Grubbins on Ice is still a fun adventure, just not an expansive one.
Grubbins on Ice carries on straight from the end of Costume Quest story wise though is a separate adventure for the four protagonists in it's own right. The dialogue is still fun to read and the characters still radiate a surprising amount of charisma though the game seems less plot driven this time around with the character focus shifting slightly away from the brother and sister duo, and instead on their two friends.
While investigating the Grubbins appearance from the first game, one of the children is sucked through a portal into the Grubbin realm leaving the other three to go on a rescue mission to bring her back, not to mention get home themselves, help a revolution, and above all, still trick or treat.
Combat hasn't changed even remotely with the exception of three new costumes for your characters to wear during battle. These costumes dictate the character's fighting style, so a Knight could have a defensive ability using it's shield for example where as a Vampire could drain health.
Like before, each costume has a basic attack whose top damage relies on varying quick time events depending on the costume, as well as a unique special attack. The new costumes like the old, also have abilities to be used outside of battle to help move around and find your way like a pirate hook to go down zip-lines adding some nice variation.
Grubbins on Ice gives access to the dozen or so costumes from Costume Quest as well as all other equipment and collectibles like trading cards and the stat boosting stamps. The trading cards seem to do little other then some humour and give access to mini trading quests while the battle stamps can be equipped one per character giving various stat boosts or even minor abilities. There are new additions of cards and stamps to collect on your travels but only half a dozen or so. The new stamps seem a bit over powered however, especially for a game that wasn't overly difficult to begin with.
The visuals are just as colourful and stylish as before with some nice area variations once more including snowy mountain tops, caverns and holiday springs. The music and sound effects are still solid setting a nice atmosphere, the scary music played when a Grubbin answers a door is especially well placed. There is of course like the original still no voice acting though the well written dialogue and comic book speech bubbles still make up for that.
Grubbins on Ice is about the same size as one of the areas from Costume Quest making it not huge for it's price. Completing 100% of the new trophies, collecting everything and completing the dozen or so missions available too about one and a half hours, so it is painfully short to finish in time, if not in content. It also ends in a bit of a lame cliffhanger so I expect there will be another expansion on the way.
The bottom line is that Grubins on Ice adds more of the same from the original Costume Quest. The dialogue is well written, the world is unique and it's just generally fun full of personality. On the down side of things it doesn't really add all that much more and it is painfully short so if you really liked Costume Quest this is for you, if you have your doubts you may want to spend your cash elsewhere.
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+ Dialogue is still entertaining.
+ Visuals are stylish.
+ Variety of costumes make combat fun.
- Can be finished 100% in less then 2 hours.
- Doesn't offer much challenge.