Recent reviews by Wrathborne

Twice as hard, but only half the fun.

I put in hundreds of hours into the first game and consider it a classic. It was difficult, but after a couple dozen hours of gameplay you got most of the game down and can enjoy the real fun, being able to relax and explore each level at your leisure. The game was cruel, but fair.

Spelunky 2 is not a game that offers that experience and sadly after 89 hours of playing I've had to come to terms with that fact. The game is overly difficult, the music isn't very good, the gameplay changes from the original are practically a detriment, you never feel like you're able to really accomplish anything because of how much easier it is to die, and most importantly its just not much fun.

The game never allows you to really relax or explore like in the first one, The crackhead moles on the dwelling area who you pretty much have to spend the time to kill because it takes twice as much effort to run away from them at times. The ridiculously small hitboxes of the mosquitos from the Jungle area are almost as bad as the thorny walls that you're gonna bump into with your last one or two hit points.
The lavamen and the lava liquid spread from the Volcano will randomly end an amazing run in an instant. Keep in mind these are JUST the first 2 levels of a run.

If these weren't bad enough you also have to now deal with unreliable hitboxes on both enemies, lava, and traps that will end a run faster than a black out. You can be just out of range on several of these and the game will still say you take the hit. Sadly ladders, ropes, and platform edges can also be unreliable and at times, especially when they count.

The level design now has removed a lot of the more open exploring feel the first game had and instead has everything whittled down to maybe two paths and a few dead ends and the game feels incredibly claustrophobic and lacks a more open feel. While the original had a lot of claustrophobic design in the level layout it still maintained some open areas, several settings lack this in the sequels randomly generated map layout and it lacks variety in a lot of the maps as a whole. The Dwelling is especially hit by this.

The games soundtrack is hit or miss. I loved the music in the original and while this games soundtrack does have some really nice tunes, several of them feel flat and bland. Also I was surprised that each setting now only has 1 soundtrack, where as in the first game each setting had several ones which helped create a really unique feel and was always a pleasure to listen too. But with the same soundtrack just endlessly looping until you finish the setting and move onto the next it gets pretty monotonous. Shout out to the Tide Pool soundtrack actually making me want to go to sleep -_-

But the real irritation is you cannot play this game the way you played the first one. Thats an instant death. You have to practically start over and if you spent a couple hundred hours on the first one you have that muscle memory kick in and get penalized for it. Thats not exactly an easy adjustment to make :/

There was an lot of anarchistic to the first game which was a lot of fun and kept you on your toes, but unfortunately this game takes that concept and gives it a steady supply of crack. There are times when you'll find out its just easier to commit suicide in a run rather that continue on and thats honestly a very depressing thing to admit. It feels almost counter productive to try to learn how the game works as I did with the first one because no matter how hard you try, this games randomness will just keep you from ever really going anywhere.

I'm no slouch to Spelunky and its not easy to say that a game is too hard, and I don't want to sound like a games journalist but Spelunky 2 is way too hard. There is an amazing game inside here, but the new design approach to trying to kill you every strep of the way combined with random elements that never allow you to really relax and have fun with the game, isn't fun at all. I'm saying this after the Mole enemy changes from a few days back too.

This isn't a game you can sit down and really have fun with as I did with the first one, and despite all the things in this game I really love, the new Olmec fight, the Temple of Anubis, the hidden levels within each level and the side quests, the non stop difficulty keeps me from getting to savor these moments because you can't enjoy what happened if you die a quarter second later from a Mole, or Lava, or flying saucer that got blown up across the map and ended up launched at you.

Spelunky 2 needs a lot more adjustments to it than just the mole issue on the Dwelling setting. If Jesus Christ was in a world made of video games then Spelunky 2 would be both the nails and his cross.

5/10

Too short, not enough content which is a shame because it IS a lot of fun.

Fun, but frustrating. the Ai and get really cheap sometimes.

Fun game but has a lot of real ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thrown in the mix that gets in the way.

Still the best. But it needs regular updates.Hell, even 2 updates a year would be sweet....even 1 update.