god i love this game so fkn much. i actually ending up loving it more than act 1!!! yes its true that parts of the gameplay were kind of slow and annoying jade/teal car smh but i didn't find that to be a big deal bc i was enjoying meeting all the diff trolls and milking as much content as i could.

i really love how hiveswap act 2 depicts troll society. sometimes it's difficult to get a clear understanding of it in the webcomic, but this game very clearly shows how different each caste is and offers insight into how varied quadrant relationships can be. it was really immersive!! and i love how dark the story got. the contrast between darkness and whimsicality is what i love most about homestuck.

to be honest i did not think i would be able to get invested in homestuck characters aside from the beta kids and beta trolls but i'm glad that that turned out not to be the case. for the record i think lanque is sooo hot and marvus had me lolling. i'm playing for achievements and with each playthrough i got more and more attached to the characters. especially joey and xefros, who have possibly the cutest interactions i've seen in a video game ever...

i honestly got so overwhelmed with emotion playing this, i nearly cried. it's hard to recommend to non-homestuck-fans but if you like homestuck at all, please play these games. i really really hope acts 3 and 4 get finished and released soon.

Ummh, no lo sé. El hecho de que ya puedes interactuar más con los trolls y entender mas sobre su cultura, no quita de que lo hicieron de una forma algo redundante y aburrida. El hecho de que el 40% del Acto 2 se basa en una sección parodia de Ace Attorney le quita algo de diversión (la parte de Tegiri lo salva un poco), casi que tuve que leer por encima para pasar rápido esa parte.
El Acto 1 a comparación con este era mas espontáneo. Podías interactuar mucho más con los objetos a tu alrededor y probar con ellos para ver que pasaba. Este es mas directo al grano y con mucho mas texto.

Posiblemente en el Acto 3 (al menos de lo que se vio en las capturas) regresaremos a la investigación de las zonas y probar con los objetos que nos encontremos... Claro, cuando le den la gana de lanzarlo. ~.~

Damnit, I was really hoping I wouldn't get invested in this story by the time I finished Act 2.
This one kinda loses out on the fun "fuck around and find out" aspect (teehee) of the first act. While the first game would give you little unique quips on whatever you felt like doing, Act 2 has a lot less of that, opting for a single message under a lot of scenarios (a good amount of which don't end up working quite right.)
Despite this, I think I enjoyed Act 2 just a bit more than the previous one. What it lacks in various quirky dialogues, it makes up for in one, being longer than 2 hours, and two, introducing a ton more characters, all of which were fun to talk to and experience. Definitely has me excited for Friendsim more than anything lmao

What I will not forgive, though, is the godforsaken Jade/Tealblood car. Quite honestly the most mind-numbingly drawn out Ace Attorney reference I've ever had to go through, and they chose the absolute worst possible group to do it with. 6/10 game, Act 3 never.

HIVESWAP is a hand-drawn point & click adventure game where you play as Joey Claire, a puzzle-solving teen snatched out of the comfort of her own home and left stranded on a hostile alien planet on the brink of a rebellion. In ACT 2, you continue on your journey with the troll named Xefros, trying to find your way to a party held by a friend of his moirail, Dammek. You get to meet dozens of unique and memorable characters, some of which are more helpful than others, as you navigate through this volatile alien culture.

Most of the game in act 2 is happening on a train ride to the party. You have to go through different train carriages that hold different trolls of the Hemospectrum, the Rust and Bronze bloods, the Gold and Olive bloods, the Jade and Teal bloods, the Blue and Indigo bloods and the Purple bloods. Each carriage gives you different puzzles/quests to solve and how to move forward in your journey to the front of the train.

In my honest opinion, this act was quite good and didn't leave me unhappy. I played through act 1 and act 2 almost back to back, and I noticed a lot of differences. Where act 1 was more of an actual point & click, with puzzles to solve and items to interact with, act 2 gives you more of a dialogue based game that reminds you of a visual novel. There is almost no point & click puzzles to solve, until near the end, and most of the problems you need to figure out is by talking to multiple characters.

On the positive side, the more dialogue based gameplay can be very impressive, since as you progress you find more new characters who have many different things to say to you, each time you talk to them. Every one of them weighs in, helpfully or not, on every part of every puzzle. Huge amounts of dialogue to be read.

On the flip side however, this more dialogue based gameplay can end up quite brainless and boring, as you keep talking to characters over and over and over again. Some people might like that, but many will not find it fun.

In the end, the amount waited for this act, and the fact that they strayed farther away from the point & click aspect, I don't think I can recommend this part of the game. I did enjoy it, and there were lots of twists that I didn't see them coming, but it's just isn't worth it. Considering also that you'll probably have to wait for the next chapter... forever. I am not unhappy with the game, I just can't recommend it forwards.

I won't spend my time writing a lenghty review so im going to stick to three points:

1. The fun of testing multiple item interactions has been removed.

2. The ace attorney section is clearly a way to add game time.

3. This is barely a point and click, it has the gameplay of going in the next car of your train to piss because the toilets are out of service in yours.

(bonus WHY ARE ALL THE CHARACTERS WASTED FOR ONE CHAPTER??)
(im sorry for the dev team, this must have been a disaster to work on)