Just about the best game that could have possibly been made within the AAI style, and proof that the overwhelming majority of its predecessor's problems were in the mildness of its story, not in the formula of its play.
That formula however is still not without its awkwardness. Logic Chess is stupid. Not offensive. Not game-ruining by any stretch of the imagination... but deeply, deeply stupid. Its non-sequitur chess theming reeks of insufferable "debate bro" cringe, and as an actual gameplay activity all that it amounts to is navigating a dialogue tree without fumbling the buttons, and backing off whenever the subject performs a certain animation. It is incredibly silly and adds nothing of any real value.
The fact however that this one small attempt to improve the gameplay of the original proves to be insignificant just goes to show that it was never the formula that was at fault. Before playing AAI2 I would have told you that the story in AAI feels so glacial because there's no cycle between investigation and court segments setting the rhythm... it's all just one long brick of the same thing from each case's start to its finish. In telling you this, I would have been dumb and wrong, because AAI2 pulls off an engaging flow of highs and lows just fine. The secret is just uh... having a more interesting story and telling it better.
AAI2 feels like a completely different experience from the first game mostly because it uses its characters SO much more effectively. This goes equally for returning characters who are spot-on, and new characters who both radiate immediate charisma and develop in satisfying, well-executed ways.
Every case in AAI2 is good. All of them. While I have the occasional grievance (please, please just stop doing amnesia) there is not a single case that I would even call mediocre, though there is one that dips pretty close. This puts it at the same level of esteem that I reserve for Trials and Tribulations... and yet I can't quite place it with the exact same standing.
This is, quite likely, the simple result of bias. I played Trials and Tribulations when I was like twenty years old, and all of its twists got me BAD. Nothing in AAI2 (not even the finale) rocked me as hard as the rollercoaster of T&T did. I am no longer twenty, I am thirty-one... and I'm a thirty-one year-old who has played almost every other AA game since.
I have no way of knowing whether AAI2 would have hit me as hard as T&T if I had played it eleven years ago. I only know that it didn't.
That formula however is still not without its awkwardness. Logic Chess is stupid. Not offensive. Not game-ruining by any stretch of the imagination... but deeply, deeply stupid. Its non-sequitur chess theming reeks of insufferable "debate bro" cringe, and as an actual gameplay activity all that it amounts to is navigating a dialogue tree without fumbling the buttons, and backing off whenever the subject performs a certain animation. It is incredibly silly and adds nothing of any real value.
The fact however that this one small attempt to improve the gameplay of the original proves to be insignificant just goes to show that it was never the formula that was at fault. Before playing AAI2 I would have told you that the story in AAI feels so glacial because there's no cycle between investigation and court segments setting the rhythm... it's all just one long brick of the same thing from each case's start to its finish. In telling you this, I would have been dumb and wrong, because AAI2 pulls off an engaging flow of highs and lows just fine. The secret is just uh... having a more interesting story and telling it better.
AAI2 feels like a completely different experience from the first game mostly because it uses its characters SO much more effectively. This goes equally for returning characters who are spot-on, and new characters who both radiate immediate charisma and develop in satisfying, well-executed ways.
Every case in AAI2 is good. All of them. While I have the occasional grievance (please, please just stop doing amnesia) there is not a single case that I would even call mediocre, though there is one that dips pretty close. This puts it at the same level of esteem that I reserve for Trials and Tribulations... and yet I can't quite place it with the exact same standing.
This is, quite likely, the simple result of bias. I played Trials and Tribulations when I was like twenty years old, and all of its twists got me BAD. Nothing in AAI2 (not even the finale) rocked me as hard as the rollercoaster of T&T did. I am no longer twenty, I am thirty-one... and I'm a thirty-one year-old who has played almost every other AA game since.
I have no way of knowing whether AAI2 would have hit me as hard as T&T if I had played it eleven years ago. I only know that it didn't.