Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon Review

Developer: Tiger Style Games
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.4
App Reviewed on: iPad Air 2

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Have you ever wanted to play a game as a spider, the apex predator of the bug world? Better yet, have you wanted to play as a spider while exploring an eerie and atmospheric estate? Then look no further than Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon - also known as Spider 2. It'sa follow up to Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, an early iOS release that was praised both for its gameplay and sense of exploration. Spider 2 takes what was great about its predecessor and builds on it in a lot of smart ways.

Now players get the chance to explore the mysterious Blackbird Estate, which is home to three primary collectibles: bugs, mysteries, and secrets. In any given location players are tasked with exploring the environment and weaving webs to catch and eat insects in order to open a portal and progress to the next location. The other collectibles serve to provide clues that flesh out the history of the estate and allow for players to unlock new areas and spiders.

Much like the first, Spider 2 controls with players tapping and holding on the screen to make the spider move in a particular direction while jumping is accomplished with a swipe (or tap) in a specific direction. Using these controls, players must weave webs using a limited supply of silk to trap and eat bugs. Score multipliers are awarded for eating multiple bugs on multiple webs without touching other parts of the environment, which can help unlock the portal to each level faster. While the control scheme can sometimes result in some accidental silk expenditure, the pace is such that players rarely feel like they are fighting the controls. That being said, it would have been nice if Spider 2 included some kind of trajectory indicator so that players can more easily look before they leap.

WithSpider 2comes a bunch of new bugs for players to eat, each with their own characteristics for eating. While some just need to be caught in any web others require a large, strong web, and some must simply be pounced on. On top of this,Spider 2 also can tap into players' location to provide true-to-life day and night cycles and weather effects, all of which change the bug makeup of each level. This makes it so that everyenvironment has multiple ways to be played with each set of bugs presenting their own challenges, which adds a lot to replayability.

Like the first Spider, the best thing about Spider 2 is its atmosphere. Every level is beautifully crafted and full of spider-sized nooks and crannies to explore. The really neat thing about checking out every inch of each level is that everything is so detailed that players can put together a pretty good idea of what's going on with the residents of Blackbird Estate, all without having things spelled out.

For players looking for a fun puzzle game with some environmental story-telling hooks, Spider 2 is a must play. It isn't a completely reinvented version of its predecessor, but it builds on the core elements in ways that keep it feeling fresh throughout.