[HEADING=1]
I don't know what it is about LBP that manages to draw me in. My relationship with the first was rather shaky. I bought it under the belief that I'd actually get to, as the game proudly boasted, "PLAY WITH EVERYTHING" but instead all I got to play with was a poorly built race car that disintegrated when I drove it into a wall. The floaty jumping made collecting the materials necessary to make a level a pain in the arse and to add insult to injury most levels required up to 4 friends to play with me in order to unlock all the items. This was a problem as I don't have that many friends willing to play LBP with me and trying to coordinate the puzzles with a random stranger would be like trying to dig my own grave with a spoon, especially when all they'd want to do would be to slap me into pits. Once I'd finished the single player I tried my hand at creating a level, an experience that I found to be undesirably glitchy. I couldn't stick 2 legs to my commanding character without 1 falling off and when I tried to make a trapdoor I caused the wall I'd attached it to to spin round uncontrollably. I looked online to see if anybody else had managed to make something better and lo and behold, all the community had managed to make was several bad platformers, a few poorly designed vehicle levels and the odd bomb survival level. It was a damn shame as well. I'd been nurturing an idea the moment I heard of it and when the games limited amount of tools made it impossible for me to bring that to life a part of me died inside. I swore I wouldn't buy LBP2 but after seeing all the trailers and looking up some of the prototype levels on YouTube I truly believed that you could once again "PLAY WITH EVERYTHING". I'm pleased to report that you can (just about).
[HEADING=1]
One of the big differences between the first LBP's campaign is that this time round, it has a story. It's not The Heart of Darkness mind you although it's charming and rather humorous as well. It goes as such. Your jolly little sackthing is skipping through the predictably awesome intro level when Craftworld, the home world of the sackpeople, is attacked by the evil Negativitron, a cross between a robot vacuum and a dragon. Fortunately he's saved just in time by Larry Davinci and Avalon Centrifuge, members of an alliance who need sackboys help to defeat the Negativitron and save Craftworld. Your journey to defeat the Negativitron will take you across Craftworld as build the alliance, traversing a diverse selection of environments and encountering some truly memorable characters. The story is split into six differently themed areas, each consisting of 5 levels. The levels themselves are incredibly diverse with the wealth of new tools making for some extremely vibrant, entertaining platforming. Here are a few examples of the levels in LittleBIGplanet 2:
A level on a speeding train were you battle meanies (the Negativitrons minions) by throwing bits of cake at their weak points.
A 2D, sidescrolling level themed on bullet hell games were you pilot a bumblebee.
A level were you douse fires in a mental asylum using a hat called the Creatinator.
Each area ends with a boss level, all of which are equally imaginative, often bordering on downright insane. Amazingly this is only scratching the surface. The levels are brilliantly designed and great fun to play through, with each offering up a new challenge. Whenever I thought that the game had ran out of tricks it pulled something new and exciting on me. One thing I did notice while playing through this game is that none of the levels were quite as hard as the electric wheel of doom in the first LBP. This doesn't mean it's easy. You will die a lot, it's just not as hard as the last game.
Elaborating on something I wrote earlier, this game is really funny. One of the characters you'll encounter on your journey is a manic depressive called Clive Handforth who is quite literally, a face drawn on to a notepad with a body made of stationary. All of the characters you encounter have chucklesome personality traits, from the self absorbed Avalon centrifuge to the deranged yet strangely philosophical Doctor Herbert Higginbotham. The language that the characters use is so beautifully inoffensive. The way you are told to "blow the Negativitron to heck" and the fact that the members of an asylum you travel to later on in the game are referred to as "mentally alternative".
The floaty jumping is no longer such an issue due to the variety although I did find moving between the three planes a bit of a nuisance, especially when sackboy automatically switches plane mid jump causing me to fall to a fiery doom. The new Grappling hook can also be a bit of a pain to use as it has a nasty habit of grappling onto things I don't want it to, something which became a particular thorn in my side during the final mission. And while a lot of the levels have items that require two or more players to get I wanted to make it through my first playthrough alone. So when the game asked me if I wanted to join other players at the start of every bloody level I started to get a little irked. Insultingly, while the game doesn't give you the option to stop this happening it actually has the option to let the game ask you this every level. WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT WHEN THE GAME WON'T STOP BLOODY ASKING ME IN THE FIRST PLACE.
[HEADING=1]
The online aspect of LBP2 has been greatly improved as well. Navigating the increasingly large selection of user created levels feels far friendlier, largely due to the new MM picks section. This is where all the levels that Media Molecule recommends (an example of their love for this game) can be found. This is the place to go if you want to see the best the community can offer and while you will likely ask yourself what Media Molecule were thinking when they picked certain levels there's no doubt you'll find something to love on this section as well. Rating levels is also far friendlier. While playing a level you can pause the game and at the top of your screen, an option to like or dislike will appear. It's a simple way to support the creator. Upon completion you no longer have to rate it although you can heart it, add it to your queue, write your own review or visit the creator's planet to see what else they've made. The actual levels themselves vary from Text based adventures to FPS's. So far, out of the few I've played, I'd have to say my favourites are:
A remake of what I'm led to believe is first dungeon from the original Zelda that sees you pilot Link (with working inventory system).
A level entitled Vietnam FPS, an FPS with a regenerating health system that allows you to pick a gun and mow down dozens of angry little sackbots.
A First Person Adventure called Descent into Madness that starts off with an impressively professional cutscene and later sees you shoot aliens in first person and investigate rooms in your besieged spaceship. The attention to detail in this level is amazing and I'd highly recommend you check it out.
While Media Molecules single player levels are currently aping the efforts of the community I do believe that with a little more time to get to grip with the controls, we could see some truly great things come out of the community. Already there are levels spanning many different genres online: from Beat-em-ups to tower defence games. We may even see a new genre coming out of it.
It's still got its problems. I've found that some levels take longer to load than the fucking game itself and, much like the single player, you'll be asked if you want to join players at the start of every. Freaking. Level.
[HEADING=1]
Creating levels is still complicated and time consuming although the wealth of new tools allows anyone, with the necessary patience, to make something memorable. There are many, many new additions to LittleBIGplanet 2. The most important are: the Controllinator which you can use to make vehicles by attaching it to objects and assigning certain commands to the PS3 controller; the movie camera which allows players to make fully fledged cutscenes; the music sequencer which lets players create their own music and, in my opinion, the biggest change sackbots. These AI bots can be tweaked to do whatever you want them to do. You can dress them up and use them to make minions and enemies. Other new additions include: the Creatinator, a hat that can shoot whatever you tweak it to shoot; the Grabinator, gloves which can be used to pick up and throw grabbable items and the grappling hook which can be used to grapple onto grabbable items.
There are 53 tutorials in total. They'd take you a protracted viewing session just to cover them all in one go. They're laid out in a tutorials section so they're easier to find if you need a referencing point. Stephen Fry recites his role as the narrator. He gently walks you through each tutorial at a reasonable pace. His soothing tones perfectly complement the happy tone of the game. Each tutorial drops you into a small level were you'll be able to practice using the new tools while Stephen walks you through the process of using them with the help of a handy video tutorial. You can pause or rewind the videos if you feel they're going to fast or if you missed something. I did find that some of the tutorials were in a finished state so you couldn't actually practice using them in the tutorial. This became particularly troublesome with the Controllinator. The tutorial doesn't actually let you use it so my first experience of trying it out was in create mode when I couldn't quite remember exactly how to use it.
I've only just started making my own level and while it is a very time consuming process it feels far more fulfilling. More ambitious players may find that the level limit holds them back from creating true masterpieces although new level links make this easier to work with, allowing you to link multiple levels on your moon together.
[HEADING=1]
PS3 gamers with a creative flair should definitely consider getting this. I wasn't a huge fan of the first but this has converted me. With masses of FPS's coming out this year, it's nice to see a game that encourages creativity like this. Media Molecule are one of the few companies that you can tell from the intro level love what they are doing. It's bright, it's imaginative and it's funny.
Thanks for reading. I'll hopefully be back soon with some older games to review.
Hello Again
[/HEADING]
I don't know what it is about LBP that manages to draw me in. My relationship with the first was rather shaky. I bought it under the belief that I'd actually get to, as the game proudly boasted, "PLAY WITH EVERYTHING" but instead all I got to play with was a poorly built race car that disintegrated when I drove it into a wall. The floaty jumping made collecting the materials necessary to make a level a pain in the arse and to add insult to injury most levels required up to 4 friends to play with me in order to unlock all the items. This was a problem as I don't have that many friends willing to play LBP with me and trying to coordinate the puzzles with a random stranger would be like trying to dig my own grave with a spoon, especially when all they'd want to do would be to slap me into pits. Once I'd finished the single player I tried my hand at creating a level, an experience that I found to be undesirably glitchy. I couldn't stick 2 legs to my commanding character without 1 falling off and when I tried to make a trapdoor I caused the wall I'd attached it to to spin round uncontrollably. I looked online to see if anybody else had managed to make something better and lo and behold, all the community had managed to make was several bad platformers, a few poorly designed vehicle levels and the odd bomb survival level. It was a damn shame as well. I'd been nurturing an idea the moment I heard of it and when the games limited amount of tools made it impossible for me to bring that to life a part of me died inside. I swore I wouldn't buy LBP2 but after seeing all the trailers and looking up some of the prototype levels on YouTube I truly believed that you could once again "PLAY WITH EVERYTHING". I'm pleased to report that you can (just about).
[HEADING=1]
The Campaign
[/HEADING]One of the big differences between the first LBP's campaign is that this time round, it has a story. It's not The Heart of Darkness mind you although it's charming and rather humorous as well. It goes as such. Your jolly little sackthing is skipping through the predictably awesome intro level when Craftworld, the home world of the sackpeople, is attacked by the evil Negativitron, a cross between a robot vacuum and a dragon. Fortunately he's saved just in time by Larry Davinci and Avalon Centrifuge, members of an alliance who need sackboys help to defeat the Negativitron and save Craftworld. Your journey to defeat the Negativitron will take you across Craftworld as build the alliance, traversing a diverse selection of environments and encountering some truly memorable characters. The story is split into six differently themed areas, each consisting of 5 levels. The levels themselves are incredibly diverse with the wealth of new tools making for some extremely vibrant, entertaining platforming. Here are a few examples of the levels in LittleBIGplanet 2:
A level on a speeding train were you battle meanies (the Negativitrons minions) by throwing bits of cake at their weak points.
A 2D, sidescrolling level themed on bullet hell games were you pilot a bumblebee.
A level were you douse fires in a mental asylum using a hat called the Creatinator.
One of the smaller boss battles
Each area ends with a boss level, all of which are equally imaginative, often bordering on downright insane. Amazingly this is only scratching the surface. The levels are brilliantly designed and great fun to play through, with each offering up a new challenge. Whenever I thought that the game had ran out of tricks it pulled something new and exciting on me. One thing I did notice while playing through this game is that none of the levels were quite as hard as the electric wheel of doom in the first LBP. This doesn't mean it's easy. You will die a lot, it's just not as hard as the last game.
Elaborating on something I wrote earlier, this game is really funny. One of the characters you'll encounter on your journey is a manic depressive called Clive Handforth who is quite literally, a face drawn on to a notepad with a body made of stationary. All of the characters you encounter have chucklesome personality traits, from the self absorbed Avalon centrifuge to the deranged yet strangely philosophical Doctor Herbert Higginbotham. The language that the characters use is so beautifully inoffensive. The way you are told to "blow the Negativitron to heck" and the fact that the members of an asylum you travel to later on in the game are referred to as "mentally alternative".
The floaty jumping is no longer such an issue due to the variety although I did find moving between the three planes a bit of a nuisance, especially when sackboy automatically switches plane mid jump causing me to fall to a fiery doom. The new Grappling hook can also be a bit of a pain to use as it has a nasty habit of grappling onto things I don't want it to, something which became a particular thorn in my side during the final mission. And while a lot of the levels have items that require two or more players to get I wanted to make it through my first playthrough alone. So when the game asked me if I wanted to join other players at the start of every bloody level I started to get a little irked. Insultingly, while the game doesn't give you the option to stop this happening it actually has the option to let the game ask you this every level. WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT WHEN THE GAME WON'T STOP BLOODY ASKING ME IN THE FIRST PLACE.
[HEADING=1]
Player Levels
[/HEADING]The online aspect of LBP2 has been greatly improved as well. Navigating the increasingly large selection of user created levels feels far friendlier, largely due to the new MM picks section. This is where all the levels that Media Molecule recommends (an example of their love for this game) can be found. This is the place to go if you want to see the best the community can offer and while you will likely ask yourself what Media Molecule were thinking when they picked certain levels there's no doubt you'll find something to love on this section as well. Rating levels is also far friendlier. While playing a level you can pause the game and at the top of your screen, an option to like or dislike will appear. It's a simple way to support the creator. Upon completion you no longer have to rate it although you can heart it, add it to your queue, write your own review or visit the creator's planet to see what else they've made. The actual levels themselves vary from Text based adventures to FPS's. So far, out of the few I've played, I'd have to say my favourites are:
A remake of what I'm led to believe is first dungeon from the original Zelda that sees you pilot Link (with working inventory system).
A level entitled Vietnam FPS, an FPS with a regenerating health system that allows you to pick a gun and mow down dozens of angry little sackbots.
A First Person Adventure called Descent into Madness that starts off with an impressively professional cutscene and later sees you shoot aliens in first person and investigate rooms in your besieged spaceship. The attention to detail in this level is amazing and I'd highly recommend you check it out.
A beta showing what can be done with the new tools
While Media Molecules single player levels are currently aping the efforts of the community I do believe that with a little more time to get to grip with the controls, we could see some truly great things come out of the community. Already there are levels spanning many different genres online: from Beat-em-ups to tower defence games. We may even see a new genre coming out of it.
It's still got its problems. I've found that some levels take longer to load than the fucking game itself and, much like the single player, you'll be asked if you want to join players at the start of every. Freaking. Level.
[HEADING=1]
Creating Levels
[/HEADING]Creating levels is still complicated and time consuming although the wealth of new tools allows anyone, with the necessary patience, to make something memorable. There are many, many new additions to LittleBIGplanet 2. The most important are: the Controllinator which you can use to make vehicles by attaching it to objects and assigning certain commands to the PS3 controller; the movie camera which allows players to make fully fledged cutscenes; the music sequencer which lets players create their own music and, in my opinion, the biggest change sackbots. These AI bots can be tweaked to do whatever you want them to do. You can dress them up and use them to make minions and enemies. Other new additions include: the Creatinator, a hat that can shoot whatever you tweak it to shoot; the Grabinator, gloves which can be used to pick up and throw grabbable items and the grappling hook which can be used to grapple onto grabbable items.
An example of what can be done with the Controllinator
There are 53 tutorials in total. They'd take you a protracted viewing session just to cover them all in one go. They're laid out in a tutorials section so they're easier to find if you need a referencing point. Stephen Fry recites his role as the narrator. He gently walks you through each tutorial at a reasonable pace. His soothing tones perfectly complement the happy tone of the game. Each tutorial drops you into a small level were you'll be able to practice using the new tools while Stephen walks you through the process of using them with the help of a handy video tutorial. You can pause or rewind the videos if you feel they're going to fast or if you missed something. I did find that some of the tutorials were in a finished state so you couldn't actually practice using them in the tutorial. This became particularly troublesome with the Controllinator. The tutorial doesn't actually let you use it so my first experience of trying it out was in create mode when I couldn't quite remember exactly how to use it.
I've only just started making my own level and while it is a very time consuming process it feels far more fulfilling. More ambitious players may find that the level limit holds them back from creating true masterpieces although new level links make this easier to work with, allowing you to link multiple levels on your moon together.
[HEADING=1]
Conclusion
[/HEADING]PS3 gamers with a creative flair should definitely consider getting this. I wasn't a huge fan of the first but this has converted me. With masses of FPS's coming out this year, it's nice to see a game that encourages creativity like this. Media Molecule are one of the few companies that you can tell from the intro level love what they are doing. It's bright, it's imaginative and it's funny.
Thanks for reading. I'll hopefully be back soon with some older games to review.
[HEADING=1]Other Talkative Articles[/HEADING]
- God of War 3 review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.195439-Talkative-A-God-of-War-3-Review]
Call of Duty: World at War [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.210101-Talkative-Call-of-Duty-World-at-War-review]
Indie game roundup and a quick word on Inception [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.223644-Talkative-Indie-game-roundup-and-a-quick-word-on-Inception]
