Review: A-Men 2

During the launch of the PlayStation Vita, whether it was the less than stellar reviews the original A-Men received or the fact that there were games like Rayman Origins to quell any platforming urges that came over me, Bloober Team’s hard-as-nails 2D puzzle platformer did not spark enough interest from me to make the purchase. Now, with the Vita’s library considerably more significant, can A-Men 2 entice a larger audience?

The answer, unfortunately, is no.

The game is made up of multiple levels with very little to string them together. The goal of each level seems to involve getting your squad of characters through various obstacles and traps – with no rhyme or reason to your actions except progression. With no overall goal to achieve or story to see through to the end, the game quickly becomes a slog – a hard-as-nails slog.

The environments are made up of numerous levels above and below you, each one holding different obstacles you are meant to overcome – these include elements such as elevators or meter-high walls. Wooden crates also seemingly cause your squad serious issues. There are also more dangerous contraptions to overcome. Death waits in varying forms – from falling rocks or debris to saws and other sharp objects. Getting past these would be difficult enough with the limited capabilities of your ‘elite’ unit, but there are also enemy soldiers to contend with. Unfortunately, the only real option to defeat these foes is to use the traps against them or avoid them completely.

The game descends into spending quite a bit of time standing still, pondering the patrols of the enemies and double-checking the geography of the area on your map to look for the often-times singular solution to the problem. It often takes hours of trying as while there are tutorial messages dotted through the levels, they explain the game mechanics rather than hinting at a solution. If you do end up at the end of a bayonet, the lack of checkpoints becomes an unforgivable frustration.

The one bright note in proceedings is the character and environment designs. The cartoon-y feel and distinctive visual style is a pleasant surprise in the middle of the aggravating gameplay. This does not extend to when the soldiers open their mouths though. Every so often, one of your unit will make an out-of-context remark that is meant to be funny. The fourth wall breaking ‘I have the strange feeling that I am just someone’s marionette’ is an example of the clumsy dialogue. If you laugh at that, I do not want to know you.

As mentioned previously, the characters seem rather under-powered. Each has a special ability unique to their class but other than this one party trick, they are rather useless. For instance, the engineer can obviously build things – including bridges and ramps and the spy can disguise himself to move unnoticed among the enemy soldiers. However, if they come to an obstacle that requires a different ability, they are stumped.

To help progression, you can buy improvements to your abilities with money earned during the levels. The amount of money you earn depends on the score you achieve in a given level. The number of saves you make, your performance and how many items you collect all add to this. Besides upgrades, there are cosmetic items to purchase but as you would expect, they are pointless.

In the end, I was not impressed with A-Men 2. The higher than necessary difficulty and unsatisfying gameplay create a barrier to entry that is just not worth traversing. If you are looking for a challenging platformer on Vita or PS3, there is a limbless, purple-shirted guy I would like to introduce you to…