Endings are sometimes great. I like when games have endings, because it means I can go on to do something else. I like when series have endings because then I can stop thinking about them, clearing room for whatever else I think about. As such, we are here at the end of Joe Richardson’s point-and-click art desecration series, which he has termed The Immortal John Triptych.

If that all sounds new to you, the series began with Four Last Things and proceeded to The Procession to Calvary. In the former, you’re tasked with committing the seven deadly sins. In the latter, you seek church-sanctioned murder. Solid stuff. Real wholesome.

And now, with Death of the Reprobate, we have to… perform seven good deeds? Aw, lame.

DEAD JOHN’S DEAD

You probably don’t have to play the other two games in the Triptych first (I’d recommend it), but if you did, you will recognize Immortal John. He’s dying! How ironic! And his son, a regal piece of shit (that’s you), is hoping that the crown will be passed down to him. Unfortunately, Immortal John has become judgmental and doesn’t look favourably upon his spawn. He recognizes him as a piece of shit.

However, the piece of shit swears that he can change, so he’s tasked with doing the aforementioned seven good deeds to prove it.

If this sounds reminiscent of Four Last Things, it’s supposed to. But, more importantly, it means that you’re let loose on the town to seek out targets for your good deeds. These start out with teaching a man to fish, but before you know it, you’ll be feeding cow shit to a toddler. For a good cause, obviously.

MECHANICAL MECHANIC

Your targets for good deeds are literally pointed out to you. God holds an arrow above the deed-needer in question, and you therefore know that a deed needs done. Now, I’m not one to complain about yellow paint, and this honestly didn’t bother me much, but this wasn’t required in Four Last Things, so I’m not sure why such a mechanical mechanic is necessary.

Regardless, in typical poink adventure tradition, these folks give you a problem to solve, and you have to go and solve the related puzzles. It plays somewhat like a cross between Four Last Things and The Procession to Calvary, where there’s a mix between barrier NPCs and non-linearity.

Like the previous games, I completed Death of the Reprobate without needing outside help. Once again, a few of the puzzles are pretty outlandish, and some of them require thinking outside of the established format to really solve. They’re easy enough that I never really got stuck, but challenging enough that I felt pretty smart. It’s a high standard to meet. Gold star.

KIND SIR

Weighing every game in the Triptych, Death of the Reprobate lands at the bottom. Or it’s the lightest. Heaviest? I’m not sure how that analogy is supposed to go. What I mean is that it’s disappointing. But it’s not that it’s significantly deficient, it’s just that it doesn’t hit as hard.

The sense of humour is still here. It’s outrageous, toeing the line of tastefulness. Being cobbled together from a heap of classical paintings, there’s lots of opportunity for absurdity, and it’s usually on target. Joe Richardson is as sharp as ever.

It just didn’t hit me with anything that sticks. Not like the last two games managed. Well, that’s not entirely true. One quest where you need to find a husband for a woman by any means necessary was genuinely amusing. Helping a pair of aggressively sexual folks have public intercourse is always a good time. I just think that the do-gooder trappings of Death of the Reprobate leaves less room for the darkly absurd. But not entirely. There is some solid pay-off at the end, however. But then that kinds of gets overshadowed.

Listen, I’m just trying to say that the jokes are still good, but their punchiness just didn’t give me a proper concussion this time.

For that matter, there’s nothing quite as inventive as The Procession to Calvary’s gameplay twist of being able to solve every puzzle through violence. Not that I expected a return of that little feature, but something else that differentiates it from every other poink adventure game would have been appreciated.

ALL OF IT

Still, playing through the entire Immortal John Triptych gets a recommendation from me. That lows aren’t that low, and the highs are still much higher than most of its genre peers, so you’re actually doing a disservice by not playing any of them. What’s wrong with you?

I’m just here to tell you that The Procession to Calvary is the strongest. Four Last Things is in between. Death of the Reprobate is the weakest. Not by a measurable amount. In fact, based on this site’s rating system, all the games are getting the exact same rating, that’s how consistent they are in quality. But I’m a millennial. I was raised with the internet, and on the internet, we like ranked comparisons, so there it is.

7/10

This review was conducted using a digital Steam version of the game. It was paid for by the author.