Didn't exactly shatter my expectations, this one.
Glass Masquerade is a pretty nice, unique puzzler, and I wasn't complaining at the prospect of more. As for how they innovated? They didn't, this is literally more of the same. Is that a bad thing? Not in of itself, but this game is in a weird spot. It takes steps forward, but as many steps back. But the key element that causes me to score it below the original is the small, little issues with the original that went entirely unfixed this time around.
Positives first: puzzles now have 2 different difficulty settings. It's a cool change that vastly increases the maximum playtime, but it's incorporated in a weird way. Rather than change the difficulty in the menu, or before you start a puzzle, you can switch at any point during the puzzle. Obviously it removes all the pieces and starts again, but it's just...why do it like this? Hard mode basically makes it so that you have to rotate the pieces yourself to fit into the puzzle as opposed to them automatically being rotated into the correct position.
The art is as intricate and captivating as always - though I do miss the country-based theming of the original. Instead it's themed around these...proverb kinda things. Most people seem to really like these, so I don't wanna talk about them like they're bad but like...they come across as a little pretentious. But the art is nice, so hey.
The main menu is way more cluttered and busy compared to the original - I couldn't even tell which levels led to other ones. I can't fathom how hard they dropped the ball here. In terms of progression, each puzzle you finish either gives you a "key" for the next puzzle in it's line, or if it's the end of said line, shards for the big puzzle in the center. I guess it's cool to build up to a big "final boss" of sorts, but I feel like the devs didn't know how to implement it in any kind of meaningful fashion.
Another downgrade is the variety. GM1 had a lot of differing shapes for the various glass clocks, but these are all just basic circles - not even clocks, either. All these elements leave me thinking that this sequel was lacking in ambition and care compared to the original.
I only cared enough to beat every puzzle on normal, and the first one again on hard. The DLC previews are a nice gesture, but I think I've had my fill on Glass Masquerade. Even limiting myself to one puzzle per day left me burned out on these.
Also, as I mentioned before, all the little issues I had with 1 are unaddressed. The music is almost all the same, and it's just as tiresome after a while. You can't click any button on the main menu until the animations have settled into place, so that's like, 5 seconds of waiting before you can start/leave the game. It was infuriating the first time around and unbelievable that it was left in. I also took issues with the borders on the pieces being so thick that it often looks as if they don't fit in where they actually belong.
It's still a relaxing puzzle game that isn't entirely wrought with problems, and you should give it a shot if you want more after finishing GM1 - but please, play that one first. It's the better game by far.
Glass Masquerade is a pretty nice, unique puzzler, and I wasn't complaining at the prospect of more. As for how they innovated? They didn't, this is literally more of the same. Is that a bad thing? Not in of itself, but this game is in a weird spot. It takes steps forward, but as many steps back. But the key element that causes me to score it below the original is the small, little issues with the original that went entirely unfixed this time around.
Positives first: puzzles now have 2 different difficulty settings. It's a cool change that vastly increases the maximum playtime, but it's incorporated in a weird way. Rather than change the difficulty in the menu, or before you start a puzzle, you can switch at any point during the puzzle. Obviously it removes all the pieces and starts again, but it's just...why do it like this? Hard mode basically makes it so that you have to rotate the pieces yourself to fit into the puzzle as opposed to them automatically being rotated into the correct position.
The art is as intricate and captivating as always - though I do miss the country-based theming of the original. Instead it's themed around these...proverb kinda things. Most people seem to really like these, so I don't wanna talk about them like they're bad but like...they come across as a little pretentious. But the art is nice, so hey.
The main menu is way more cluttered and busy compared to the original - I couldn't even tell which levels led to other ones. I can't fathom how hard they dropped the ball here. In terms of progression, each puzzle you finish either gives you a "key" for the next puzzle in it's line, or if it's the end of said line, shards for the big puzzle in the center. I guess it's cool to build up to a big "final boss" of sorts, but I feel like the devs didn't know how to implement it in any kind of meaningful fashion.
Another downgrade is the variety. GM1 had a lot of differing shapes for the various glass clocks, but these are all just basic circles - not even clocks, either. All these elements leave me thinking that this sequel was lacking in ambition and care compared to the original.
I only cared enough to beat every puzzle on normal, and the first one again on hard. The DLC previews are a nice gesture, but I think I've had my fill on Glass Masquerade. Even limiting myself to one puzzle per day left me burned out on these.
Also, as I mentioned before, all the little issues I had with 1 are unaddressed. The music is almost all the same, and it's just as tiresome after a while. You can't click any button on the main menu until the animations have settled into place, so that's like, 5 seconds of waiting before you can start/leave the game. It was infuriating the first time around and unbelievable that it was left in. I also took issues with the borders on the pieces being so thick that it often looks as if they don't fit in where they actually belong.
It's still a relaxing puzzle game that isn't entirely wrought with problems, and you should give it a shot if you want more after finishing GM1 - but please, play that one first. It's the better game by far.