More (And less) Than Meets The Eye
HIGH So many ideas!
LOW Too many ideas!
WTF Mapping parry and dodge to the same input is either genius or madness.
Taken at a glance, one could be forgiven for writing off Death of a Wish as another isometric action game with an uncommonly good art style — I know I did. In fact, taking notes as I played, by the time I reached the halfway point I thought I had a pretty good idea of where my review was going. Yet, as I played on, I was surprised time and again (both positively and negatively) as a steady stream of twists and new mechanics continuously emerged. I will say, my initial impressions were not completely wrong, however — for the vast majority of its playtime, Death of a Wish fits squarely into the tradition of character action games emphasizing complex, technical combat and stylish execution.
On the surface, the premise appears straightforward — waging a war on a zealous religious cult, the player takes on the role of Christian (the name pun is very much intended) as he hacks and slashes his way through an army of cultists, aiming to kill its leaders who wronged him in the past. It’s not until the latter half as the narrative really kicks into gear that Death of a Wish reveals itself to be akin to more experimental titles. As it began blending genres and playing in meta-textual commentary, I discovered a much different beast than the traditional gameplay trappings first suggested. However, it is the marriage of these elements that ultimately proves a challenge for Death of a Wish — but more on that later.
Starting Death of a Wish, I was immediately struck by the art style. Neon-etched line work dances across the screen, lending the world a sense of vibrancy and dynamism with environments and characters constantly in motion as the scribbles waver and wobble. Couple this style with the bold religious iconography present throughout, and Death of a Wish has a look very much its own.
It is, however, in the intersection of aesthetics and gameplay that I first sensed disharmony. Taken on its own, the combat is clean, technical and feels good in the hands. Paired with the aforementioned art style, it suddenly becomes messy and chaotic.
Played from a top-down perspective, the player must rely on precise parries, perfect dodges and carefully timed attacks to succeed. Thankfully, Death of a Wish is unusually generous in its dodge and parry windows. That being said, with the busy art leaving neon streaks and trails behind every weapon slash, I found myself squinting, trying desperately to pick out telegraphed attacks and enemy tells through a cacophony of colors. More than once I came away from a failed battle frustrated by the visual noise, rather than by my own lack of prowess. Due to the poor readability of the more populated fights, I often resorted to mashing buttons and hoping for the best.
The gameplay fares much better in the one-on-one bouts — without the added chaos of multiple enemies or allies, I found it easier to engage intentionally with the mechanics. In those moments, the combat is a delight — parries and counterattacks have weight to them, and an intuitive combo system allows the player to organically string together attacks, fluidly swapping weapons and abilities in the process. While not reinventing the wheel, the developers have crafted a quality combat system with depth and heft. It’s just unfortunate how often it’s obscured by the visual flourishes.
The first major break from genre convention comes in Death of a Wish’s approach to failure — there is no traditional fail state or Game Over screen, and death isn’t always a setback. Instead, losing fights and replaying levels is built organically into the world and narrative — an intriguing idea executed with varying degrees of success. These systems allow the player to reset fights mid-battle, or, if the player dies too many times, sacrifice progress by reverting to an earlier part of the game in order to re-try and ultimately succeed.
Initially I was excited by these mechanics — I had hoped that by organically blending narrative and gameplay repetition into the experience, replay might reveal more about the world or provide a different perspective on events I’d already seen. Unfortunately, it truly was just the same brawls and boss fights over again, clicking through the same cutscenes and dialogue with nothing new. While the developers may have found clever ways to reframe traditional mechanics to be more thematically resonant, it feels like they missed an opportunity to really knock it out of the park.
The developer’s approach to narrative similarly struggles with balancing innovation and convention. At the risk of minor spoilers, there are several points where the gameplay abruptly shifts into different genres. These moments genuinely caught me off-guard and provide a welcome change of pace from the otherwise combat-heavy play. Disappointingly, these interludes end up being mostly superficial, functioning primarily as narrative conveyance rather than offering a truly fresh mode of interaction. They are successful in expanding story and character development, but like the re-tries, these feel like a feint towards a more interesting direction that never finds the traction it’s looking for.
In many ways, Death of a Wish is a victim of its own ambitions. With so many moving pieces it certainly kept my attention, but I kept waiting for those disparate parts to coalesce into a more focused whole — and that moment never came. What’s left is a title with an abundance of great ideas that are hampered by having to share the stage with each other. Each aspect is strong in its own right, but ultimately the aggregate falls short of its potential.
Rating: 7 out of 10
— Ryan Nalley
Disclosures: This game is developed by melessthanthree and published by Syndicate Atomic LLC. It is currently available on Switch & PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, & Drug Reference. All violence in Death of a Wish is highly stylized, and while there is blood and gore, it is not presented in a realistic fashion. While the language is not gratuitous, most four-letter words make an appearance at one point or another. Finally, as a specific call out, there is one instance of a character committing suicide on screen — it is presented in an abstract fashion but felt worthy of mention.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered or resized. All audio cues have a visual indicator. Two specific callouts — First, in several spots, white on-screen text was overlaid on a white background — this rendered some of that text illegible. This does not happen often, and the text is not spoken aloud so this issue is present regardless of sound. Second is the parry system. Enemy attacks are accompanied by both a visual and audio cue, however, during hectic fights the game becomes visually busy, and when playing without sound I found it more difficult to consistently land parries. This was particularly noticeable when being attacked from multiple angles — when playing with sound I could look at one enemy and still hear the cue to parry an enemy on the other side of the screen. In light of this, I’d say it’s not fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.
Following this introduction, Ryan dove headlong into the 16 and 64-bit eras, culminating in the year 2000 with a fateful visit to the local game shop.On the recommendation of a saintly store clerk, Ryan picked up a copy of Deus Ex and, shortly thereafter, embarked on the vain quest to find a game that tops it.
This journey has led Ryan to GameCritics where he attempts to articulate why he still finds this medium so compelling.When not playing or writing about games, Ryan can be found watching competition reality television with his wife, their dog, and three cats.
- Blood West Review - November 23, 2025
- Easy Delivery Co. Review - September 30, 2025
- Misc. A Tiny Tale Review - September 23, 2025