REVIEW : Youtubers Life 2 (PS5)
Start with the first YouTubers Life, add a dash of The Sims, a dash of Stardew Valley, and a dash of Animal Crossing (hold the Tom Nook), combine everything, and voila: YouTubers Life 2! There’s a lot to enjoy about the new game, including official YouTuber collaborations, and it’s an improvement over the original in many ways. The influencer life isn’t always easy, and it can be downright frustrating at times. But where does YouTuber’s Life 2 falter, and where does it shine?
YouTubers Life 2 is a life simulation game in which you attempt to become a YouTube celebrity. If you missed the first game, don’t worry; the sequel starts with some backstory to catch you up. Then Xavier, your faithful agent and manager, appears and invites you to NewTube City, the world where you’ll be climbing to superstar. From here, you can choose to live in the Port, Downtown, or City Hall, depending on your preferences. The Port is billed as “chilled and modern,” with the bonus of living on the beach, which piqued my interest because it matched the vibes of my newly formed influencer want to be.
Xavier greets you at your modest home and introduces you to your helpful assistant Drone (I named mine Jeff Goldblum because, well, why not?). Ol’ Jeff follows you about and does a series of tasks to assist you in your quest to become a famous YouTuber. Your goal from here on is to get as many subs as possible while keeping the viewers satisfied. You can do this by recording and editing films and uploading them on social media while also performing numerous objectives throughout the city to earn cash and strengthen your ties with your neighbours.
The game’s main goal is to become a professional YouTuber, which necessitates a significant amount of time spent filming and editing videos for posting on NewTube, the game’s primary video platform. You may film from the comfort of your own home on your computer or game console or while travelling. This was when the problems with signposting began because there were no clear instructions on how to carry out the operation precisely; thus, it was mostly guessing. The recording was easy to learn through trial and error, but the editing component was the most difficult.
The captured video is initially divided into four parts that must be assembled like a jigsaw puzzle. However, not all of the pieces fit together correctly, which significantly impacts your score and video quality. As you go through the game, the number of ways to join clips will increase. However, there wasn’t much of a tutorial on how this worked this time, so you’ll have to figure it out for yourself. Also, getting five stars on recordings is meaningless if the editing significantly lowers your overall score, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The videos also have the goal of gaining as much exposure as possible through daily trends. To reach as many people as possible, you should tag these in your shared content. Sure, the trends are displayed at the start of the day, and you can always refer to them in your diary, but you don’t have the option of viewing them while making videos. This meant I had to constantly try to recall the day’s trends, which, given how many there is each day, was challenging and hit-or-miss when it came to increasing my visibility.
The development of NewTube City is undoubtedly one of the best new additions to YouTubers Life 2. The previous game revolved primarily around the cramped confines of your bedroom, with only limited access to other areas of your house. You could depart entirely, but solely to attend conferences and activities. In YouTubers Life 2, you can explore the many districts of NewTube City, visiting businesses and restaurants in each of the three neighbourhoods. There are numerous hotspots along the way as you walk or ride a scooter from place to place where you can stop and make a video that you can later publish to NewTube.
Regarding the other characters in the town, there are strong inspirations from both The Sims and Stardew Valley. Similarly to The Sims, the city is teeming with NPCs going about their daily lives, some of whom you can form relationships with and others with whom you have no interaction. When addressing your new neighbours, though, there aren’t as many dialogue options as in The Sims games, making it difficult to figure out how to form a relationship with them. For instance, when I went to say hi to cool girl Blair, she yelled violently at me and urged me to go… It appears to be a slight exaggeration.
This layout is nearly identical to Stardew Valley, to the point that the player’s in-game phone’s ‘Contacts’ app displays each character’s likes and dislikes, which you’ll learn as you go. It also reveals if they’re single or not, so you can start looking up your future partner right away if you’re a romantic.
When it comes to the sheer amount of content available, YouTuber’s Life 2 doesn’t hold back. There are numerous side tasks outside of the main story’s “become YouTube famous” objective, which breaks the monotony of the record-edit-sleep-repeat cycle. For example, you can accept a commission once a day to do a task for a buddy in exchange for money, such as picking up and delivering a delivery.
Those of you who are familiar with the YouTube scene will recognise some of the new characters you’ll meet. You join up with YouTube’s own Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg on a sleuthing mission to uncover internet crooks at one point. PewDiePie’s dog Maya, the queen of pugs, is also there for the voyage. In one of the maritime adventures, Benjamin “Crainer” Dreyer Vestergrd makes an appearance.
While the number of activities available is impressive, the truth is that there aren’t enough hours in the game’s days to finish them all. You must efficiently manage your time to the point that you feel you’re missing out on something, regardless of which things you choose. If you try to cram too much into your day, you won’t have time to film a video before bedtime.
Due to the energy dynamics at work, filming a video can frequently waste so much energy that you won’t be able to do anything else that day. There are areas where you can get extra food and energy if you need it, but it isn’t easy to do when you don’t have any at first. In the end, the vast world beyond the player’s home becomes more of a problem. It’s a shame because a lot of work and effort has gone into creating this environment, but you cannot fully explore it at your leisure.
Returning to the lack of effective signposting and tutorials, YouTuber’s Life 2 has possibly the most serious flaw. There was no direction on accomplishing many of the activities. Thus a lot of guesswork and trial and error was required. The numerous symbols and images, for example, do not explain, and the settings menu was exceedingly simplistic with no extra information to guide you. It also doesn’t provide any indication to the following target when “tracking” a quest.
All of this combined meant that any attempt to grasp everything was futile, and it became frustrating to keep trying due to my lack of understanding.
REVIEW : The Lightbringer (PC)
