Well, I guess we got another painting-based Terry Gilliam-like animation game from Joe Richardson. Seven years after the funny Four Last Things and four years after the incredibly inventive The Procession to Calvary. It’s still silly, funny, visually clever and kinda fun. But this time it also seems somewhat unnecessary, a fact that the game itself acknowledges.
Just like with the previous titles (and the non-paintings-based titles from the developer), this is a point and click adventure game with mechanics reminiscent of the 1990s PC classics. You have a few screens to move between, a few tasks you can do in a somewhat non-linear order and you point and click on things to do stuff. All of the game’s art is based on classic paintings, that are remixed and reshuffled in crazy ways to tell an absurd and silly story that is an excuse to give the player some fun tasks, problems to solve and maybe comment on history. While this particular game is, probably, the most crass and vulgar of the three, it’s still very funny and with numerous moments where it’s hard not to laugh at the absurdity of things.
Sadly, unlike The Procession to Calvary, that felt like a genuinely clever adventure game with a fun subversive gimmick, Death of the Reprobate has no mechanical surprises in store. And, in fact, this is the only game in this “triptych” that I found solutions to problems being too bizarre and illogical to be fun. There is a built-in way to get hints on how to proceed, but a lot of the “puzzles” in the game are genuinely frustrating and unfun.
Which seems almost to be the point. The tone of the game in general feels to be a “well, you wanted another game like this, so here it is”, rather than an active desire of the developer to do something interesting. I suppose, it’s good that what we got is still fun and funny for the most part, but I also don’t think this game really needed to exist or brings anything worthwhile that couldn’t have been experienced with the first two. If this game wasn’t so well written as a comedy, which is sadly rare, I feel like I would’ve not liked it at all and would have not recommended it. But as it is – yeah, it’s still alright. You should buy The Procession to Calvary instead, though, as that game is genuinely great.