Something that is consistently done well in many roguelike games is creating a story that acknowledges the player’s attempt to proceed further. In Hades, protagonist Zagreus dies and resurrects each time he fails to escape, and the game’s cast acknowledges his death and comments on it. Similarly, Skul, the protagonist of Skul: The Hero Slayer, is a skeleton that reforms himself after each defeat to try once again.
The same is true for Have a Nice Death, a roguelike which puts you in the shoes of an overworked grim reaper, but it goes even further with this concept in a way that adds an extra layer of intrigue.
In Have a Nice Death, you are quickly introduced to a very odd tone that will become very familiar. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, with a large amount of humorous characters and cartoony weapons, but all of this is backdropped with a cold, depressing corporate setting. You play as Death, who works as the CEO of Death Inc. You are overworked, your employees won’t listen to you, and you shrink to about a third of your original height for some reason, so it goes without saying that things have been better.
At first, it may seem like being the literal embodiment of death is the only explanation necessary for why you can keep attempting to fight through the company, but the game isn’t satisfied with leaving it at that. Have a Nice Death purposely makes its sense of time difficult or sometimes impossible to understand. Holidays happen seemingly at random, employees can’t agree on what day it is or was, and who exactly is managing certain members of the staff is inconsistent. You may need to reinstate order in this company, but there are more issues than are initially apparent that slowly come to light.
The mixture of grim comedy and corporate atmosphere extends into the different locals as well, with each of them representing a department in the company responsible for filing souls under specific causes of death. Illness, addiction, warfare, and more are all represented with a mix of enemies themed after their respective causes of death, but the department heads are still primarily concerned with their own self-interest and benefits in the company. This makes for all sorts of strange circumstances, such as a pile of sludge threatening to start his own company or a gargoyle security guard trying to slander you on social media.
Roguelikes have always thrived on the formula of repetition, fighting through similar challenges over and over until you finally succeed. Have a Nice Death didn’t just find a way to ground its atmosphere and story in this formula, but it did so in a way that expanded the formula. It’s no longer just fighting through the same challenges to overcome them, but also learning about how small changes keep cropping up and how that can impact later runs. This game is as much a mystery as it is a roguelike, and as much a roguelike as it is a dark comedy. Regardless of how it’s identified, it’s definitely not something to be overlooked.