Lovable characters and a great level of detail make this a fun little Halloween game, with a good laugh here and there.
HOW DOES IT LOOK?
Costume Quest is quite well drawn. Simple, but with an amazing level of detail. I say simple, because we can't compare this to, for example, God of War 3. Still, it's just a downloadable game, and the scenery will grow on you in an instant, with all three stages having a delightful Halloween atmosphere, the kids wearing fun little costumes, and the hero's costumes transforming into fun, kick-ass monster beaters.
WHAT KIND OF GAME IS IT?
Costumes transforming? Say what? Wel, yes: Costume Quest is about finding your brother or sister back, depending on who you selected to play with. But fighting real monsters is not for little boys or girls. Fortunately, you have your costumes! And those give you some awesome powers. If you have a robot costume, for example, you can transform into a 50-foot battle robot with rocket fists and missile barrages! The monsters will wish they never tried to ruin YOUR Halloween!
Using the costumes and their abilities is the key to winning this little RPG game. So, you search the neighbourhood and talk with the kids, or go trick or Treating for candy. Sometimes, if you finish a quest, you get a pattern for a new costume, or materials for one. As soon as you found all materials, you can use the new costume. There's a knight, a black cat, a space marine, Lady Liberty, and so on. Each has different battle abilities, and some have abilities to use in the field.
Halloween is all about candy, and you can use the candy to buy Battle Stamps. You can outfit your costume with one battle stamp, which can improve your HP, give you a new ability, make you more powerful, etc.
Battles are turn based, with you mostly just pressing the correct button when prompted for an attack. Winning gives you experience points, candy, and sometimes an item (which are only to collect, they don't really do anything).
And in the field, you get lots of things to do. You can bash trash cans to find more candy, find all kids who are playing hide and seek, bob for apples,... There's lots to keep you busy.
GENERAL FEEL OF THE GAME
As I already pointed out: it's well drawn, the atmosphere is great, the setting is exactly what you expect, and you have transforming costumes! Don't expect too much when it comes to the story, except for the Plot Twist in the beginning of stage 3 (dun dun duuunnn). It's all pretty straight forward.
What it lacks in story, however, Costume Quest more than makes up in dialogues. The conversations between the kids (and sometimes grown-ups) are just plain fantastic. You get one silly phrase or one-liner after another, with some humour more subtle than others. I admit I'm easily amused when it comes to things like this, but Costume Quest did make me laugh quite a few times.
RANDALL'S FINAL VERDICT
If you're looking for just some plain fun and laughs, and you like RPG's: look no further. Although the game does start a little slow, you get your second party member soon, and after an hour or so, a third costume is yours. From then on, things are looking up, battle-wise.
Between the battles, which are fun after you have some more costume choices, you get some really cool neighbourhoods to trick or treat in, help some other kids out, or just explore for more candy.
Apart from the great scenery and detail, Costume Quest also has the funny dialogues and really kid-like attitudes coming your way.
It's not very cheap for a downloadable game, but it will amuse you for several hours (about 6 or 7, if you want to find everything there is). Definitely worth a buy if you're looking for something just plain fun.