Death or Treat

If you want some roguelike 2D action in your life then Death or Treat is here to cause Halloween chaos so let's check it out.

Death or Treat is a gorgeous game that has some great ideas, but has some trouble with execution both in-game and on the Steam Deck.

There are more polished, quality roguelites out there that will engage you for a longer period than Death or Treat, but that says less about its own achievements and more about the incredibly high bar set by its predecessors.

Had there been more variety on offer, a few more random elements to make Death or Treat‘s playthroughs feel more varied, we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this roguelike. It looks great, its Halloween theme is wonderful, and even though its internet parody worlds might be a little tonally dissonant, they still raise a smile. But there needs to be more to keep it feeling interesting, and as it is, slashing through the same enemies in the same environments time and time again just isn’t quite enough.

Death or Treat should be a fun, tongue-in-cheek romp around a comedic Halloween world. And in a lot of ways, it is. The graphics, the art direction, and the animations are all slick. And while the writing is a little lackluster, it’s not exactly a narrative-driven experience. Unfortunately, the sluggish controls drag the whole experience down, at least for the PC port.

Death Or Treat can be a fun 2D rogue-lite at first, but the gameplay becomes bland far too quickly, well before the much more polished final stage which comes too late to be the game's savior, and the charm created by its admittedly excellent visual style and animation isn't enough to keep you going, especially when that visual style is bogged down by commentary that only distracts you from the game's world.

With its wonderful hand-drawn aesthetic Death or Treat looks like it should be fantastic. Never judge a video game by its visuals however, as those visual delights disguise a bland and repetitive roguelite. Death or Treat? More like Death or Trick.