A wicked little game, that's big personality, that kicks a lot of monster butt. Seriously, check this out...
Gameplay: You won’t miss Deadly Rooms of Death at all, as this game makes it redundant, unless you really like the music, the old-school graphics, and one of Beethro’s (famous) death cries, and you want to see the 4-7 minute ending that was in that game. With that said, this game is basically the same as before, where you move your character by issuing commands (up, down, left, right, and their respective diagonals, and swing sword left or right) but just with addition gameplay elements. (You may refer to my other Deadly Rooms of Death review).
More monsters, more architectural elements, and Beethro's nephew, Halph, enters this game. Halph can open doors by pressing their switch for you if you bump into a door as he can reach areas that Beethro couldn’t otherwise reach or risk, since monsters ignore Halph. *gasp* Halph isn’t always around to “help” (oh man, where is he going…), so less annoyance I suppose.
More so, the game has dialogue through certain areas, so there is more depth to this game than just a straight up puzzle game. This is done with full voice acting. As you play through the game (not very like the first one), the story will develop and unfold as you play through dialogue, however, there isn’t much of a story to follow. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is big negative, because the game is logical puzzle game. You don’t need some intense storyline to tax you brain any more, but it allows room for intrigue, and that’s just about acceptable.
The Hold Editor for the game is improved and rocks the house. Once again, the developers wanted people to make everything that develop can do in the game. There is scripts available you play which allows you do to very interesting things within the game’s engine, more than just script lines of dialogue, have NPC’s walk around, play music or sound clips from your computer, but certain things that can spice up the gameplay elements within the game. If someone makes another hold with invincible rotating “statues” wielding swords, it will make me angry…
You can import holds from the older version of Deadly Rooms of Death. This makes DROD2 compatible with any hold that was made in DROD1. Because the game hasn't essentially changed, this idea is great. Plus you can play the official hold that was in DROD1 in Deadly Rooms of Death: Journey to Rooted Hold.
The game has slight additions. One is that there is a Caravel Net membership so you can put your high scores up try to beat people by being the top of your game by efficiently solving rooms/killing lots of monsters. Maybe it you can submit your hold and see if anyone can solve it better than you… Secondly, there is a Undo Last Turn button (default, Backspace), which just save you all the hassle from Deadly Rooms of Death’s Lethal Finger Slips of Doom, which is just erases that annoyance and makes the game much more enjoyable playing.
Without a doubt this game is a sweet deal.
Graphics: A very good improvement. They are cute and cartoony, and the Roaches are shiny. You never seen a Roach so clean… ok, jokes aside, the graphical improvement and the size of the play area on screen is increased so it actually just as useful than pretty as 2D graphics go.
And that, as they say, is that.
Sound/Music: This game now has voice acting. As you progress through the game, you will have dialogue boxes and voices. I really like the voices in this game. Even for game of its stature, voice acting is very strong, and blows lots of other games’ voice acting out of the water.
Music is very interesting. Definitely fits the overall character of the game. I want more bass, because it does sound like there is too much treble in the music, and through my laptop speakers it’s annoyingly tinny.
I shouldn't moan, as I like the sound effects and the voices, and it all comes together.
Story/Presentation: The story has Beethro going back to King Durgan’s Dungeon he completed in DROD1, however he takes his nephew along with him. Beethro decides to explore as he is ever so suspicious of the nature of Hold ever expanding. And he wants know what ever it is, and go the root of the problem.
The story isn’t very immersive, but you ride it because it more of a curious angle of what is going on, and the whole world of the Eighth. How the game is overall well presented, it’s a wicked little game which just blows out DROD1 with some super scud missile. It’s that much better.
Conclusion: It’s the same game plus more. Saying that with any other game, it probably sounds like a bad thing, but this isn’t. It's like getting an improved version of Deadly Rooms of Death, plus a new Deadly Rooms of Death on top of that.
It looks better, has an improved level/Hold editor, and additional Caravel Net to share your scores with people, and fight for the leader board! Ahh!
How I'll describe the learning curve in the game:
Like my previous review in Deadly Rooms of Death, it's dependent on the person. I found the Hold in this game was easier and more steady learning curve, however I was experienced with DROD1, and even with the new elements, it wasn't too taxing. However people new to this will probably have problems over certain things which were lynchpin puzzles in DROD1 that don't go in depth as DROD2 does. I'm not saying play DROD1 before DROD2 (You can play DROD1's Hold in DROD2 for that matter), as I will probably say DROD1 Hold is easier than DROD2s. DROD2 just gets more challenging faster, but they are about the same difficulty. (Refer to my Deadly Rooms of Death review if you want know what I said).
This is the puzzle game that you can end up playing for months on end. Probably reaching years as I have. I feel this game is terribly underrated. For those seeking something new challenging on the puzzle front, this game delivers it.