Shank 2 is a game about senseless brutality and how much fun it can be. Your character, Shank, is a troubled man with a troubled past who has gotten himself into even more trouble. A new force of power has taken over the land and is oppressing the people. Shank cares little for the peoples plight until someone very dear to him is taken, he then becomes death incarnate to all who get in his way.
Shank 2 is a lot of give and take from the first game and part of that take is the story. The storyline in Shank 2 has been trimmed into something akin to Once Upon A Time in Mexico. Bad dude does bad things and now you must murder your way to bad dude. The story itself just feels like a throwaway part of the game that connects the different environments you are in. This is by no means a bad thing as the game understands the story is haphazard and never forces it down your throat. If you really want to get deeper there are the arbitrary Intel reports to collect. Lets be honest here though, you are not and should not come to Shank 2 for the story.
The real reason to enjoy Shank 2 is the amazing combat. This game has quite possibly the best and most refined sidescroller combat ever. You are always given complete control over Shank and I never was able to blame a death on cheap gameplay. Anytime that I died it was my fault and I could see exactly where I went wrong. There are so many ways to kill any of the opponents and it will all rely on your particular taste for bloodshed. You have three different types of attacks, Light, Heavy, and Ranged with the the ranged and heavy having three different weapon choices. You can also grapple or ground enemies and attack them, or others, based on the three variations system. What this does is allows you to find a fighting style that suits you and never makes it seem like you are too under-equipped to win a fight.
Another really crucial addition to the combat is a dodge move attached to the right stick. While this seems so simple it really rounds out the combat in a great way. You will never get stuck in an animation or with a move you did not mean to do. Shank 2 is, at times, punishingly hard so with the tight controls and ability to “dodge cancel” anything, survival is totally in your own hands. I absolutely love the combat in this game. It is visceral, tight, and so well fleshed out in a way that you do not see in a game like this ever.
Another thing I fell in love with in Shank 2 was the multiplayer Survival Mode. Instead of giving you another hollow story this game focuses exclusively on combat for the multiplayer portion. The basic idea is that you have to defend three spots on the map from bombers. If you thought that one player could spray some blood then brace yourself for the carnage festival that is Survival Mode. The enemies come in waves and you are given points as to how brutally you mangle them. During the interim you are given a brief respite to purchase supplies with your blood money, which was almost always health for me. My one real gripe is that because the camera can not focus on you it sometimes get so chaotic that it becomes impossible to tell what is going on. You character can get overwhelmed to the point where they are just shrouded in explosions of fire and blood. That aside, Survival Mode is Shank 2 boiled down to what it does best, slaughtering the moving point banks. Plus every costume you unlock has different effects on your characters stats giving you reason to go back in and play some more. This mode has its teeth in me and I could not be happier about it.
The last thing that I really want to discuss about Shank 2 that is really worth noting is the music. The soundtrack is always hitting the right beats at the right time to add that extra oomph of awesome. It could probably stand on it’s own as decent tunes to jam to but the way it is used to emphasize the lethality of Shank is just great. It never overpowered the scene but instead was always there in great service of it.
Shank 2 is a fantastic game, just utterly amazing. Klei Entertainment took the two great things about the original Shank and refined them to a razors edge, the combat and visuals. Everything moves with a fluid sense of motion and purposeful precision. There are a few very minor bugs that could be worked out but nothing game breaking. What Shank 2 had to excel at, the gameplay, it did so in spades. Shank 2 is worth every cent of the 10$ price point and if you even remotely like side scrolling games you need to have this in your collection.
will any b ody tell me how to save game in shank2 every time i quit the gmae i have to start from the begining annd thats so frustating if anybdy konows plz mail me on [email protected]
It should save every time you beat a level.