Game Information

Costume Quest 2

Platform: PlayStation 4

Developer: Double Fine

Publisher: Midnight City

MSRP: $14.99

Released: October 28th, 2014

When Double Fine released the original Costume Quest in 2010, it was an unique take and view on the adventure role-playing genre surrounding a Holiday theme. It wasn’t something you’d expect out of a game, but it was a nice change of pace that brought humor, Halloween, candy, and some pretty adorable costumes all under one roof. With Halloween approaching last month Double Fine went back to the well of sugary goodness and delivered upon us Costume Quest 2. Today, I’m going to tell you whether that second helping of candy is a good thing or not.

Costume Quest 2 is a candy collecting, time traveling role-playing game from the fine folks at Double Fine. In this Halloween treat you follow the adventure of fraternal siblings Wren and Reynold as they’re tasked to save Halloween. This time around, Wren and Reynold are faced with defeating the crazy Dr. Orel White, an evil minded dentist who wants to rid the world of candy, costumes, and Halloween forever. Dr. White’s dream comes true in the future where there is not a single candy in sight and if you were wearing a costume, you would be arrested and taken into custody.  It’s up to our costumed heroes to enter a time travel portal and save Halloween in the future while using an array of costumes to defeat the Grubbins sent by Dr. White.

Costume Quest 2 brings forth your standard role-playing game components in that your characters can still equip different type of weapons and armors through the costumes that they can wear. However, taking advantage of those items is something that’s been improved upon in the sequel over the original in the way that the combat works. This time around, you have the option of a secondary attack so long as you time your button sequences properly. I call this a “time-based” attack. You probably know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever played a game where you need to time your attacks to build up combos during combat. It works the same way here.

The buffs you utilize during battle have changed for Costume Quest 2. Unlike in the original where you utilized very limiting Battle Stamps, this time you’re using “Creepy Treat Cards” that modify the way you fight. Each card has a cool down time, so you can’t spam them battle after battle, but they add another dynamic to the system that was quick to grow stale in Costume Quest.

One of the biggest issues facing Costume Quest 2 is the navigation system that Double Fine has chosen to throw into the game. Instead of utilizing a map that displays where you actually are, you’re given the choice to purchase the map of an area, but it doesn’t say where you’re actually located. This means you have to take the time to figure out where you are if you’ve ever found yourself lost in the game world. I’m not sure why this design decision was made, but it’s definitely one I wouldn’t suggest bringing into Costume Quest 3 if there ever is one.

As expected, repetitiveness plays a major role in CS2. The game revolves around knocking on doors in order to encounter the enemy and the side-quests do not do much to differ from this simple formula. CS2 pushes you door-to-door and sends you running around the map in order to collect candy currency and discover new costumes. While this does play out like it should, there isn’t enough variety in the way everything occurs in order to make it feel like a new experience the more you play. Instead, it feels like you’re always just doing more of the same and that can grow old quickly (and does).

Visually, Costume Quest 2 is stunning. Double Fine has done a terrific job creating a world full of vibrant, contrasting colors that help bring the environments to life around you. When you couple this with the memorable and likely cast of non-playable characters, the world around you starts to feel a lot more inviting and somewhere worth taking the imaginary trip to.

Although I felt the game was a bit repetitive at times and battle outcomes were a little predictable, the storyline, graphics, and characters made this game pretty enjoyable. If you love Halloween or know someone that does, I feel you’d enjoy this game and appreciate the holiday even more. Now you can Trick or Treat all year long.