Death of the Reprobate is Joe Richardson’s third Rabelaisian adventure game created using Renaissance painting cutouts and backgrounds, following Four Last Things and The Procession to Calvary. While I haven’t played Richardson’s previous games, I was drawn to Death of the Reprobate after enjoying the demo at EGX 2023, particuarly it’s use of Monty Python-style humor.
In Death of the Reprobate, we play as Malcolm, the current interim leader of the North while his father, Immortal John, is on his deathbed. Upon receiving word that not-so-Immortal John is dying, Malcolm immediately makes his way to the rural shack where his father is taking his last breaths, eager to inherit his land and titles. Instead, Immortal John throws Malcolm a curve ball and suggests that his tyranny during his time as interim leader might be a bit out of touch. As his dying wish, Immortal John challenges Malcolm to do seven good deeds. Surely that’s not too much to ask?
The best word I would use to describe Death of the Reprobate is incredibly silly, which mean it’s perfect if this is what you’re looking for. As mentioned before, it takes on a Monty Python-style of comedy and blends this in with more modern, internet slang to create a game where you never know what’s going to happen next – you could walk in on monkeys curating an art gallery or peasants pleading with their neighbor to stop defecating down their chimney. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ll get by interacting with objects or people; when I tried to interact with some NPCs, Malcolm instead just blew raspberries at them. That being said, while Death of the Reprobate is incredibly funny for the most part, I did find that it could go a bit far with the shocking and toilet humor. Less so in an offensive way and more so in a ‘so disgusting it’s not funny anymore’ way.
Death of the Reprobate isn’t a long game at around two and half hours, but I do think this was the ideal length to ensure this style of humor didn’t get too tiring. There’s not really a strong central plot for it to lean after we are given our main task of performing seven good deeds, so it relies heavily on the random conversations we’ll have with the townsfolk and hearing about their bizarre problems. For what it is, Death of the Reprobate works really well and I wouldn’t have asked for anything more.
We use point-and-click mechanics to get around the town and also interact with objects and people. Puzzles consist of hearing about people’s ailments and finding bizarre ways to help them. If we’re stuck on something, we can speak to the local soothsayer who acts as the game’s hint system. I did find a lot of the puzzles in Death of the Reprobate to be surprisingly challenging considering they consist of helping a man catch fish or a woman fill up her well, which she thinks is a hot tub. All of the puzzles involve thinking outside of the box, way outside of the box, in order to solve and a lot of creativity has gone into them.
As mentioned before, Death of the Reprobate’s graphics consist of cutouts from famous Renaissance paintings. As a result it looks unsurprisingly gorgeous with some stunning backgrounds used to perfectly complement the tomfoolery going on in the foreground. As ridiculous as the game is, I also think it acts as a love letter to these pieces of art as there is an in-game art gallery where we can go and take a look at the original paintings where the characters and backdrops have been taken from. That being said, I don’t think I could look at Hans Baldung Grien’s ‘Heracles and Antaeus’ in the same way again…
As well as using a few famous classical tracks, Eduardo Antonello has composed most of the game’s period appropriate music which differs in every scene. There’s a great selection of pieces so that the same track doesn’t become overused and all of them match the scene they’re in well, you can really tell that medieval/renaissance instruments have been used to create it.
While it occasionally went a little too far with its shocking humor, Death of the Reprobate was a joy to play and I loved every moment of this bizarre adventure. It’s pleasantly challenging with some really hilarious moments.
Jess played Death of the Reprobate on PC with a review code.
