Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

de Blob 2 Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

de Blob 2 Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

de Anti-Communist Blob

De Blob 2 is the most surprising game I’ve played in a long time. Its mechanics aren’t surprising – most hardcore gamers are pretty well aware of de Blob’s environmental coloring mechanic by now – but how much fun I had with it was. This game wasn’t on my radar at all until the day I sat down to do the review. From that point forward, I was completely won over by this energetic and downright fun experience.

De Blob 2 is a difficult game to explain. Most of what makes it great involves the actual experience of playing it. I simply cannot relate to you the energetic vibe that courses through the entire experience. There is a powerful cathartic feeling that comes from not just painting a blank cityscape, but imbuing it with life. De Blob 2 is truly a game that demands to be played rather than talked about.

de Blob 2 Screenshot

However, we must talk about it. The game is not perfect, but its faults are small next to its numerous successes. Before I go off overinflating your expectations, here’s a caveat: de Blob 2 is a modest game. It’s not the type of game that succeeds by challenging all of our notions of what a game can be, like Heavy Rain. It’s not filled with incredible, bombastic action like Gears of War 2. It’s a game with a small budget that understands exactly what it needs to be to succeed, and it nails it. The developer didn’t aim for the stars, and the game is much better for it.

There are two paths that games of de Blob’s ilk tend to take: The developer gets overambitious, introducing too many new concepts without polishing the basics, or the developer isn’t ambitious enough and creates a ho-hum, me-too platformer. De Blob 2 straddles the line between those two doomed paths.

de Blob 2 Screenshot

The main gameplay mechanic is fun even hours after the game introduces it. I’m still not tired of watching an entire neighborhood blossom with life as I plow through it. The trick is that your painting doesn’t just produce new colors: it also produces plants, people, cars, and all manner of other visual effects. When you begin, the city will be a dormant, stale, black-and-white canvas. When you leave, there will be little blobs partying in the streets, giant trees, flowers blooming, colorful buildings, and beautiful birds chirping. It’s a confluence of audio-visual engineering that combines to create an satisfying aura of levity.

As mentioned, the feat isn’t just about the visuals; there’s also some fantastic sound design. It’s hard to pick out at first, but I noticed the awesome jazz soundtrack was actually subtly playing to my actions in the game. The music is soft and smooth when the player isn’t doing anything, but as you paint, a quick saxophone tune will chime in. The sound also changes according to what colors dominate the level. The instrument sets change based on the amount of purple, red, yellow, etc. that you’ve painted the world. Even if you don’t notice it outright, it’s still the kind of thing that seeps into your brain, enhancing the experience. It’s one of many things that makes painting your way through de Blob 2 so much fun. Very few games devote this much effort to sound design, but they would do well to learn from this lesson.

de Blob 2 Screenshot

Wonderful visuals and presentation are something we’ve come to expect from de Blob. That wasn’t all that surprising to me (although I certainly didn’t expect them to be impressive to the extent that they are). What surprised me most is that the story is actually really effective. This is an all-ages platformer, so you expect the story to be a throwaway excuse to march the player through a series of challenges until the credits roll. However, de Blob 2 leverages its visual design to deliver a story that is as surprising as it is engaging.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not Final Fantasy. It’s not the kind of story that wins awards. However, it works very well. The plot revolves around Comrade Blanc, who weasels his way into the office of the president, then imposes martial law and attempts to force all people into conformity. There are some heavy topics involved, even if they’re acted out by adorable blobs. The game’s characters are cute little blobs, so when Comrade Blanc starts brainwashing them and forcing them into servitude, I naturally boiled with hatred for the nefarious villain – far more so than I would have if the characters had been human. One particularly poignant scene featured a husband-wife pairing of blobs being marched in front of a courtroom of the evil Graydians. Before the husband even speaks, he is pronounced guilty and forcibly dumped into a pile of black ink that strips him of his color. These aren’t even important characters, but their intrinsic cuteness endears them to the viewer immediately. There’s even a little homage to the Tiananmen Square protests as a little blob halts a Graydian tank.

de Blob 2 Screenshot

That isn’t an isolated event either. There are frequent allusions to an anti-communist agenda in the game. We expect this in a realistic shooter, but its inclusion in this colorful package is downright brilliant. Before long, it becomes clear that these small scenes of blatant anti-communism aren’t accidental. In fact, the entire game is a metaphor for the perils of communism and the glory of personal liberty. I bet you didn’t expect to read anything like that in a review of a colorful all-ages platformer.

There are also multiplayer modes that add some value to the game. The entire single-player campaign can be played cooperatively. The second player takes control of a helper character that assists Blob in completing levels. The Blob Party mode is also cooperative and features much of the same type of content found in the single player campaign. The only real difference is the time restrictions are tighter.

de Blob 2 does have a few problems, but they’re barely worth noting. The controls aren’t always perfect, and the camera gets in your way occasionally. The bigger problem is that the game takes several hours to reach a decent pace. The first few hours are fun, but include too much hand-holding and easy gameplay. Once the training wheels come off, the game comes into its own, and some interesting new play mechanics are introduced that will keep you interested for many more hours. Thankfully, the game starts to pick up around the third level, which leaves nine meaty levels for you to dig into.

I had more fun with de Blob 2 than any other platformer since the original Super Mario Galaxy. It’s not the most high-profile game on store shelves, but if you’re in the market for a unique game with an awesome presentation and a great personality, you simply can’t do any better than de Blob 2.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.5 Graphics
de Blob 2 has one of the finest graphical presentations I’ve seen in a while. The game looks great in its eerie black and white state, and multiple times better once it’s been slathered with paint. 3.6 Control
There are a few difficulties here, but nothing horrid. The camera in particular can occasionally cause problems. 4.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The jazz never ends, and it’s fantastic. The great soundtrack that is coupled with a unique method of delivery. 4.0 Play Value
There’s quite a bit of platforming. All together, the levels could take over fifteen hours, which is about normal for a game of its type. More importantly, the experience is top notch all the way. 4.4 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Set off on an action packed color adventure with twelve new single-player story levels where custom paints, patterns, and music bring the world to life any way you want.
  • Only the colorful prankster Blob can foil Papa Blanc’s evil hypno plot to steal all the color from Prisma City.
  • Speed smash through walls, jet jump over skyscrapers, and slam squash Inky’s with all new power-ups that turn you into a super Blob.
  • Paint your way past icy outposts, tropical bio domes, and distant space stations to free the fair citizens of Prisma City.
  • Inside, outside, above the Earth, and below it, Blob embarks on mini missions and epic boss battles to restore color and music back to this rich universe.

  • To top