Although the iOS version of Fortnite Battle Royale dominated the mobile gaming headlines this week, the first wave of invites have yet to be released, which means there are other games to be played!
Death Coming is a wacky, morbid puzzle game that forces you to imagine all the ways you could kill someone indirectly, and then cause "accidents" to happen that lead to poor souls moving on into the afterlife. Death has a job to do and its chosen you to help!
Warning: Death Coming is rated 17+ on the App Store, and the content below depicts scenes from the game, which could be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
You do the dirty work
The minute you launch Death Coming, you die. If the title wasn't a big enough hint, that's kind of the whole point of the game. Although, you have been selected by The Reaper to help usher souls into the afterlife, which in short means ending some people's lives.
Of course, The Reaper goes on to explain that you can't affect humans directly — as that would compromise their free will — but all too eagerly points out that the world is full of "accidents" waiting to happen. Perhaps a window air-conditioning unit wasn't installed securely or a traffic light has a loose connection causing it to short out.
After a bit of exposition — where The Reaper comes off as a lazy manager in plenty of hilarious ways — the came thrusts you in the tutorial (known as Act 0). Here's where you learn the very simple mechanics of the game; tap items on the screen to see how you can manipulate them and cause carnage.
Plenty of unexpected deaths
This is a classic case of never judge a game by its tutorial, as Death Coming gets much better over time. When you actually start the Act 1 (after the tutorial) the game opens up in a big way, allowing you to explore a decently large sized map that has a ton of different items you can manipulate. Not only is there so much moving parts to keep tracks of, the ultimate goal is to try and kill as many people as you can in each level, and some "accidents" can cause change reactions that slay multiple people at once if timed correctly. Some items even cause characters to move or behave differently, which makes them more susceptible to death.
For example, in the first act, there's a damaged electricity pole next to a pool where a couple of people are swimming. I could easily knock the pole down shocking everyone in the water, but I noticed there was a lot of people standing beside the pool. Low and behold with a little investigation, I found out I could cause the patio umbrella to fall over, which sent a wave of people into the pool because the direct sunlight was too hot. Boom! I just doubled my kill count for when I knock over the pole.
It's multiple instances like this that actually make this game more of a puzzle than it seems on the surface because you have to maximize the damage you cause, meaning you really have to examine the whole map and weigh your options carefully.
I found it oddly satisfying when I was able to group kills together and get combos, and it was extremely fun to see exactly what kind of reaction each "accident" you caused gets from the characters on screen.
Final Thoughts
If it wasn't abundantly clear by now, this game is clearly catered to an adult audience, but the morbid theme isn't without its wacky and witty side.
The writing and plot (although not super detailed) have plenty of little jokes that keep the concept of the game fun. Plus, the retro-styled graphics go a long way to making the violence in the game pretty outlandish and not realistic.
Death Coming reminds me a lot of another great murder-centric game Slayaway Camp, that I reviewed last year. If you don't take the game too seriously, go along with its campy nature, and don't mind a bit of dark humor, you'll most likely enjoy Death Coming quite a bit.
Other games this week
I can't write a full review of every game I play, but there are plenty of great games every week that are worth checking out. Here are some other games I enjoyed this week!
Fortnite Battle Royale: The insanely popular shooter game has been making waves on console. PC, and Mac for a while now, and it's finally heading to iOS. It's not actually out yet, but you can sign up to be a part of the beta, and invites are supposed to be going out soon!
Reed: Reed is a tiny cat-like creature and the last creation of an old supercomputer which is dying without its cubes! You'll need to traverse over 50 cool 8-bit platformer levels to find all the cubes and save the supercomputer from death. $1.99 in the App Store.
Evoland 2: That's right, Evoland has a sequel, and it is everything you loved from the original and more. With over 20 hours of gameplay, this epic adventure is a giant love letter to the history of video games, and it's indeed a one-of-a-kind experience. $6.99 in the App Store.
