Artistic Atonement
HIGH Seamlessly interweaving high art with toilet humor.
LOW Unclear point-and-click limitations.
WTF The protagonist’s matchmaking skills should put him in jail.
How far will someone go to receive their inheritance? Can the promise of millions turn someone from a lowlife into a stand-up guy? And would all that effort be worth it? Death of the Reprobate does its best to answer that question, stringing together an adventure full of misfortune and crass humor animated with a virtual flipbook made from thousands of Renaissance-era paintings.
In the latest entry of Joe Richardson’s artsy point-and-click titles, the plot is simple. The story begins with the tyrannical protagonist Malcolm the Shit administering cruel and unusual punishments to his subjects. Suddenly he finds out his father, Immortal John, is on his deathbed — but the player has no interest in him, just his inheritance.
Upon their meeting, John finds his son so ungrateful and miserable that he commands him to do seven good deeds before he can receive his inheritance. From this point, the rest of the experience asks the player to solve puzzles, talk to chatty NPCs, and travel the painted world of Death of the Reprobate.
As one can tell from just a glance, the main selling point in Death is the art style. Quite literally, every single scene is taken from of an existing Renaissance-era painting and animated to fit in with its characters, which move in a vaguely puppet-like manner.
Death’s gameplay consists of solving problems for the residents of the hamlet where the protagonist’s father is living, which usually involved me finding items and giving them to certain NPCs. These “good deeds” ranged from breaking up a couple to match them with other partners, helping a tired maid turn her well into a hot tub, and scouting for a hunter as he killed the entire population of birds in the area. But, while it’s interesting to see how the art interacts with the puzzling in clever ways, some of the solutions won’t be obvious to average players.
In one example, there’s a small house that contains a father with four screaming children. I had to grab a bucket, put it under a cow, give the cow strawberries, then it excreted “strawberry milkshake” from its behind, after which I gave it to the kids. It’s not like I don’t understand the humor here — because it is objectively very funny — but not in a million years would I think up a solution like that on my own.
This frustration goes hand in hand with the limitations of the point-and-click genre. There are tons of items that Malcolm has to pick up and use in unfamiliar ways, such as putting a pumpkin on top of a chimney to smoke out a conclave of wizards. Even when I did solve a puzzle correctly, I never felt smarter for it — it was more like luck. The player is allowed open access to hints in the form of a Turkish man smoking a hookah next to the tavern, but using hints made me feel guilty for not giving it my all and toughing it out. That said, it was often a struggle between knowing when I had truly exhausted my options and when I had simply given up too early.
Despite being frustrated at times, those issues were minor compared to the art style and Death of the Reprobate’s other selling point — the humor.
The world “reprobate” is defined in the Calvinist religious tradition as “someone destined for damnation,” and Malcolm embodies this in almost all of his interactions. He tries to help the people out of the predicaments that they’re in so he’ll contribute to his good deed count, but he ultimately knows that no amount of goodwill he gives will help. These caricatures are so comically abhorrent and stuck-up it’s hard not to laugh with most dialogue options. For example, Malcolm tries to play matchmaker with the men in the town and his client is so picky that she chooses her ex. Another is when a dad fakes a fishing trip with his kids with Malcolm’s help, only to have his kids call him a deadbeat (among other things.)
Those were just two examples, but every character is just a testament to how strong the writing in Death of the Reprobate is. Richardson somehow interweaves physical comedy, dumb gimmicks, and clever wordplay together to create an intricate (and crass) world full of weirdos. This perspective seems to suggest that while the Renaissance was a time full of artistic revival and scientific ingenuity, people were also really stupid and gross.
Death of the Reprobate offers both artistic complexity and simple humor. It’s a journey full of laughs, jeers, and disgust — and at the end of the day, isn’t that all someone could want from a trip to an art museum?
Rating: 7 out of 10
— Jack Dunn
Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Joe Richardson. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 3 hours of play was devoted to the game. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: This game has not been rated by the ESRB, but it contains Nudity, Blood and Gore, Violence, and Strong Language. This is not a game for kids.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available for this game.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no audio cues that will affect gameplay, as the game is entirely text-based. The subtitles cannot be resized. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: The game’s controls are not remappable, as it only uses a mouse in the point-and-click style of play. There is no controller map.
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