izigame.me

Revised review after Undead Mode patch:
I originally gave this game thumbs down despite being a big fan of the first game because of what I felt were some very questionable design choices that really harmed the experience. The most glaring of those has been addressed in a patch but overall I still find the game very disappointing. I am giving a thumbs up now because it's not a bad game, just not nearly as good as the original. Honestly I would rate it neutral if I could but I do want to acknowledge the developers admirable ability to incorporate player feedback. I have quite a lot to say about this game but if you want the short and sweet:
TLDR: An unworthy sequel to an all time classic that's not bad, it's just okay. I can only recommend if you've played the first one to death and absolutely NEED more Volgarr.
Volgarr II is a very confused game that lacks the tight cohesive design and imagination of the first game. It feels like the devs were told that they had to make a sequel to Volgarr despite not having any new ideas or a clear vision of what a followup to the original should look like. The core game play of the first carries over and is still phenomenal, but nearly every change or new addition either feels pointless or actively worsens the experience.
It seems like the devs couldn't decide if they wanted to make the game easier or not. The first Volgarr, being very old school, had a reputation for difficulty and perhaps the devs worried that would keep a mainstream audiences away. To remedy this they added checkpoints to the levels that work like the checkpoints in Shovel Knight where you can destroy them for extra gold. However I guess they thought this made things too easy as they also added limited lives, something that was pleasantly absent from the original game despite it's classic inspirations. They also made the levels significantly longer which simultaneously pressures the player to make use of the checkpoints while also making game overs all the more annoying. I consider lives to be a very outdated concept that stopped making sense as soon as games left the arcade and only serve to add frustration rather than genuine difficulty. It's increasingly rare to find a modern game that includes lives, even among hardcore old school style experiences like the aforementioned Shovel Knight or even the original Volgarr. In my mind the simple removal of lives was already an elegant compromise between the old school and the modern. If you want to go even further then go ahead and add the optional checkpoints, maybe just use less of them if you're worried it's too easy. But adding in lives is a complete step backwards.
I recall a minor controversy when the first game came out and people were angry that the game "didn't have a save system" forcing you to complete the game in a single sitting or have to start all over in the next session. This wasn't actually true as the game had a way to skip over levels you had previously beaten but this feature was cryptic and poorly explained. A lot of this games presentation and design seems like an overreaction to the first game's rocky initial reception. If their intent was to "modernize" the game to avoid another PR misstep at launch, they unfortunately failed spectacularly.
I'm referring to the new central mechanic that is "Undead Mode" which has to do with the newly implemented lives and checkpoint systems. After 6 game overs you are immediately locked into the worst ending and turn into a zombie. At launch this made you immune to all damage other than bottomless pits and could not be turned off without completely erasing your save file. At the risk of offending the devs, I don't know how anyone thought this was a good idea. Fortunately the game has been patched to allow you to continue to play the game normally as a zombie, although you're still locked to the worst ending. Unfortunately lives and continues are still central to the way the games endings worked and can't just be patched out without majorly redesigning huge chunks of the game.
The brilliant treasure chest system from the first game is back but has been significantly devalued as it is no longer required to get special items from them to get the best ending. You also always have the metal shield and charged spear which is another thing that makes the game easier but also makes the chests less important. Now your ending is almost solely dependent on how many continues you use. If you reach the end of the game without using too many continues you just automatically get to go to the secret final level. This is again, a huge step backwards from the first game where opening enough chests without getting hit got you the souls which unlock the alternative harder levels where you can get the keys to the final level. The new system is so much less interesting and involved. On paper both systems require to go through the game without dying but the new system feels so arbitrary and lazy compared to the original which really felt like you were earning those extra endings by going out of your way to achieve special objectives. Not to mention this makes the game have significantly less content than the original because there are no alternate hard versions of any of the levels. The best way I can think to say it is, Volgarr II is a game that punishes you for doing poorly rather than rewarding you for doing well like the first game did.
Those are the biggest design issues but overall the game just feels less quality than the original. None of the new powerups are interesting or introduce any useful or meaningful utilities. The levels are long and repetitive and many of the new enemies are annoying to fight. The bosses feel smaller and less complex.
I could go on but the bottom line is that Volgarr II is by no means a bad game, it's just okay. But when the first game was such an amazing experience, being just okay is still pretty disappointing.