Have a Nice Death could be your new roguelike action game bestie

Gotta slash fast

The next time you have room in your life for a fluid roguelike action game, Have a Nice Death will be here waiting. I mean, it already is — but I know that not everyone likes to jump in during the Steam Early Access phase for these sorts of games. (Plenty of you are holding out on Rogue Legacy 2 until it hits 1.0.) But yeah, this already looks great.

It’s a gorgeously animated game about a stressed-out reaper “whose employees have run rampant, completely throwing off the balance of souls — and his vacation plans.” You’ve got a scythe, naturally, and you’ve also got spells to whip out. It’s fast and cool in motion.

Have a Nice Death launched today on PC, and it’s a top seller on Steam. My first impression came from this trailer, and it really set the tone well. Whether you’re open to playing now or in the near future, or you’d rather wait for Magic Design Studios to fill in “more variation and content in the worlds and their bosses” between each run, it’s worth a look.

The studio was previously known for Unruly Heroes, and it sounds like this project will spend a year in Early Access, with further support coming “after the game fully launches.”

More specifically, “version 1.0 of Have a Nice Death will be feature and content complete, with a concluding narrative, the full measure of gameplay elements, and additional components: Difficulty mode, accessibility options, new specific curse tree, new curses, new worlds, new enemies (bosses and mini-bosses), and new weapons.”

A lot goes into keeping me hooked run after run in any given roguelike. For now, the setting is amusing, and the boss patterns seem fun to figure out. Even if the sense of momentum fades as all of the current content becomes really familiar, that can go a long way. I do have high expectations for progression these days, though. Tough competition.

I’ve seen some Early Access user reviews call the game a good fit for the Steam Deck — which, oh right, that’s out and/or imminent for some people. As a (for now at least) PC-only experience, that’ll have to do. I’d love to see this in a future Switch indie round-up.

If you’ve enjoyed the action in Dead Cells and Hollow Knight, well… there are no guarantees in life, and I’m just name-checking. But Have a Nice Death could click with you too!