Jets'n'Guns 2 Review (dotWDR)
This game either needs Gold treatment to extend its length at least twice and add more stuff, or a big discount. Three hours to complete, half of which spent retrying bosses, is waaay too short, but game length is not my only gripe.
I'll start with the positives first:
Great soundtrack by Machinae Supremacy as always.
The game is solid-built, for all its length, it is a good horizontal scroll shooter with well-balanced mechanics and consistent presentation, and tons of quality of life improvements compared to Jets'n'Guns 1, I especially like the ability to replay older levels for better score and secrets
...and that's it really, but that by itself would qualify the game as a solid recommend if not for length/price ratio.
Most of my other gripes are about this product being a sequel to Jets'n'Guns.
Jets'n'Guns was a game quite rough around the edges, but it was a double rough-edged sword, and a lot of the edge was unnecessarily sanded off in the sequel. Juvenile humor was removed for the most part, besides a few instances which felt more like homage. The presentation, while looking pristine and clean compared to the original, lost variety and most of it's diesel punk flavor. Guns are better balanced, and also feel much less crazy than before. Enemies, levels and bosses do not throw curveballs at you, which makes the game more accessible and less frustrating, but also more predictable and less interesting. All bosses in particular were designed with the same "dozens of different phases and attacks" pattern
The plot is the second biggest disappointment. The first game was a journey across the universe told via comic panels, environment storytelling and other tricks. This game tells its story via short level description text blurbs and occasional environmental event, so you can play the game without being aware of any kind of plot being there, and level select screen, while good for gameplay purposes, detaches you even further from the journey. And Jets'n'Guns 2 makes the first game's world, which felt like a huge place where anything can happen, retroactively less interesting by reintroducing elements from the first game - once again you encounter Zogrim, Beer Empire and Insectoids instead of any new factions, which felt more like a desperate attempt to appear like a proper JnG sequel.