The first Samorost game was perhaps a breath of fresh air for followers of the adventure game genre, as well as those who have a penchant for browser-based Flash applications. Furthermore, its focus on surreal charm in lieu of logic and believability was surprisingly effective in delivering a refreshing and entertaining experience. However, it also has some issues, namely requiring the player to spot very tiny objects and click on them to progress in the game.
For better or worse, Samorost 2 delivers more of the same – including more tiny things to click on.
The timeline of Samorost 2 is not entirely clear. However, one thing is certain about the plot: the titular character, the space gnome Samorost, is not the lonely hermit that he was hinted to be in the first game. He now has a dog as a companion, who is shown early on in the game, residing in a dog-house outside of Samorost's abode.
The dog would soon become an objective of Samorost's next quest after a couple of rude aliens come over to his asteroid home unannounced and steal fruit from his estate, as well as abduct his dog. Samorost gets into his rocket again, this time following the aliens over to another asteroid.
Like in the previous game, the player takes on the role of Samorost's guardian angel, clicking on things that are on-screen to levitate them, shift them here and there, and turn them around, among other simple transitions. It is still not immediately clear what would happen if a player clicks on something, but like in the previous game, if something happens, the game is generally progressing.
It is only in puzzles that need a bit of logical thinking that the player can have animations repeating over and over until he/she gets the sequence of clicks right. However, the puzzles are quite easy to figure out: hints to the solution are shown on-screen, though their significance is not immediately clear to the player until after some fiddling with stuff.
As in the previous game, the player moves from screen to screen after solving puzzles or overcoming obstacles. The player has to hover the mouse cursor over anything on-screen that appears interesting, and if it happens to cause the mouse cursor to change, the player can click on it to evoke some animations, which may or may not be associated with the solution for the puzzle that has been encountered.
These animations, like those in the previous game, are performed using cartoonish sprites that contrast greatly against the lavishly detailed background. The animations are almost always entertainingly weird; they may be creatures that bloat and curl, machines with parts that move on their own without any cause of motion and even floating condiments that shake themselves over a pot or cauldron, among other surreal sights.
Miscellaneous animations that do not contribute to the solution of a puzzle do not disable the ability of the cursor to evoke reactions from other on-screen things, whereas those that are involved with a puzzle does, though the player can still click on miscellaneous objects just for fun.
The sprites in the earlier game were rather simply done, with some simple shading given to simulate shadows. The sequel offers sprites with more details, such as the one for Samorost himself. Although Samorost is still an almost-humanoid creature clad in white pajamas like he was in the first game, he has more shading to differentiate his body parts from each other in the sequel, which makes him look less like an amorphous white blob, especially when he is moving around.
The background still has the same art direction as the original, so the player can expect scenery that looks believable at first glance but definitely not upon closer examination. Asteroids that look like they are made of stone but also old wood are back again, alongside newer sights like a flower that protracts its very long stamen when in contact with a strange-looking fly-like bug.
The sound designs in the sequel are more numerous than those in the previous game, which is appropriate as the sequel is substantially longer. Many sounds are performed using the human mouth, as in the first game, but there are more sounds that are more convincing this time around. Most of them accompany on-screen occurrences that happen during the progress of solving a puzzle, though some of them are reserved for ambient noise which, as in the first game, is not too intrusive.
In the previous game, there was a bit of voice-acting, specifically for Samorost himself. In the sequel, there is still some voice-acting, but all of them are now non-legible utterances. (This marks the point in the history of Amanita Design where it gives up any effort to have legible or coherent voice-acting in its games.)
As in the first game, the music is the most well-done aspect of the sound designs. Tomáš Dvořák returns to compose the soundtrack for Samorost 2, and like what he did for the previous game, the soundtracks in Samorost 2 are pleasant and serene to listen to, though there are a couple of mischievous tunes for the occasions where less-than-nice characters are on-screen.
A player who has experienced the previous game would notice that Samorost 2 is practically more of the same. Unfortunately, the same things also include designs that are not user-friendly in the first game.
The most obvious (irony not intended) of these are tiny on-screen objects that the player has to click on. There are even more of these in Samorost 2 than in the first game, and the problem appears to have worsened.
Some of these objects still have enough visual contrast from the rest of the screen, such as (very small) buttons and valves which otherwise have colours and shadows that make them stand out. Of course, one can argue that the sizes of these on-screen things are justified as they are of believable relative sizes to anything else on-screen, but this only serves to reinforce the notion that the game designer does not have user-friendliness in mind all the time.
This is especially so for screens with multiple segments that could have been separated and included as screens of their own, such as one scenario where Samorost has to crawl through three separate segments of a drainage system; the drainage system is large, causing every detail on-screen to become quite small when the system is fitted into the screen. Of course, one can argue that this particular scenario was designed so for artistic considerations (e.g. the current segment lights up when Samorost is in it whereas the rest dims and darkens, which is an undeniably pleasant visual effect), but a trading of user-friendliness in return for artistic appeal is never a good trade.
Then, there are on-screen things that are not only tiny, but also lacking in contrast with the rest of the screen. The previous game mitigated the problem of small sizes with significant visual contrast, which makes this flaw in the sequel all the more deplorable.
To cite an example of this flaw, there is one scenario where a hermit with a super-imposed human face (and whom players would recognize as a recurring character) asks for the return of his smoking pipe. Although he does point out where the player should look for a solution, he doesn't tell the player the entirety of the solution. Of course, considering that this is an Amanita Design game, the player would know that he/she has to go on a pixel-hunt for the object that can solve the puzzle.
Unfortunately, the object needed is very small and has very little visual contrast with the background. This does not compensate for the typical lack of logic and believability of puzzles in Amanita Design's games, and is far from the usual practice in the previous game, which at least made such objects stand out from the rest of the screen.
It is not just small objects that have small hitboxes that elicit a change in the mouse cursor (thus telling the player that this object can be interacted with). Sometimes, there are large objects with very small portions that change the mouse cursor, even though the ensuing animations actually cause the entirety of the objects mentioned to be animated. The game could have done better with much bigger regions that alter the mouse cursor and allow interaction with these objects.
For example, there is one scenario in the game where the player must get Samorost out of a bind. That his dog is needed for the solution would soon be clear to the discerning player, and what the dog may have to interact with should also be obvious soon, but which part of the object to click on is not immediately apparent. The player would be hovering the mouse all over said object before eventually arriving at where he/she needs to click. The discerning player is likely to consider that this is not an optimal location to click on, especially when considering that what the dog does causes the entire object to be animated.
In conclusion, Samorost 2 offers more of what its predecessor did well, but it also does virtually nothing to prevent the repetition of the flaws in the latter, and has in fact made them worse. It is still an enchanting experience, but said flaws mar it.