Anodyne 2 doesn't have much to do with Anodyne, besides a few pointless game mechanics that are added as you progress in the game. But had this game been named differently, I doubt many people would play it. It's a game akin to a clunky first attempt at 3D, reminiscent of the era where 2D games had 3D sequels, and very bad ones at that. Not that Anodyne 2 is very bad, but it's underwhelming in every way. Despite the new 3D environment, most of the gameplay seems to take place in the generic 2D world of Anodyne. The 3D itself is fairly ugly, but grows on you, and the accompanying soundtrack makes it more enjoyable to traverse the same empty levels over and over again. Levels are just large enough to feel empty, since in each section there are only a couple points of interest to explore, and the 2D sections are fairly linear - you keep going forward until you reach an exit. Collectibles help make the aimless wandering more bearable, since you're tasked with collecting coins and cards - the coins showing up later in the game, in levels you've already traversed dozens of times. Anodyne 2 is also too infatuated with its nonsensical and pointless plot, which it delivers with large blocks of text, with only a handful of it being interesting - due to things it seemed to hint at, rather than due to actual plot developments. With boring 2D sections, clunky 3D sections - and bad controls in both, Anodyne 2 feels far too long for what it is, and a decent plot could have made the experience more enjoyable - more interactive. As is, it feels like a bargain bin game surpassed by every other bargain bin game. The only highlights are its weirdness, and its music, which help to draw you in, until the plot and mechanics totally lose you. If you decide to play it, I suggest getting it extremely discounted - 90% and up. It's a game that eventually wears your patience down, making finishing it dependent on some collectable you missed, forcing you to use a walkthrough.
If there was ever a game that looked better than it is, this is it. Essentially Abzu is a game where you move from corridor to corridor, collecting the few uninteresting collectibles there are, and activating the few levers you need to activate to move on to the next level. Levels are open but are fairly streamlined, and you're pushed through them in a linear fashion. You can try and explore, but there isn't much to explore - the game tries to dazzle you the moment you enter a new level, by showing you a school of fish right in front of your eyes, and the various other aquatic creatures to be found pretty much announce their presence, and don't have to be discovered. Abzu also suffers from having assets so nice, they got copy-pasted throughout all the levels. It's a problem of budget titles - spend so much time and money creating a gorgeous level with a high attention to detail, that every other level after that has to be a derivative of that first one. It makes exploration even less appealing, since whatever you find, you've already seen it before. It also makes Abzu outstay its welcome. It isn't a difficult or frustrating game by any means, but you will perform the same tasks over and over again. You do move out of the water later on, for a short while, but even that is handled so poorly, you feel like you're doing the same tasks you've been doing underwater. The platforms you walk on are very confined and are basically a corridor you move through, after which you return to the water. The only innovation in this game is whether a lever is underwater or on a platform. But my biggest gripe with this game is its controls, which seem to badly interpret your intentions. A lot of times I had to fight with the controls just to get to where I wanted to go, making me explore the levels as little as possible. Not that there's much to see - the most interesting things appear to you at eye-level. Everything else is sand and stone pillars.
A Short Hike seems to force the player to relax, and enjoy exploring nature, by introducing tasks for completionists which are either easy to complete, or unnecessary in order to advance the game. After a while of scouring the landscape for more useless coins, you'll get infected by the slow pace of the park, and allow yourself to simply enjoy the moment. For a completionist, this is a 2.5 hour experience, max. Gladly, achievements weren't available where I played this, otherwise they would have ruined the experience. Not that A Short Hike is amazing, but it serves as a distraction from my usual type of gaming. The characters and dialogue are nice enough that you actively seek out people to talk to, but dialogue quickly repeats itself, and the map is so small, there aren't that many people to converse with. There is a main objective of climbing the highest peak in the park, but once you allow yourself to relax, it becomes unimportant. Frankly, reaching it only serves to give you a new perspective on your day of frolicking. It uses a cheap and crude method to add depth to the game, yet it works. It makes this game into an enjoyable experience, played for an hour or two, possibly bought for a buck or two, but it offers very little to keep you playing, and has too many problems. The first problem being the art - it's gorgeous, yet seems to be viewed through a filter that extremely pixelates everything, making it hard to stare at the screen for long. It also distorts perspective, making it hard to know how close you are to an object when flying around. The finicky camera doesn't help either. It turns flying into a not-so relaxing experience, especially since if you let go of an arrow key, you take a nose-dive to the ground. You can fish, but catching a fish takes a few seconds, and isn't very rewarding. The map being small, and you being able to fly, also means you see everything there is to see early on, killing the pace of the game. Innovation ends too quickly.
