Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is the second game in the Professor Layton series. Layton 2 is a puzzle-solving game that follows Professor Hershel Layton and his assistant Luke Triton as they travel across the English countryside trying to solve the mystery of a strange box said to kill anyone who opens it.
While there are no drastic visual or auditory differences between this game and first, Layton 2 still presents itself well. The number of characters has been greatly expanded, and the character portraits are noticeably bolder. The backgrounds are still complex, and the music sets the mood well. There are more cut scenes (which are, once again, fully animated and voiced) and additional spoken dialogue outside of the cut scenes.
The packaging advertises "over 150 puzzles," but you'll only find about 120 during a standard play-through. Of those 120, you only need to solve roughly 70% of them in order to complete the game. At certain points in the game, you may only advance if you've completed a certain number of puzzles, again, usually around 70%. It may seem like a daunting task, but the large variety of puzzles ensures that you can always solve enough. Not good at sliding-block puzzles? Fulfill your quota with peg-solitaire! However, the average person probably won't be able to coast through the game solving only puzzles that are easy for them. For times like these, you can purchase in-game hints.
You start the game with 10 hint coins and more are easily found on nearly every screen, so if you need to buy hints, you should be able to afford it. All puzzles come with three locked hints. The first hint usually just restates the task but with less-tricky wording. The second hint will get you moving in the right direction. The third hint solves about half the puzzle for you. Of course, the more complicated the puzzle, the less helpful the hints.
The difficulty of each puzzle is represented by a quantity of picarats. An easy puzzle will be worth 10 picarats, while a harder puzzle can be worth as many as 99 picarats! Luckily for us mortals, puzzles in the main game tend to be worth 60 or fewer picarats, while the >60 picarat puzzles are available as bonuses. After you complete a puzzle, you gain it's value in picarats, thus representing your "score" in the game. Having a high number of picarats is necessary to unlock the bonus content, but gaining picarats isn't as easy as just solving puzzles. When you answer a puzzle incorrectly, the number of picarats you'll get for the puzzle decreases. This only happens the first two times you answer incorrectly; after that, you receive no further penalty.
While the plot in Layton 2 exists mainly just as an excuse to hold the puzzles together, it is still rather good. Neither too heavy nor too light, it's always present without feeling burdensome. Indeed, some puzzles are actually worked into the plot, which is a nice change of pace from "I don't know anything about your box, but since you're here, solve this puzzle for me." The game is somewhat short. It took me eleven hours to beat the game, but that included finding most of the hint coins and completing most of the side-quests. It may take you less or more time depending on whether you're a completionist or minimalist; good at puzzles or easily frustrated.
Tl;dr Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is a good puzzle-solving game. A balanced set of puzzles ensures that nearly any adult is capable of finishing it, though only hardcore puzzle-guys (or cheaters) will be able to truly complete it. At around ten hours long with little replay value, Layton 2 may not be worth its $30 price tag, but is definitely worth a rental.
