Costume Quest is a downloadable game developed by Double Fine and published by THQ. It was released October 20th, 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 points or $15 USD.
The core gameplay in Costume Quest is divided between adventure game-like segments where you explore and interact with the world, and old RPG-like segments where you fight enemies in a turn-based format.
The story begins on Halloween when two young twins, Reynold and Wren, are tasked by their parents to meet some friends in the new neighborhood while trick-or-treating. You choose which character you want to be and get a cool, homemade robot costume; the other child gets a lame candy corn get-up.
When you go out, you are ambushed by a monster who kidnaps your twin, mistaking him or her for a giant piece of candy. You take up his trail and soon find out that monsters have invaded and are stealing candy from homes.
This leads to the basic progression of the game which has you exploring an area and trick-or-treating at houses and businesses for candy. This candy is the game's currency, and lets you buy items or trade with other children.
Sometimes when you knock on a door, instead of getting an adult with a handful of candy you will encounter a monster, and this begins the game's turn-based strategy combat. Your character turns in to a giant, complex version of their costume, and you take turns bashing monsters until they're gone or you're knocked out.
Each costume has its own basic attack that has a certain timed button press or stick wiggle you use to enhance damage, as well as a special ability that charges up after 3 turns. The first few costumes have devastating attacks as their specials, but later suits have healing or support abilities. For instance, the robot costume has a missile barrage that does high damage to one enemy with minor splash to all others, and also applies a fiery damage-over-time effect. The Statue of Liberty costume you eventually construct lets you heal one party member.
Some costumes also have an "exploration ability" that you use outside of combat to reach new areas. The robot costume has boosters for going over ramps, and a Space Captain costume you receive later has a light-up lazer sword that lets you move through complete darkness.
Overall, the pacing of the game is done pretty well, with a good balance between exploring and fighting. You find new costume items pretty frequently, and thorough exploration will uncover hidden caches of candy or items. You get new party members later and this lets you have some fun choosing which costume to put on who. Some of the dialog is genuinely funny, although most of it is slow, and only a few conversations and scenes can be skipped. The trademark humor of Double Fine is here but subdued--Tim Schafer only aided in developing and writing this game, with Tasha Harris being the lead.
Because you only have a basic attack and a special attack that requires 3 turns, the combat is a bit shallow. The timed button press events for attack and defense help to keep your attention but your only real option besides selecting a costume is to apply a "battle stamp" which either boosts stats or gives a tertiary ability. The low difficulty of the game makes the simplicity stand out even more.
The visuals are pretty good for a downloadable title. The cel-shading works well with the simple, big-eyed models. There is some nice colored lighting and that's about it for effects.
The audio is adequate with nothing noteworthy.
The gameplay is fun, with a good balance of exploration and combat. The fights are never very difficult but they are engaging since attack and defense can be enhanced, and using costumes' special abilities in tandem is a blast. The game rewards you for looking everywhere and doesn't devolve into long useless treks or illogical puzzles.
Overall, I can't give Costume Quest more than a 7.2 because it is good but not great. It is a well-made game with no technical glitches that I could find, but there just isn't much too it. I never even lost a fight until the final boss, and my total playtime clocked in just under 7 hours, and that was after I had taken the time to find every costume piece, battle stamp and hidden chest in the game. It was a fun way for me to kill an otherwise uneventful Halloween night but at $15 I can't recommend it to most people.
Extras: Now, don't tell anyone, but I actually played and completed this on my PS3. Still, I read up and apparently, there are some avatar awards for the XBLA version: you get a pumpkin pail when you start playing, and a pumpkin head hat/mask when you first beat the game.
Achievements: All of these are very easy. You will get most just by playing the game. To make sure you don't miss any, be sure you do the following: boost off every ramp in the robot costume, find every kid in every hide-and-seek game, win the costume contest in the mall, and buy every battle stamp Sadie sells.
