I played LBA2 twice back in the day, and always meant to replay it. I finally did, and yes, it's still so very charming with all the rounded, colourful shapes and innocent characters. The story is suprisiningly serious though, and despite that everyone's but Twinsen's voice sounds completely ridiculous you can't help but take them seriously simply because that's how everyone speaks here. If someone were to just walk by the game they'd definitely have a good laugh. This is the real strenght of LBA2 though - how it manages to build a cohesive little universe here of islands and planets with inhabitants and oppressors and make the player feel engaged in it. You'll even forget that the bad guys look like sausages. The first half of the game will make you love it. Some annoying parts nonwithstanding. It's when combat ramps up that the problems arise, specifically the horrific stunlocking. Even if you do land the first shot, most enemies will be pushed to the side by each hit so it's easy to eventually miss, and then that' it for you. Only way out of it now is to get pushed around with a screaming Twinsen until you're out of range. Problem is Twinsen's animations. Push a button, jump, shoot - it all takes a second to set up, and this includes getting hit. So you're first knocked back, then you recover, and THEN you can start aiming again, so naturally before all that has taken place you're hit again. It's simply atrocious and nearly kills the whole game towards the end. I'll not even get into the problems of ranged combat with bouncing and arcing shots from an isometric angle. Same with the platforming segments. Angles, however, you can learn. The new 3d-engine is great, and I really think they should have scrapped having combat in the isometric sections altogether, since these lend themselves more to interacting with characters and such. Fortunately for LBA2, combat is still a relatively small part. Also, listening to the menu music will wash away all anger.
I did try it back in the day, but stopped before even getting past the swamps. Finally going through Daikatana in 2018 with the latest patch I'd say it's pretty darn good. Sure, it still crashed twice, and the companions got stuck to the point of having to reload a handful of times, but those were just annoyances. There's a lot of cool stuff in this game and, the first and final episode, which seem so hated, really reminded me of Sin. Part of that is definitely down to the modern setting and high-tech fortress infiltration setup, using terminals and finding side routes to get around. Got a serious break-in/out and heist feel to them with that music! The soundtrack as a whole was far better than I expected, really driving the whole thing. The middle two episodes has a lot of Hexen 2 in them. I mean, you've got Greek and medieval Norway, which could just as well have been in that game. Also, Daikatana as a whole has that type of destructible object and item pickup "puzzles" that Hexen 2 is famous for ( ok, to some it's infamous for it, but nevermind that. ). Lots of secrets too. Will definitely replay this one down the line, as I missed a ton of 'em ( also, I wonder how it works without companions. ). It may have been seen as outdated at the time, but this game looks great as long as you dig that chunky Quake1-2 engine style. That said - what is up with the screenshots on this page? Makes the game look terrible when is has so many beautiful locales. Bummer. Finally, there's plenty of cool weapons exclusive to each episode. So a highly enjoyable old-school shooter with a lot of imaginative ideas then. Some annoyances here and there really doesn't break it. Not anymore at least.
