The name Double Fine and Tim Schafer are mostly typically associated with full scale video games titles such as the classics Monkey Island and Psychonauts as well as most recently Brutal Legend. The latter game was appreciated by some but rejected by most gamers and critics. According to Schafer a lot of time and money went down the drain with the risky project. Double Fine was not going to make a sequel and instead, decided to create four bite-sized downloadable games. Costume Quest is the first game to hit Xbox LIVE and Playstation Network.
The premise of the game is that on Halloween night, a brother and sister set out to go trick or treating in their neighborhood. What seems to be a simple and fun night turns into an adventure when the player’s brother or sister, depending on who is controlled, is abducted by a green, ugly monster who is one of many, raiding the houses for candy. That’s what monsters do, steal candy and abduct cute, dressed up children, naturally. From that point on players set out on a quest to gain enough candy in order to open the barriers and follow their sibling. Along the way players will go from house to house and either find a person giving them candy or are encountered by a monster. In the latter case a turn based battle is initiated requiring players to use special abilities to defeat the opponent on the other side. While the battle, which can have multiple party members on both sides, is turn based at heart it still requires quick time events to succeed. During the fight the player and members of his or her party will turn into giant robots, the statue of liberty or knights in shining armor depending on which costume is currently equipped. The special abilities which include healing and shields are linked to the specific costumes and can be upgraded throughout the game. Players will come across other trick or treaters along the way who will join their cause. When roaming the world players can switch costumes and utilize their features to pass obstacles such as ramps with wheelie shoes or waterfalls with shields in order to acquire a hidden item.
Additionally, players will complete tasks such as finding hiding children throughout the world, gather items for new costumes which are in ‘hidden’ chests and bob for apples or retrieve things for NPCs. At first this cute and simplified RPG style game with an adorable art style and Halloween theme was very fun, humorous and refreshing but lacked the introduction of new things to do in the later areas of the game which are only 3 in total. What seems to be fun at first quickly becomes repetitious. Costume Quest also did not have any voice acting which was traded for speech bubbles which moved along a little bit too quick at times.
Costume Quest is a good game that stopped short from being a great one. Tim Schafer and team created a very fun and refreshing title that could have went all the way if there was just a little bit more substance. The lack of voice acting, a simplified turn based battle system and missing quest variety harp on the game experience. I wanted there to be just a little bit more meat and depth. Regardless of the lacking or missing features though, Costume Quest is the perfect game for a weekend of fun and is priced appropriately at 15 Dollars. I am looking forward to a similar Double Fine game sometime soon and if it fills the holes I pointed out in this review it should be an instant purchase.
Score: 7.5 / 10
Costume Quest was developed by Double Fine and published by THQ for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on October 20th. A review code of the retail version was provided to us by THQ for reviewing purposes.
