Project Warlock 2 – Spotlight

Here are my impressions of Project Warlock 2 and how it stacks up against its predecessor.

Warlock 2 is more difficult than the first one. There have been a lot of times where I’ve had to use all of my resources in order to survive even in the first level of the game. I was stunned by the first boss I encountered. To put it into perspective, the first time around I breezed through the game and only died twice on the final boss.

The transformation of the Magic system into a system of active skills prompted me to give it more thought. After a few uses in 1 (mainly grenade throws and making more ammo), I forgot about it. A lifesaver is having your guns akimbo and enemies dropping cooldown reducing items when you use them well in an ambush.

In the short time I had, I didn’t come across any obvious bugs or issues that were game-breaking.

Even in crowded situations, there were no FPS drops or other issues with the small file size.

I prefer the larger maps to the smaller ones from the original game. The first level of 2 took me longer to complete than the first chapter of 1’s first level. This means that even if I had the minimap open, my chances of getting lost would be much greater than 1. However, I found myself going in circles or stopping to bring up the larger map because it opened up new routes to earlier in the level like some of the old build games.

In 2, the way secrets are handled is different. In the first game, you can use wall humped in the style of Wolfenstein 3D, but in the second, you must destroy map elements such as cracked walls to progress. It wasn’t bad, but coming from 1, it was jarring.

After dying, loading screens take a long time, about 20 seconds for me. This is annoying because you can still hear the monster noises around you while the loading screen is taking place.

When you reload after a death, the minimap has a faded appearance. Even if your map knowledge isn’t completely wiped out, you may find yourself starting from scratch. It’s inconvenient when you have to spend a lot of time exploring and your map isn’t accurate.

As of this writing, Project Warlock 2 is an excellent follow-up to Project Warlock 1, and I look forward to playing more of it as it continues to grow. Since the first game, I’ve had a great deal more enjoyment and involvement. Minor issues, but not deal breaker ones.