Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box : DS
After the pure brilliance that was the first Professor Layton game, I was looking forward to the sequel immensely. When Pandora’s Box did come out, however, we were in the midst of moving and consequently I only played about half of the game and then it went onto a shelf, waiting until the other day when I took it out to complete it. It held me for one more long session and then it was finished and the credits were rolling; so what do I think of it?
Well, ultimately, I think I’m disappointed. I held Curious Village up as one of the finest DS games out there; it’s a must own game, but this is just more of the same with a few extras that can only be described as ‘flaws’. It’s unfortunate but that’s how it is. Let’s see now:
The puzzles are WAY too easy. At no point did I find myself struggling with a puzzle except for a single ‘wiggle the pieces around until you can move the important block to the exit’ puzzle (which I still haven’t completed). For the most part, the puzzle would appear and I’d be putting in the answer as soon as I had read it - no brain strain here. In fact, the animation where Layton (or Luke) closes the puzzle with a pleased smile takes more time than the working out of more than 70% of the puzzles. I know this is a game targeting a wide audience and I understand that a lot of kids might get stuck on a few, but really, these are far too easy and often a bit insulting. I’ll tell you what is hard though; finding all the puzzles. This is stupid because I shouldn’t have to randomly click around every location to find the puzzles, and neither should the puzzles be numbered non-sequentially such that you have no idea where a missing puzzle might be. This last problem doesn’t occur in the first game where, if you are given puzzle 80 after puzzle 78, you can be pretty sure that puzzle 79 is close by. Not so in Pandora’s Box where you might answer 121, followed by 82, followed by 94 and have no idea where the missing ones may be. There seems to be no logic to it whatsoever and consequently, unlike in the first game where I had collected up every puzzle, I’m still missing around twenty puzzles in this game and I don’t really have the desire to run around and find them. So flaws one and two are overly simple puzzles which are too hard to find.
Then there are the side games. Again, in the first game these were quite interesting side diversions which you enjoyed completing, and here they are a random tea game [which is just a combination game with a few clues, sometimes with stupid results such as the time you are told that the required tea has two similar ingredients to another tea, and one different ingredient, meaning you have to luck out and hit the right tea out of a possible 30 combinations with a long wait between each try…] and a spot the difference game which is too easy in all instances but one, where it is too hard. Oh, and the hamster side game (which is admittedly a lot of fun) results in an annoying hamster graphic popping up all the time after you have completed. Bah.
Let’s not be too negative though; the plot is fun enough (if a little far-fetched and guessable way before the end) and the graphics are divine. They have upped the bar a little with more voice acting and cutscenes which are great for the most part but a bit annoying when you just want to get on and finish it.
Really, I think that’s the crux of it. I ended up playing it not because it was amazing fun (which the first one was) but because I wanted to say it was finished. Games should be fun throughout and (mainly due to the ridiculous difficulty in finding puzzles and random numbering system) this stopped being fun well before the end. That all said, I think if I’d been in a different mood when I’d played it, my end review might not have been so damning.
If you are looking for a good puzzle game on the DS, you cannot go wrong with Professor Layton and the Curious Village; it’s pretty near perfect. Unfortunately, this sequel doesn’t cut it and while playable, it is nothing like the sublime experience of the first. That all said, I will be getting the third one when it comes out and hoping that my mood and their game match much better than this experience.
