Making A Grim Return
To my goth gamer friends, I have been waxing lyrical about Graveyard Keeper for some time. That recommendation always came with a caveat though, in that the first few hours can be hard going. Does Graveyard Keeper 2 streamline this opening?
Despite plenty of confusing allusions to it, any prior knowledge of the first game is not required. You play again as the titular Graveyard Keeper, who may or may not be the same one from the first game, that has awoken shackled in a dungeon. With your memories gone, once again you are relying upon a talking skull to help fill in the blanks and guide you through this familiar/unfamiliar land.
Graveyard Keeper 2 starts off in a traditional farming sim style, with you collecting resources by chopping down trees, mining and growing crops all in the name of progression. What separates it from the saccharine cosy games, is that you are responsible for burying the dead and maintaining a well-kept graveyard. And, as you progress, realising the dead bodies delivered to you hold a variety of organs to be harvested. In the same way that foraging for berries yields food, bodies can yield teeth, meat, skin, bones, organs, fat and much more macabre stuff. It’s very much the anti-Stardew Valley; less a case of breaking hearts as you choose your spouse, more ripping a corpse’s heart out for ingredients to brew potions.
Building On The Original Formula
So far, so similar, as all of this is identical to the first game. The big new feature in Graveyard Keeper 2 is fighting against armies of the undead. Zombies are nothing new for the series, and even here can be once again utilised to help automate some of your chores. But these undead armies are preventing you from fully exploring the map and need to be taken down. You will need to craft barricades and support towers whilst building your own armies.
These sections aren’t all that many, but just the right amount. If you weren’t a fan of the combat in the first game then unfortunately these new battles are very much in the same vein. I could give or take these moments, but appreciated how much new content opened up once you successfully complete one. It was this that was the main factor in me completing these sections.
A More Accessible Graveyard Keeper
One area where the sequel excels though is streamlining the first few hours and making it far more accessible. The first one, as excellent as it was, didn’t hold your hand, and was quite obtuse at times too. Graveyard Keeper 2 still doesn’t hand hold, but improves a lot of the systems and mechanics making it much more accessible.
The quest tracker is a prime example of this. It was present in the first game, but wasn’t very useful. Now it is like a flowchart detailing who kicked off the questline, and every step on the way to your current objective. It’s simplified and much more useful.
More Life In The Characters
Characters are now fully voiced, with all manner of British accents, giving them more life than before. Though, if you liked the more humorous mumbling noises, there is an option to revert back to that too.
And it would be remiss to not remark on the simply stunning pixel art of Graveyard Keeper 2. It was fantastic in the first game, and is yet improved upon in the game. Everything is so detailed, and watching the day transition to night is gorgeous every single time.
Familiar Foundations Hold The Sequel Back
However, where there are improvements, a lot of Graveyard Keeper 2 feels too similar to the first game. Not a problem necessarily if you are a fan of the first game, but more could have been done to feel like a different game. Obviously, the core gameplay loop is the same, with a mix of farming sim mechanics, and darkly comedic graveyard keeping. But the story, progression and skill tree feel virtually identical. There are even elements of the main map that feel the same between the two games.
There is also an annoying bug where elements of your progress bar flicker off the screen. And once you notice it on one crafting exercise, it spreads to all of them, with the only way of fixing it to close the game down completely.
The solid foundations of the first Graveyard Keeper are built upon in Graveyard Keeper 2. Sometimes things are copied almost identically, and other times the new elements don’t feel groundbreaking enough. But what is apparent is that this is much more streamlined and accessible. Overall though, it fails to improve upon the original game.
Important Links
Raise The Dead – And The Profits – In Graveyard Keeper 2 – https://www.thexboxhub.com/raise-the-dead-and-the-profits-in-graveyard-keeper-2/
Graveyard Keeper 2 Unearthed – The Darkly Comic Sim Returns With Zombies, Combat And Automation – https://www.thexboxhub.com/graveyard-keeper-2-unearthed/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/graveyard-keeper-2/9pfzq5gnm8tj
