Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 review
When I started playing Dungeons of Dreadrock for the first time, I had no idea the amount of tricky surprises that were awaiting me. It was the combination of clever wrinkles as well as their novelty that made it one of my top games of 2022. With a sequel, though, how do you recapture that same magic? Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 has a few new tricks up its sleeves to keep veteran players on the hook, but I'm not sure any of the innovations here will win over any new fans.
Return to Dreadrock
The App Store description for Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 accurately describes it as "episode 2" of what now seems to be a series. This game takes the exact same look, feel, setting, and story of the original Dreadrock and continues pushing it forward.
In this game, you play as a priestess of the Order of the Flame and use your unique, magical skillset to solve 100 more puzzles within a different part of Dreadrock's dungeons. This means you'll still be scooting a hero character around single-screen, grid-based hallways, but you'll be taking advantage of powers imbued in your staff and other collectibles and items to solve increasingly intricate challenges.
More story, more action, more dread
With this in mind, Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 wastes no time getting immediately complicated in the ways that made the first game such a unexpected delight. On top of that, this game leans more heavily into its story, which both help flesh out the world but also provide nice breaks between stretches of puzzling.
By starting somewhat complicated, though, Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 seems like it has to find increasingly byzantine ways to stretch its mechanics in later stages of the game to feel like it's continuing to up the ante. While some of this results some of the same highs that made the first game world feel so real and controllable, there are also times where the envelope feels like it's pushed a little too far. Whether it's the limits of the game's single-finger control scheme, levels of abstraction that disrupt the otherwise grounded feel, or some combination of the two, late-game areas can feel hard to enjoy outside of appreciating their design on a somewhat academic level.
New players beware
If you are wondering at this point whether this game is for you, I'd say that if you enjoyed the first Dungeons of Dreadrock and saw it through to the end, then there's a lot to like in 2. Otherwise, I'm not so sure. In a lot of ways, the first game feels like a prerequisite to this one, to the point that a new player will likely have a hard time following the story or understanding game concepts that are more gently introduced in the original game.
All that said, Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 is very accommodating when it comes to figuring out how to move forward in it. Every level has multiple hints players can use at their discretion, with the final hint offer typically spelling out exactly what you need to do to reach the next place you have to get to.
The bottom line
I am still enamored with the way the Dreadrock games establish a consistent logic and tight scope to each and every one of their puzzles. Even when tasked with juggling what feels like a slightly unwieldy set of concepts in this latest game, there are still those magic moments where everything clicks and you spot a wild solution right away. Perhaps Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 could have done with a little less envelope pushing, but I am glad it exists nonetheless.
