Written by Vikki Blake, @_vixx

With all the hallmarks of a fun – if forgettable – seasonal hit, it’s tempting not to take Double Fine’s Costume Quest 2 too seriously.

But beneath the agreeable exterior beats the heart of a slick little RPG that’s as sweet and addictive as the Halloween candy we’re tasked with collecting. It’s no surprise that fans have been clamouring for a second instalment.

Costume Quest 2 plunges us back into the lives of Wren and Reynold – the fraternal twins you may recall from the original game – who once again find themselves stumbling unwittingly into yet another Halloween disaster, this time courtesy of arectypital bad guy Orel White – a pissed off dentist with a grudge against all things Halloween – who banishes the holiday.

And so our premise is set. The perky twins set off to locate the dentist and undo the past,
leaping back and fore through time via a selection of time portals whilst collecting candy from strangers and battling monsters along the way.

The gameplay plays out just as the original story. There’s a mishmash of puzzles, sidequests, turn-based battles and, naturally, trick-or-treating. With each door you knock in the hope of topping up your candy pail, there’s every chance you’ll encounter a weird and wonderful enemy instead of a friendly neighbour.

When a monster does step in and challenge you to a battle, your chosen flavour of twin transforms into whichever costume they happen to be wearing at the time. On most occasions, the costumes – and their associated superpowers – are fantastically fun, with each lending it’s own particular RPG flavour (Soldier, Medic etc.).

Unsurprisingly, this means that, initially, you’ll need to seek out bigger and better costumes. This is not as easy as it seems. Whilst some costumes come ready-to-wear, many do not, and to complete them you need to think strategically – and sometimes a little experimentally – and explore your surroundings to locate the materials and patterns necessary to create your costume.

That said, the costume selection is by no means a prerequisite, and it’s probably pretty easy to sail through the game with nothing but the costumes you and your friends arrive wearing (our Candy Corn companion aside). Once you settle into a party that works as you’d like, it’s hard to bust out of the rut and experiment with the new outfits.

Which brings us onto the battles themselves. Rarely challenging, the turn-based combat offers up the bog-standard mix of basic attack with the occasional individual special power, although these can be enhanced by collecting/purchasing Creepy Treat cards.

Time-based responses and button-prompts are your tools and whilst they’re rarely difficult, it’s easy to mis-time the odd attack and have a colleague expire as a consequence. The key, as you might expect, is to mix up the cards and your characters so that each contributor brings something different to the fighting arena.

The issue here is that the combat rarely challenges you, and you may often find your curious exploration of the story environs stuttered by interruptions of the rinse-repeat combat sequences. Animations are rehashed over and over, and progression feels consciously sluggish compared to the original. Oh, and I did I mention that you have to backtrack, endlessly, to fill up your life meters after each battle? No? Maybe that’s because I was so frickin’ tired of it, I STOPPED CARING.

That said – and somewhat amazingly – the game’s holiday-themed foundation rarely feels cheesy or forced. The environments are colourful and detailed, crammed with Halloween-based props that lend a rich, warm and comfortable glow to the various backdrops that are the perfect setting for this warm, occasionally laugh-out-loud story.

Even though you can often see the next twist or turn coming a mile off, that doesn’t detract from the enjoyment in any way thanks to a (mostly) sharp, witty script. (And at least this time you can read the text at your own leisure – the original game was not so obliging.)

The Final Word: There’s a heady mix of exploration and combat here, and whilst the latter can, on occasion, be a little tiresome, it’s not quite enough to tamper the enjoyment. In fact, very little does – Costume Quest 2 is fun and funny way to while away a few hours long after the Halloween decorations and candy pails have been boxed away for another year.