That adorable little goat is back with a set of new platforming puzzles to solve. Escape Goat 2 still has that lovely lavender goat except this time he’s gotten a makeover and is now quite sassy. You’ve got to love a goat that looks you right in the eyes when he knows that you’re about to do a critical move. It’s impossible not to want to yell “Stop looking at me goat! I know if I mess this up I’m dead.”
In the sequel, there are a more levels, new puzzles, more enemies, and more ways to die. The goat’s companion mouse is back to act as a helper and sometimes you can’t beat a level without the mouse. The fun thing with the mouse is that in some levels s/he can gain super powers that allows the mouse to become stone, swap places with you, multiply, or soar in perpendicular angles. There are many helpful things the mouse can do but you still have to be the goat and make some precision jumps to clear a level.
The overall look of the game is more stylized and brighter. The art and design in Escape Goat 2 has gotten a wonderful facelift; there are more details and environmental attributes like the room maps, which blossom into elaborate stained glass window paths. The music still has the feel of non-intrusive melodic piano/synthesizer pieces with corresponding sound effects.
Each main room has five sub-levels that you must clear in order to move on to the next. The final sub-level culminates in the goat waking a sheep that tends to have a zen-like statement of “enlightenment” for the goat before you go to collect a sheep soul. The game does allow for you to skip around and revisit a level that was giving you grief and causing you to want to throw your controller. Once you get to the final key room on the main path, the Spine of Stronghold, you must have enough sheep orbs to pass through, but don’t expect to be done because even more branches are exposed. Sound simple enough? Well, by room eight the option to quit has a special little present for you. Initially, I breezed through many of the levels and knew that it would not last; by the time I had one orb remaining to unlock the main path to room nine, my palms were sweaty and I was talking to the screen.
Bottom Line: This is an addictive platform-puzzler. You will be rewarded for your cleverness and use of imagination. There will be times that you may want to throw your controller, but who hasn’t with an exacting platformer? Remember, there is always more than one way to do something especially in Escape Goat 2. Words of Wisdom: Sometimes your enemies aren’t really your enemies until they are.
This review is based on a retail copy of Escape Goat 2 for the PC provided by the publisher.
