Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Mar 18, 2015

  edit: finished the game. the end throws some really interesting puzzle mechanics at you. overall nice, but the one complaint about the entire game that i have is that the difficulty spikes a LOT. it's still fun, just kinda annoying sometimes. the original was a nice puzzle-platformer that was immensely satisfying yet pretty short. go look it up if you haven't played it, it's free. anyways, this game has more elements of "platform hell" than it does "puzzle", but both elements are still there. it reminds me of 1001 spikes in that aspect. speaking of 1001 spikes, expect a lot of unfair deaths here and there, but levels are typically short enough that it feels like a slap in the wrist. (at least where i'm at, i've beaten the game halfway and will update this review when i finish it). it's not really for everyone in this aspect the platforming is VERY wonky and slip-slidey to begin with but you get used to it fast. beating the shit out of the werewolves is a lot more satisfying in this game because they're a lot harder to get at, but the button-mashing doesn't really feel right. minor inconvenience at most. just realize that it's probably gonna take 4-5 seconds to kill them compared to the first game, which was a lot faster if i remember correctly the graphics are nice, gives me an "another world" vibe. before you complain about the pixel aesthetic keep in mind that the first one was made in a time before that kind of stuff became the norm. music is almost non-existant for atmospheric reasons, i'd assume. verdict: a nice little puzzler that's worth its price but not for everyone. if you're on the fence about it, wait for a sale.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 18, 2015

  This game is weird. Super weird. One of the reasons you should buy it. Other reasons: *You play a ninja who murders werewolves who shoot lasers from their chest *You murder a statue, a tree, and a giant lizard. *You navagate a giant monster's intestines by popping its blood vessels and using the blood to reveal hidden blocks. *The non-game (promotional, ect) art has an awesome Art Deco aesthetic, and who doesn't love Art Deco? *It's cheap. *It's challenging. *If you buy it, they'll make an episode 3.
• gamedeal user

  May 1, 2015

  Allow me to preface this by saying that I adored Vox Populi Vox Dei 1. I played it all the time in high school and loved it, it was a welcome change of pace from the standard flash platformers that overwhelm the market and was challenging, but still fair. I'm also a seasoned veteran of the platformer genre. With that out of the way I need to state that Vox Populi 2 is not Vox Populi 1. VP1 was a puzzle game with a side-scroller facade. There were minor platforming elements, but on the whole the game's focus was progressing past the baddies in your way by a means of stealth, planning and timing. Platforming mechanics like death pits and jumping gaps took a backseat to the design elements of the game. VP2, however, tosses most of this out the window and stages itself like your typical indie platforming game. It has spike traps, projectile hazards, and jumping puzzles. A lot of the game relies on trial and error and sheer persistence to get through, so much so in fact that I feel compelled to compare it to "I Wanna Be the Guy". At this point, although episodic, the story feels almost negligable. While the first game's plot was simple yet engaging, the story to this point has taken so many twists and turns that it feels more like a parody then something I'm interested in seeing through to the end. The learning curve is pretty relentless as well: I found myself dying more than dozens of time on the first level of platforming. Maybe I'm just rusty, but I'm more inclined to blame the game's controls. They're simply not tight enough for the kind of precision platforming that VP2 demands of it's player. They feel slippery and it takes too long in some cases to get the horizontal momentum you need to be making it from platform A to platform B, which is why I found myself needing to take most of the jumps while hanging off the edge of platform A to compensate. In a game where you need to be making sudden stops and precise landings the controls should be built to match it. Attacking werewolves also feels much less rewarding because of the controls, since mashing the space bar to do it at maximum speed is no longer an option. It seems to me to be because the player character can make another slash at his enemy after the previous attacking animation has ended. This makes the mashing feeling of destroying another creature feel far less rewarding and take the same amount of time every time instead of spurting blood on every key press a-la VP1. The level design is poor as well. There are many cases in which you'll be committing to blind jumps and falls, relying primarily on the level to give you a checkpoint or platform to land safely onto. Even the spacing of checkpoints is relentless, one of the first jumping segments has you complete six different finicky jumping segments before allowing you a checkpoint. There's another level early on where you encounter a machine stamping the floor of a hallway with spikes from above. By and large it's your standard 'wait until this hazard stops functioning before moving past it' type of timing puzzle, but it takes a good 10 seconds before complete its loop, which feels far too long to be waiting around to study it's pattern. What's more is there are 4 of them, each one is larger then the last and takes longer to complete as a result. Big elements of the design just feel poorly thought out at times which drags the gameplay to a screeching halt. The design does attempt a few interesting turns later on when a stage uses it's blood particle mechanic to help the player see platforms. But for some reason it decides it needs a space shooter stage and a level that mirrors the player on the top and bottom half of the screen, forcing you to keep both sides alive. On the whole it's nothing that hasn't been used in a platformer game before, and to better effect then it achieves, so the question remains as to why they would choose to implement it at all? Design issues aside, that's my main point of contention. I'm just left bewildered as to why the creators decided to scrap the puzzle formula to adopt a platformer approach. Vox Populi 1 was a game that used it's puzzle game design to great effect and I really was excited to see all the places a sequel could possibly go. However Vox Populi 2 just adapts to a saturated market and is just another platformer which makes the sequel immensely disappointing, and it's certainly not the game I was hoping for it to be. ----------- tl;dr If you're a fan of difficult indie platformer/action games and willing to lose one or two lives to design choices, this game may be for you. But If you're expecting a sequel to Vox Populi 1 in the same style of gameplay, you may want to hold off on playing this one.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 19, 2015

  This game is good because it is good. Werewolf lasers.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 22, 2015

  Good old times... I remember playing the first game years ago. It's been six years, wow. I remember that I searched the whole internet for the second game. Now there it is. I almost forgot this series existed. Anyway, let's get to it. Pros: -Interesting and confusing story -Gameplay -Musics -Laser shooting epic wolves. -Epic boss fights. Cons: -Wolves don't have ding-dongs anymore.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 17, 2015

  Vox Populi Vox Dei 2 is a pretty hard but fair platformer with puzzle parts and it has even a side-scrolling shooter insert. [code][b]Pixel art at its finest![/b][/code] If you like this style and retro game mechanics you will be satisfied for sure. It isnt too long but varied. It took me a few enjoyable hours to finish it. In view of the price its a really good deal.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 11, 2015

  I see this game as Super Meat Boy meets Another World. It's a fun little title, got cool pixel-art graphics, good challenge without being too hard. Nothing exceptional, but worth playing.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 14, 2016

  I think I liked this even a little better than the original Vox Populi Vox Dei. The gameplay varies nicely and it's not very expensive, and although you will die ALL. THE. TIME. you rarely have to start over from very far back. I think the only stage where the backtracking felt really obnoxious was the side-scrolling crow-flying wolf-shooting stage, and at least with that you could just shoot bad guys instead of jumping on them and then awkwardly ripping their guts out for fifteen minutes. Oh, and the mechanic where you have to reveal the floor with the blood of enemies is a nice little mechanic, considering how much of the stuff splattered everywhere in both games.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 23, 2017

  So I played the first game years ago on "Kongregate". I then saw this on Steam and thought that it would be cool. Someone eventually gave me this game for free and I finished it in a matter of hours. The ending was pretty abrupt. I walked down the ending corridor, and then BOOM! Game ended! Watch out for episode 3! wut
• gamedeal user

  Apr 28, 2017

  Nice atmosphere with very good controls. I got it cheap in a bundle, but I am also inclined to say that it is worth the 1,49 EUR on Steam sale. Give it a try if you like indie platformers with some decent difficulty. [i] Twitch Channel : https://www.twitch.tv/mrorange55 Youtube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1UE5TPoF0HX0HVpF_E4uPQ/videos?view_as=subscriber [/i]