[Review] Guacamelee! 2

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game information:

Platforms:PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One
Developers:DrinkBox Studios
Publishers:DrinkBox Studios
Features:Offline Co-Op Multiplayer
Release Date:August 21, 2018

 

 

Guacamelee 2

 often had me laughing out loud. And just as often, it had me gripping my controller and gritting my teeth, trying not to be too frustrated with myself as I learned the luchador skills needed to nail its most difficult platforming puzzles. But no matter what emotion it evoked, I loved nearly every minute of Drinkbox Studios’ fantastic follow-up, which offers a smart evolution of its revered predecessor that only briefly feels overly familiar.

Picking up with a helpful reminder of how Guacamelee ended (which I needed, because it was first released way back in 2013) the sequel returns with plenty of humor and a surprising but welcome bit of pathos at the start of its eight-hour adventure. I was surprised at how affected I was to see Juan enjoy a peaceful life at home with his wife, two kids, and a diet that has caused his fighting physique to be lost to time, only for his happiness — in every possible timeline imaginable — to be disrupted by a new evil, Salvador.

 

Yes, Guacamelee 2 tackles the well-worn trope of multiple timelines converging and endangering all of existence, but approaches it through the clever lens of the Mexiverse. I initially groaned a bit at that name, but Guacamelee 2 is not content to let an amusing portmanteau be the extent of its joke. The central conceit of the sequel works so well because Drinkbox wholeheartedly tackles the idea of multiple timelines, playing into established characters from the first entry while also finding clever new ways to use those to twist the gameplay, like temporarily transforming the adventure into a simple, but amusing turn-based RPG. It feels like a natural extension of the dimension shifting introduced in the original, with both character and gameplay implications that often had me chuckling in between sections of challenging platforming.

 

 

Guacamelee 2 actually gives its referential humor substance this time around.

And Guacamelee 2 is consistently clever and funny. The original’s humor is plentiful, but relies a little too much on tossing out as much referential humor as possible rather than making those references actually funny. Meme overload was a problem, and Drinkbox clearly recognized that and addressed it by adding depth to the gags. Posters referencing pop culture still po[CENSORED]te Juan’s Mexico, but they’re more evergreen and less focused on squeezing a hammy joke onto a signboard. Instead, the referential humor comes in the form of gameplay interludes referencing classic and indie gaming hits ranging from The Unfinished Swan to even Guacamelee itself. It would be a shame to ruin them for you, but rest assured nearly every one of them had me laughing along to their clever twists. Those subversions often include a one-off gameplay hook that, while often played for laughs, inject some nice variety and are always worth seeing through to the end.

 

Guacamelee 2 does a great job of balancing all of this referential world-building with the beautiful, brightly colored style of the Mexiverse. I often found myself spending extra time in certain areas, flipping back and forth between the two realms just to experience the art styles of both the worlds of the living and the dead. From temples to the underworld to quiet pueblos pocketed by timeline-melding distortions, I adored watching the vibrancy of Juan’s world pop with earthy browns and forested greens in the land of the living and bright blues and shocking streaks of pink in the land of the dead.

 

 

Drinkbox finds clever ways of playing with Juan and other characters.

And my investment in it only became greater thanks to some smart story choices. Drinkbox finds clever ways of playing with Juan, his cantankerous mentor Uay Chivo, and other established characters – so much so that I came away surprised by how much I gave a damn about what happened to Juan when he was pulled away from his own home timeline.

 

The story does miss a step in its exploration of the villain, Salvador, though. He’s initially set up to be a fascinating foil to Juan, but he only has a few paltry scenes in which to develop, including one incredibly exposition-heavy sequence that could have had so much more impact had Salvador and Juan interacted more often. That scene in particular sets up what should be a sympathetic character, only to end up feeling more forced than earned.

Mucha Lucha
Thankfully, the adventure is filled with a host of challenging and satisfying platforming and combat, all culled from Juan’s fighting style. It takes a little longer than I would have liked to reacquire his returning powers, which include suped-up headbutts, ground pounds, a reality-shifting ability, and more, but Drinkbox does a great job of peppering in a few new hooks alongside all of those moves.

 

 

Guacamelee 2's platforming can be complex, but it never feels unfair.

And I mean literal hooks — Juan can latch onto and launch from any number of eagle-shaped hooks strategically floating throughout the world. They add a new dimension to platforming, which, especially as the adventure goes on, can require some devilishly difficult timing. Jumping, punching, hook jumping, and dimension shifting all have to be strategically deployed to progress. Thankfully, the added complexity does not come at the cost of a sense of achievability. It’s often tricky, but Guacamelee 2 always feels fair in its construction, and is reasonably forgiving thanks to frequent checkpoint saves. A missed platform or a death at the hands of a room full of foes always came down to my timing, never the way levels or combat scenarios were crafted.

 

A series of skill trees do a nice job of forcing you to use the full gamut of Juan’s moves in combat, but I would have liked to have seen more variance in Juan’s human moveset. Because so much of it is carried over from the first game, it begins to feel like more of the same as the adventure wears on. The biggest mechanical additions are for Juan’s chicken form, including an aerial dash, which can hilariously be used to ping-pong a chicken up or down a corridor. A subplot revolving around the chickens of Guacamelee offers a hilarious explanation, and while it’s less essential to see that all the way through I absolutely recommend doing so.

 

While it’s a joy to explore Guacamelee 2 thanks to the clever writing snuck into every corner of the map, it’s also a rewarding thrill to complete its platforming puzzles, which can be quite the challenge, but by no means impossible. More than once, rooms that had me dimension shifting to jump between walls while avoiding lava below and spikey gears working their way around the room tripped me up enough to require a few breaks and episodes of Steven Universe to clear my mind.

 

 

The road to 100% offers several more hours of challenging, rewarding content.

For those who want a bit more punishment, the road to 100% easily offers that with three or so more hours of optional content… depending on how often you die, of course. I easily died over a dozen times at each of the most difficult platforming challenges, including a few that required me to hit multiple eagle hooks while dimension shifting to activate them all, only to then turn into a chicken to float above spike beds, and then hop back to Juan’s human form for more eagle hooks without missing a beat. But the work was worth it — not just for the extra treasure but for the pure satisfaction of overcoming its smartly designed obstacle courses, which forced me to master every one of Juan’s skills in combination with one another. That always felt achievable thanks to how gradually it layers on new mechanics, which inform both the fighting and platforming simultaneously.

Tag Team
Whether you’re overcoming a difficult jump or a hallway full of undead foes, up to three friends can lend you assistance if needed. I played a couple hours with a co-op buddy, and the presence of another player can turn into a difficult, synchronized ballet of flying fists and leaping luchadors. Figuring out how to properly hop, dimension shift, and punch our way through together made me think about Guacamelee 2’s puzzles in a new, fascinating way — he could handle dimension duties while I timed by jumps to his shifting, for example.

 

That said, not all of these challenges are well-suited to multiple luchadors. Some of the most difficult parts demand perfect unity, and that… well, that’s really hard to achieve in the later and optional challenges. It simply became easier to let my friend die as I coasted through a difficult corridor rather than spend so much time nailing down timing on a relatively easy obstacle. It’s nice to have, but doesn’t add anything significant to the satisfaction of toughing out Guacamelee 2’s challenges alone.

 

 

Verdict
Guacamelee 2 is a hilarious, challenging, and rewarding follow-up to Drinkbox’s original. It expands on the first’s ideas in so many great ways, and marries a complex but understandable set of moves to both its combat and platforming. While a few more additional moves would have been nice, this new adventure offsets some of the saminess with wacky, one-off gameplay experiments that are often a blast to experience. The same can be said for the improvements in its storytelling, which come courtesy of a surprising amount of heart, and referential humor that’s is much more frequently earned and explored rather than left at surface level. Drinkbox has taken what could have been simply a rehash and pushed Guacamelee 2 to be better in nearly every facet.

 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 10, 8, 7
Processor: 2 Ghz+
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Shader Model 5.0 (DX11 support required), 2 GB available graphics memory
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 2 GB available space
Additional Notes: Supports Xbox 360 Controller and other XInput-compatible controllers