A part of me wonders what its creators could have done instead of make this sequel, which is effectively an iteration. It's less a sequel and more a 2.0: a place for newcomers to start that’s also swollen with mysteries and feats for veterans to tackle. This sequel provides a clean slate for secret hunters and speedrunners, and it's a game designed as much to be spectated as it is to be played. It's hard to make a call on whether Spelunky 2 is better than Spelunky. As with the original, using a controller is highly recommended, and while there's no online cooperative play at launch (it had some teething problems on PS4) it'll support crossplay with console players when it does. Enemy hitboxes seem especially fine tuned-you're going to want to jump right on top of a snake's head, not close enough. The graphics are chunkier and the controls a tad more sensitive. Spelunky 2 feels busier than the original. What’s that giant drill in Volcania? Why’s this guy giving me gold for free? How do I access the City of Gold? At the time of writing, no streamer has accessed all of this game’s worlds yet, but they’ve found plenty of weirdness. It’s lousy with reasons to diverge from the critical path, and forsaking a promising run in order to experiment with a possible secret is usually too tempting to deny. This new world is as riddled with telltale signs of undiscovered secrets as it is by amusing new ways to die. What most excites me about Spelunky 2 is all the stuff other challenge runners and secret finders are going to do. Or you'll accidentally let a boss crush through another layer of its lair, unearthing a whole new world. Or you'll find a rideable fish that can teleport you (usually into a wall). Or Volcania will have a weird industrial production line. It’s true that you can play a dozen consecutive runs without encountering anything of particular note, but then you’ll enter the Jungle and there will be goddamned vampires in it. But neither they (nor any others) really begin to rival Spelunky 2 when it comes to the sheer scale of the thing. Other modern action roguelikes are similarly joyous on a base level: take Flinthook, or Enter the Gungeon. After nearly 40 hours of play I'm still discovering new world states, just as I'm still falling afoul of those damned purple bats. The fact that Spelunky 2 will be incompletable for all but the most determined and patient is utterly beside the point though, because Spelunky 2 is another comedic, beautifully physical anecdote generator. The new opening world is preparation for this truth: It’s harder than the two following areas, adding some truly nasty bastards like the burrowing cave mole and barrel-rolling horned lizard. Still, only the dedicated are going to finish this game. What’s that giant drill in Volcania? Why’s this guy giving me gold for free? Mini-bosses are the kind that will be manageable with one's eyes closed after a couple of attempts, and, at first, mostly serve as mechanisms to select which world to visit next. Some of the levels are much larger than before, but the general Spelunky rule still (mostly) applies: Go downward and find the exit. No one's going to get lost in Spelunky 2.

All the features heavily marketed pre-launch, like layered worlds and branching paths, aren't nearly as complicated as they could have been. It's fair to be concerned that Spelunky 2 is a bloated version of a near perfect formula. The game is front loaded with overly familiar areas, but it reserves its most resplendent and surprising locations for players who have the patience to surmount those initial challenges. This critical path starts in Dwelling and culminates in a mini-boss before branching off into two possible second worlds. And for a while you'll probably vigilantly ignore all these distractions, focusing instead on unlocking shortcuts, before realising it's best to ignore the shortcuts on your path to finishing the game.

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