Here is another beauty that I got thanks to that Double Fine humble bundle. Every time I start thinking of going back to console gaming these bundles and steam sales just drag me right back in the glorious world of PC gaming and the silly and serious experiences it has to offer.
Costume Quest is a game that I read and saw a decent amount of before I played it from the various videogame news sites that I follow. As a result I went into the game with a certain amount of expectations which were not entirely met if I am being honest. I'll get to that later though, first the standard information about the game. Costume Quest was spawned from Double Fine and published by THQ, who are now a defunct company, and Nordic Games. Its fairly easy to get access to the game since its playable on Consoles (PS3 and Xbox) and all PC operating systems.
While I did read, hear and watch gameplay of Costume Quest, I didn't immediately buy the game. It was actually years after seeing all that stuff that I finally bought it, but, the positive reviews did stick with me and helped push me over the edge when I was decided whether to get it or not. A larger and more important factor that stuck with me though was the game's art style. It was the most vivid aspect of the game that I could remember in fact with other parts just fading away. The highly stylized art style just drew me in from the first moment that I saw it with its cell shaded catroony feel just being full of charm and character. The combat animations were also quite cool with the special attacks for each costume being massive visual showcases. I actually always used a new costume as a soon as I got it just so that I could see its special attack. These animations did get a bit boring after a while, you will see why once I talk about the gameplay in Costume Quest later on. Something of equal importance is that due to it having a stylized game it didn't age compared to other games that focus on a more realistic style. The game felt just right when I played it in 2014 despite being originally published in 2010. That is something astounding since the same can't be said of other game that were published in 2010 like those from the Call of Duty or Battlefield franchises. Yes, I know its not the same genre. I'm just trying to make a point that the art style in Costume Quest is very charming and due to it being stylized has a timelessness that will ensure that its fun to look at years down the line from now.
I can't say that I really recall much else about the game's aesthetics despite having played it recently. The music was fine while I played, but looking back at it now I can't remember any of it. The story is also fairly middle of the road, but that is to be expected since its supposed to have a very kid friendly tone to it. The story is basically that monsters from another dimension have come to steal candy from our world, due to a bad choice of costume your sibling is mistaken for a large candy corn and taken, you chase after them in order to get them back. As you adventure you also come across different characters who are essentially two dimensional stereotypes for the most part, but for some reason I didn't find myself hating this. I was pretty accepting since I saw the game as a simple amusing distraction and not a game attempting to make a huge effort to really immerse the player in a world like the Mass Effect games for example. Regardless of my opinion though, I don't think that either the narrative or the music in this game can be considered as pillars that the players experience hinges on in Costume Quest.
Costume Quest has more than its graphics to depend on though. Another factor that I remember was talked about a lot was the game's combat system. This is where I have a bit of a separation from what I saw as being the dominant view in public opinion regarding the game, which is that the combat and character development in the game is good. I'm not saying that it was bad, but I don't think its a system that deserves the praise that it got. Let me just outline a few things before delving into the topic deeper. The game has you controlling three characters who can each be equipped with a single costume out of a total of fourteen options. From what I saw the combat in the game was really simplistic with all the costumes only having two moves, a basic attack that they all share and a unique special move that could be done every third turn. Now, while the special abilities did come into play during boss fights for the majority of the game you can simply basic attack your through the vast majority of the fights. There was essentially no real challenge in the fights, at times it even got a bit tedious having to fight a certain number of times just to get from one area to another. This is on top of the fact that for the most part the combat is just a glorified quicktime event. The character leveling system is the game is also meaningless due to the fact you have no control on any of the characters abilities as they level and you can't alter their paths of development in anyway, this is aside from the fact they are all to close to each other in their actual stats for it to really matter. This state as a result renders the entire fact that levels and leveling are in game totally meaningless. I actually find it really confusing that the leveling system was even put into the game since the player never interacts with the system, they are simply just there as it happens. There is a tiny light at the end of the tunnel though with the stamps system. The stamps actually give the characters meaningful abilities likes stuns, revives, and massive stats boosts. Unfortunately the stamps aren't enough to make that much of a difference due to the meaningless leveling system and predominately unchallenging combat that made the game quite mediocre in its gameplay mechanics. I didn't see why this aspect of the game even got so much praise and I feel it should be viewed as a more middle of the way effort at best as opposed to being praised like a stand out aspect of the game.
At the end of the day, Costume Quest is a pretty mediocre game. Its definitely not bad, but its not that good either. If you are hoping to find a game that can be used as an eight to ten hour distraction then you should be fine getting Costume Quest. If you want something that is more than a distraction then you need to look elsewhere. Because while this game has a lot of charm, its very superficial in some major parts of its design leaving the experience of playing this game feeling boring and repetitive in more than one instance. This is something I feel pretty strongly about, to that point that I'm not looking forward to the sequel that Double Fine recently announced. Unless there are some major changes being made to the gameplay aspect of the game which I don't think is going to happen to be honest.
While I did read, hear and watch gameplay of Costume Quest, I didn't immediately buy the game. It was actually years after seeing all that stuff that I finally bought it, but, the positive reviews did stick with me and helped push me over the edge when I was decided whether to get it or not. A larger and more important factor that stuck with me though was the game's art style. It was the most vivid aspect of the game that I could remember in fact with other parts just fading away. The highly stylized art style just drew me in from the first moment that I saw it with its cell shaded catroony feel just being full of charm and character. The combat animations were also quite cool with the special attacks for each costume being massive visual showcases. I actually always used a new costume as a soon as I got it just so that I could see its special attack. These animations did get a bit boring after a while, you will see why once I talk about the gameplay in Costume Quest later on. Something of equal importance is that due to it having a stylized game it didn't age compared to other games that focus on a more realistic style. The game felt just right when I played it in 2014 despite being originally published in 2010. That is something astounding since the same can't be said of other game that were published in 2010 like those from the Call of Duty or Battlefield franchises. Yes, I know its not the same genre. I'm just trying to make a point that the art style in Costume Quest is very charming and due to it being stylized has a timelessness that will ensure that its fun to look at years down the line from now.
I can't say that I really recall much else about the game's aesthetics despite having played it recently. The music was fine while I played, but looking back at it now I can't remember any of it. The story is also fairly middle of the road, but that is to be expected since its supposed to have a very kid friendly tone to it. The story is basically that monsters from another dimension have come to steal candy from our world, due to a bad choice of costume your sibling is mistaken for a large candy corn and taken, you chase after them in order to get them back. As you adventure you also come across different characters who are essentially two dimensional stereotypes for the most part, but for some reason I didn't find myself hating this. I was pretty accepting since I saw the game as a simple amusing distraction and not a game attempting to make a huge effort to really immerse the player in a world like the Mass Effect games for example. Regardless of my opinion though, I don't think that either the narrative or the music in this game can be considered as pillars that the players experience hinges on in Costume Quest.
Costume Quest has more than its graphics to depend on though. Another factor that I remember was talked about a lot was the game's combat system. This is where I have a bit of a separation from what I saw as being the dominant view in public opinion regarding the game, which is that the combat and character development in the game is good. I'm not saying that it was bad, but I don't think its a system that deserves the praise that it got. Let me just outline a few things before delving into the topic deeper. The game has you controlling three characters who can each be equipped with a single costume out of a total of fourteen options. From what I saw the combat in the game was really simplistic with all the costumes only having two moves, a basic attack that they all share and a unique special move that could be done every third turn. Now, while the special abilities did come into play during boss fights for the majority of the game you can simply basic attack your through the vast majority of the fights. There was essentially no real challenge in the fights, at times it even got a bit tedious having to fight a certain number of times just to get from one area to another. This is on top of the fact that for the most part the combat is just a glorified quicktime event. The character leveling system is the game is also meaningless due to the fact you have no control on any of the characters abilities as they level and you can't alter their paths of development in anyway, this is aside from the fact they are all to close to each other in their actual stats for it to really matter. This state as a result renders the entire fact that levels and leveling are in game totally meaningless. I actually find it really confusing that the leveling system was even put into the game since the player never interacts with the system, they are simply just there as it happens. There is a tiny light at the end of the tunnel though with the stamps system. The stamps actually give the characters meaningful abilities likes stuns, revives, and massive stats boosts. Unfortunately the stamps aren't enough to make that much of a difference due to the meaningless leveling system and predominately unchallenging combat that made the game quite mediocre in its gameplay mechanics. I didn't see why this aspect of the game even got so much praise and I feel it should be viewed as a more middle of the way effort at best as opposed to being praised like a stand out aspect of the game.
At the end of the day, Costume Quest is a pretty mediocre game. Its definitely not bad, but its not that good either. If you are hoping to find a game that can be used as an eight to ten hour distraction then you should be fine getting Costume Quest. If you want something that is more than a distraction then you need to look elsewhere. Because while this game has a lot of charm, its very superficial in some major parts of its design leaving the experience of playing this game feeling boring and repetitive in more than one instance. This is something I feel pretty strongly about, to that point that I'm not looking forward to the sequel that Double Fine recently announced. Unless there are some major changes being made to the gameplay aspect of the game which I don't think is going to happen to be honest.
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