CryptRat
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
- Messages
- 3,558
I completed the game, loved it. The game is a sequel to the first one taking place in the same world, and like the first one it's focused on exploration of an open world with a big hard quest to solve. It's also an improvement over the first game on many aspects.
Presentation is nice, seasons alterate the already varied flora, and monsters are varied. Equipement is visible on characters.
Music is nice too, including the songs your musician will play.
The story is not particularly original but I think it's both cool and well told. It's a good pretext to non-linear exploration of both the world and the story itself, and it is cleverly connected with the story of the first game.
Like the first game, the game takes place in a big open world which you need to apprehend with tons of slightly interconnected little things to find, solve or figure out in any order to finally put things together. There are optional secrets to find as well. You'll spend an important part of the game chatting with the inhabitants of the world looking for precious information via its keyword system. On this aspect Lurking 1 was very good and Lurking 2 is even better, don't expect solving the game without talking to everyone, paying attention to details and taking notes, it's why the game is so good, it's definitely a hard and demanding game and then as much satisfying.
You need to ask musicians for new songs and magicians for new spells, some required to progress. The magicians will ask for an ingredient you'll need to find. You'll also unlock several ways of transport.
Dungeons contain traps which are slightly visible but your thief will first make them more visible then will automatically disarm them as he gets better.
The game has an automap and the size of its visible area is perfect, not ruining exploration.
The game is classless and you create 5 characters (you can create more and switch between them at will in an adventurers' guild). There are 5 stats and 5 skills (combat, archery, magic, music and thievery skills). Skills are upgraded via a learn-by-doing system and I preferred the point allocation system of the first game, probably the only things I liked better in the first game since now you need to use your spells and songs even when it wouldn't be necessary, which is really not a big deal though'.
The equipement system is decent, they aren't tons of variations but you will never have enough gold to buy everything you'd want to and there are some strong items to find.
Combat is not the main point of the game but it is an improvement over the first game. It's easy to avoid since you choose when to enter battle so while crossing big areas again you can just run and maybe be targeted by a couple of arrows. That also makes the battles quicker since you can start a battle directly in front of enemies. Finally, monsters have unique skills now which make encounters more fun. Most monsters pop randomly, a few are handplaced and boss fights especially are fun.
If you hate solving puzzles then you'd probably better pass your way (or you can just try the first game, it's free) but if you like puzzles then you must play the game, you'll certainly enjoy it.
The second game is clearly an improvement over the first one, and if only one it's the one you should play. However I really recommend to play the two games in the right order, the first one is already very good, maybe a little easier so it's also a good practice, and it's very cool to get back to the world for a second ride.
Presentation is nice, seasons alterate the already varied flora, and monsters are varied. Equipement is visible on characters.
Music is nice too, including the songs your musician will play.
The story is not particularly original but I think it's both cool and well told. It's a good pretext to non-linear exploration of both the world and the story itself, and it is cleverly connected with the story of the first game.
Like the first game, the game takes place in a big open world which you need to apprehend with tons of slightly interconnected little things to find, solve or figure out in any order to finally put things together. There are optional secrets to find as well. You'll spend an important part of the game chatting with the inhabitants of the world looking for precious information via its keyword system. On this aspect Lurking 1 was very good and Lurking 2 is even better, don't expect solving the game without talking to everyone, paying attention to details and taking notes, it's why the game is so good, it's definitely a hard and demanding game and then as much satisfying.
You need to ask musicians for new songs and magicians for new spells, some required to progress. The magicians will ask for an ingredient you'll need to find. You'll also unlock several ways of transport.
Dungeons contain traps which are slightly visible but your thief will first make them more visible then will automatically disarm them as he gets better.
The game has an automap and the size of its visible area is perfect, not ruining exploration.
The game is classless and you create 5 characters (you can create more and switch between them at will in an adventurers' guild). There are 5 stats and 5 skills (combat, archery, magic, music and thievery skills). Skills are upgraded via a learn-by-doing system and I preferred the point allocation system of the first game, probably the only things I liked better in the first game since now you need to use your spells and songs even when it wouldn't be necessary, which is really not a big deal though'.
The equipement system is decent, they aren't tons of variations but you will never have enough gold to buy everything you'd want to and there are some strong items to find.
Combat is not the main point of the game but it is an improvement over the first game. It's easy to avoid since you choose when to enter battle so while crossing big areas again you can just run and maybe be targeted by a couple of arrows. That also makes the battles quicker since you can start a battle directly in front of enemies. Finally, monsters have unique skills now which make encounters more fun. Most monsters pop randomly, a few are handplaced and boss fights especially are fun.
If you hate solving puzzles then you'd probably better pass your way (or you can just try the first game, it's free) but if you like puzzles then you must play the game, you'll certainly enjoy it.
The second game is clearly an improvement over the first one, and if only one it's the one you should play. However I really recommend to play the two games in the right order, the first one is already very good, maybe a little easier so it's also a good practice, and it's very cool to get back to the world for a second ride.
Thanks for playing it!
