The Smurfs 2 - The Prisoner of the Green Stone

The game is a cheaper version of the first one which also didn't do anything. But this one is more expensive. The story is boring, unoriginal close to the first one. It's a simple straight-line shooting game with almost no secrets. There are bugs and poor balance. The only plus is that those stupid little challenges from the first game are gone. The enemies are the same, only in different territories they are a little more durable and have a different skin and maybe a new ability. The bosses are the same, absolutely no difference except for some new skill. The terrain is too long and you're doing the same enemy arena and a weak puzzle. The secrets are simply breaking all the crystals or, if you want, finding the extra flowers for upgrades, which you don't need much, and the challenging levels that give a lot of points. The challenging levels are poorly balanced and some are buggy. You have a great upgrade system but it's barely noticeable and unbalanced. I upgrade power, I don't feel it, I upgrade speed, I do more damage. The characters are simply one bonus skill, but you have to play through the entire game before you can choose or fully advance them. There is almost no point in replaying it. I would recommend it at a big discount because it is too cheaply made, repetitive and boring.

Let's start with my first impression. Which for once, started at the desktop of all things. They couldn't even be bothered to adjust the game icon accordingly, so it's just stretched out at low resolution. Launching the game, you will always be greeted with SteamVR launching itself because the devs were too incompetent to disable the VR plugins. For anyone who wants to torture themselves with this shitheap of a game, use "-nohmd" as a launch command to prevent this annoying pop-up. Let's get to the actual game now, it's slop. They blow their powder within the first two levels by introducing you to all the mechanics that will repeat themselves throughout the game. The 'puzzles' are a joke. The combat is tedious with tanky enemies frequently spawning in, regardless of which difficulty you choose. It's not challenging, it's just boring. The game as a whole is the very definition of filler. Levels just exist to drag out the playtime. There are no memorable sections as it all blends together into one mind-numbing experience. To add insult to injury, they are also unnecessarily long. Which turns into a huge problem when you're forced to replay these levels as you can only spawn in at the start. My game crashed on 2 of these levels, right at the very end, forcing me to start them from scratch. Great game design. It's obvious that they had no concept for this game. The different environments can't fix the mediocre mess that is the gameplay. They couldn't even be bothered to design more than one boss. Throughout the story, you're forced to fight the same boss 6 whole times, 3 of these instances occurring in the final level alone. And if that wasn't enough, there are 2 more challenges that are this exact boss fight again, one of which you'll be forced to replay upwards of 10-20 times to farm for one particular achievement. I was optimistic for this game as the previous installment was worthwhile enough. This however, shows that there is little to no passion present within the people who develop these games. They have the know-how to make games, but don't seem interested in developing an engaging experience for the player. I've played their take on the Asterix & Obelix XXL franchise and the same problems resurface here. I'm not asking for innovation, just for quality over length when it comes to gameplay.

A let down from the first Smurfs game, with the levels being very simple and honestly not that fun after the first level. The levels felt dragged out with not much variety in the puzzles, prioritizing the constant repetitive combat areas. Platforming is decent and thats honestly what I was hoping for out of a family friendly platformer. Despite the flaws, I always enjoy the goofiness of the Smurfs universe and its characters and art style. I do believe they performed well in this regards and the cutscenes are always fun to sit through. In conclusion, not a bad platformer by any means but definitely a mixed bag from my experience. I just would make sure to get it on sale, as I do not believe it is worth at full price. I played this on Steam Deck at a semi-constant 80-90 fps at epic settings. The game tends to lag/stutter a lot in the icy levels so I would lower the settings down from there. 5/10