Alec Kravitt: Temple Run 2 Review

By Alec Kravitt

 

            When I first bought the mobile game app, Temple Run, I fell in love with it. So imagine my amazement when I found out abut a sequel, Temple Run 2. At first, I was blown away just by the idea, but now, I'm not quite sure if it is all that I had hoped it would be.

            Both of these games develop obstacles that you have to avoid as the game progresses. The original game got away with this by having fog, so that it would make sense that you couldn't see the obstacles. Sadly, though, in Temple Run 2, there is no excuse. The obstacles and scenery (which, by the way, is beautiful) just pop out at random. And what makes this problem worse is that this could have easily been resolved by turning the fog into clouds, but they didn't.

            Another aspect of this game I don't like is the re-use of the characters. I am not joking about this. There is only one new character in Temple Run 2 and the rest are the same characters from the first game. Sure, that is common in sequels, but why aren't there more new runners? Instead, it's the same characters running away from the same kind of monsters, the only difference being that there is only one giant monster in this game as opposed to three smaller ones.

            Nonetheless, there are redeeming factors in this game. There are additional obstacles. Now, along with fire bars, tree roots, and gaps, there are also spinning spike wheels, ziplines and mine carts. Now, I wish I could talk smack about that last feature, but it actually compliments the game's controls. Not to mention that if you lose, you can re-spawn yourself with gems you find along your previous runs. The thing with gems, though, is that the more times you revive yourself in a single game, the more gems you have to pay to revive yourself. For example, the first time, it only costs one gem. The next time, it costs two. The third time you revive yourself, it costs four gems. As you can see, the numbers double so that the player isn't tempted to continue playing.

            In conclusion, this game is not bad. Sure the character creativity is a little lacking, but I am sure that Imangi Studios will fix that in the near future. So if you come across this game in the app store, make sure to check it out.