Review #704: MediEvil II

 Medievil goes a-head with a sequel!

 Medievil was pretty darn good, so a sequel was inevitable. In a few words, MediEvil II is just ye olde 'more of the same', but as per usual, when 'the same' is already good, more ain't such a raw deal.

 The plot takes place 500 years after the first game, a Devil-thing-creature is trying to collect the pages of an evil sorcery book, and it just so happens that Dan Fortesque wakes up, alongside other undead, and sets out to stop the new baddie. The new plot is, to put it mildly, pretty bland. The first game had such an original premise, having Dan receiving undue honors after his death, so in stopping the big bad he slowly earned the respect of the other dead heroes that the new plot pales in comparison. The new cast of characters is pretty bland, the new love interest barely gets 2-3 lines of dialogue and we are supposed to believe that Dan feels anything for her. The latter third of the game is driven by a dumb time-travelling contrivance, it's pretty lame and made me lose any kind of interest I had in the plot. The script is still very humor-heavy, but I didn't find it funny.

 Gameplaywise it's pretty much identical to the first game, this being an action-adventure game in which you have to solve simple puzzles as you hack and slash your enemies to bits. Dan can equip a decently sized arsenal of weapons, including swords, an ax, a hammer, a gun, a crossbow and even a minigun. Movement in the game is pretty slippery, just like it used to be, and combat is as janky as ever, but it's pretty endearing nonetheless. X is your basic attack, while Square is your  special move, be it a spinning slash or shooting electricity from a cane. A new addition is being able to quickswap between two different weapons without having to enter your inventory, which is quite neat.

 The game offers a nice variety of new environments, heck, I'd say this game's stages were more appealing than the original's. There's this one standout level in which you have to traverse the city streets, avoiding policemen since you are breaking the curfew, while finding an entry card to a club. Only to find out that you don't look like the guy on the card, so now you have to find a beard... only to get told that you can't enter 'dressed like that'. That said, they added fall damage into the game, which is quite annoying. The game is slippery enough as it is, so missing jumps is bound to happen, and if you fall far enough, it might cost you an entire lifebar. Not cool. The last couple of levels were a bit annoying due to this, they involve a lot of climbing and a lot of moving platforms, where one wrong jump could cost you your precious health.

 One new addition to the game is being able to place Dan's head on top of a zombie hand, which you can then control to enter small crevices and holes. It adds a new dimension to puzzles, sometimes you might have to work by alternating between Dan's body and Dan's head, for instance, you might need to press levers as Dan's body in order to make a route for Dan's head, or maybe you need to place Dan's head somewhere his body can't fit, and then switch to the head in order to see the answer to the puzzle at hand.

 One of the best things about the previous game was collecting Chalices. By defeating every enemy in a stage you'd earn the right to collect the Chalice of Souls, provided you could find it, which would reward Dan with goodies upon completing the stage. Well, filling the Chalice has been made easier since you don't need to find every single enemy anymore, which is, arguably, better since it's a bit more lenient. Rewards are much better this time around too, since you're guaranteed a new weapon, the previous game had a few filler rewards, such as bags of money. The other major collectible are Life Bottles, which extend Dan's life bar. And boy, are they a necessity this time around! Health Fountains, the thingies that refill your life bar, no longer reset when revisiting old levels. That's right, you can possibly exhaust every restorative in the game, which could translate into an unwinnable game. LAME.

 MediEvil II is a good game, but barely an alright sequel. It has some neat additions, like the DanHand and the weapon quickswap, but also took some steps in the wrong direction, such as falling damage and depletable sources of healing. I really enjoyed most of the new levels, and I liked the variety, getting rewarded with new weapons every new level, provided you found the chalices, feels great and I found some of the new puzzles quite brilliant. That said, for as good as this game is, I think the first game is a stronger product, it was a bit more consistent in quality, it may not have had as many memorable levels as this one, but it didn't have falling damage that pretty much ruined a few levels for me. Plus, the story was much, much better and more engaging to boot.
 7.5 out of 10