Sean Parker
Have you ever thought your job was killing you? Well, welcome to Death Inc. The soul-sucking mega-corporation of the underworld whose sole duty is being on soul duty, i.e. processing souls into the afterlife, and the basis of the action-roguelike hand-drawn 2D game Have A Nice Death. You play as Death, the OG CEO with his name on every piece of stationery, who undertakes on (see what I did there?) a group of insubordinate employees who have been ignoring the underworld’s standard operating procedures by rounding up souls on Earth and leaving you at the base of a mountain of paperwork. Getting the demonic department heads, aka Sorrows, back under your control will take all of your cunning, but having a massive arsenal of weapons, spells, and skills will help earn you another employee of the month accolade… or at least help you win the game.
As Death, you’ll explore the various departments where the treacherous, mutinous employees lurk. Using your scythe and spells to correct their conduct may not exactly be PC workplace behavior, but the underworld is literally a cutthroat place. Dying on your run is likely, but you’re Death! After a quick performance review of your last run, you’ll earn and unlock new items to help you hack-n-slash through the baddies in every department. Have a Nice Death features seventy distinct weapons and spells at your disposal that can be upgraded and made into fearsome combinations, enhancing your combat play. Curses can also help grant the player more power, but be careful. The attempt to gain more control in the company may affect the work output of your subordinates, creating more minions through raising the price of coffee or enhancing a department head’s abilities.
From Magic Design Studios, the makers of the highly rated Unruly Heroes, and Gearbox Software, the publisher of Borderlands and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, Have a Nice Death has a very tongue-in-cheek macabre cartoonishness about it, similar to the afterlife bureaucracy of Beetlejuice, that helps this Metroid-vania game feel right at home among those titles.
Have a Nice Death is currently boasting “Very Positive” reviews in early access on Steam and launches fully on March 8. The game is also coming to Nintendo Switch on March 22.
