Costume Quest 2 is nearly upon us, and just in time for Halloween.
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The original Costume Quest was a wonderful surprise from Double Fine, a title spawned from one of their infamous Amnesia Fortnights where the team splits up into small groups to test out potential new games. This concept was greenlighted and worked beautifully with its simple yet ingenious concept- it’s an RPG that sees kids trying to save Halloween from a witch who’s trying to steal all the candy from the town. Think Earthbound, but revolving around kids going Trick or Treating.
It’s remarkably light-hearted but still has that wonderful sense of humor that you'd expect from Double Fine.
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Now it's back with a new publisher, the new indie label Midnight City. Last week we got our hands on a playable demo of the game and it's immediately clear that fans of the first will find a lot to love here.
Costume Quest 2 once again stars Wren and Reynold, the fraternal twins who saved the day in the last game. Here they’ll have to not only save the world, but Halloween’s past, present and future from an evil dentist named Dr. Orel who’s set on eliminating candy from the world.
Yes, the game involves time travel. Our demo started off as we were whisked away into the future by Time Wizards, the new minions for the game. You’re soon joined by Everett and Lucy- albeit future, adult versions of them. They’ve been awaiting your arrival for many years and it’s soon obvious that something horrible has happened. This is no happy, candy-filled landscape- the future is a dystopian one, where the dental police patrol the neighborhood, keeping an eye out for anyone eating candy or dressed in costumes, two very illegal and heinous crimes.
Of course, you won't take it lying down, and thanks to your handy costumes you have plenty of fight in you.
The combat is much more interactive this time. Each of the three characters on your team has a button assigned to them, and much like the Mario & Luigi series, you’ll hit their button to perform combo attacks and avoid enemy attacks. The last game required you to hit a spot on a meter to get stronger hits but now you have to hit the button as soon as your attack lands, which lets you get a two or even three-hit combo if your timing is right. You’ll do more damage for perfectly timed attacks, and on the opposite side of the coin you use this method to take less damage while being hit by an enemy, instead of immediately before it.
This simple change makes the battles much more entertaining and compelling, especially when combined with the fact that (as in any worthwhile sequel) the game has more of what people grew to love- in this case, costumes. Different costumes give you different abilities, with brand new ones unlocked from the very beginning, including a Superhero costume, Candy Corn, a Pterodactyl, and… Thomas Jefferson.
Candy Corn is actually completely useless. In the costume you become an immobile chunk of corn. It’s used for defense because it can’t act- instead of being able to attack or use an item it merely shows the giant candy corn and a statement, some of which are genuinely funny, like “Candy Corn likes to watch.” or “Candy Corn will sit this one out."
Achievement/trophy whores will be happy to know that there’s an award for getting through the entire game while wearing the Candy Corn costume, which effectively means that you only have two players fighting for you in every battle. Pretty hardcore.
The other costumes have their own combo attacks and super moves that can be unleashed, of which Thomas Jefferson’s is easily the best. His super move is called the “Declaration of Destruction”, in which he (or she rises) into the sky, scribbles words onto a scroll, and throws it to an enemy. The enemy whips out a pair of glasses, unfurls it, and reads it carefully before exploding into bits.
Just getting around the world is better, as well. Everyone knows how annoying it was to constantly switch to the robot in the last game so you could use its Boost ability and speed around the environment, and so they've wisely allowed you to do it at will, no costume swapping required. Each costume does have their own unique special ability, though. The game is set in Louisiana, and the present is positively crawling with alligators. To move them out of your way you'll have to find all the pieces to create the Clown costume, which comes with its own horn that scares them away.
You also of course do get to do some Trick or Treating, as usual, trying to make sure to pick houses that offer sweet, sweet candy rather than houses taken over by baddies that fight you. Just more of the same would have been enough, but the tweaks will certainly be well-received by fans.
A word of warning, though- you might want to play through the DLC expansion to the first game, Grubbins on Ice, because Costume Quest 2 takes place immediately after its events.
Costume Quest 2 hits PC/Mac/Linux next Tuedsay October 7, with Xbox 360, PS3, and mobile platforms coming soon. For five more bucks this weekend you can pre-order it on Steam in a bundle that includes the first game and DLC as well.
