![]() ![]() ![]() My death was so stupid, but so fair, that there was nothing to do but laugh it off and try again.įucking up in Spelunky 2 teaches you what not to do, but it can also uncover exciting new strategies. I stared at the death screen in a combination of horror and delight. I smushed myself, inches from the exit to the jungle level. I blithely set about pickaxing my way through everything, feeling pretty good about myself, until I destroyed a clod of dirt without thinking about the stone block above it. This was bad - all future shopkeepers would try to kill me - but also good, because I could snag the pickaxe that lets you chop through the game’s geometry. In one run, a horned lizard rolled at me I jumped over him, but he smashed into the shopkeeper and killed him. Every failure is my own fault: some consequence I didn’t think through, some careless mistake I made at the wrong moment, some risky move I couldn’t pull off. I’ve failed over and over, sometimes within seconds of starting. The game’s world feels more full of life all these variables make things more difficult, but also expand the stories you’ll come away with.Īfter two straight days of playing, I have not risen to Spelunky 2’s challenges. There are rideable animals, which have their own combat abilities: I bought a dog that belches fireballs in one run, and in another run I tried to tame a wild turkey only to have it run me straight into some spikes as I struggled to control it. I’ve seen the game’s ghost way more this time around, for reasons I won’t spoil. There are still spiders, and bats, and cavemen, but there are also horned lizards who’ll roll over you and burrowing moles whose paths you have to keep track of lest they spring up and damage you. ![]() Spelunky’s first level was relatively sparsely populated, but here it’s full of enemies old and new. Instead of changing what makes Spelunky so great, Spelunky 2 adds more to it. Spelunky 2 felt instantly familiar to me, while still making me curious how each run would go and what strange adventures I’d have in its levels. ![]() The delight comes from how these things work together, how your actions will set off a chain reaction or how a new layout will make an enemy or hazard you usually breeze past a thrilling challenge. Arrow traps will always trigger when you drop in front of them bats will always move in their bizarrely terrifying diagonal shopkeepers will always get pissed if you steal their stuff. One of the great pleasures of Spelunky is that, once you’ve seen something once, you always know how it works. This is excellent news: More Spelunky is exactly what I hoped Spelunky 2 would be. There are a few tweaks to the basic formula, such as online multiplayer and a hub area where the characters you’ve unlocked hang out, but from what I’ve seen so far, Spelunky 2 is, at its core, basically more Spelunky. Spelunky 2 is set on the moon, according to the opening narration, but I haven’t seen much of the effects of that in my playthroughs of the game’s first two areas, which are an area called “dwelling” that looks similar to Spelunky’s starting mines, and a jungle area reminiscent of the first game’s second level. There are enemies to face and environmental hazards to dodge, ropes and bombs to help you navigate, gold and gems to collect and spend at the occasional shop, and pets to rescue for extra health. Structurally, it’s similar to its predecessor: you choose a character and guide them deeper through a series of themed underground levels whose layouts change each run, getting as far as you can before permadeath sends you back to the start. Spelunky 2 releases tomorrow for PlayStation 4, with a Steam release coming September 29. Spelunky 2 keeps the original’s winning combination of change and constants, but adds new enemies, traps, and secrets. In the 100 hours I’ve spent with the first game, my skills, mistakes, and choices are what make every run unique and exciting. Your objective never changes enemy behaviour is always predictable. In the original Spelunky, every run is different, but it’s also always the same. ![]()
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