Costume Quest? Overrated.

Double Fine's last game, Brutal Legend, was one of my favorites of 2009's fall release schedule. Psychonauts was an even more entertaining adventure four years before that, on the last generation of consoles. The idea that I could play another game by the incredibly creative studio and that I wouldn't have to wait another four years was amazing. The game snuck up on me, in fact, because I didn't expect the high-quality studio to be able to put out a game as fast as they did. Without even trying the demo I picked it up, knowing I'd love it.

Well, I didn't.

The modus operandi of this developer seems to be the reverse of most other major studios. While your big-budget titles from other triple a studios iterate on their gameplay models and features, Double Fine usually focuses on the artistic ideas behind that. That's why Psychonauts is basically Super Mario 64 and Brutal Legend is, among other things, a Defense of the Ancients inspired console RTS. Costume Quest's inspiration comes from Square's old RPGs. The timed button press makes it seem most like the Super Nintendo's Super Mario RPG than anything else.

That's fine, and that's not why I dislike it. It's just too damn simple. There's basically nothing to do. I said before that Double Fine doesn't put excess amounts of systems in their game, and that's totally true here, except they actually take out really vital systems in the process. There are items, which are either collectible cards or a single equippable accessory. Other than that, nothing. No healing items, no buffs, no abilities other than a special attack and a normal attack. The battles are also pretty easy, so there's no need for strategy. It just becomes a game where you attack repeatedly and win the game.

I suppose that wouldn't be that bad if the Double Fine humor was there, which it isn't, really. I'm not saying I dislike the writing - it's fine. It's charming, more than anything else. However, the game has no voice acting, so instead of hearing people performing these charming lines, I'm just reading text bubbles and hearing the pitter-patter of the children's footsteps. I really would like it so much more if they had the lines voiced.

So yeah. I'm not getting the love. I'm seeing high scores and almost unanimous praise for how charming the game is, but I don't see how the game can justify that. Honestly, if the Double Fine name wasn't on it, no one would be nearly as high on it.