Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 (PC)

The Asterix & Obelix XXL series is a strange one when viewed chronologically. Asterix & Obelix XXL 1 and 2 released on consoles, but then developer OSome Studio was tasked with remastering the second game specifically, after which they announced they were working on a new third entry in the series. After releasing the follow-up to their remastered sequel, they then went back and remastered the original Asterix & Obelix XXL, meaning that now, the proper order to play the games in this series if you want the conceivably best experience would be to play the fifth game made and then go back and play the third and fourth after. It gets even more confusing when you play the rather weak Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered and then move onto OSome Studio’s first remake as it is a sequel to the original game so it learned from that game’s mistakes but it came before the remaster of the original game which should have learned from any issues OSome Studio faced in developing XXL 2 and 3!

But let’s escape this peculiarity quagmire and get to talking about Asterix & Obelix XXL 2, which is thankfully better than Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered but not in every way that it should be.

Asterix and Obelix are the two powerful protectors of a Gaulish village that continues to be a thorn in the side of Julius Caesar, the Roman emperor’s efforts to conquer their land routinely turned back by Asterix’s power-up potion and Obelix’s incredible strength. However, it appears that the village druid Getafix has betrayed not only Gaul but a powerful council of druids by turning those druids over to Caesar so their expertise may be used against the Gauls. Asterix can hardly believe Getafix is a traitor and sets off to set things right and hopefully clear Getafix’s name, Obelix and the pair’s pet dog Dogmatix come along to assist in storming the location the Romans are keeping the druids: Las Vegum.

The original release of this title was known as Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission: Las Vegum, and Las Vegum is certainly an interesting locale for this 3D action platformer to take place in. While still rooted in the era of the Roman Empire, the accoutrements of the modern gambling city of Las Vegas color this location’s design. There are slot machines you can gamble the collectible Roman helmets on, areas parodying famous casinos like the Egyptian themed Luxor casino, and the game justifies having reproductions of places like Venice and monuments like the Eiffel Tower by saying Rome is using reproductions of their conquered lands to lure people into their resort. Since the game is trying to stay somewhat steeped in the past it doesn’t have the glitz and glamor of Las Vegas, but it has plenty of detailed areas that match the idea of a resort town. You can drop by the area styled to be a Pirate Island where the roman soldiers now fight you in appropriate gear as you tromp through water, you can head to the WCW to participate in multiple arena sports challenges, and SeizeUs Palace contains set pieces like a giant roulette on top of fully embracing the Roman aesthetic in their twist on the real life Caesar’s Palace that already used the look that Rome naturally had.

While the concept of Rome constructing their own version of Las Vegas makes pushing into new areas full of fun new twists on what you’d expect from a glitzy gambling city, the game also goes for an unexpected amount of video game parodies. Found in the background of many areas are rampant references to games famous around the original version’s release, the player able to spot posters lampooning Quake and Unreal Tournament, engravings that depict the evil knight Nightmare from Soul Calibur as a Roman warrior instead, and the game even feels like it’s asking for legal trouble when you spot two large golden statues that might as well be the Yellow Pikmin from Pikmin save for the absence of their plant parts. Spotting Space Invaders on an Egyptian obelisk or recognizing that those statues are posed to imitate a fatality from Mortal Kombat is cute background detail that fits in as an odd but quirky way of decorating Las Vegum, but the parodies are integrated into the main adventure as well. There are segments where you are dodging barrels in areas arranged like the first level of Donkey Kong, and one of the main villains is Caesar’s right hand man Larry Craft, and obese centurion dressed in the same tight green shirt and short shorts that Lara Croft from Tomb Raider was famous for wearing. Regular enemies also continue the slew of references, the normal soldiers you fight joined by plenty of parody characters. A particularly annoying troop is decked out to look like Mario as he did in Super Mario Sunshine, the water pack on his back used to push you around in group fights. Martial artists fires blue energy balls at you like Ryu from Street Fighter and make the same sound on defeat as a Street Fighter character. One soldier uses a Pac-Man-like shield as a weapon while another is dressed like Sonic the Hedgehog and moves at super speed, the game truly embracing the parodic imagery even though it never takes any time to make any critiques about other games or even acknowledges how much it is referencing other video game titles.

While spotting the references is a fun little pastime while you play, the story scenes also have a bit more character to them than they did in the first XXL game. Rather than leaning on funny names for the humor like in the previous title, this game has Asterix and Obelix actually deliver jokes during scenes, banter occasionally during play, and repeatedly interact with the defected Roman spy who is assisting them, Sam Shieffer (who is made into a parody of the Splinter Cell spy Sam Fisher just to keep adding to the reference pile). When you free a druid you get a humorous little interaction, and as you push into new parts of Las Vegum, the game checks in on Caesar and Larry Craft mostly just to do more slapstick or quirky comedy. I wouldn’t go so far as to say any of it is cleverly written, but the characters are given much more personality this time around and a jovial tone helps keeps the adventure light whenever the cast decides to start chiming in.

Sadly, all that has been done to make this game take place in an interesting world populated with fun characters is sort of undone by how much the game leans on its subpar combat mechanics to carry so much of the adventure. A majority of your time is spent fighting off Roman hordes, groups of soldiers charging in to be easily battered about with your basic punches. You can grab them to twirl them around to hurt other enemies or use them as a whip for a while, and there’s a bit more complexity to the combat gained from being able to leap into the air to slam a grabbed foe down on others or call in Dogmatix to bother a foe who is hanging out far from your reach. Many tougher enemies have shields you need to break through either with your dash kick or an aerial slam, but since these are how you stun enemies for grabs already, it doesn’t do much more than occasionally require the use of these skills that you’re probably liberally using already. Some thought was put into the enemy designs, with the Mario troops meant to upset your rhythm for example, but so many fights go on for far too long for how little you need to change your tactics, and the optional challenges scattered around Las Vegum to earn extra goodies are just timed combat trials that continue the trend of having too many foes without many who test you in interesting ways. The numbers are far less absurd than what is seen in Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered, but the repeated fights lose their luster quickly despite ideas like having to hurl enemies into targets or turret sections that break away from the “beat everyone” approach.

You can unlock some additional abilities for use in combat by purchasing them from merchant carts, the player able to execute simple and effective combos like a tornado that sucks in foes so long as they build up combo energy first. The merchant can provide simple help like healing meat or temporary life shields that go away when broken as well, but the Roman helmets used as currency are also good for buying upgrades to your basic strength and attacks such as allowing you to whip a Roman around longer before tossing him away or extending the shockwave of a ground slam. Again, we see the game somehow improve on XXL Romastered despite that game coming later, XXL 2 spacing crates and opportunities for Roman helmets out much more so that collecting them isn’t a chore and opportunities to grab them do eventually pay off since the distribution is paced well with the prices.

The main gameplay again takes another hit though when you engage with the platforming and puzzle elements. Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 lets you swap between Asterix and Obelix pretty much any time you like, this used to spice up combat despite the two mostly playing the same. Sometimes the game will incentivize switching to a certain character as you can earn rewards like healing items or Asterix’s power potion if you attack enemies with a certain combo that appears on the bottom of the screen. However, the character swap is mostly meant to augment how puzzles are solved, the player able to send either Asterix or Obelix on their own to solve different puzzles. Usually you’re just separating them for separation’s sake though, Asterix going into a small nook and then opening the way onward for Obelix or Obelix launching out of a small hand-cranked cannon to reach a higher spot he’ll then return from.  Puzzles can involve things like moving bombs (with Bomberman’s face on them) to destroy flimsy walls (that are made of Tetris blocks) or getting both Gaulish heroes to a pair of switches by whatever means is available to them. Most obstacles are just about finding switches, hitting Romans into targets, jumping around an area correctly, or engaging with the poorly conceived rope-supported lifts Asterix climbs onto from time to time. Some of these involve Obelix dragging it from below to its destination, the challenge being to keep Obelix safe during the trip, but when Asterix is propelled automatically instead, you need to flip your lift up to avoid crashing and maintain a balance meter until its safe to flip back to normal. However, the balance meter is touchy, and failing at the balance test sends you back to redo the entire portion of what is often a fairly long rope ride. It seems most challenges are either about getting to a place without falling or getting hurt while you do a basic task like pushing a bomb to its obvious destination. Many of these are at least a break from the repetitive battles, but having multiple parts of the game splinter off into four subsections with basic or bothersome puzzles and platforming challenges won’t do enough to undo the damage the repetitive combat causes.

The last thing of note is the game’s bosses, and it seems XXL 2 is continuing the ideas found in XXL 1 in that most every boss here is just a variation of the first one you fight. A titanic Roman troop is fought a few times over the course of the adventure, his attacks being fairly similar and the way you deal damage always the same. However, it is his boss arena that changes with each encounter, and these do add diverse enough complications to the battle that these at least do something new with the recycled boss formula. One place may be about luring him into spots where you can smash him with large weights, another includes platforming challenges so you can stun him with the torch at the top, and another fight has you avoiding tons of regular foes as you try to get the boss to smash into a spiked wall you need to activate. Larry Croft and Caesar both have their own fight, but they’re just part of enemy swarms, meaning they hardly feel different from the kind of battles you’ve been having already all throughout the adventure.

THE VERDICT: Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 packs a lot of personality into this action game remaster. The titular heroes have some fun banter amongst themselves and with acquaintances, Las Vegum is a delightful concept for a game world, and the unusual amount of video game references are so baked into the experience it becomes almost a tour of what title they’ll pull from next. However, the game mostly leans on its subpar combat to carry most of the action, and while unique enemy types and growing combat options do spice these up some, it still becomes far too repetitive for its own good. The puzzles and platforming aren’t quite as bad, but the more memorable moments of it are its failings rather than the game doing anything particularly interesting with this side of the adventure. While the humorous trappings can almost make you forgive certain failings, Asterix & Obelix XXL 2’s gameplay problems are more impactful than its mild successes.

And so, I give Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 for PC…

A BAD rating. Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 is unquestionably a better game than Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered. It doesn’t lean on huge batches of identical troops as much, it doesn’t pad levels with helmet collecting filler, and it has a much more pronounced personality. Perhaps Romastered handles its basic puzzle designs better, but there are times during Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 that I wondered if this game might slip by as something mediocre but with a fair bit of charm. The city of Las Vegum does a lot for the game conceptually, progression through the resort city leading to encounters with creative setpieces on top of the game being littered with video game references for no other reason than to tickle the players who recognize these fairly recognizable titles. Parts of Las Vegum are decent enough to traverse and feature platforming challenges that don’t offend or test your problem solving in a somewhat challenging manner, but the most memorable moments are the unfortunate ones like the aggravating lift flipping segments. Combat filler is definitely the main issue though, the game packing too much of the experience with fights that aren’t diversifying enough to maintain interest. The game does have the good sense to stagger out new enemy types or use some as obstacles to solving puzzles and navigating the level, but the fresh feeling doesn’t last as soon the new ideas just slip into the same repeated battle types as it becomes the new normal. The simple fight options could use a bit more improvement as well, but it feels more like the issue is the game doesn’t space out the battles enough, falling back on familiar soldier groupings repeatedly rather than trying to concoct some new sort of challenge for the area you’ve just entered.

Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 was much closer to an average gaming experience than its predecessor… or however you want to phrase the unusual situation this approach to remaking and expanding the series has taken. Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered is a more difficult pill to swallow since it leans on its flaws more heavily, but Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 does put in the work to try and spice up its problem areas, it just doesn’t do so to the degree they escape those issues. It’s a strong step forward, the embrace of the Asterix comic’s humor appreciated and some ideas like the different enemy types clearly meant to shake up the fights despite quickly becoming rote, but it still feels like the game can’t quite emphasize the right things. Creativity isn’t allocated to the parts that make up most of the experience, so while Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 is a step above Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered due to what improvements do exist, it still finds itself in the same low tier when viewed for its overall quality.