De Blob 2 (PS4, Xbox One) Review
Credits
In recent times, while waiting to see what the purchase of Koch Media (THQ Nordic) is subsisting on the basis of remastering all kinds of its extensive catalog last. After resuscitating the first 'Blob ', we all know it was only a matter of time before we had its sequel, because ' Blob 2 ' was a game that worked better both among the critics and among the public. That time has come and is now on sale.
On the contrary may things happened with the first delivery, and in spite of the fact that the game dates from 2011, the date on which it was originally put on sale, with 'from Blob 2' we will have a much more enjoyable title still today . The playable formula does not change radically, and is still based on a series of open world scenarios in which our mute protagonist has to absorb sources of color and recover the tone of the game's whitewashed stages .
Content
The main novelty will be in certain areas in which Blob crosses a kind of culverts and falls into sections of lateral scroll platforms . It is not that the resolution of them is excessively complex, but that at least they provide a different touch to the resolution of puzzles and platforms.
Regarding the argument, although it is not the section in which more weight falls, we will show Blob and Pinky in a chase the main villain of the first installment, Commander Black that will end with the two heroes in Prisma City. There they will discover that a strange cult led by a certain Papa Blanc has been erected as the champion of monochrome , depriving its inhabitants to see any other shade other than whites, blacks and grays, plunging them into the most absolute sadness .
Starting from this base, the objective of Blob and his robotic assistant is to absorb colors (this time with more sources of production) to paint the scenes again and recover the color they once had. A novelty is the control of absorption of Blob, which not only allows you to impregnate with paint, but to control its size and how much can swell or not, with certain situations in which it requires to be small in order to enter in one or another hole.
Gameplay
The story is made up of a total of 12 levels, an amount more than enough considering that each one can take a good amount of time that ranges between 40 minutes and the hour of play. Although the process is usually similar in terms of the objective of painting both sections, the addition of a countdown means that we have to hurry if we want to be complete with each scenario and also perform all the additional challenges of saving inhabitants or destroying them. of elements on the stage (not to mention the good number of collectibles hidden here and there).
The navigation is done freely, as long as we take into account that the progress is linear and the last main mission must be carried out before the counter reaches zero. To help us move around the map, we have a compass that is placed around Blob and marks the points of interest such as the sources of obtaining each color, the next mission and even some areas of interest to complete each level to the maximum. Despite its usefulness, and accustomed to another type of navigation in open-world games, we would have appreciated more the change to a minimap for this return of the game, which in that sense arrives as it was originally.
Sections
With the inclusion of the sections in 2D and the amount of missions and tasks to be performed in a given time, the rhythm of 'Blob 2' mitigates to some extent the feeling of repetitiveness that the first had , much more direct and homogeneous in its proposal. To mitigate that feeling also helps the inclusion of some phase bosses , quite curious both in their design and in the mechanics to defeat them, although they will not be anything of the other world or present an excessively revolutionary road map. Maybe a bit in 2011, but not now in 2018.
To distribute the task of returning the color, we have the possibility of assigning a second controller to the game and to go through Prisma City in local multiplayer to a split screen , that great one forgotten in danger of extinction. The experience becomes more fun, but does not bring great changes to the gameplay or adapt situations or puzzles so that both have to cooperate yes or yes, being more of an addition than a need.
From the visual point of view, despite the simplicity of the different types of scenery (city, tropical, ice cream, etc.), 'Blob 2' is a much easier game to pass for any current indie . The first installment, when coming out on Wii originally, made the rescaling amplify the feeling of lack of sharpness from the original 480p. With ' De Blob 2' that does not happen, considering that it had versions for PS3 and Xbox 360 at 720p . The gameplay in current resolutions therefore does not suffer the finish and the HDR helps to give more vividness to the range of colors, which after all is the main part of the game.
Sound
As for the sound, it's great for two aspects. First of all, it is a clear narrative support for a game whose protagonists are largely mute and only speak through a series of onomatopoeias and seemingly meaningless phonemes, in the style of the Minions or something like that, making the characters appear to us simpaticos with few verbal resources for it. On the other hand, music is put at the service of the gameplay . I. E: when entering each level, the audio track is insignificant and practically inaudible. However, as Blob returns the color, each time the composition adds new sounds and makes the song, to choose from several genres before starting each level, go recovering its splendor directly proportional to the stage.
Game Details
Developer---------------------Blue Tongue Entertainment,
Halfbrick Studios (NDS),
BlitWorks (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Publisher------------------------THQ,
Syfy Kids (Original versions),
THQ Nordic (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Director-------------------------Nick Hagger
Designer-----------------Mark Morrison, Christian Canton,
Andrew Trevillian,
Bryan Duffy
Programmer--------------Dan Khoan Chau
Artist--------------------------------Terry Lane,
Lewis Mitchell,
Lynda Mills
Composer---------------------John Guscott,
Engine-------------------------TOSHI Havok
Platform------------------PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre------------------------Platform, puzzle
Mode---------------------------Single-player, multiplayer
Conclusion
Unlike what happened with the original, and mainly because we had versions of PS3 and 360 in the last generation, 'Blob 2' resists much better the passage of time and its playable proposal is still valid today. In spite of its simplicity, being a family game, it manages to present a wide variety of situations to make us spend the hours flown, although that does not mean that each level the stage could have been taken advantage of better. 'Blob 2' is not a perfect game, not even an essential one of its time, but if we want a quiet title that will make us spend the hours of game flown, it is still as valid today as it was in 2011.
Happy Gaming !!!!
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