Bookworm Adventures Vol. 2 (PC) Review
Posted by Adam Larck on 08.14.2009
The newest Bookworm Adventures adds three new books to the mix, but how does the game play? Find out inside.
Title: Bookworm Adventures Vol. 2
Publisher: PopCap Games
Developer: PopCap Games
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1
Rated: E10+
Bookworm Adventures Vol. 2 brings back the same formula that Vol. 1 had. The game premise is easy, just spell words to cause damage to the opponent, but there is a lot of skill and strategy below the surface.
The game starts off where the last volume left off, at book four. It still focuses around the worm, Lex, and features three books: “Fractured Fairytales,” “The Monkey King” and “Astounding Planet.” Each book features 10 chapters, and focuses around a specific theme. “Fractured Fairytales” focuses on various fairytales, “The Monkey King” focuses on Japanese folklore and “Astounding Planet” focuses on science fiction.
The enemies in each level are all taken from various books. The first one has various characters from Alice in Wonderland, while the second book has quite a few enemies from Wu Ch’Eng-En’s “Journey to the West.” The last book takes characters from various sci-fi books, like 2001: A Space Odyssey or “Planet of the Apes.”
Each chapter consists of four enemies and a boss enemy. Below each enemy in the game, a small quote or quip is shown, along with the attacks the enemy uses. The sayings are interesting to read, and just adds a little bit extra to the game.
As the game progresses, sometimes you will run into marathon type levels. There is one per book, and they consist of fighting four enemies and a boss in a row without healing in between rounds. These battles can get difficult towards the end, as you can start running low on potions and gems to keep health up.
Also, as the game progresses, a mini-game tent will appear from time to time that allows you to play one of six spelling games to add potions to your character or gems to the board to use in the next round.
As far as gameplay goes, the game is easy to pick up. You are given a board of 16 letters to use to spell any words you can make. This is also where the skill and strategy of the game comes into play. Trying to find the biggest word is always a big goal. The longer the word, the more damage that is caused to the enemy, and the better chance you have of getting gems on the board.
Gems can do a variety of things. They can poison, burn, freeze or lower the attack of an enemy or partially or fully heal you. Another new gem for this game is the Rainbow gem. By making a word with three different colored gems, you can form one of these special gems. They act as a wildcard, allowing you to use them as any letter you need while spelling. Usually, all gems have effects that boost Lex’s attack as well when they are used as well.
Whenever Lex attacks, he does various attack actions. It could be as simple as biting an enemy, to transforming into a wrecking ball to hit an enemy, to launching exclamation marks at an enemy that kills an enemy in one hit. It is interesting to see his animations the first few times, but can get repetitive after a while. Thankfully, the animations are short so they do not take too much time away.
However, enemies do not just sit there and take it. Besides being able to cause regular damage, they often have various effect spells as well. They can poison and burn Lex, as well as stun and petrify him, causing him to not attack. Some of the worst spells, though, are not done to you, but done to the board instead. They can change letters, have letters damage you, cause them to do no damage, lock them from being used and other effects. While potions or companions can get rid of these effects, these can be hard to deal with when they take away most of the vowels you were planning to use to spell a huge word.
Whenever you beat an enemy, Lex gains some experience that levels him up, normally at the end of each chapter. Leveling him up gives him more health, attack or defense. Also, as you beat chapters and progress, you find new companions or artifacts. There are two companions to find in each book, and they do a variety of functions. They can make health potions, purify Lex, stun enemies or do other effects.
The artifacts also do a variety of effects. Some of them are beneficial, such as increasing damage, gem effects and resisting certain types of attacks, while others will rarely be used, such as spelling certain words for extra damage. Later on in the game, some artifacts that are found will just upgrade earlier artifacts, giving them bigger bonuses.
There is a steep difficulty curve in the game as well. While it starts off easy, by the time you get midway through the game you really have to plan words out in advanced and what letters you need to save and use. Sometimes you may want to use a gem, but do not want to waste the effect until later on in the level. By the time you hit end game, unless you have a lot of potions and get a good selection of letters, you will be repeating chapters over and over until you get a bit of luck.
The graphics in this game are decent, but nothing spectacular. Cutscenes are not used to tell the story. Instead, pictures are used that may sometimes have moving images in them. The backgrounds in each chapter are varied and fun to see as well. However, there really is not much more to say about the graphics.
The sound is about the same. There are various chimes and clicks when selecting tiles or spelling bigger words and Lex says things from time to time as well. The music that plays in the background is good, though, and is catchy to listen to as you try to figure out the best word to use.
As you progress in Adventure Mode, other modes are unlocked as well in the main menu. A Tome of Knowledge that shows the enemies you have faced and the books they are from can be seen, the mini-games that can be played during the Adventure Mode can be played and an infinite replay mode can be unlocked at the end of the game.
The most interesting thing that caught my attention is that it was easy for anyone to pick up in play. I had friends and family try it out and they caught on quick and spent a lot of time with the game. I still have some of them playing it, actually. The simplistic style of gameplay that PopCap is known for is seen here and is great for the game.
The 411:
For people looking for a fun time waster between activities, this game is great for you. You can pick this game up and play for a few minutes and seem like you have accomplished something. After the game is over, there really is not much to do besides the infinite replay mode, but the game is still fun and challenges your vocabulary at the same time. It is worth a look just to see the interesting gameplay style.
Graphics
7.0
The graphics are good, and the animations for the attacks are interesting for the first few times you see them, but get repetitive after a while. The backgrounds are also interesting to see, as well as the characters. There really isn’t much else to say h
Gameplay
8.0
Combining Boggle-type elements with RPG elements works great for this game. It really challenges your vocabulary to try and find the best word to defeat enemies. While the game may be short, it was fun playing it.
Sound
7.0
The background sound is good, but there really isn’t much to say about the sound after that. The tiles click when chosen, and Lex sometimes says words in game, but that’s about all there is to the sound here.
Lasting Appeal
7.5
The game will hold your interest during the Adventure mode, just to see what the various enemies look like and what characters can become your companions. The infinite replay mode can challenge players after the game to see how long they can survive, but
Fun Factor
8.0
I liked seeing the various types of enemies in the game, as well as challenging myself by trying to find the best word available. For the price, this game gives a lot of fun to be had.
