Tim Schafer, probably best recognised by the younger generation as “That guy poking at the 360 controller in Cookie Monster’s tummy in the Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster adverts” or by older folk as one of the creative directors and writers behind classics such as Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango, brings us Costume Quest.

Originally released for consoles in October 2010, the PC version freely includes the DLC “Grubbins on Ice”. Glottis would be pleased.

It’s Halloween, the time of year kids dress up to go trick or treating. Twin protagonists, Wren and Reynold, have donned their costumes. Mom asks players to decide which sibling they’ll be for the remainder of the game and before setting off, asks them to try to make some friends. The sibling who players don’t choose is doomed to dress up as some sort of candy and be stolen away by a sweet-toothed monster.

Our protagonist races to the gate which the fiendish monster has chucked their sibling over, only to run into Dorsilla the witch who is to players what Joker is to Batman; or what frilly pink things are to Chuck Norris. She is our nemesis.

As players progress through the story, they will eventually discover two companions: a geeky science girl named Lucy who seems intent on clinical analysis, often with a dry and completely lovable sense of humour, and Everett, a typical knight in shining armour, comrade-in-arms and goodly conscience.

There are a number of eccentric costumes to discover with special in-combat and out-of-combat abilities. The starter robot costume for example, allows players to quickly skate around town; while in-combat, it allows the player to fire a barrage of rockets doing extensive damage to all opponents. Other costumes such as the ninja might grant players the ability to become invisible to sneak past patrolling mobs; or costumes such as the space warrior lights a way through darkness. Others still, have the ability to heal or resurrect.

Costume Quest

Candy is the currency of Halloween, used to buy battlestamps which grant certain effects during combat such as splash-damage, increased damage, a chance of dodging attacks, a counter-attack after a successful defend and health regeneration every turn amongst others. Players have to knock on doors to collect candy to proceed to the next area and, in doing so, run the risk  of encountering monsters.

Combat is very reminiscent of the turn-based style many JRPGs are renowned for. Apart from knocking on doors to collect candy, the risk of an encounter is not random. Players will notice patrolling mobs that they’re able to sneak up behind and whack with their pails, doing initiative damage at the beginning of the fight.

Players’ characters always take the first round in combat. Each action initiates a simple quick-time event which comes in three varieties depending on the costume: push the correct button at the correct time; mash the movement buttons to fill the bar; and simply push the button displayed.

During the monsters’ round, players once again have a quick-time event to successfully defend, substantially reducing incoming damage. At a glance, trigger-happy keyboard gamers will no doubt often confuse SPACE and SHIFT with each other.

Quick-time events aren’t a part of combat when players use their special abilities. After every two rounds special abilities are charged, granting characters the opportunity to do extensive damage, shield or regenerate their health and resurrect any fallen party members.

Costume Quest

A few enjoyable boss fights also make an appearance, giving players a chance to test their mettle and gauge how effective their choice of costume combinations are. Often with some witty repartee and silly quips.

Levels often have hidden areas with coffins hiding candy or costume parts. Sometimes knocking down a railing allows players to jump down and make a discovery. Often, using your costumes’ out-of-combat abilities lets you access these places. Using the knight’s shield to walk under a flow of water for example, or the robot’s skates to ramp over ramp-able obstacles.

There are also side-quests to be found, mini-games to be won and collectable cards to be traded for candy and XP.

Costume Quest is very simple graphically, making elegant use of cel-shading and over-head camera angles. Before battles commence, players are treated to a display of their lead character transforming into their costume.

Combat animations are uncomplicated and rarely border on anything close to extravagant. Ordinary explosions,  beams of energy, rainbow effects and fiery auras are pretty much the entirety of what to expect.

Costume Quest

There is also no audible dialogue in Costume Quest. Dialogue is presented in the form of readable speech-bubbles. This, naturally, presents a number of issues: fast-readers become frustrated waiting for the next line of dialogue to appear, afraid of accidentally skipping the entire scene; and slow readers become frustrated when the the next line appears before they’ve finished reading. Generally, this isn’t really a problem since most character dialogue allows you to button-skip to progress.

Music, ambience and special effects work really well together. Knocking on a door leaves you in momentary, slot-machine-esque suspense as you wait to discover whether there’s friend or foe lurking behind it.

There is very little music outside of the main menu with background sounds being purely ambient. Unfortunately, what little music there is is hardly memorable. Which, contrary to popular belief, is better than being utterly awful, annoying and infuriating. It means that it never seemed out of place, it worked when it had to and felt completely natural.

The DLC, Grubbins on Ice, is very much a continuation of the story after Halloween night. Our protagonist and his companions search for evidence of what happened on Halloween and end up in Repugia, the world of the monsters, facing off against a new nemesis, donning new costumes and valiantly taking on new quests.

Costume Quest

Many people would look at Costume Quest as a silly little game, possibly calling it “childish” and no doubt saying that it “looks lame.” However, Tim Schafer manages to once again impress sophisticated gamers with a lovable story, memorable characters and splendid gameplay.

The only real criticisms would be that knocking on doors eventually grows stale and combat is rarely varied enough.

However, the fact remains that Costume Quest is a fun, wonderful little Halloween romp that has been beautifully executed. If you feel like playing something a little different that still manages to feel a little old school with that unique Schafer charm to it, then here’s your answer.

It’s also completely family-friendly, so go ahead introduce it to your kids.