App Army Assemble: Death Coming - A puzzler worth dying for?

If you haven't had the chance to pick up Death Coming yet and you love weird, interesting puzzlers, you really should add it to our list.

We thoroughly enjoyed it on Pocket Gamer, saying "It's a weighty and intelligent game, and the freedom it gives you to puzzle things out on your own offers an authority that other games don't trust you with."

But, what does our App Army think of it? We've put it to them and now's it's time to see how well the game stands up under pressure.

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Well, this was a much-needed respite from all those lookalike platformers, sims, shooters, and, of course, battle royale games that have inundated the App Store these days. Here you are tasked with harvesting souls of petty mortals who've outstayed their welcome on planet Earth and deserve to be crushed by AC units, burnt alive, bitten to death by dogs or bees, and so on.

In order to succeed you need to employ various creative and sophisticated methods of killing, while paying attention to potential victim's movement pattern, habits, timing, and guardian angels that interfere with your murderous plans.

Every level boasts unique storyline and quite an abundance of tiny details that enhance your appreciation of this little masterpiece. The game has got a rather fluid pinch-to-zoom system that comes in handy should you have a small screen device, poor eyesight, or both.

A lot of love and care went into the creation of DC, which is evident from the very first minute of gameplay completely devoid of boring moments. I am afraid I am turning into a bloodthirsty maniac and I can't help it.

This is really a gem. The game is super fun and really clever, and there's much more than meets the eye. Don't be fooled by the cute look (which is pretty awesome), things get hectic later on.

You need to carefully watch little people go about their lives to find the best way to.... kill them. Some solutions to the puzzles are pretty convoluted and super satisfactory. Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful, cute, clever puzzler slightly similar to Hidden Folks, but more colorful and less boring. I was a little worried, but it works perfectly on a smaller phone display. It's worth its full price without any doubts. Highly recommended.

"Everybody loves the bad guy," said Tony Montana in Scarface, and while you're not a drug-dealing crime boss, in Death Coming you are, very much so, the bad guy. You play Death's assistant, shuffling souls from their mortal coil using various environmental hazards in the hope of being granted a second chance at life. It's a huge amount of fun and very hard to play without an evil grin on your face.

Gameplay is best described as an interactive Final Destination. Rickety wardrobes, badly stacked boxes, and exposed electrics become your tools, utilised to bring about the untimely end of each level's ill-fated inhabitants. You can lure targets with distractions and time a manhole cover, for instance, to fall away as they step onto it. Perform too well and you'll attract the attention of angels who fly around the level trying to catch you in your evil undertakings. Did I mention how much fun it is?

The cute pixel graphics contrast nicely with the macabre nature of the game and the elevator-style music, while unobtrusive, is nothing special. The sound FX also deserve a mention, cries of "monster kill" as you reap multiple spirits are immensely satisfying. Death has never been so much fun.

Look at the cute little townspeople minding their own business. It's warm outside, so they want to go to the pool. Not yet! Oh, the umbrella closed? Right, now they're off to the pool and ZAP!!! All dead.

I feel a little guilty, but oh-so-satisfied. Snip a cable here, drop an AC unit there, lift the blinds, close a curtain - all simple and innocent items that KILL!!! This game is very enjoyable. The mechanics are simple, but the ways of using them are fun, and there are no in-game purchases. No gems, no gold bars, no platinum coins.

Have fun, because I will.

"I have become death..." (I don't think the rest of the quote is applicable here). I've really enjoyed this game. I find it a game of patience, having to wait for the right time to trigger the trap to claim your souls.

I played this on an iPhone and felt that a bigger screen would have been better, but this didn't take from the enjoyment of the game. The overall feel is fantastic, one that has the ability to grip you and have you coming back for more.

Death Coming is part-'find the hidden object' and part-puzzler. Tapping the right object at the right time brings death a little early, even to a neighborhood of kids. It is very clever and certainly engaged my imagination.

The graphics are simple and appealing, but after a while I lost interest in finding ways to kill children - even animated ones. It is very well made, so if the subject matter appeals to you then you'll love it, and on that basis I’d recommend it.

This is the best puzzler I've payed in ages. It's very original, I love the graphics and the death helper, and I'm totally invested in killing the little dudes.

When it comes to mass murder simulators, I'm biased. Death Coming fits snugly between Party Hard Go and Hidden Folks. If Party Hard Go is Friday the 13th, then Death Coming is Final Destination. Every mission is a vast scene, filled with cute little characters whose cute little lives are about to get maimed in gruesomely satisfying ways.

Synchronized dancers shrieking amidst a swarm of bees, an entire ice hockey team and the opposing team smeared across the pitch by a well timed avalanche, mauled by dogs, dropped in acid, eaten by carnivorous plants, the list goes on. I find myself studying the serene scenes, growing attached to the little characters in their daily routines, playing out their personal dramas before absolute madness unfolds to their terrified screams.

The humor is black as death, the gameplay is challenging and often requires several attempts of playful murder before you massacre in earnest, the graphics are cute enough to mask your true horror at yourself from your conscious mind, and at $1.99 it is an absolute steal.

Death Coming finds you in the role of Death's assistant helping Death to kill people in many different ways. You are given an area filled with people going about their business and using items in the environment, like a precarious plant pot, an electrical wire near water, a bomb, or a barrel of toxic waste, to kill as many people in one go as possible.

It's very much a puzzle first as some deaths have to be planned to ensure you get all of the key people on each level needed to complete it, and so there can be a fair amount of trial and error to ensure the right person is killed by the right circumstance.

The game is pixel style and it works well with the humour, the sounds are great, and deaths are nice and squishy. I like the game and it's worth the money. I think it's better suited to a bigger screen than the iPhone 6 I played it on, but it's still playable. Nice screaming, squishy, deathly fun. OH and careful the Angels don't see you.

Death Coming is a bit different from typical hidden object games. This time you have to find those that are defined "death traps", places where people can be killed by accident, and then you have to use them to kill as many people as possible.

Going deeper in the levels, you'll have to be very smart to build up your perfect killing situation, as there will be occasions where the death opportunity won't be very straight forward.

Overall, Death Coming is very much appreciated, bringing some fresh air to the genre. I really love this game as much as I did with Hidden Folks.

I played on both devices and while it was better on a larger screen, it was still a lot of fun on my phone. If I had any criticism it would be the game not syncing between my devices.

I'm a huge fan of Party Hard, so much so that it has a permanent place on my phone... at least until part two arrives. That said I was still surprised by just how much I loved this game

While in PH you take a more hands-on approach to dispatching your victims, it was still a lot of fun finding ways to send the little pixel people to the afterlife. I loved the graphics and it has great storyline. The fun situations, plus a lot of good humor, make this a must-have game for any device.

There lots of ways to kill here, but finding ways to maximize your attacks, avoid the angels, and complete every single mission 100% gives it replay value as well.

I have been eagerly anticipating this one for a while and it hasn't disappointed. I'm not a fan of the overly-used 'retro' design in most mobile apps, but it works well here and keeps the often cluttered action clear even on smaller screens.

The humour is nice and gives the game a bit of character. The only compromise is that playing on a small screen can be a little awkward with fat fingers, but I never felt this led to fatal (or in this case non fatal) errors. Highly recommended.

I'm really enjoying this game. As others have said it's an interesting take on the hidden object genre where finding the hidden objects results in the collection of souls. The levels are complex with plenty going on and nothing is as simple as it seems.

I love the style and humour. All in all, this is a great game and has kept me coming back for quite a few hours so far. I definitely prefer playing on the bigger iPad screen. Though I tried on my iPhone X, I found everything just a little too small and was constantly having to zoom in and out.

Wow, I haven't had so much fun on a game for ages. From the concept to execution, this game is so good. The long and short is that you have to help the grim reaper by killing as many people as possible using the things around them.

There is so much content in each level it keeps you thinking throughout, there are weather changes to help change strategy, and some of the ways you kill people are really amusing. It's easy to play and the levels are beautifully designed.

It's not like me to gush, but this game is an exception to the rule. Would definitely recommend.

The App Army is Pocket Gamer's very own community of mobile game experts. Each week, we provide them with a bunch of free codes and early access to the hottest upcoming games so they can provide their thoughts in features like this.