Grotesque Tactics 2: Dungeons & Donuts

Where there is an established product, there will always be something else that’s a parody of aforementioned item. These spoofs ride on the coattails of the product’s success and try to strike a chord with those aficionados in some clever way. Grotesque Tactics 2: Dungeons & Donuts (GT2) is a tongue-in-cheek strategy RPG, which tries to poke a bit of fun at the widespread follies of the genre. Unfortunately, with a shoddy display and a broken game, it should’ve focused on its own follies instead. The sad part is that the game isn’t even ridiculously broken, but rather extremely disappointing to see its good ideas shattered by it.

As the title might suggest, GT2 is a sequel to Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes. For this iteration, the developers decided to switch the original’s cartoony character to a somewhat more realistic rendition. In doing so, it sort of shoots itself in the face, because while the level textures are still decent and vibrant, character icons look grossly outdated. The models themselves aren’t that different from their lesser detailed predecessors; so it’s hard to imagine as to why only go into this venture halfway. Luckily, the enchanting feel of added bloom and lighting effects make up most of this indiscretion. In addition, the game now also comes with some decent voice acting, which helps to detract from the frequent grammar and spelling errors that are the bane of a literary purist.

The story follows the hero Drake, along with his quirky cast of sidekicks and allies, after they’ve completed the objectives from the original. In true heroic fashion, it isn’t long before Drake is struck with amnesia and is given a fresh start in his adventuring life. A roleplaying game without amnesia wouldn’t be quite the same. Most other mechanics in the game are equally traditional or they wouldn’t fit the theme. Battles are prompted by an appearing square grid and follow up in turns, indicated by an initiative bar on the right. Items are dropped looted, equipped, bought and sold. Characters gain experience and gain levels, after which they can spend points in simplistic skill trees. And naturally, lots of conversations and demands offer ways to communicate with the world and get quests.

The battle scheme in itself is simple, but effective. The grid work and division of attack and magic is basic and easily understandable. Movement is indicated in blue, attacks in red and healing in green. Attacking from an advantageous back position gives added damage and there are also chances of critical hits. To balance this simplicity, the game is actually unexpectedly challenging for a comedy. Each bout with a bunch of baddies is hard-fought and missing key strikes can turn deadly quickly. Once Drake hits the deck, its game over; so keeping characters good and healthy can be vital. This spicy fighting helps to drive the game forward and by convincing others to join the fight, create guilds with fighters and more, it adds several entertaining layers to the whole. Especially since every interaction is laced with some corny comedy, GT2 will always feel light-hearted, even if it prefers a widespread approach of many superficial implementations over specific depth.

Starting a guild and becoming a more proficient warrior also gives status to other s and as such will grant Drake the possibility to also do favors for the opposing guilds. Additionally, GT2 introduces cooking; though again, it doesn’t delve deeper than a simple recipe and preparation mechanic. Mostly, the game will be driven by the humor slathered over every possible scenario; anything else is merely a plot device to drive a pun or two in. This is the good part.

The sad part is that this only works whenever the game feels like working. Playing through the preview build was near impossible due to its broken state, but it seems like the released (not finished) product doesn’t differ from it greatly. On multiple setups, Grotesque Tactics 2 displayed so many game-breaking errors in rapid succession; it seems as if they were woven into the core of the game.

Quest items disappear, a “text missing” prompt is thrown around everywhere. In one setup case it was even the start-off point of the game and it also automatically reverted to German. The grid often shows erratic patterns that make playing impossible, characters don’t respond to quest prompts, saving or loading breaks the game to a point and even then it might freeze up or crash at random. It’s a pitiful state of affairs and as such, it was impossible to finish the game, after many instances of it breaking down or getting stuck, meaning having to start over. There’s no real point in trying to complete an incomplete product.

This further poses the question why GT2 was released in anonymity, alongside powerhouses such as Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Super Mario 3D Land and a bunch more titles; even anticipated indie games. The only logical assumption would be that the publishers knew this unfinished project would fail and it was best to conceal it in between bigger titles, to perhaps save face later on, upon post-release completion. But as weeks after release the game was still virtually unplayable, it doesn’t bode well for the future of ever seeing this RPG becoming stable enough to enjoy.

It’s heartbreaking that Grotesque Tactics 2: Dungeons & Donuts was released as it was. At its core, it’s still a charming and witty title, but the unfinished myriad of issues that break the game down makes it stand out as perhaps the worst sequel ever produced. Perhaps one day, all these issues will be handled and the Grotesque franchise will once again rise to a simple but powerful strategy title, but at its release, this was nowhere in sight. The only word that comes to mind is “why?”.

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Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)