App Army Assemble: Slayaway Camp 2 - "Is this horror-themed puzzler a cut above the rest?"

Slayaway Camp 2 is a horror game where you carry out your killing carefully through a series of puzzles rather than rushing about screaming with a giant weapon in hand. Although I suppose nothing's stopping you from adding your own sound effects if you feel like. Anyway, we handed it over to our App Army to see if methodical murder satiated their bloodlust.

Here's what they said:

I haven’t played the other game in the series, so I can’t really compare the two, but I can say that this is, on one hand, a pretty simple puzzle where you can go from 1 to 3 stars each af increasing difficulty. But the real story of this game is just how much fun it is. It is wickedly fun chasing the kids around the campground, scaring them into fires or the lake or into trees and who knows what else, or just catching and finishing them off, and the sometimes sort of mock Mortal Kombat cut scenes just make it even better.

The animation is fun. The controls are simple. If you get stuck, you can get a hint, and if you still can’t figure it out, the hand system will show you exactly how to finish the level- which is good because the main point, in my opinion, of this game isn’t solving the puzzles, it’s having fun, and Slayaway Camp 2 does a great job of that. I very happily recommend this one, and I’ll be playing it a lot.

Let's go for the good news first (because there are even more good ones after that). Coming from the first Slayaway Camp, you would think, ok, it's a sequel, it will be more of the same, just more puzzles. You are wrong, and Jason got to you! That's how you learn the rules. Never assume anything. The slide mechanic of the first game is gone, for the most part, and now you can move your killer one square at a time (kudos to that because sliding puzzlers, you can find a lot of them in the App Store for all tastes).

There is an ice level here and there, where the sliding mechanic is back, just to give you a taste, like Scream or Friday the 13th never stops releasing sequel after sequel. Where the first game used old VHS for you to navigate the levels, now we have evolved. We are in the future, and we now have a Netflix streaming platform look-alike, where the episodes in a TV series are the levels.

Quite clever, really, and very well designed. In terms of difficulty, I like what they've done here. You solve a very easy level, and you get one star. But if you go for star number two you get the same level (more or less) but you have to think more about it, and you can even go for the third star, where the difficulty ramps up quite nicely, and you can also go for a special mission where you need to find a hidden knife or some kind of weapon and murder everyone with it.

I also prefer to have my phone in portrait mode in this new game, as the old one has everything in landscape. I'm sold. If the first one was fun, this second one takes everything up a notch. New mechanics where you can kill people with sokoban-like boxes, which will be needed to block the movement of our victims, cross water bodies, etc, and even scare them by shaking trees. There's really a lot to do in this new game, and you'd be a fool not to get this one. Five Stars!

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Slayaway Camp 2 runs excellently on the MI Pad 5, offering a tight and polished puzzle-horror experience. The fun, gory aesthetics and clever level designs make it a great match for handheld. Visually, the game shines. It's a cartoony Funko Pop-style slasher. The animations - ragdoll victim screams, machete swings, saw traps - look clean and graphically crisp even on my tablet's display.

With over 100+ handcrafted levels, the scoring and challenge ramp feel steady, you have the ability to reverse the moves you've made in the stages, so you can play for a few fun, quick minutes or concentrate on finishing the levels with the fewest moves possible.

I enjoyed this game. It’s a straightforward grid-based game where you manoeuvre the slasher to attack and kill the unsuspecting campers. Moving objects to force the campers into the river, or just killing them by creeping up behind and dispatching them, is the aim. The graphics are simple but amusing, the gameplay is easy to learn, and unlike most games, I found the sound fun. As you progress, things get more difficult, and there are upgrades to be earned. Thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend.

Slayaway Camp 2 is a slasher-themed puzzler. You start off playing a resurrected Skullface as he goes on a murder rampage. Each level is a grid, and you must manoeuvre Skullface to kill campers by bumping into them or frightening them to run away to drown or die in a campfire. The slide mechanic of the original game is mostly gone as you move one square at a time.

Graphically, it’s simple polygons, and the death scenes are cartoonishly over the top. Once you complete a set of levels, you can play them again with different challenges. You can unlock different killers as you progress, and the hint system is great as it gives you a clue, but you can also see the complete solution. Recommended.

Slayaway Camp 2 is more of what made the first game great. It oozes style and slasher horror references. At its core, it is a simple Sokoban puzzler. Instead of moving boxes, you kill campers in the woods. The gameplay is solid, with increasingly harder and harder puzzles. If you liked the original, there is no reason not to revisit the series. If you don't like gore, albeit in a funny vein, steer clear.

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