Recent reviews by Reda

when the imposter is sus 😳

Fun as hell. Super well-designed levels, not even close to done but I know I'm going to sink so much time into this. Hard to review without saying stuff that hasn't already been said. The literal only thing I could possibly dislike is the fact that this is locked on SteamVR so Oculus users have to deal with SteamVR peripheral combined with the Oculus client, but that isn't really a criticism at all with the game itself.

tl;dr, If you're not an AHIT speedrunner or master, don't buy it unless you REALLY want to play Arctic Cruise.

WARNING: MILD SPOILERS AHEAD. I tried to not spoil anything that isn't really early on in both Death Wish and the Arctic Cruise.

I loved A Hat in Time. It was one of my favorite games of last year. However, this DLC just does not hold up for me as a person who enjoyed playing the game on its own. For 5 dollars, I just don't think it is worth it. It was, however, worth it when it was free. Allow me to explain:

Part 1: The Arctic Cruise - Fetch Quests Galore

The Arctic Cruise is split up into 3 acts and then a few time rifts. That's already pretty low compared to any other chapter. However, each act is VERY long, so in terms of quantity you are getting what you wanted. However, in terms of quality, it's a different story.
Act 1 is my favorite act of the three, in which you explore the ship for the first time and are driven to explore because you have to find pieces of a Shattered Time Piece scattered throughout the ship. The ship is huge, with so much to do inside. However, it is somewhat easy to get lost, but it was never a huge problem.
Act 2 has seen the most patches and changes since it released, which has made it much better. It involves doing fetch quests very quickly, and if something is not fetched/delivered quick enough, you will die. Before the updates, it was painfully hectic, with so many different fetch quests needing to be done at the same time. Act 2 is still pretty... okay at best. It's hectic fetch quests, which is at least better than normal fetch quests, although it starts to become tedious after doing a lot of them.
Act 3 was my least favorite. I won't spoil what happens because it's very interesting and fun in terms of how it's written. However, gameplay-wise, it became very annoying. You are in a completely different environment from Acts 1 and 2, and have to do... fetch quests. That's really all that makes up Act 3. A Hat in Time, however, does do fetch quests in a less tedious way than other games, because the more things you carry, the more wobbly you become, which can mess up your platforming and adds another layer of thought. Aside from that, mechanically, Act 3 is fairly flawed. I kept getting lost when doing the fetch quests, and since one of them is on a timer, it was really annoying when I died simply because I had no idea where to go or how to get there. I also had several camera issues on Act 3, with it jittering every once of a while. Not REALLY bad, but definitely lower than the other ones and possibly my least favorite Act in the entire game, simply because everything else is so much better.
I have yet to complete the time rifts, but they look to be fun, normal time rifts.

Thus, the Arctic Cruise in my opinion is... okay. Probably my least favorite chapter out of them all. It has really good and fun and CUTE writing, so if that's what you're looking for, go for it. Just know that the gameplay and mechanics might not be as good as any of the others.

Part 2: Death Wish - Frustratingly Unfair.

This is definitely the longest bit of Seal the Deal. However, I think its length comes simply by how many times you will fail and restart. These challenges vary from remixed levels/bosses to different objectives you complete by going back to previous stages with a challenge - defeating enemies without getting hit, not jumping, etc. The idea of going back to previous stages with a challenge is actually very fun and interesting to me. Definitely the highlight of Death Wish. However, the remixed levels vary from a hard and difficult challenge that feels very rewarding to just stupid. The first contract, for example, is very interesting, because you have to complete the stage in which the Mafia area is filled with lava, however in order to complete the bonuses you have to beat it without touching lava or getting too hot, with Hat Kid slowly burning on fire and needing to be cooled down every minute or so. Routing the perfect way to get through the stage while completing these objectives and cooling down as few times as possible (another bonus objective) is very fun and interesting. This contract is a very positive example.
However, some contracts have bonuses that people aren't given enough resources to complete. For example, a bonus on one contract is to beat the act in under 65 seconds. However, you are not given an in-game timer on that contract, so you don't know if you've failed until you've gone above 65 seconds, because the bonus will be crossed out. It's such a simple addition that could have gone a long way. I noticed this in a lot of these. As another example, you have to beat the purple Mafia time rift under a time limit, with one bonus requirement being to collect all the rift pons. However, there is no way to know if you've collected all the rift pons in your area. Thus, I often found myself exploring an area that was ultimately empty simply because I didn't know if there was more left. Since there is a time limit and a LIFE COUNT on this contract, you'll likely lose those lives exploring and not be given enough time to find the perfect route.
I have yet to get to any of the remixed bosses yet, but from what I've seen, they look like fun remixed bosses.
Notice that I have not talked about the easy mode - Peace and Tranquility. It's a good addition, but it makes Death Wish far TOO easy. It turns what's meant to be a hard and super challenging side-mode into a snooze fest for a lot of the chapters, so I used it as little as possible. I think the entirity of Death Wish could be made more interesting if Peace and Tranquility didn't make HUGE changes like making some of the bonuses painfully easy - then I might have considered using it more and had actual challenge.
Also, Death Wish highlights many of the flaws in A Hat in Time. Small things, like how combat feels unpolished when you're trying to do it quickly, noticing things like weird delays and hitboxes, as well as the camera moving in ways that don't seem intended.
I do believe, however, that speedrunners will find a lot to enjoy about Death Wish. The time limits force the player to route smartly and push the limits of the game.

Overall, I believe that most people who own A Hat in Time won't enjoy this DLC. The new chapter is very cute, but lacking in terms of platforming, and Death Wish is interesting if you are a speedrunner but not so much if you're a casual fan, with the easy mode getting rid of any challenge at all.