Figment 2: Creed Valley Review (Shuvack)
Whole 6 years after the release of Figment, the second game delivers more of basically the same experience.
Figment 2 is a top down adventure game mixed with slasher combat, you control with WASD, space to dodge, e to use, q to cycle inventory items and lmb to attack. The game feels very similar, but it does have some design choice tweaks, one is the lack of charged attack, instead you have the same charge attack animation as a combo finisher, another big difference is lack of pickable elevator platforms, that most of the puzzles relied on in Figment 1, instead of those, you get world switch totems. where each area has 2 states you can swap between by hitting said totems, you've probably seen a similar system in other puzzle games.
Something in the design that is not immediately obvious is the way this game balances puzzles and combat, compared to 1, puzzles are now even easier it felt like, I called them simple in the first game, so this would make them elementary, there is nothing like the sokoban sequences for example, most of it felt like flipping switches in correct order to create a bridgeway to the next area. In turn, the combat was spiced up significantly, in Figment it was extremely barebones, until you reached a puzzle boss, here you actually have light-bullet hell moments, and a lot more enemies on screen at a time, instead of being a waiting game, it was more of an action game requiring a bit of reflexes, another good adition for these small hordes is friendly fire, which works especially well with rocket turret enemies, whose projectiles you can deflect and redirect not only at the turret itself, but other enemies too.
Overall, it is a very similar game, with even easier puzzles, way more action oriented combat, but still a surprisingly good flow throughout the experience.
Audio and visuals are almost exactly the same quality as before, it has the exact same artstyle and music style, not to say that there aren't improvements - it is technically more impressive, there is more animated background elements, there are actual animated NPCs now besides the mayor, there is even more vocal tracks, more visual effects and a lot more enemies rendered at once. It's not an overwhelming change, but it's probably for the best, as it helps maintain the exact style og had going for it.
Lastly the story and characters, it is now a different turmoil for the character whose mind you play in, you could say it's a different trope, this time more tied to work stress etc.. The protagonist, sidekick and mayor are back, but instead of 3 villains, you now have 2, given its presence on the cover art, you might guess who the game revolves around. The memories now also work a bit differently, instead of 25 of them throughout the character's life, you get like 6, which in some ways tie to the main conflict. It's a more focused game for sure, but I felt like it was a bit less varied and dreamlike, compared to Figment 1, also some of the lines in this one have ties to modern western political discourse, nothing malicious, but I did still roll my eyes that a game reminds me of what year it might've been made in.
Overall, it's a good time, I prefer Figment 1 personally, but if you wanted more out of that game's combat, then you might prefer this one instead. Since they share so many similarities you really can't go wrong with playing both, as long as you like one of them, a solid sequel in my opinion.