across throughout Hallotown some of which are alot more formidable than others , you can take these down using your combat skills or using various projectiles you will find about the place.

Graphics and Sound

In terms of graphics the developers have kept with the fun feel of the game with a cartoon style and it looks slick and really flows well, I felt it looked good with the next gen power. The game worlds looked good with the spooky feel coming off really well, it's not a game of jumps scares it's not about that it's more a bit of spooky fun.

The spooky soundtrack flows throughout the game adding to the overall atmosphere, the in game sounds are great and work well with the atmosphere unfortunately there are no voice acting at the cutscenes but the stills look very good and tell the story well.

Summary

Time now then to put my thoughts into a summary, overall I found the game to be a lot of fun and enjoyed playing through the different areas. If you are wanting a good bit of spooky family fun at this time of year then you'll definitely need to get hold of this.