Gunman Clive 2

[review notes: I beat the game with all 4 characters on Hard Mode. Each individual playthrough is about 2 hrs long; I left the game idle a bit] Gunman Clive 2 is a worthy sequel to the first in basically every way. The first thing you'll notice is that the artstyle and color scheme are ratcheted up a notch; you can tell the developers were clearly emboldened by the response to the first game's style and were even more stylistic this time. Set pieces and environments are bolder and more creative: no longer just a Western, this game has you traversing the entire world and even outer space by the end. Gameplay is more varied too, with more stages this time as well as more non-platforming stages, which spice up the fun. The game hits a nice sweetspot in difficulty, though it might be a tad bit too easy. As this is a trial and error platformer, once you know what lies ahead, you'll do better and better. Boss battles are simple, standard video game bosses (except the final boss, which is far more inventive, albeit a bit too easy. Nearly impossible to die to that guy). Most of the platforming gives you extremely generous windows, and as with Gunman Clive 1, there's nothing particularly innovative here. The soundtrack is a bit bland I'd say; the art is the centerpiece. The story and vibes might as well not matter, but I still enjoyed the whimsy of it. Doing only one playthrough is so short that I recommend running the other characters to really get value out of the experience. Yes, it's nearly the same, but each character adds a nice wrinkle that makes them worth doing. The Duck / pacifist mode makes a return, which is really fun, but Chieftan Bob, a melee character, was actually my most fun playthrough I'd say. There are many situations which are easy with one of the gun-toting characters, but require entirely unique solutions for Bob. Pretty cool. Gunman Clive 2 is a tried and true platformer that's rock solid in the mechanics it borrows from other games. There's nothing new here, but it's just good solid fun. Worth playing for sure, and a very worthy sequel. I haven't played the rest of Horberg's other games, but I'll be honest ... just clicking on the Steam pages for them makes me feel like they're nowhere near this quality? Like, how are these all even made by the same guy? I'd love to be wrong but part of me wonders: why not just make a Gunman Clive 3? This series deserves to make a return; he really did something special here.