The narrative featured in Costume Quest 2 picks up with the gang exiting through a time portal to arrive home on Halloween. It's not long before the mischievous Dr. Orel White shows up and ruins the holiday for everyone. It seems the mouth hygiene obsessed dentist has managed to travel through time and summon a legion of monsters that have removed candy and costumes from the world and made the dental surgeon supreme ruler of the new world. It will be up to the series' four heroes to travel through time in order to stop the powerful dentist warriors and save Halloween. The storyline is fun and easily enjoyable for gamers of all ages.
The same humor and charm that made the original Costume Quest such a treat is alive and better than ever in Costume Quest 2. The game sees the return of the four heroes from the original game, but the gang must travel through time and space in order to save Halloween. The game presents three very different environments for players to explore including the past, where plenty of baddies roam and a future where candy and costumes are prohibited and laws are enforced by robot armies. The game doesn't feature a lick of voice acting, but the game's characters are still full of life and are a big part of the reason that the game series remains so fun.
Costume Quest 2 is based heavily in classic JRPG mechanics. The game offers players combat similar to what would be found on the original PlayStation from the Square Enix company with a few changes. The game forces players to be a bit active in combat by having an action button to mash when attacking or being attacked to deal more damage or take less respectively. Players can land enough powered up attacks to fill a special meter and unleash a special attack that represents the character's currently equipped costume. The turn based combat is simplistic to learn but a bit difficult to master, since every costume and enemy type has different timed attacks.
Of course, the JRPG mechanics do present a few problems that the genre has always been known for. Some battles tend to stretch on for far too long, and obtaining certain items in the game can be a real grind. Players will earn candy and random item drops that can be used to level up and unlock new costumes once all materials for the costume have been obtained. Grinding levels and new items in the game can get a bit tedious, but it's still a lot of fun to choose when to use Creepy Treat Cards, which work like rechargeable special attacks, and which costume combinations are needed for certain battles.
Costumes are one of the most important gameplay mechanics featured in Costume Quest 2. Players start with a super hero costume and a candy corn costume that fans will remember from the original game. Each costume gives statistical boosts to the equipped character, and each also comes packed with different abilities and special attacks. The candy corn is one of the most unique in the game, as it doesn't allow the equipped character to attack, but it greatly boosts defensive parameters and draws more enemy attacks. There are plenty of new costumes included in Costume Quest 2 such as a wizard and clown, and players that preorder the game or purchase additional DLC will gain access to the robot, unicorn, eyeball and pumpkin costumes for even more unique costume combinations in the game.
The presentation in Costume Quest 2 has improved somewhat in Costume Quest 2, but the game still isn't perfect. The game's graphics have improved since the original release, and some of the new costumes look downright adorable when worn by the game's main protagonists. Time traveling in the game is fun and opens up possibilities for all sorts of strange environments for players to explore throughout the game. Some fun themes highlight the action and help create a real Halloween themed vibe. The game's controls still aren't the best around though, and using keyboard and mouse makes fighting and navigating in-game menus even more troublesome than with a controller.
Costume Quest 2 is a fun title that offers trick or treat type fun just in time for Halloween. The game's interesting implementation of costumes that imbues special powers to the game's main characters is both cute and a really cool concept that will have players searching down every item needed to create each garb in the game. Classic RPG mechanics makes certain parts of the game bogged down under repetitive mechanics that doesn't value player's time, and a few issues in the game's presentation still persist, but the game is an overall improvement over its predecessor and is sure to be loved by fans of the original. Costume Quest 2 is out now for all major platforms.
Costume Quest 2 is now available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U and Steam and can be purchased for $14.99. Costume Quest 2 is rated E by the ESRB for Fantasy Violence. For more information on the game, check out the official Costume Quest 2 website.
Game Features:
- Single Player
- Save Halloween from Dr. Orel White
- Transform and Battle with Magical Halloween Costumes
- RPG Inspired Gameplay Through 3 Unique Environments
- Trophy/Achievement Support
Game Information:
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Publisher: Midnight City
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U, PC (reviewed), Mac & Linux
Release Date: October 7, 2014