Chaos Faction 2
What a depressing week. The two big releases are Wake Up the Box 2, the third game in the Wake Up The Box series, so far having taken a backwards step with its atmosphere with the help of "pointers" from the Resident Evil series, now having given up its novelty to let the series' eternally awkward game play shine through. Oh, and there is Robot Wants Ice Cream, a better game, being the finale of the Robot Wants X quadrology, having became predictable with its gimmicky game play coupled with a complete lack of actual improvements. (R.I.P.) My point is, I miss when a sequel came with improvements to the series, rather than simply a continuation. [Not] The Last Stand 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.211191-Ctrl-Tab-The-Last-Stand-2], Monster's Den: Book of Dread, and Epic Battle Fantasy 3 are all wonderful examples of
Chaos Faction 2 is a fighting game, and the sequel of Chaos Faction 1, obviously. Don't think about playing Chaos Faction 1 first though, because that game is mediocre, at best. An odd difficulty curve with awkward platforming and unfair game play makes three strikes, and its out. Chaos Faction 2 is, indeed, a vast improvement created by Dissolute Productions. The three big problems have been (almost) entirely removed.
"Wait a second!" I hear from the fans that forget to comment on my reviews, "You mean THE Dissolute Productions, the creator of Epsilon [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.234826-Ctrl-Tab-Epsilon]?! How could the makers of a [great] puzzle game also make a [great] fighting game, when they are like two entirely different things?!" First off, I request that you don't interrupt me again. Secondly, I was also fairly surprised by this. But, it's happened. Dissolute Productions has me with Epsilon as my favorite puzzle game and Chaos Faction 2 as my favorite fighting game. Huh.
The atmosphere isn't exactly easy to judge. It is rabid with its schizophrenia, having 15 entirely unrelated campaign missions, such as fighting for your life in a Colo-...sorry, Chaosseum, helping a scientist [brutally] pacify disgruntled cyborgs, and climbing up a tower to fight the emperor of Chaos for complete control of the universe. Personally, I don't think its atmosphere is a strong point, but it is far from being a weak point. However, the sanity sucked out of the atmosphere must have been converted into pure awesomeness that was injected right into the game play's heart, because it is just that.
Ok, ok, maybe it isn't pure awesomeness, as there are some nitpicks. A few of the weapons (looking at the rake, portable trampolines, and teleportation gun here) do phone it in a bit, being just about entirely useless. The campaign mode is a bit short, with only 15 missions, being just 5 short of what I think is appropriate...On the other hand, the death match mode is really well done, not counting the relatively unnecessary map editor. The point is, play it now if you haven't yet. If you have, just play it again, I don't mind. My only real qualm is that now I have to decide between wanting Chaos Faction 3 or Epsilon 2 to come out next from Dissolute Productions.
