Slayaway Camp 2 Review – More Killer Puzzles
Slayaway Camp 2 by Blue Wizard Digital
Slayaway Camp 2 is a worthy follow-up to the original. Taking the already amusing premise of combining sliding block puzzle mechanics with cartoonish slasher movie violence, the sequel provides more of everything: more puzzles, more characters to unlock, more mechanical tweaks, more B-movie horror references, and a whole lot more murder.
Slide and Slash
The premise is unchanged: move Skullface, a character suspiciously similar to Friday the 13th killer Jason Voorhees – no coincidence, as developers Blue Wizard Digital also did an officially licensed puzzler game for that franchise – around isometric camp scene puzzles to murder all the teenagers.
If they escape, you lose, and the puzzles follow an easily picked-up set of rules. Show up in front of a camper, and they’ll run in the opposite direction if there’s nothing blocking them. They’ll do the same if they witness a death or if you shake a tree behind them.
Sokobash
Figure out how to use the environment along with Sokoban-style crate-pushing, campfires, and bodies of water, and you can set off chains of death by drowning, burning, crushing, and good old-fashioned strangulation.
It’s all played for laughs, with the characters a bit reminiscent of low-poly South Park characters, and despite the slasher movie theme, the deaths are more classic cartoon than torture porn: strangled campers’ heads blow up like over-inflated balloons, for example.
Slasher Secrets
There are also tons of playful twists on the established formula, all in unlockable sets of levels and new characters themed after various B-movie subgenres.
Mines, rolling boulders, lava pits, and TASER-wielding police all add new twists, as do new characters like beasts that are capable of freezing potential victims in terror.
These factors, as well as both the sheer number of levels and challenges and each one’s single-screen brevity, make Slayaway Camp 2 particularly well-designed for mobile gamers.
Bonus mini-games in particular, which score you extra points for stylish kills after picking up a hidden machete on a level, are geared toward tap-happy touchscreen players and fall a little flat if you’re playing with a mouse.
The Verdict
All of the bonus bells and whistles enhance the serial killer sliding puzzle mechanics, but it’s the puzzles themselves that make Slayaway Camp 2 so addictive. They’re hard enough to require thought and planning, and a well-executed series of kills really makes you feel clever, but there’s also a generous hint system that doesn’t punish you or make you feel stupid for using it occasionally.
Add an incredible attention to detail as far as the premise – and an obvious enthusiasm for horror movies in general and ‘80s VHS aesthetics in particular – and you’ve got all the ingredients for a truly killer puzzle game.
Slayaway Camp is available via the Apple Store, Google Play, and Steam.
Watch the trailer for Slayaway Camp 2 below:
