It took only a couple of years for the Adventuresoft to tinker out a sequel to Simon the Sorcerer, so that in mind, not much changed technically speaking. Perhaps the biggest change is the user interface, which was simplified to verb symbols instead of words. Otherwise, it is a pretty typical point and click adventure for the era. And that said, I don't actually like it as much as I like the first game. It just feels off.
Runt, a young boy is reading forbidden magical tomes in his bed, when his father arrives to take such things away from him. Little does his father realize, that by doing that, he accidentally releases the spirit of Sordid, the evil wizard seen at the end of the previous game. Sordid tasks runt to help him get a more permanent body and to find Simon, who caused his demise. A little while later, a mysterious wardrobe appears in Simon's room, whisking the unwilling protagonist to a sequel he never wanted to be in.
Simon ends up at Calypso's magic shoppe, where he learns that he wasn't summoned to save the world again. All he needs to do this time is to find some Mucusade, which can be used to power up the wardrobe and send him home again. No one is aware that Sordid has risen from the dead and is planning his revenge.
The first part of the game is about Simon trying to get the magical battery for his transportation device. This includes him becoming a royal wizard and in a typical adventure game fashion, that means a lot of running around completing unrelated puzzles.
The second part has Simon escaping pirates after being Shanghaied by them, after which he has to escape a boring tourist island with a help of a genie. This takes him back to Calypso, who has been tied up by the henchmen of Sordid's, who have taken Alix as a prisoner. Simon tries to leave with the wardrobe, but Calypso knew Simon could not be trusted, so he removed an important part from it, hence Simon has to, very briefly, see the titular lion, who takes him to Sordid's secret lair. Finally, Simon can defeat Sordid. There's a small hiccup, when the evil wizard possesses Simon's body and escapes with the wardrobe, leaving Simon as a captive in Sordid's monstrous body.
Simon the Sorcerer 2 is definitely trying more with the story than the first game did, but it doesn't really work. As a whole, Simon 2 is a bit boring, really. And it isn't as funny as the first game is. The style of comedy has gone in a bit of overdrive here and Simon himself has turned into an unlikeable oof. He was sarcastic and disinterested in the first game, but here he comes out as a bit of an asshole and very meanspirited. A lot of the characters are rather talkative as well, but their jokes rarely land, so it all comes out as a bit of a bore.
The game is, again fully voiced, and not necessarily to its benefit. Whereas the first game had surprisingly good voice acting, especially for the era it was made, Simon 2 is a bit of a disappointment. It might be down to the quality of the writing as well, but many of the voice actors don't seem too invested in what they are saying. The voice actor for Simon has changed as well from Chris Barrie to Brian Bowles and he manages to make Simon more unlikeable. The music is, again, mostly forgettable, but at worst irritating.
On the puzzle side, nothing much has changed. While the game has gone towards an even more simplified user interface, a good deal of puzzles are again tied into pixel hunting and using seemingly random items in random places. I'd say the puzzle are at places worse than they were in the first game.
It is quite obvious Adventuresoft was trying to up the ante with Simon the Sorcerer 2. They were, obviously, trying to make it bigger and better, but I don't think they quite managed to do that. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with me in this, Simon 2 was chosen as the 88th best adventure game in 2011 by Adventure Gamers, after all. I don't think it deserves that, I wouldn't put it in my top 100 at all really.
Now, Simon 2 isn't a trainwreck, it is a playable game. And I can see why people would find it good, especially if they like the humour it has. It just isn't for me, as I found it a bit of a bore. Still, it has nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to the 4th and the 5th game, which sank the series into all new lows. Not even the much berated Simon the Sorcerer 3D managed to be as dreadful as those two are.
Simon the Sorcerer 2 can be bought as a 25th Anniversary edition, which adds things like hotspot detection but also ruins the graphics by using a terrible upscaler, that turns the rather good looking pixel art into a mess reminiscent of melting wax. So that in mind, be warned if you are shopping around. The GOG and Steam versions should come with the original version though, so not all hope is lost.
Comments
Post a Comment