The game I'm reviewing today is a smaller indie title known as Costume Quest. Costume Quest is a role playing game which was developed by Double Fine Productions, and published by THQ. It was released back in October of 2010, which was a smart move at the time considering that the game is Halloween themed. It was available to download on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms, then ported to the PC through Steam about a year later.
This game might feel a bit odd to play when it's not the month of October, since most people tend to ditch all of their Halloween decorations and the entire feeling of it by the next day, but I really wouldn't let that discourage you from trying it. The game does a perfect job of capturing the spirit of Halloween for children while also being quite witty most of the time and having a great combat system, at least in my opinion.
So, the story of the game is a more simple one. You either choose to play as a boy or girl, the counterpart then being your twin sibling. You and he or she is getting ready to go trick or treating, and your character isn't too happy about that due to the embarrassing costume your twin has chosen. After beginning the whole affair of going door to door for a few minutes, your sibling ends up getting kidnapped by monsters who have a plan to steal all of the candy from the town.
You realize pretty quickly that your parents would be pretty mad at you if you come back alone knowing your sister has been taken by goblin like creatures. You quickly make a plan to try and rescue her along with a friend at your side, but of course the first thing that is the most important thing is to finish your trick or treating. You do this by of course going house to house and knocking at the door. There is a certain number of homes in each location you visit where you'll need to knock on the door to try and get some candy, which works as this games currency. However, it's a 50-50 chance at whether you're going to get some candy, or attacked by a monster instead.
The combat in this game is a turn based combat system, which happens to be one of my favorite styles for RPG's. This one however is very simplified and taken down to it's bare skin. Because of this, there really isn't much of an inventory system for you to manage. All you really have to customize your fighting styles are different costumes which you get by collecting the specific materials needed and getting the pattern blueprints to make them. There is also a set of items called battle stamps which give you certain buffs like giving you an increased attack power, or an ability to do counterattacks automatically.
That's all there really is to it. You pick a costume you want to use, equip it, find your way into a battle, and then wait your turn to attack. I will say this though, what the game lacks in complexity and depth for it's combat system, makes up for with the flair it possesses. Each costume has it's own ability, and boy can they get to be over the top. The things your costumes can do certainly seem like they come straight out of the wild imagination of a child. Though I can't say the same for the monsters of the game, since most of their attacks are generally the same. The absurd nature of your abilities certainly helps to keep the combat entertaining, however.
Between your battles with monsters and trying to advance the main story, there's also plenty of side quests to be done throughout the game. These range from trading items with the NPC's, collecting new and different costumes, winning a costume contest, bobbing for apples, and other Halloween themed events. They're all basically in the find and fetch category of quests, however. So there isn't much variety there. You'll want to look around pretty much everywhere though anyways for items, so you may as well do these as well while you're at it.
This game is definitely not going to be a draining game like a lot of RPG's can be. Most of the time you'll just be grinding a short while until you're strong enough to clear the next part of the game, and collecting really strong battle stamps which make combat a breeze to get through. Really, you don't even need to try so hard to collect all of the candy possible to be able to get through the game. But, the whole point of this game is the funny, witty and somewhat nostalgic storyline, not the combat and inventory management itself.
In my opinion, this game really captures the spirit of Halloween that we all probably had when we were children. Thinking that because we had a sheet draped over our head that made us a ghost, or a blanket wrapped around our neck made us a superhero. The time where having some candy could fix most of your problems. This game in a way is quite adorable without being overly so to the point where it's nauseating. Besides the nostalgic like feeling you get from playing, the humor of the game is a real driving point for adult players to enjoy it. Since, this game really has a good sense of humor.
If you're looking for a fun game to play on a weekend, afternoon where you've got nothing to do, or even on Halloween if you're someone like me who just hangs out at home eating delicious food with my significant other watching horror movies and playing games all evening, then you'll definitely get it with this game. This game is quite good at giving you a chuckle here and there and leaving a stupid grin on your face from time to time, and you'll get some really entertaining gameplay out of it thanks to the RPG aspect of it. Definitely give it a try if you're interested!
Thanks for checking out the review! Hope you've enjoyed it!