Death or Treat, an upcoming hack and slash roguelite from developer Saona Studios and publisher Perp Games, will officially launch on May 5th, 2023. It will be available on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and next-gen consoles for PlayStation and Xbox. You can watch the full official teaser trailer on Saona Studios’ YouTube channel:
The general art design of Death or Treat has a Saturday Morning charm to it, and lots of creative environments. The visuals genuinely capture the youthful spirit of Halloween. The game boasts characters, objects and settings that feel just slightly askew, shadowy, and playful.
Death or Treat also turned out to be surprisingly self-aware about screen time, to the extent that Death or Treat references real-life platforms like YouTube and Netflix.
Notably, the PlayStation release date trailer did not include the political reference in the developer’s trailer description, “make Halloween great again”. All politics are generally unwelcome in gaming, outside of parody or outright mockery. But Death or Treat seems like an impish game, so these references are probably meant to be humorous and players will likely give them a pass.
The opening cinematic has a little edge to its sense of humor, regarding drugs and screens, and it’ll be very interesting to see how Death or Treat’s plot unfolds.
Either way, it looks like Death or Treat took the opportunity to succeed as a game first and foremost, with tidy mechanics and great artwork, before layering on any commentary or themes. This should definitely turn out to be a treat.
Although Madrid-based developers Saona Studios do not have any other games to compare, Perp Games has often championed actual horror games like Greyhill Incident, which launches in June.
You can read more about Death or Treat, Saona Studios, and other upcoming roguelites by checking out the rest of our news section.
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