Costume Quest (2010)
Developer: Double Fine
Publisher: THQ
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Genre: Adventure, Role-Playing
No. of players: 1
****Guest reviewer ~Bitches Leave~****
If you've ever felt like you may be too old to get away with trick-or-treating, dressing up in a costume only a kid should don, and collecting enough candy to send you into a diabetic coma, Costume Quest will help you pull off all of this and more. As one of the characters even proclaims, it's about “terror and candy!” Available for download on 360, PS3 and PC, if you have an affinity for Halloween and old-school style gaming, you should have already played this game. It really captures the joy of the season and manages to keep the game play fun and involving.
We open on a set of twins, Wren and Reynold, getting ready to disembark on their first trick-or-treating expedition in a neighborhood they are fairly new to, Auburn Pines. Immediately the witty dialogue starts to shine through, and it carries throughout the entire experience. It is well written and comical; enough to keep players entertained, young and old alike. Mom will decide to put one of the twins in charge – this is how you choose your character. It doesn't matter which twin you choose, it (unfortunately) doesn't affect the game whatsoever. Your character will end up in a bad-ass robot costume, while the unpicked twin will become a giant piece of candy corn. Yuck! Then you head out with your costume-deficient twin and start the door to door candy begging. At the first home, a guy will dump candy in your bags while lecturing your twin about their terrible costume. Now, prepare for the craziest Halloween night of your prepubescent life! When you go to the next house on the block, a gnarly/dopey looking monster answers the door, and thinking your bro/sis is actually a piece of candy, snatches them up and runs off. Down the road, a giant gate blocks the path, and ol' ugly unceremoniously tosses your sibling over the dark doors. Of course you quickly come to the conclusion that despite their awful costume, you should retrieve your twin to avoid a most heinous grounding, and the first battle is launched.
When you go into battle, you will transform from a kid wearing a costume to a totally boss version of your costume, ready to kick monster ass. The battles are Godzilla style action, taking place – like any good giant monster movie – around a bunch of miniature-sized homes and terrain, with your giant robot-self vs. huge monsters, waiting to die. Each costume has a different attack type and prompts precise button-pushing at the right time to keep you involved in the fighting, instead of mindless button-mashing. They also switch up the button required, which adds to the variance and attention you have to give your team. You can also time a button press during a monster's attack to guard against some of the damage, so even when it's not your turn you are raptly tuned in. On top of all that goodness, each costume has it's own special attack; after playing three rounds it will be charged and ready to use in your monster-slaying shenanigans. There are three main species of ghouls to battle, and each species has around five or so varieties to keep things interesting. As your characters level up, the monsters you face will become tougher as well. Once you slaughter these particular pests, you're given some experience, candy and rewards, and the rest of the game is set up. Dorsilla, the queen bitch and your ultimate nemesis, shows up, rapes you of your costume, and dumps you down the street. Here we discover that monsters have invaded your previously sleepy little town to acquire all the candy they can carry for some yet-unknown purpose. In order to open the gate and find your sib, you have to trick-or-treat at every available door in town. But, only fifteen-year-old's looking for free sweets go door-to-door without a real costume, so you're next task is to get your duds back.
Since the witch stole your outfit, you have to rebuild your getup from the ground up. Using a pattern, you have to hunt down three ingredients to remake your costume, so you can continue. This is good practice for the other ten or so costumes you can build throughout the game. You can acquire the pieces or the patten first, but until you have all four, the ensemble won't be available to wear. Once you've completed the layout to your robot rig, you discover another awesome thing about your attire – exploration abilities! Not every outfit has one, but a good deal of them come with a power to aid you in hunting down as much candy as possible. The robot can use the skate-shoes to go zooming around at a much faster speed than walking, and it will be put to use promptly in a race against the town bully.
Here we meet Everett, your first companion, an adventure-loving kid just like yourself, just as gung ho to bash some monster brains in as you. He will team up with you as soon as you save him from the candy-snatching bullies. Now the game truly opens up and you will get into the pumpkin guts of Costume Quest. Trick-or-treating will be the “main quest” in each area you go to, but there are tons of side quests that pop up, some necessary to move forward (like finding a new costume), and some completely optional (like bobbing for apples). After going to a few doors and fighting a few more monsters (about half of the homes will have monsters instead of candy), Everett recommends heading to the park to get some “battle stamps.”
On your way, you will really begin to see the neighborhood is fully decked for the day; with every house dripping with decorations, amazingly carved jack-o-lanterns covering lawns, this place is really reeking with atmosphere. As you move on to the other locations in the game, the Halloween vibe goes with you. The music is also well done, with a spooky but charming and almost goofy kind of sound during over-world roaming, and intense heavy tones when you're knee deep in battle. The art style is cel-shaded and the characters look like they could be hanging with Link on Outset Island, which really adds to the childlike charm of the game. Also, if you're playing on 360 (I did), you're even awarded with jack-o-lantern designed achievements, and some Halloween gear for your avatar as well.
Meanwhile, back at the park, you bump into the battle stamp vendor, Sadie. She will switch sweets for stamps, and this is the only way you can make room in your bags for more candy. You can also use your candy pail to smash into things and knock loose candy, and likely you'll be scampering and smashing all through the game to get enough sugar to swap her. There's nothing else to spend it on, so when your bags are getting full, find Sadie and purchase stamps. They're well worth it, as they add increased attack power, special stun or scare abilities, additional hp, etc. Each character can wear one, so they help you diversify and customize your friends. Also, if you are a collection junkie like me, you simply have to conquer and accumulate everything available.
Speaking of accumulation, there are an amazing set of collector's cards called Creepy Treats. You will likely have a few by now, as you win the bulk of them from battling baddies, and you can view your collectibles in your notebook, along with your battle stamps, costumes, quests and character stats. There is plenty of collecting good-times to be had here, custom made for completionists like myself. The Creepy Treats serve no purpose but simply to be collected. You will receive a special costume once you have a full set, but besides that you can mostly laugh at the names, as they are a Garbage Pail Kids type spin on regular snacks, with entries like “Barf roll-ups” and “Old Lady Fingers”. The notebook presses in the witty writing again as you view the quest names, and you can see it in the next area – Auburn Pines Mall – in the store names, with places to candy-beg called “Day Old Tacos” and “Why Not Flip-Flops” -- and of course there is an “Arrr-cade!”.
Speaking of the Mall, this is where you run into your third and final member, Lucy, a smart little girl who adds her scientific and analytical knowledge to every situation, as Everett adds his zinging and questing observations. Your new-found friends stick by you and are also a large part of the add on, Grubbins on Ice. The add-on is a much smaller game, about the size of one area of the original game, and set in the monsters home world or Repugia. It is a winter installment but still has costumes, tricking and treating, and adds new collectibles for you to scrounge up. Although it's short, it's as equally fun as the original game, with a few new costumes to discover, including one of my favorites, the pirate outfit.
Costume Quest is a tribute to everything that you loved about Halloween as a kid, smashed into a video game, with some monster-battling thrown in for good measure. The game is charming and fun, even if you are well out of the age range to actually go out and do the tasks set in the game. It really rings in the nostalgia of childhood Halloween adventures. Although you won't spend hours on end finishing the game - even if you are dedicated to getting every single item available - the folks at Double Fine obviously put a lot of love and attention into this game, as every little detail shines through, and it is well worth the time you give it.
