[h1] A fluid, charming and outright beautiful game, but with flaws [/h1]
Have a Nice Death is a good game at it's core with movement so precise you can use KBM even as a controller player, art rivaling Hollow Knight, and fun, balanced weapons that are all usable. It does have it's flaws, Minor bugs, no explanation for a lot of it's systems, a steep difficulty curve and too little variation in it's enemies. Along with this, I don't care to read the dialogue at all. I prefer the art over the writing, which is probably because the game is translated from French. I like this game in spite of it's problems, but some problems give it a charm you don't see a lot in the gaming space today. Have a Nice Death's lack of explanations and small fanbase made it have this mysterious intrigue that kept me coming back. After some research, reading between the lines, and trial and error, I've managed to 100% this game. This is by no means a guide, but I will talk about the process as it's important to talk about the completionist experience.
[h3] The good [/h3]
Have a Nice Death is a good game as a whole, that's why I have 85 hours playing it and every achievement. But what's so good about it that makes it worth playing, in spite of all the issues I mentioned earlier? First of all, the combat. Literally the entire game, start to finish consists of combat encounters. Death as a playable character is incredibly fun due to all the variation he has. There are 7 scythes in the game, that all have unique upgrades. I found myself using 5 of them the most, but the other two are usable as well. Then, the real meat, cloaks and spells. There are more than 20 cloaks and about 40 spells, all with their own upgrade paths that come with passives, buffs and other fun stuff. While the scythes can be good, cloaks and spells are far superior when it comes to damage, as they're more reliable to build around. Those are the foundation of the gameplay, but the real icing on the cake are the curses. There are over 150 curses in the game, which despite their name are actually buffs. They can increase damage both percentage wise and flat, they can make you shoot lightning or burn enemies, or they can make every attack send a swarm of deadly butterflies at enemies, shredding any boss if you use a multi-hit spell or cloak. When you learn the build crafting in this game, your runs become far more consistent, and you can use any weapon.
Another amazing thing about the game is the art. The art is beautiful and stylized, using mostly grey tones with mixes of weaker red, blues and greens. The only time you see vibrant, beautiful color is when you fight the true final boss of the game, [spoiler] life. [/spoiler] This makes the final boss even more special, and gives them a lot of character. [spoiler] You're no longer inside Death Inc., therefore you see the overworld in all it's lush beauty. [/spoiler] Even though the final boss is a highlight of the game in terms of art, it's a low point in a different way, which I'll touch on more later. The actual color scheme the game uses helps ground it in it's office aesthetic, as well as differentiating it from other games. The animations are incredibly smooth, bosses like Hector Krank and Gordon Grimes flow in their attacks, the enemies express things so distinctly, sometimes even without faces. Looking from the outside in, the art is the biggest draw of this game, and I wouldn't blame you for thinking that at all.
[h3] The bad [/h3]
As I mentioned, Have a Nice Death has it's issues, but are they enough to ruin the game? For me, no. In "The good" I focused on the art a lot. But in the intro, I mentioned there's one piece of it I don't like. The game is very text heavy, and uses Hollow Knight esque dialog noises. It's not read aloud, and it didn't need to be, but in my opinion it doesn't land all the time. I enjoy the personality that is expressed through the animation, and I've skimmed through some of the dialogue, but I don't want to read a five paragraph essay before every fight. I think the game would do good from being rewritten partially from scratch, as a lot of the humor is a little too dry.
I've played far buggier games than Have a Nice Death, [i] cough cough [/i] Woolhaven on day one [i] cough cough [/i], and the bugs aren't that bad. The worst I've encountered is being softlocked by the deals at the start of the game. You can choose to "take x damage" in return for something neat, and I accidently killed myself by such means. Then, the game bugged out and the next time I tried taking a deal, it had autolocked those same 3 instakill deals. I had to relaunch the game, but nothing weird happened afterwards. Other notable glitches include some side quests being broken, but none of the ones that require achievements.
Now for the most frustrating flaw to me, the lack of explanation. The game teaches you nothing about how the Curse Tree works or how Curse rarity works. These two things are essential for the 100%, as you need every curse. There are also curses that require other curses, but don't even make a mention of it. For example, the last curse i got, Drowning Fire, requires another curse called Chillash!, while only the burn status effect was mentioned in the curse description. This is partially the Wiki's fault, as it's not detailed at all, but the game never tells you directly what each curse requires. For most players (the 99,7% who have not completed the achievement) this isn't an issue, but for us weirdos, it certainly is.
Now, the biggest issue for newbies, the difficulty spike and enemies. The enemies in this game are kinda baby mode, outside of the final department. They get stunned easily if you hit them, and they die very easily. The bosses, on the other hand, are brutal. Due to the lack of meta progression, you don't get better trough strength, but through knowledge. Each boss can kill you in just a few attacks, the true final boss being especially guilty of this. If you don't have defensive curses, you will die if you make too many mistakes. Learning the boss patterns can be hard, and seeing as it's a roguelike, too much so. In my opinion, the easy difficulty should be a little easier to help beginners, with more forgiving damage, while the higher difficulties should stay the same.
Another issue I think needs fixing is the unique enemies in each department: we need more. There are around 5 original enemies from each department, and I think they should bump it up to 7 or so. After 85 hours they're far too easy and repetitive, and I think the higher difficulties should introduce something like champion enemies in Isaac to add variation. The high difficulty curve at the beginning is probably the reason for the achievement rates being as low as they are, and it's sad, because this game is stellar and charming.
[h3] Conclusion [/h3]
All in all, this game is a very enjoyable experience. While it has it's flaws, they're minor, and you move past a lot of them if you give this game a real chance. The game is chill, yet stimulating, varied yet familiar and darkly charming. 8/10
