Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 05/Mar 00:01

Everhood 2 – Review

Remember Everhood? We originally took a look at the Undertale-meets-rhythm game back in 2021, before returning for the Eternity Edition in 2023. While we’ve taken a look at other games that took inspiration from Undertale, like Athenian Rhapsody, Everhood always stood out thanks to its unique blend of gameplay. Games like this are typically one-and-done affairs, so we were surprised to see that Everhood got a sequel. Does Everhood 2 live up to its illustrious predecessor? Story There isn’t a whole lot we can tell you about Everhood 2’s story, and the reason for this is twofold. First of all, this is a game that is best experienced going in blind, as the story it serves up is filled to the brim with quirky writing, oddball characters, and quite a few twists. Or at least, it was in our playthrough, because the secondary reason we can’t tell you all that much is that the story is shaped as you play through the game. Everhood 2 opens with a questionnaire. Right off the bat, the game tells you that some of the choices you make here influence the story, although not all of them. The following questions set the tone for what is to come, ranging from deep and dark philosophical questions to whether or not you’ve ever played Fortnite (no, really). The game doesn’t give you a whole lot of information early on. You’re instructed by a raven named Raven to venture out into the game’s first area, Neon Jungle, which acts as the tutorial and culminates into the first boss fight. Upon successfully defeating the boss and returning to Raven, the game’s premise is explained. It turns out you’re in the afterlife. You’ll need to pass a series of tests to earn your Soul Weapon, with which you need to defeat a dragon. We’re not entirely sure if this premise remains the same with different questionnaire results, but we were willing to roll with it, and whatever else Everhood 2 threw at us. Graphics Visually, Everhood 2 makes less of an impact than its predecessor. That’s not to say that the pixel graphics look bad here, but the first game stood out a lot more. Maybe it’s just that our expectations were a bit too high because of how good that first game looked. The enemy designs remain a highlight, as do some of the cutscene visuals and boss battles, but things feel toned down when it comes to the environments. Likewise, the protagonist designs look very generic, despite the fact that they are somewhat customisable with different hairstyles and even hats. Sound Being a rhythm game, it’s no surprise that Everhood 2 puts a huge emphasis on its soundtrack. The game proudly boasts that it includes over 100 tracks, though we should tell you that this does come with a caveat. The vast majority of these tracks are tied to specific enemies, as the music matches their attack patterns. This means that certain music tracks are much more common than others. Everhood 2’s music language sticks to the retro aesthetic also seen in its visual style, creating a feeling of consistency. In true retro fashion, the game boasts no voice acting, and sound effects match the time period the game emulates. Gameplay Like its predecessor, Everhood 2 combines Undertale-like exploration and RPG mechanics with rhythm-based combat. Everhood 2 alternates between dungeon areas, where you’ll face off against random enemies, sniff out treasure chests, and fight bosses, and visits to more civilized areas, where you’ll interact with NPCs, take on side quests, and solve puzzles. Upon finishing the questionnaire, your avatar is created, and you’re immediately thrust into your first battle. You’ll be unable to fight back, however, as the aim is to dodge attacks and survive as long as possible. This leads to the game’s tutorial, where Raven teaches you how Everhood 2’s combat mechanics work. If you time things correctly, you can absorb the colored energy that enemies shoot at you. Once you’ve stockpiled enough energy of the same color, you’re able to blast it back at the enemy. If you accidentally absorb a different color, your cache will reset. Even worse, if you’re hit by an attack, your cache resets, and you take damage. It all sounds simple enough in theory, but there are strategic elements in play as well. Certain enemies have weaknesses for different energy types, for example, and there’s always the decision between taking quicker potshots at enemies or taking the risk and building up a bigger cache in order to release a more powerful blast. As far as rhythm games go, Everhood 2 is surprisingly challenging, especially for a game that you’d expect to focus more on the story and exploration side of things. Even at Easy difficulty, the game knocked us for a loop. We had to switch to the even easier Story difficulty before being able to get in the swing of things and gradually build up the difficulty again. Of course, there is more to Everhood 2 than just combat, and the game truly shines at delivering a weird and wonderful story filled with fantastic characters, puzzles, and side quests. Puzzles aren’t always clear. Early on in our run, for example, we had to pay 300 credits to enter a club. That’s a lot of money, but it was easy to quickly get this by selling fast food to a shady guy in an alleyway. He’d pay us 100 credits for each “MacDaller” meal, which we were able to purchase from another character for a mere 5 credits. The game never tells you this is possible, and instead, you could grind out battles to earn mushrooms and sell them for 5 credits a pop instead. This kind of logic puzzle illustrates Everhood 2’s design philosophy, rewarding exploration and talking to every NPC imaginable. With various difficulty levels and a story that is shaped by the player from the get-go, this is a game that has a very high replay value. That helps with justifying Everhood 2’s €19.99 price tag, which is notably higher than the RRP of the first game. To be fair, a single playthrough of Everhood 2 will also take significantly longer than one of the first game, clocking in at 8-10 hours as opposed to the 5-6 hours of the original. We’d say that you’re getting a fair bit of bang for your buck here, and if you enjoyed the first Everhood game, then picking up its sequel should be a no-brainer. Conclusion While Everhood 2 is a better game and feels like a more complete package as a whole, we do feel like it’s missing some of the novelty of the original, especially when it comes to visual design. The game’s stories are as quirky and oddball as always, and the rhythm-based combat gameplay dials things up significantly in terms of difficulty. Everhood 2 is a bigger, bolder sequel and deserves a place in your library if you enjoyed the first game.