REVIEW : Creepy Tale 2 (PC)
The first Creepy Tale was a tricky beast to handle. Its puzzles were inventive and challenging, the Tale was straightforward but well-told, and the atmosphere was appropriately eerie; nonetheless, the visual style from which it took so much of its identity went dangerously close to outright plagiarism of the artist John Kenn Mortensen. When I reviewed the game, I hoped that the developers would build a more distinct style in future projects and use it to highlight their many talents. When Creepy Tale 2 was announced with graphics that only had a passing resemblance to its predecessor’s, I was cautiously enthusiastic.
To their credit, the makers appear to have heeded criticism of the prior game’s artwork. Mortensen’s influence is still visible in some places, but only that, and the character and locale designs are all original and unique. The creatures have imaginative, horrific designs—a human-limbed spider and a blind, snuffling swamp beast are particularly memorable—and the scary forest environments conjure up images of twisted fairytales.
In almost every other way, though, Creepy Tale 2 fails miserably. This isn’t for lack of trying: there’s a lot of ambition on display here, and the devs appear to have gone out of their way to attempt new things. Characters are fully voiced, with each plot development explained through conversation and the protagonist’s running commentary; in Creepy Tale, the story mainly unfolded through intimation and environmental suggestion; here, characters are fully voiced, with each plot development explained through conversation and the protagonist’s running commentary.
With its enormous cast of monarchs, wizards, and cursed princesses, this game takes its cues from modern fantasy epics rather than portraying another simple, sparsely populated story modelled after a frightening fable. The first game lasted only two hours; the sequel will last roughly six. The Creepy Brothers wanted their blossoming series to take the next logical steps from the start; the trouble is that many—if not all—of these new moves feel like steps backwards.
To begin with, the story is more involved than its predecessor’s, thanks to the addition of spoken dialogue, which allows for a more overt analysis of its characters, story, and setting. Lars, a huntsman’s son, has his world turned upside down when a weird crowned child comes and kidnaps his sister Ellie.
Creepy Tale 2 strives to create a deeper and more intricate story, but it mostly succeeds in overcomplicating a procedure that didn’t require the extra steps in the first place. Whereas the previous game relied on players to figure out what they needed as they went along, Lars now has to visit numerous characters to figure out what he needs to do.
However, after speaking with each of them, he learns something he already knew: his sister has been stolen by an evil entity, and he can’t get her back without confronting it. Everything else is just a bunch of filler.
On the other hand, characters in Creepy Tale 2 spend extensive expository monologues explaining how the world works, the rules of its magic, and why its monsters are so awful. It defangs them in the process, reducing them to simple barriers that can be comprehended, avoided, and then forgotten.
The first game did everything it could to make you feel like you were alone in a scary, hostile environment; the second game undercuts that by going out of its way to make sure you understand what’s going on and why.
A character will be introduced, tell Lars whatever they’re there to tell him, and then leave without a trace once their mission has been fulfilled. This occurs regardless of how important they appear to be to the plot; a crucial encounter with one particular character appears to be poised to introduce a massive turn in the story, only to be forgotten nearly as soon as it occurs.
At least in terms of audio, Creepy Tale 2 comes out on top. Its creepy synth-orchestral score and evocative sound design, like the original, are full of creaks, rustles, and distant animal sounds that give your surroundings a foreboding aspect. The vocal performances are also excellent, particularly Lars’s boyish quaver.
The controls are simple to master once again, and whether I used a keyboard or a gamepad made little difference. WASD or the joystick controls lars; when requested, a dedicated button lets you interact with a hotspot, while another allows you to choose an inventory item to utilise there. A third button opens the inventory on its own, allowing you to study and mix the goods you have. When you engage with a combination lock or other mechanism, the movement controls select between different components, and the interact button manipulates them.
The gameplay, on the other hand, is a different story. A few problems strike a balance between obvious and obtuse, but most are either exceedingly simple or nearly impenetrable. Collecting objects and finding a place to use them is an everyday inventory activity, but hotspots are often so few and far between that solutions become evident by default. In many cases, my limited options permitted me to move forward without figuring out why Lars would need to act the way he did in the given situation.
Other puzzles include decoding a series of complicated instructions or inferring a pattern from limited information.
The stealth, speed, and agility tasks in Creepy Tale 2 are by far the most irritating. The woods are full of nefarious animals out to eat Lars, and being caught typically means instant death, so you’ll have to flee or hide to avoid them. Some circumstances demand you to hide out of sight until the threat has passed; others require you to sneak around by timing an enemy’s patrol pattern and only emerging from cover when their backs are turned, or they’re far enough away for you to go unnoticed.
A complicated timed problem in which you rush ahead of your pursuer and throw up barriers to slow it down, unexpectedly altering directions as it gets closer is one hair-pulling, merciless scenario. It takes split-second speculation or, failing that, several deaths and restarts to figure out how the best moves.
