Christmas Puzzle 2

We’ve made it to Christmas Puzzle 2 and immediately there are noticeable changes. It’s easier to match pieces, the way logic or luck works is much more in the player’s favour. You get 2 power ups instead of 1 and both are very powerful. Having them around will influence the outcome more effectively. Because of this, you don’t have to grind as much because you need fewer of them. The timer is generally more generous even if there still might be a few tight ones. You don’t need to get 3 stars for an achievement but even so, they’re not as difficult to get. You can even turn off the timer at any time. Those are all needed changes to have a fairer balance but I am also disappointed about a few things. The music is copied from the first game with no changes. I didn’t notice it early but I’m certain puzzles from 1 were copied and remixed to make them fairer with a new paint etc, definitely the ones from chapter 2 and 3. I also experienced something bizarre. Upon starting the game, a bunch of achievements unlocked and I’ve already made progress somehow. My save file from Christmas Puzzle 1 is compatible with 2, that seems to be causing this problem. I decided to start on a new file to p…

https://youtu.be/DPhTKBibl-E Continuing where the first game left off, the narrative is now still rampant symbolism combined with an expressing of Sisyphean torture.

Broken achievements and save file issues. I highly suspect there are some shenanigans going on with the coding where this game shares a save file directory with Christmas Puzzle 1. When I booted this game up for the very first time, all of my completed levels from the first game carried over. The game instantly thought I had already beaten it before I even made a single move. I can't recommend it.

Christmas Puzzle 2 is yet another of literally hundreds of mobile app Match-3/Bejewelled/Candy Crush ripoff games infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. This one was published on Steam instead of app stores back in 2017, and remains something largely valueless as there's a million match-3 games you can play for free in your web browser or on mobile app stores. However, the developers of this one expect you to give them money for something you could play for free. The developer has copy + pasted this [i]exact same game[/i] onto Steam 5 times now, and all of them have ridiculously high price tags for garbage. Worse, the developer is using shell accounts to hide their identity, which seems like a deliberate attempt to mislead gamers. This is unethical. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. The game…

Compared to Christmas Puzzle 1, it's better in every way. No more huge layouts, some levels have a few different powerups that spawn from the top. You also have some passively generating power-ups, a bomb and fireworks that shoot in all 4 directions. If you want to get more of them for later levels, just leave the game open with a random level and they will generate over time. ^^ But, I still find this game too clumsy, and not very exciting to play. It still has level clearing issues. Especially when you need to make matches in obscure or hardly accessible areas. Sometimes the only way to destroy a tile is to use your precious power-ups. And if you don't have any of them at your disposal - you can spend quite a few minutes without any progress. Interestingly enough. When I first launched the game - it already had half of the levels complete. Even several achievements popped at the same time. Strange. It's a playable match 3 game, but there is no joy to be found here also. Still a lackluster experience as in the first game.

Christmas puzzle 2? Thats 2 too many already.