MapleStory 2 Closed Beta

I recently got accepted into the MapleStory 2 Closed Beta

I downloaded the game on my free time, and ended up playing way more than I was planning to that night. I've been streaming VRChat a lot, so I figure it will be a change of pace to stream this game for the upcoming week.

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I've never played the first MapleStory

Well "never" isn't the correct term. I downloaded it back when I was still in school. It was probably the mid 2000s. I was never a fan of side-scrollers, but this one had caught my interest with it's style. In the end, I didn't play with a controller (if you even could) and I ended up not liking the keyboard controls. It didn't feel comfortable to play, and I quickly decided it wasn't the game for me.

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MapleStory 2 is fun!

I liked MapleStory 2 as soon as I started playing it. I'm still not entirely sure about the keyboard controls, but this time I had an Xbox controller, and they had just recently added controller support. I was technically testing the controller support for them, and I must say, as someone who never plays console games or uses a controller, the controls felt pretty damn smooth.

Here is my Assassin character

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The combat feels good

The combat is super button-mashy and fast-paced. I've been enjoying it a lot. It feels good when you pop a nice combo and obliterate a whole room of enemies. The boos battles are also quite fun, and have a decent amount of different mechanics. The dungeons all have different types of boss battles, and sequences.

In one dungeon I fought a giant stump monster, which kept trying to blow me off the edge as I approached his lair. When I got to him, he continued to try to knock me off the edge of the world, this time with movement tracking springs. I'm pretty sure my butt cheeks were clenched whenever I started seeing the squares of doom appearing on the ground.

In another dungeon I had to fight evil flowers with flamethrowers. As I cleared them out, the garden would slowly return to it's former glory. It was a complete change from the other dungeon. Each dungeon has it's own story.

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Some sequences even go back to side-scroller style

As I mentioned, the original MapleStory was a side-scroller, and this game hasn't forgotten it's roots. I had a sequence where I had to deliver pizza, and avoid traps along the way. It felt like an entirely different game. The mini games range from normal view, side-scroller view, and top-down.

Main story line has fun mechanics too!

Playing as other characters, or a giant mech, you never know what the story line will have you doing. I'm only halfway to level cap and there has been a lot of fun stuff. I had to sneak past enemies by walking on pipes above them, I got to be a giant mech and laser-beam a bunch of baddies, and I had to punch some people and escape from a weird area while playing as a whole other character.

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What else is there to do?

The answer is, a lot. There is housing, fishing, musical performance, gathering, crafting, treasure hunting, etc etc... I found myself getting distracted with a lot of random things, and you gain experience while doing all of them. There was a point where I had to go afk, so I left myself playing piano in some random NPCs house. I came back to find I had leveled up.

There is a housing system!

The housing is amazing in this game. You can place any block you want. Want a garden? Place some nature blocks. Want a pool, place some water blocks. A lot of the decorations are interactive, and you get rewarded for your housing score.

The house editor is easy to use, and it allows a lot of freedom. You can replace already placed blocks, store your furnishings, change the background and lighting in your world, and save more than one version of your house. I spent way too long playing with it, and I approve of it.

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I'll definitely be playing more.

I'm having a lot of fun playing MapleStory 2, and I think I'll try to hit level cap before the closed beta ends. I think I'll still be playing it when the actual game comes out, and I'll most likely do a post about how the end game content feels. Check it out for yourself, and maybe you can still get into the closed beta if you want to. :]