Even bigger than the first and with more refined combat (though there is still input-queuing for melee, which might take getting used to), Zeno 2 picks up right where the other left off, with a Halstedom under the stifling guidance of the Golem. Despite the stats and level-up totems, it's not quite an open-world RPG like Morrowind, having more in common with the classic Zelda adventure structure than anything. Basically, it's a roving first-person beat 'em up with astounding visual design and great world building -- I was drawn by the uniqueness of the first, but this is the one that nailed me down as a fan of the series. Getting to explore the palaces of the other Golems -- who guard the world of Zenozoik on four sides, like the witches of Oz (almost certainly not a coincidence) -- felt epically adventuresome indeed. You'll get to do a lot, see all the varied sights of this Dreamland Prehistoria, kill tons of Bosch-esque creatures, gather neat items . . . viciously beat down the birth parents of your adoptive siblings.

The new Golem artifacts Ghat finds not only serve to open barriers to progression in ye olde metroidvania fashion, but add cool new dynamics to the combat too -- especially the linking gauntlet, which allows you to chain enemies to each other or even things sometimes, so that you can inflict damage indirectly. Weapons are more disposable now, and guns are useless once their ammo is exhausted, but you can carry them from one edge of the world to another if you want.

There's a bit of jank in this, but nothing close to broken. And didn't you know that a little jank is the true price of soul? This is a world that you'll want to explore to the secret bottom, and after all the time I spent, the adventure was still over far too soon. Beyond my attraction to Ace Team's general visual weirdness, I was really taken by the whole theme of connectedness and family, which the Zeno series was exploring in its oneiric way long before the excellent Death Stranding came along. Yes, even if your mother is your father . . . and he's not even that, but a lonely bird-beast who kidnapped you and your siblings from all over the place . . . the time you spent together and the things you felt were real and you shouldn't throw it all away. And sometimes, trying to force a connection, just because it seems like it should be there, isn't healthy either.

(The Zeno series embodies the fantasy sensibility I like best: having all this beautiful, grotesque chaos on the surface, but actually having the narrative underwiring to hold it together with character and lore. I always get so annoyed when someone with a flare for cool imagery phones in the other stuff!)

A worthy successor to the first game. Haven't finished it yet but the world is awesome. I love what they did to the areas.