Did you grow up terrorized by the tales of religion that well-meaning family members told you as a child? If you did, and the subsequent nightmares that you had as a result still linger somewhere in the haunted part of your brain, then Blasphemous 2 is a game that is uniquely designed to make you uncomfortable.
An amalgamation of the horrible punishments that have been inflicted on pagans, idolaters, and blasphemers throughout the ages as well as the horrifying tales of what tragic fates befell the saints and apostles of Judeo-Christian belief systems, every enemy, boss, and NPC in Blasphemous 2 heralds from the terrors of religion and the awful things it can make people do to each other.
Blasphemous 2 has graduated from a simple but effective school of sequel design. It’s the kind of game that looks at what fans liked from the original and tries to give them more of that while cutting out the bits that they weren’t so crazy about. Though this is a totally fine way to go about creating a sequel, it does leave some of the wow factor out of the package.
Certain drawbacks come along with hewing so close to the original Blasphemous here. Many of the first game’s enemies return with no changes made to them whatsoever except that they look a bit sharper. Furthermore, the types of areas and regions that you explore, mostly crumbling castles and caves, also feel very close to the places that you visited in the first game.
Still, when you’re starting with a blueprint that’s as impressive as Blasphemous is, offering more of the same is far from a bad thing. A careful mash-up of the Souls-like and Metroidvania subgenres, this series scratches a lot of different itches for gamers who are seeking a challenging adventure with plenty of secrets to discover along the way.
The animation is also much smoother than in the first game. Enemies move in a less janky way, and the cutscenes really pop in a way that the first game couldn’t quite manage. In fact, there are times in certain cutscenes where Blasphemous 2 looks so impressively beautiful that it almost feels out of place in this deranged and horrifying world.
Furthermore, there are some impressive new additions to this sequel that help to change up the formula. For starters, players will select one of three weapons at the start of the game. Though each one is effective in its own right, this forces a player to master their first weapon before they inevitably unlock the other two options later on in the game.
On the subject of weapons, you can switch between them on the fly as well, and each one also comes with its own unique set of upgrades and special moves that can be unlocked and expanded throughout Blasphemous 2. Each weapon also has a traversal ability that you will need to use regularly throughout the game, which encourages you to use all three weapons instead of just the one you like best or are most familiar with.
In general, this is by far one of the biggest apects that Blasphemous 2 improves on with regard to its predecessor. While the first game had many of its special abilities tied to relics that you would have to open the menu and switch out depending on the situation, tying a few to the weapons and making the rest permanent unlockables for the player feels far less tedious.
Blasphemous 2 also gives players another wonderful score from Carlos Viola. The gorgeous soft guitar tunes that adorned your trips through Custodia are back to lull you through each of the game’s areas, and you’d better believe that they still kick up to 11 when you find yourself up against one of the game’s many bosses.
Speaking of bosses, how much you’ll enjoy facing off against them in this unholy sequel depends largely on what you expect. In this reviewer’s experience, the bosses, while well-designed, are much easier than those from the first game. Many of them can be defeated on the first try, especially if you’ve got experience with the original Blasphemous. Still, they look great and will keep you on your toes, even if they’re not as challenging as those from the first game.
The sheer amount of abilities that the player can unlock and the fact that you switch between different combat styles on the fly just make enemies and bosses feel much more manageable this time around. The same goes for the platforming sections. Though you are punished with lost health if you fall into a crevasse or onto a pit of spikes, it’s no longer a game over this time around, which makes exploration far less repetitive and frustrating.
All the same, even with these caveats, Blasphemous 2 is still a pretty tough game and the kind of Metroidvania that will have you returning to areas over and over again to search for more secrets with every ability you unlock. Luckily, in this insanely crowded year of gaming releases, it’s also a game that can handily be finished in less than 20 hours.
Though more of the same is often touted as a blaring criticism, when it comes to Blasphemous 2, it works out pretty well. There are just enough differences between the sequel and the first game that it feels fun and rewarding, even if it won’t blow your expectations away like the original did. If you’ve previously enjoyed sequels like Bioshock 2, Dark Souls 2, and Steamworld Dig 2, then you’ll surely enjoy Blasphemous 2 as well. The game may not reinvent the torture wheel, but the ways it improves on the first game’s design more than make up for that.
A copy of Blasphemous 2 was provided by PR for the purposes of this review.Â
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