I loved first game and naturally had this sequel on my watch list from day one. It was a fantastic puzzle solving experience combined with a very satisfying frame story. I thought that it had the difficulty at just about the right level for me. I never did get around to the DLC Road to Gehenna which is said to be far more difficult than the base game. This sequel naturally builds on the first game and the prologue even tricks you into believing that it is literally more of the same. Soon enough the real world opens to you and it proves that it is a worthy sequel indeed.

When the player exits the prologue, it is revealed to be a simulation that is part of the creation of a new android. The player is the 1000th such android to be created, many, many years after the first android of the original game who is now known as Athena. There is now a thriving city called New Jerusalem and your creation marks the completion of the goal of having 1000 androids populating it. Athena however has long disappeared and their society seems lost, grappling with failing infrastructure and divided over whether to grow or to remain static as they are. During the ceremony to celebrate the creation of the player character who everyone calls 1k, a giant holographic figure appears. Naming himself Prometheus, he warns the city of new dangers and point the way to an island. An expedition is organized to scout the location and there they discover a huge megastructure holding incalculable power. Satellite areas hold puzzles that must be solved to unlock a way into the megastructure while logs reveal the history of the place. The androids are shocked to learn that the place was built by Athena and she had a daughter, Miranda, here, an android that no one else has met before.

The first game put the player in a mysterious and confusing situation with only the god-like Elohim entity speaking to you. Here, after a perfectly executed fake-out, you’re placed in a high-tech city full of the heirs of humanity who are all happy to see you. Of course you then immediately have to leave to explore a brand new area. It is a little confusing why they absolutely must take the newborn 1k along and why 1k is the one who must solve almost all of the puzzles there. But the story makes sense and serves as a solid base on which to present its light philosophy. While the game does offer two opposing viewpoints, it’s clear enough where the writers’ sympathies lie. It champions the cause of Prometheus, exhorting the descendants of humanity to learn all they can about the universe, to spread, to grow, and to appreciate beauty. In a media landscape full of works which would often rather emphasize humility before the supremacy of nature, this is a viewpoint that I could of course get behind.

The puzzle-solving gameplay is much the same as the first game with the laser redirection connectors being now iconic. New tools are introduced to manipulate the lasers in new ways. RGB converters to combine lasers of two different colors to the third one, inverters to change the color of a laser and accumulators to store a laser. Now there’s also the driller which can create a hole in particular walls, making this game even more Portal-like, the anti-gravity beam which move objects and the player character both vertically and horizontally, the teleport pad which does exactly what it does and the super-powerful activator which activates everything else in its radius of effect once powered. However gone is the time recording device which was one of my favorite mind-bending parts of the first game. It makes sense since this is now supposed to be reality and not the simulation but it’s still a shame. Replacing it is ability to transfer your mind to another android body, which has some of the same utility but is much easier to understand.

The format of each puzzle being set in its own room remains the same except that each room is generally smaller now. The puzzles are also more focused in that you’re meant to figure out its one trick and then that’s it. There are rarely cases in which you need to figure out multiple tricks in a given puzzle. This does mean that the puzzles feel easier to me than the first game. There are so few tools in each room and the rooms are so small that the number of possible moves at any point just isn’t that large. You do still have to figure new ways to manipulate the tools and place. That’s always satisfying and there’s no empty filler in between the unique tricks. The most interesting addition to me that you can now stick to and move along the walls and ceilings in some areas, especially with the use of the anti-gravity beam. All of a sudden the topology of the room and possible lines of sight become a lot more complex. Unfortunately there are very few rooms which make use of this mechanic and even those that do constrain the vertical movement to only very small sections.

That leads to one of my main complaints about this game. As is usual, the first puzzles in each area introduce some new tool or mechanic and wants you to use these new options in progressively more complex ways. At some point however, you’d expect to combine usage of the new tool with others you’ve mastered and that’s never really the case. Sure, almost all rooms still use staples like the connector but I expected the hardest rooms will force you to use all of the tools and was disappointed. The optional Golden Gate puzzles are significantly harder, yet still conform to the pattern of being about one unique trick. Once again, I suppose you have to buy the DLC to get the truly fiendish puzzles.

I probably won’t buy it though. I enjoyed this but it’s not different enough from the first game to overawe. The writing is good, setting up a conflict between development and stasis while warning against deifying ordinary people. But there’s no real heat in the conflict either as everyone is nice and courteous. Just as the new areas are grandiose yet ultimately ephemeral, the androids talk on and on about what’s at stake, yet never seem to act with any urgency. And I still don’t get why 1k is the one running around solving all the puzzles while the other expedition members barely do anything. It’s a solid puzzle game but the base game itself is enough for me, thanks.