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Costume Quest (XBLA, PSN)

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    Costume Quest (XBLA, PSN)

    Double Fines first release since they changed to producing smaller downloadable games.

    *** If you are playing on a SD TV try the demo first. The text is tiny.

    Bought instantly without trying the demo. Played around 45 minutes so far. I've read that it can be completed in around 5 hours. Enjoying it so far but it is only an average game. It's an effortless game that would be enjoyed the most when played with a child next to you.

    You start out with a short cutscene where you choose which sibling you want to play as. Then you are put into a blocked off section of your neighbourhood and let loose without any hand-holding or guidance. Once you explore the area you'll find a section that will set off another cutscene which will set up the scenario for the game.

    You will then explore the neighbourhood collecting candy and other items, do the odd mini game and battle monsters in turn based scuffles.


    Despite it being a double fine product the game lacks a lot of polish and doesn't feel high quality. The art style is very nice but beyond that it's fairly bare. There are a few glaring points that you would expect to be in the game but are unfortunately missing. The main one is Audio.
    There are no spoken parts, all text. From the opening cut scene and through out it is very obvious that it is missing and it would add a lot to the game. There is no persistent music, only intermittent spooky music. The ambient sounds are nice but the whole soundscape doesn't add to the experience.

    The other element is the way transitions between the game world and other scene/parts of the games are handled. You are abruptly thrown between the sections which lessens the experience. From the off you are just placed in the world with absolutely no guidance. Although most modern games over do the hand-holding having nothing gives are very poor first impression.


    As I said I've enjoyed it so far and some of the text has been amusing but the game does feel like it was released too early. Another 20 mins in the oven and one more layer of icing would have made it a more nom nom nom.

    Passable but nowhere near godly.
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    #2
    Are you sure you have your platforms correct? I know this is on PSN/XBLA, not sure about the others.

    EDIT: Also, I was under the impression that the intention of their shift to downloadable content was to keep the cost of development down. You seem to be expecting them to deliver a full retail quality game at 1/4 of the price.
    Last edited by Number45; 20-10-2010, 14:40.

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      #3
      Originally posted by Number45 View Post
      Are you sure you have your platforms correct? I know this is on PSN/XBLA, not sure about the others.
      You are correct. I had Meaty goodness on the brain when I filled in the topic box.

      Originally posted by Number45 View Post
      EDIT: Also, I was under the impression that the intention of their shift to downloadable content was to keep the cost of development down. You seem to be expecting them to deliver a full retail quality game at 1/4 of the price.
      Yes it's to keep development costs down but they are still a professional games company producing games for profit. The game is lacking in basic core design elements (not including the voice acting in that). Double Fine have the talent and ability to do much better.
      Last edited by Bort; 20-10-2010, 14:49.

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        #4
        Yeah, voice was my main concern. It's not really necessary and I think adds a significant amount to the cost of development.

        Did you watch the GB quick look? I know what I'm getting from that, so I'll be picking this up regardless.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Number45 View Post
          Yeah, voice was my main concern. It's not really necessary and I think adds a significant amount to the cost of development.

          Did you watch the GB quick look? I know what I'm getting from that, so I'll be picking this up regardless.
          Yep, the GB quick look sold it to me as well. The charisma from the GB guys added to the expected experience but I'm not regretting buying it. I just don't expect to have any lasting memories of the game after X months.

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            #6
            I think its brilliant. It keeps making me chuckle and i'm loving the gameplay.

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              #7
              Played around 30 minutes so far so not enough to cast much of an overall impression but from what I've played it's pretty positive, a lot of funny dialogue and what looks to be plenty of content in regards to the quests and mini games. Certainly looks to be a bargain at £8.99 compared to a lot of half arsed efforts I've bought recently at 9.99 and above.

              I'd agree with bort in regards to it would have benefitted from some voice acting, mainly for the cutscenes but at the price it is it's hard to complain. Only negative so far is the text sometimes dissapears too quickly, i'm a fast reader so it's not much of an issue but it would have been nice to read everything at your own leisure.

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                #8
                I was planning to slowly munch on CQ over a few days but felt I needed to push on with it.

                Played up to the beginning of the third main area. I still agree with my impression of the base faults but it has continued to improve and has bloomed into Double Finesse.

                The base is still shaky but the style has dulled it. Fun Fun Fun, in the Sun Sun Sun.

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                  #9
                  Purchased. Still going to save it for next weekend though.

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                    #10
                    Finished this earlier. Loved it from beginning to end. Easy 200GS too.

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                      #11
                      Loving It as it has a charm and style all of its own, played through the first few parts last night and I've really enjoyed myself. Its a collect em up at its heart with non random rpg battle elements, its done with such style I can't help but love it. Then there's something about the story too that reminds me of 80s adventure type movies like the goonies.

                      I total disagree with the thread starters comments as not every game needs a voice cast (monkey island for example is a game I prefer to read). And the sounds in this game are great intermittent bursts of creepy music and distant dogs barking break up the Erie ambient noises.

                      I'm also not sure what type of tutorial you wanted but the game leaves you under no false impressions as to what your doing. It's Halloween go knock on a door and get some sweets

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                        #12
                        Really enjoyed this, I'd describe it as an adventure game with very basic turn based RPG elements bolted on.

                        The story was paced perfectly and was very well polished IMO. The only gripe I'd have is that its 1200 points on XBLA when in my eyes it would be better suited to 800 points like SuperMeatBoy is at the moment.

                        Did enjoy it though

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                          #13
                          finished this tonight and really enjoyed it, not sure if it was because i evaded a few battles but i found the last battle took me a few attempts and a bit of stratergy to beat, in the end a varied team of costumes and stamps helped me through,

                          the unicorn costume made me laugh as its the tweeist costume but gives you tons of life gage making you hard as nails lol.



                          loved getting new costumes and trying them out in battle, the bit i liked the most was the exploration though some bits where quite well hidden too. The style and humor thoughout is top notch and it gave me a warm retro fuzzy feeling from begining to end.

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                            #14
                            Started this earlier. Despite defending it earlier in the thread it definitely feels a little empty in the audio department - what's there is fine, but there's not nearly enough of it. Dialogue would have been great if done well, but other than that more ambient noise and music might have helped.

                            Performance is pretty damn poor (PS3), which is disappointing considering there's so little going on. There's also serious lag in the controls (Takes a fair bit of time before actions you perform are transferred on screen).

                            Having said that I'm enjoying what I've played of it. Still working my way through the quests in the first neighbourhood.

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                              #15
                              Played it from start to finish in one go here heh... and got the 200G. Unlike Lebowski, the end battle was done on the first attempt, but it's not a pushover -

                              was using Robot, Vampire and Unicorn, with Jaw of Big Wolf, Disembodied Six Finger Hand, and Rotten Egg for a lot of the latter stages

                              . Sure, it's a fairly easy game overall, and doesn't last all that long, but I had a laugh playing through it and reading all the dialogue.
                              Lie with passion and be forever damned...

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