What Do You Want From A Sequel?

Sequels – a chance to improve and expand on what came before. 

Very few mediums improve a series with a sequel, but nine times out of ten, games do. Even if a sequel isn’t as big a hit as the original, it is rare that it feels like a carbon copy of the first game. Can you see the point I am trying to make here? 

Step up: Electronics Puzzle Lab 2.

Such is the repetition on offer here, I am going to start with a disclaimer. If it seems like I am paraphrasing from my original review, it is only because the two games are so similar. I was going to go back and check whether some of the levels were copied straight over from the first game, such is the sense of repetition going on here. But in all honesty, I had spent long enough in the game already.

Not An Exact Circuit Simulator

Electronics Puzzle Lab 2 is a game that uses electrical circuits as the base for its puzzle system. Each level, you need to light up the red LEDs using the various logic gates and switches, whilst avoiding the blue LEDs. In this universe, blue LEDs can damage components and circuits.

Also in this universe, logic devices can work when not powered up to anything, generating electrical current. Electronics Puzzle Lab 2 does a good job in looking like a properly designed circuit, but it takes a lot of liberties. It plays more like a pipe puzzle game where you direct the current using the wires as pipes rather than a traditional electrical circuit.

Almost A Carbon Copy Of The First Game

Across 50 levels you will be diverting currents here, there and everywhere using logic devices, switches, batteries, capacitors, and not much else. These are virtually the same components from the first game, with no new ones added in. If anything, components have been removed in the second game. There are fewer levels in total, but on the upside, capacitors are introduced a lot earlier this time around.

As a result, the levels ramp up in difficulty a lot quicker than the original Electronics Puzzle Lab, but the same design problems exist, making this an easy game overall. Many blue LEDs are preceded by a switch that as long as you switch off before tinkering elsewhere, there is a very good chance you will complete the level without any trouble. Same goes for a jumper cable, it usually attaches to a blue LED in a sneaky, not so immediately obvious, way. 

The punishment for failing a level is simply to restart it, but Electronics Puzzle Lab 2 clearly goes out of its way to catch you out rather than guide you to the solution.

The flow of the electricity is once again on show, and also makes things a lot easier than it needs to be. It would be nice to be able to toggle this on and off for a bit of a difficulty boost.

One of the only improvements over the first game is the removal of the grading system. Previously, it would grade your performance based on how long it took to complete a level. But the same targets existed across every level, rather than scaling to their complexity, meaning a level that required you to press numerous switches and charge up capacitors, would still only award you the top grade if you completed it in ten seconds like the first level. That is gone now, not that it ever really worked before.

The Same Issues Persist

The same zooming in/out issues persist. Namely, the inability to do either well enough. There is a lot of cool stuff around the circuit board in the wider environment – again copied identically from the first game – but you don’t have the chance to really look at it. And zooming in does next to nothing, which becomes more of a problem when the flow of electricity is harder to track on the later levels.

And just one more thing that is identical now, I promise. Electronics Puzzle Lab 2 has Gamerscore with a value of 2000 thanks to a title update released immediately after release. These extra achievements are just for completing the same levels, with nothing new added. But there are those out there that will think this is the best news about this sequel. And I am struggling to disagree with them.

If you played the first Electronics Puzzle Lab, then there is absolutely nothing new here in Electronics Puzzle Lab 2. It feels like a majorly missed opportunity to add something, anything, new. Instead, there are fewer levels, fewer components, and the same frustrations. To many, this will exist purely for achievement fodder, which, if you can believe it, is exactly how the first game felt too.

Important Links

Can It Fix Its Circuits? Electronics Puzzle Lab 2 Powers Up! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/can-it-fix-its-circuits-electronics-puzzle-lab-2-powers-up/

Buy Electronics Puzzle Lab 2 on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/electronics-puzzle-lab-2/9N1PXQWFG1H9/0010