Guns, Gore, and Cannoli 2

Genre: Action-Platformer / 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local, Online)

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Review:

Guns, Gore, and Cannoli 2 is an Action-Platformer that takes the ideas of the first game and reworks them into something that looks familiar, but plays much better.

To catch you up to speed, the first game had players playing as Vinnie, a Mafioso who found himself in a hooch-fueled zombie epidemic. The game was as whimsical as the plot would imply, and the gameplay was decent, but was frustratingly brought down somewhat by its clunky control scheme.

This time around, a few decades have passed in the game’s story, and WWII is starting up, but Vinnie seems to find himself still fighting the old war, as someone in the now walled-off zombie-infested Thugtown is after him, and Vinnie decides to take the fight to its source and head back to the condemned city.

The game’s evolution of the story plays out in the gameplay as well, with Vinnie now not only fighting gangsters and zombies, but also the police and military, with each of these bringing new elements to the table. However, even more than all of this, what’s really new about Guns, Gore, and Cannoli 2 is the gameplay.

Gone are the stiff controls of the first game, replaced with a combination of Action-Platformer and 2-Stick Shooter, along with a few other tweaks like a double-jump and a dodge roll. The result is that combat in this game feels a lot more mobile and fluid. The game also thankfully fixed the button placement issues I had with the first game (though controls are unfortunately unchangeable again, at least this time I don’t feel like I need to change them). The result of all of this is a game that plays the way the first game should have done – fast-paced combat offset by the need to pay attention to your guns’ ammo and need to reload.

Even with its improvements, the game isn’t without its issues. Given how much of an empty caricature the game’s characters are, I can’t say I care at all about the plot. More importantly, like its predecessor the game can get repetitive. However, there’s enough variety here that the push to go a bit farther is almost always rewarded with something new and worthwhile.

Guns, Gore, and Cannoli 2 is a good example of a sequel improving over the original game. The control issues of the first game are largely gone, and in their place is some faster-paced gameplay that’s a lot more fluid and fun. It still has issues with being repetitive at time, but overall this is a solid action-platformer well worth playing.

tl;dr – Guns, Gore, and Cannoli 2 is an Action-Platformer that takes the basic idea of the first game and greatly improves on it, adding in 2-stick aiming, fixing the controls, and making the gameplay much more fast-paced. It’s still repetitive at times, but overall this is a pretty good game.

Grade: B+

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