Have a Nice Death

Have a Nice Death commits to one of the more inspired premises in the crowded action-roguelike field: you play Death himself, an exhausted CEO whose corporate afterlife has spiralled out of his employees' control, forced to grab a scythe and personally restore order. That corporate satire angle, paired with genuinely gorgeous hand-drawn art, gives the game a distinct identity in a genre where Dead Cells and Hades comparisons are almost unavoidable. Reading its full review history carefully is worth doing here, because a meaningful share of its most critical early reception traces back to a rocky Early Access period rather than the game buyers encounter today.

A distinctive style that carries real combat weight

The game's presentation is close to unanimously praised — a striking, hand-drawn aesthetic paired with a genuinely funny dark-comedy tone that treats corporate middle-management dysfunction as its central joke. Underneath that style, combat draws favourable comparisons to Dead Cells and Hades when it's clicking, with curses and weapon combinations giving runs real build variety. Several reviewers specifically single out the game's options and accessibility menus as unusually thorough for the genre.

What was fixed, and what wasn't

A large share of Have a Nice Death's most heavily-upvoted negative reviews date from its 2022 Early Access period, describing bland early stages, broken curses and weapons, and a build that several reviewers explicitly said wasn't ready for release yet. The game's full March 2023 release addressed much of that criticism directly, and the complaints that persist in more recent reviews are narrower and more specific rather than a continuation of the same launch-era frustration.

The complaint that's actually current

What does show up consistently in post-release reviews is difficulty pacing at the very end of a run. Several reviewers describe the final bosses spiking sharply above the challenge curve the rest of the game establishes, turning what had been a manageable difficulty progression into a frustrating wall late in a run. A secondary, related complaint concerns stage variety — some reviewers describe levels feeling more repetitive across a full playthrough than the game's presentation initially suggests, a real point of comparison against genre leaders that manage more distinct run-to-run variety. A progression system some find unsatisfying or unclear compounds the frustration during these tougher stretches.

Final verdict

Have a Nice Death delivers a genuinely distinctive premise and gorgeous presentation, and much of its harshest reputation reflects an Early Access period the full release has since moved past. It settles at 7 rather than higher because the current, more specific complaints — a real late-game difficulty spike and thinner stage variety than genre leaders — are consistent enough across recent reviews to weigh seriously. Buy it for the style and the strong first stretch; be prepared for the final bosses to ask considerably more than the rest of the game trains you for.

Price and review data checked 5 August 2026.

If you'd rather your progression avoided a sudden late-game difficulty wall, Wanderer keeps its own pacing steadier throughout.