When I first found out I was going to be reviewing Felix the Reaper I was really excited. It seemed different than most puzzle games out there, especially the ones I have played throughout the years. It was billed as a romantic comedy that had narration from Captain Picard himself, Sir Patrick Stewart but after finishing it I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up, unfortunately.
Love and Death
Felix the Reaper, as I mentioned above, is a romantic comedy based in a 2D puzzle game. You play as Felix, a new Reaper in the Ministry of Death that has fallen in love with Betty the Maiden from the Ministry of Life. Felix decides that the only way he will get to see his beloved is if he becomes a field reaper and goes out into the mortal world.
The Ministry of Death doesn’t have high hopes for Felix as he (as they call it) has an infliction, he loves to dance. So Felix sets out with his headphones, dance beats and his silky moves to carry out the bidding of the Ministry in the hopes of a glimpse of Betty.
Romeo and Juliet this is not
On starting Felix the Reaper you are given a short tutorial narrated by Death (Sir Patrick Stewart) on how the game works. You see Reapers can only move in the shadows so you will have to use your surroundings and nearby objects in order to cast longer shadows and move around the grid map. This is easy enough at the start because of the step by step guidance in your ear.
Each chapter of the game consists of between 4-5 sections that you will manipulate the area and will lead up to the death of one of the humans on the map. The pay off is a gruesome accident that you will work hard to achieve.
The learning curve of Felix the Reaper is steep and I am not ashamed to say I used the “Next Step” option in the pause menu and even with that I googled how to get through certain sections. More often than not I would be moving barrels and crates back and forth and crying in frustration because I couldn’t get to where I needed to be. I thought it was just me being slow-witted but on actually seeing how it’s done I knew there had to be other people in the same boat.
It looks pretty.
A Soulless Reaper
The lack of interaction between Felix and Betty really let this game down. You read romantic comedy and dialogue and a chance to really get behind the two lovelorn characters but there is nothing, even Sir Patrick Stewart gives up and only talks to you at the end of a completed Chapter.
If done right Felix could have been a great mascot character for Kong Orange, he looks great, he dances and is a great twist on what we see Grim Reapers as but there is no voice for him and with that no soul or connection with the audience. I wanted to be playing the game and rooting for our hero but instead, I was waiting for the end and even at that I felt the whole game was one big prequel setting up a bigger game in the future.
Felix The Reaper is out now on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows PC and Mac via Steam and GOG.com. It is also available as part of the Xbox Game Pass.
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