Costume Quest 2 is the second (surprise surprise....) installment of the Costume Quest game developed by the famed Double Fine Productions. Double Fine is best known for some pretty awesome story based games like Psychonauts, Broken Age and Massive Chalice each with a pretty distinctive and almost naive art style (I LOVE their visuals!).

Released in 2014 on all gaming platforms, I've only just gotten around to playing Costume Quest 2 in the last year... I had finished the earlier installment quite a long time ago, but I wasn't just ready to hit up the sequel. Now, I'm testing out some games for the kids... and both Costume Quest games could be some really beautiful games to introduce them to a light RPG mechanic.

The Setup

Costume Quest 2 puts you in the shoes (Costume?) of one of the brother/sister combo of Wren or Reynold. In the previous Costume Quest, one of the siblings was abducted on Halloween by monsters. Now, a year later... Halloween returns, and all seems normal?

Now, as you can see... the Wren and Reynold have pieced together some pretty decent costumes for their trick or treating. Perhaps they won't need their powers this Halloween...

... of course, nothing is right. There are hints of the old monsters lurking around... and then, the dreaded DENTIST arrives to kill off both Halloween and Candy!

To prevent the siblings from countering his dastardly plan, he robs them of their costumes... which transforms them into mere human children. No powers to change into gigantic robots or merciless pirates!

The kids then are pulled by their future selves into a wormhole into the future to discover an alternate reality where Halloween is forbidden, candy is outlawed and the world is under a surveillance state in the future! With this image of the future imprinted upon them, they are returned back to the present with a COSTUME with which they will foil the evil DENTIST!

... uhhhh... it's a cute story!

The Game

You navigate the "overland" map with a controller or keyboard... this game is definitely best played with a controller (I have to remember that for the kids...), it is pretty keyboard unfriendly just like the original Costume Quest. For some reason, it is really quite difficult to navigate using the WASD keys!

... even worse, the opening menu isn't a menu... but you navigate to different portals using the SAME HORRIBLE WASD controls! Sigh... nothing changed from the original!

Anyway, different areas will open up as you unlock different costumes with different overland powers. Perhaps rockets on your skates combined with a ramp?

Making contact on the overland map will drop you into a turn-based tactical fight, if you clobber the monsters on the overland map with your candy bag you drop into the fight with a first turn advantage! In the tactical map, the kids transform into a superhero that is based upon their currently equipped costume.

Each costume has distinct advantages and powers, with each sort of playing in the style of a RPG trope... tank, damage, debuff or healer.

The trick is in the QTE (Quick Time Events) for each attack/defence. You can just attack with a normal damage or status effect... however, if you manage to time the even just right, you do bonus damage (or effects...). Getting this right is the key to taking down enemies in a efficient manner although for most battles, it isn't really that necessary. However, for the boss battles... it can really make the difference.

As you attack and take damage, you charge up your superpower. Again, the actual superpower depends on the costume, but triggering it sets up a pretty cool animation! Sadly, each costume only has the single superpower, and so you will be seeing a lot of this animation the more you play...

So, here are your kids... with their particular attributes that are governed mostly by the costume that they have equipped. Again... they are just kids in real life, but when they are wearing their costumes, they are unstoppable superheroes!

Leveling is done via the collection of candy... bashing scenery, defeating monsters and the usual quest completion is the way to increase your candy intake. I'm not really sure what sort of message this sends to the young kids!

Speaking of quests... they are pretty straight-forward. The game itself is relatively linear in construction, with some backtracking as you uncover new overland powers from new costumes. Side quests are always worth it, as you will pick up some pieces for new costumes or other power-ups.

Here is the costume page of the journal. Each costume apart from your basic starting costumes will have several components that are hidden around the map or held by monsters that you must defeat. Collecting the components unlocks a new costume that will open up new areas in the overland map or further the storyline. Needless to say, they unlock new tactical combos in the battles as well!

Apart from the costumes, the only other way to "equip" your characters is to allocate specific power-up cards to each character. These will alter slightly the tactical battle conditions... adding certain buffs to your attacks or debuffs to the enemy. They are nice little tweaks, nothing major, but with the right combination with costumes they can swing the battle in your favour.

Visuals, Sound and Performance

The art style of Costume Quest is just the best... I love the child-like nature of the world. Like a kids imagination gone completely wild and the blending of reality with the naive outlook. Oddly enough, the game takes quite a bit of graphical grunt to power it... well, it just doesn't run on very well on an integrated card, requiring the dGPU to be powered up. It's quite strange, as there isn't really anything in the visuals that would indicate that it would need that much power... also a bit of a pity, as it is the sort of game that you would want to run on a secondary laptop/computer that you have let a child use rather than a fully tricked out one!

My Thoughts

Costume Quest 2 is a cute game with a very light smattering of RPG. The story is naive and cute, the art direction is bold and interesting... however, the gameplay is very light on. It's probably a great game for kids... but not really one for hardcore gamers. Unless you are really into a cute story... or road-testing a game for your kids!

I will definitely persevere and complete the game... after all, I do want to know what will happen to Halloween! But I wish the would fix the controls... or I could just attach a gamepad, wherever I have hidden them.

Review Specs

DELL XPS15 (9560)

CPU: i7-7700HQ
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: SSD
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050

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