Death Coming - review

Disclosure: I was provided a copy of Death Coming by Indie Gamer Chick as part of #Indieselect . The code for the game having been provided to Indie Gamer Chick to hand out by the developers for the purposes of getting feedback on the game. Also yes some of this will be the same points I covered in the Twitter thread I did as part of the Indie Select rules

Price:

£4.99 / $6.99 on Steam 

£1.99 / $1.99 on IOS
Also on Google Play store (free trail with additional levels being in app purchases)

Reviewed On: PC / Laptop 1

Review:

So Death Coming feels spiritually similar to the last game I reviewed (Death's Life). The goal is click on objects in the map and kill enough of the people on the map to get at least a bronze. The first difference being unlike Death's Life this time there's a larger aspect of timing events rather than just setting things in motion and them succeeding in that aspect it's like a larger scale version of the title Kill The Bad Guy (for those who have heard of that game). The other difference here being Death Coming has a bit of an identity crisis, on one hand it seems to want to be puzzle game about working out how to kill everyone in a level; on the other hand it wasn't to be an arcade style speed running game about posting the fastest possible clear times on levels and getting high scores. The problem is the two different sets of elements really refuse to sit comfortably together. On one hand you have the push to do things quicker and come up with ways to quickly dispatch people but on the other hand you have to figure out longer series of events to kill off certain people. The game plays out with you clicking on objects to see what they will impact and trying to kill people by timing the things to fall or break or go wrong in time to kill people near them.  The big problem being the one mechanics that doesn't really work with either set of mechanics, the angel police.

The idea of the angel police sound good in theory but the way they fit into the game just doesn't seem to work. The idea being if you're interfering with an object  and spotted by an angel (who move somewhat randomly round the screen) then you lose a life. The problem is it doesn't matter if you're using the object or activating it, just holding it ready is enough to lose 1 of your 3 lives. The problem is exacerbated by the fact while you can use WASD to move round the camera it's far quicker to click and drag, however if you accidentally click on an object and an angel spots you even though you've not activated it then you lose a life. Further adding to the problem is that the angel police work based on seeing the hitbox of the object you've selected rather than the object itself and sometimes those hitboxes are larger than the actual object meaning you can get caught even when you thought you were relatively safe.

The angel police seem too random to make speed running consistent but also waste too much time to feel like they add much to the puzzle game aspect either, particularly because certain traps require specific timings to activate and get kills however you might miss your chance and have to wait for event cycles to repeat to do it again and that just feels like it's wasting time. Now while it's not my job to think up an alternative, I have. My possible alternative solution would be a sort of "angels are watching" icon, be it an eye or one of the existing angel model added to part of the UI. when the eye or angel is looking if you click something it starts a timer, fail to click off and you lose a life; also if you click to actually activate a trap while the eye in on you / the angel watching you lose a life straight away. This angel watching system would allow fairly consistent timing of being watched and still allow some warning as the eye / head turns towards the player and back away with timing of how long it watches increasing or how long it is looking away decreasing as you kill more people allowing an escalation like the angel police but with more consistency to it.

Another issue I have with the game is in some areas it can be tough to tell where the people actually are. Some traps have very specific spots where they hit and due to the lack of feet or any kind of shadow on the ground for characters in game it's hard to tell where they're actually meant to be. This isn't that big a problem but in some cases it can cause some mild frustration as you have to fire a trap off multiple times to try and catch the person (though luckily most of these cases the traps are multiple use when they require precise timing).

The game has 6 core levels and a 7th bonus level at the end. The games mechanical progression sees you initially start with just having to kill all the people in an area: it then moves towards adding in some slightly longer sequences; next weather mechanics are added that change levels; then more weather states that levels switch through and the final level gives you the ability to control the weather (to a degree) to solve more elaborate puzzles. As the game progresses it moves away from more general death and more towards specific puzzle scenarios such as an Indiana Jones homage level or a King Kong homage level, these levels require you more specifically to solve the scenario to get a good number of the deaths required to beat the level or at least get a higher rating.

The 7th bonus level I'm going to say is the best level in the game in my personal opinion. The 7th level seems to show the real potential this game has more as a puzzle game than an arcade style game. The twist on the 7th level is you only have to kill the specific designated targets and killing anyone else will result in you losing 1 life per innocent bystander killed. This 7th level really showcases the puzzle aspect as you have to create scenarios where a character is alone or the only one that will get hit by the possible traps, this requires actually looking at info on the levels and things characters are talking about or saying and contrive scenarios to get them alone and in a position to be killed. 

In addition to the main levels there are two mini games, one involving fighting off hordes of angels in a strange horde shooter esc game and another than requires you to try to kill off a gang of thieves using floor pads on the level but without other thieves in the gang noticing their friend being killed. Both of these I could see easily being developed on and expanded to be small games in their own right if the developer were so inclined. 

It might sound like I've been quite down on this game but oddly I actually quite enjoyed it when I got into the right mood for it. It's quite quirky and willing to take jabs that considering where the developers are located, I can only say could be seen as quite risky. 

The gameplay is solid for the most part and when everything works it works really well. The traps and kills are quite wacky and imaginative and some of the stuff is just plain fun, such as piloting a giant alien mech vehicles as the ending of one of the levels if you complete the puzzles. There is also a plot of sorts with a longer ending and explanation of events if you take out all the designated targets in the 6 main levels and well it's very much thematically in line with the Final Destination films so it does reward you for killing the designated targets.

Here's one of the more simple puzzles to show you what I mean.

Verdict:

Death Coming is a quirky game that will last you about 4-7 hours depending on how often you fail and its problems come from it feeling like at times it lacks a clear direction in regards to what the game wants to be. The conflict between the puzzle aspect and the more arcade aspect feel like they drag the game down a bit from what it could be with the bonus 7th level showing what the game could have been if it lived up to its true potential.

The time levels / speed running aspect could add some replay ability to the game depending on how inclined you are to try for getting high scores etc but your mileage will vary in this aspect. For me the replay value comes from trying to get Silver or Gold clear and level and especially the surprisingly fun mini games. 

Yes I somehow made it into the top 100 on the 6th level

Death Coming feels like a game that ultimately was dragged down from greatness by an unclear vision for just what the developers wanted the game to be. That's not to say it's a bad game, I think it's worth the asking price and enjoyable enough but this isn't one I'd say is a great must play title that will blow you away.

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Overall Score: