Death of the Reprobate review — As if Renaissance art couldn’t get any weirder

I want to state this right now: I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I chose to review this game. My impulsive tendency to just look at an indie game, think it looks wacky, and immediately want to play it allows me to stray out of my comfort zone and encounter games that I never would try on paper. And let me tell you, whatever you know or expect from this game will not prepare you for the ride Death of the Reprobate takes you on. Never letting you breathe for a second, you’re constantly glancing around, bursting out in hysterics, or exclaiming “What the hell is that?” With a devilish humor that is as far away from PG as it is the year this was set in, Death of the Reprobate was a delight from start to finish, even though some images are now burned into my head.

Death of the Reprobate is a point and click narrative adventure game where you play as Malcolm the Shit, an entitled arsehole who deals extravagantly psychotic punishments to the villager’s minor crimes. Just as you’re about to sentence the mail boy to an encasement of his flaccid genitalia in malachite, to then show him a picture of it, you receive his message that your Papa, Immortal John, isn’t going to be immortal for much longer. You rush to his deathbed only for him to deny you—his heir—of all inheritance, deeming you too cruel and selfish. Immortal John may be the only character in this game’s speaking sense; letting his son run the place isn’t going to end nicely. But instead, he provides you with the chance to redeem yourself through performing 7 good deeds. Dressed in peasant clothing and The Lord on your side, you venture out into the kingdom to help those in need.

I had sadly never heard of Joe Richardson’s other games, so that context was lost to me. But this was kind of a benefit, as I would die to have my first experience with their games again; the team seems to embrace the amplification of everything by one million. The game never downplays its crude language, swearing, and abundance of Gen-Z jokes. From emojis to edginess. You can cringe at times, and God knows if this will age well, but I’m just a little Gen Z kid that thrives off of this stuff, so leave me be.

The premise of this game can sound pretty wholesome. Now begins Malcolm’s redemption, his growth as a person, and becoming a proper ruler to carry on his father’s legacy, wholesome. But no, as the 7 good deeds you must complete to finish the game are increasingly bizarre. Death of the Reprobate is incredibly rude and hilarious in how Malcolm and other villagers interact with each other. With such a short run time as 2 hours, I don’t want to end up spoiling much of the game, but here’s a snippet: The Lord is holding a wooden sign with a red arrow painted on towards a fisherman. After helping this fisherman prove to his sons that he’s not a complete failure, he gives you a key to a barn with two men furiously making love. Beside them is a lion and behind them a talking goat with a magical flute. And that’s just in the first area.

Each quest is typically a fetch quest, which on paper seems like a slog, but the game structures itself in a way that, as you interact with people and quests as you walk through areas, it’s hard to miss out on items used for the quest coming up. The game is 100% linear in this way, but as a narrative experience, it slots together perfectly. The map is also relatively small, so backtracking is never an issue. The only problem I had with the game was what a lot of pre-rendered backgrounds in games suffer with: confusion with direction and what items can be picked up or not. You can highlight key interactions with the middle button on your mouse, but you could end up missing something. This was never a problem for me specifically, but I can see one or two items getting lost in the detailed backgrounds.

Speaking of backgrounds, hello Renaissance art. The whole gang is indeed here. Despite not being an art geek or (to be honest) knowing anything sufficient about the Renaissance period, its art and world are still so gaudy and fun to behold. The game doesn’t rely on any pre-knowledge but immerses you in this weird period of time. The media is no stranger to hyperbolizing the ridiculous nature of the Renaissance period, but you don’t need context to enjoy a baby devouring a ‘cow milkshake’ or a man shitting down a chimney. The game is gorgeous, and despite its over-the-top nature, I did stop a few times to just take in the backgrounds and their attention to detail, which was a bit hard when a baby butt was in frame.

If you’re having trouble with the aforementioned good deeds set in pre-rendered backgrounds, the game very openly gives you the answers to what you need to do. I simply interacted with the local soothsayer, and a man started spouting out how to complete the first quest. Whoa! Chill out. To me, this was a bit bizarre as it didn’t explicitly state itself as a hint system. There’s no problem in giving guidance to puzzled readers, but having it so in your face felt a bit unnecessary. The puzzles are by no means challenging to the point of frustration, and due to their short run time, I was in no rush to know what I was doing. I can see that it’s done for the players’ benefit, but it could have been done without being so forefront in the game.

Overall, this game is a weird and thrilling ride from start to finish; its quests and characters are fun snippets of an over-the-top caricature of the Renaissance period, but who doesn’t want to see John Everett Millais’ Ophelia submerged in the river, moaning about her lover being too overbearing #artreference. A snippet of an adventure with a bombastic ending that had me rolling with laughter, I can’t wait to dive into the developers’ past projects and watch in delight as I recommend this game to my friends.

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