Nut Load. Mini reviews of games old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. Occasional shock face.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Costume Quest (2010)

Genre: Action / RPG | Players: 1 | Developer: Double Fine Productions

Developer Double Fine make interesting games, but they rarely sell in large numbers; it seems a majority of gamers prefer yearly updates of FIFA and C.O.D instead. That’s a shame. As a result, the team stopped making disc-based games and concentrated on DL-only titles. Costume Quest was the first of the batch.

It's filled with colourful charm and subtle humour; and while the actual gameplay is basic and repetitive, it's still a joy to play most of the time.

It takes place on Hallowe'en night. You choose to play as either Reynold or Wren, twins, one of whom has to rescue the other from evil, candy-loving monsters that all children know lurk in old people's houses on Hallowe'en night.

You hunt for clues to your sibling's location by asking local kids, trick-or-treating and solving simple puzzles. And there are some basic RPG elements that won't cause a headache for even the most fearful of RPG gamers.

In an act of pure kid-fantasy-awesome your cardboard robot costume becomes real, transforming you into an ass-kicking Japanese Mech the size of a house. You use each costume's ability to kill bad guys in turn-based combat. The fighting gets repetitive after a while, so to spice things up there are hidden costumes to find that grant your chosen hero new abilities. You can only wear a new one once you've found each of the individual parts needed to make it. That lets you vary your costume from time to time to make use of unique abilities.

Additional DLC called Grubbins on Ice was released a few months later. It continued the story and but with Xmas theme, introducing new costumes and abilities. The basic gameplay is exactly the same, however. There's a demo of the main game on the stores so that you can try before you buy.

Buyer's Guide:
Can only be bought directly from PSN, X-Box live or Steam.

3½ bags full out of 5

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