TL;DR: 7/10. Nostalgic due to how long its been, but has been outdone. Worth the current price of $3.99 USD though.
[h1] 123 Slaughter Me Street 2 [/h1]
[h2] The Gameplay [/h2]
It is a hide-and-seek style horror game. The Pre-Game phase allows you to open up the map and sort of 'plan' your route. The Hide Phase has you sneaking between multiple hiding spots to fill your hide-gauge, but these spots can be used up, and upon doing so become a safe spot, where you are entirely immune to the three monsters. They are as follows:
[*]The Seeker - A big, blue, burly but somewhat slow demon in the essence of a ram. He patrols to, as the description states, "cover as much ground as possible."
[*]The Greeter (Revenge) - Clunky name aside, she is a frail, pink bird-like demon. She is functionally the same. Her own fur is more dangerous than she is. Thankfully, in later entries, she was renamed to The Stalker.
[*]And finally, The Screamer - A smaller ram demon with shaggy brown fur and a bald spot on his stomach. He is passive in this game, unless he spots you. If he does, he emits a scream to alert the others to your location unless you stun him before he even has the opportunity to scream.
The Seek phase is where you must search to find a floating orb of purple. There is initially a pink trail to the orb, but it can go away with time, leaving you to search blindly. All hiding spots that have not been converted to safe zones disappear.
The final phase, Exit, is where you're supposed to make a mad dash to the exit, but there is no time limit, so you're able to take your time with maneuvering to the single exit door.
This gameplay loop CAN be fun, but there are a number of other things holding it back, as will be discussed later.
[h2] What was My Experience? How does it hold up? [/h2]
When I first caught wind of this game franchise a year or two after this came out, I always preferred this game over the first. And to a degree, that sentiment still stands. Each run is different, unlike in 123 Slaughter Me Street (2015), and I still really enjoy that. Heck, if it ran better on my PC, I'd probably still play this a fair bit. But you see, that's a big portion of the issue for me. It doesn't run super well, unlike its predecessor, SMS 1. Every time The Stalker is on screen the FPS drops DRAMATICALLY due to her fur. This CAN apply to the others as well. Not to mention it's an older Unity game, so it's already a bit dated in how it feels to play.
But none of this even matters anymore, not since October 31st 2024, when its spiritual successor, Slaughter Me Street 1999 came out.
This game has been outdone in every way by it.
Its gameplay feels tighter, it looks better, it RUNS better, and it takes up much less space on the drive. You no longer slide slightly when moving, or have that degree of input lag that makes 123 Slaughter Me Street 2 (2016) feel a little clunky. The low-poly retro art style is gorgeous, and while the more realistic style of SMS 2 is still good-looking, it is not optimized very well.
Speaking of optimization, how can a Unity game from 2016 run worse than an Unreal Engine 5 game from 2024? For one, all fur is gone, being textured onto the model itself or onto flat planes. And even then, what little flourishes the game DOES have, like PS1-Like Vertex-Snapping, its pixelation filter, and the subtle sway to foliage, does basically little to the game's performance.
Instead of a hide-and-seek style gameplay of its predecessor, SMS 99 adopts a Slender-esque gameplay loop, which ultimately is a lot more fun, at only a dollar more at the current prices. Not to mention, there's finally some urgency with the Exit phase. All monsters know your location at all times, and you have to fight and run to get to the closest unlocked exit, which adds to the thrill the game provides.
[h2] Conclusion [/h2]
SMS 2 is dated now, but thanks to the reductions in base price, I can't say it's not worth buying to experience it, or merely for the collection. I refuse to ignore the impact this had on later entries. Introducing some crucial lore elements, widening the character roster, and even being what even caught my love for this franchise for a long time, as previously stated. But even then, what it does do gameplay-wise was done better. Nevertheless-
[i] I'll always have a special place in my heart for 123 Slaughter Me Street 2. [/i]
7/10.
