Shiro Games has made a sequel to their humorous action-adventure RPG “Evoland” and it includes nearly every video-game genre imaginable as well as some iconic periods of video gaming history. The new game is called “Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Space Time Continuum Disorder” and will be launching worldwide on Aug. 25th. Examiner had a chance to preview Evoland 2 and here are some first impressions.
While Evoland 2 takes the same humorous referential approach as it’s predecessor it’s much larger in scope and is a stand alone story. The story involves a silent protagonist hero who must protect the world. In order to do so he finds himself jumping around time, piecing together events from the past, present and future to determine what’s happening and what must be done to save the world.
The time traveling trope is used quite effectively and is rather rewarding to players from both a storyline perspective and in the aesthetic and gameplay. It’s fun to see the same enemies and environments evolve and transform through the various graphics used throughout video games history. Although the graphics change the simple controls stay the same making for a pretty seamless transition between stages of the game.
Evoland 2’s story is great; taking it’s roots from traditional action RPG plots and making a unique and detailed story that’s fun to follow. Traveling between time frames and piecing together the sequence of events in the world, as well as how the characters fit into them, is very intriguing. Evoland 2’s story is surprisingly rich and detailed and is the perfect vehicle to explore the various genres and aesthetics the game pays homage to.
There’s a wide variety of genres included in Evoland 2. Players will find themselves in a bullet hell, a fighting game, tough platforming and much much more. The most prevalent style of gameplay in Evoland 2 is puzzling. In every stage of the game there’s a puzzle or five to solve. There’s a good variety of puzzle types included in the game and most are rather clever and not too difficult.
The game jumps around between time frames and consequently the graphics do as well. The first half of the game is fairly linear going from the present to the past to the future and there’s a lot of dialogue to button mash through. The second half is supposed to be less linear and players can time travel at will.
In RPG style Evoland 2 has you roaming around the world with a small party of comrades each from a different time frame. Each character has special abilities that will help you navigate obstacles and beat formidable foes. Party members have interesting stories and personalities and their abilities are unique and fun to use.
Evoland 2 very accurately captures the classic games it references not only in aesthetic but in gameplay. That being said the gameplay can get a little frustrating with it’s old-school limitations, like only being able to attack in cardinal directions and pixel-perfect platforming. Retro game purists will enjoy some of the more challenging, vintage-inspired sections of Evoland 2.
On Aug. 25th Evoland 2 will be available for PC gamers with Mac and Linux versions to follow. The keyboard controls can get a bit clunky so a gamepad is recommended. Overall “Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder” is well executed, challenging and fun. The game has some technical quirks but hopefully they’ll be ironed out by launch. You can pre-order a DRM free copy of Evoland 2 for $17.99 here.
