Reviews// LittleBigPlanet 2

On to the technical bits, and from a visual standpoint there is a noticeable improvement over the original game. While it seems a bit ludicrous that there's really any room to improve over what is, on the face of it, a tarted up 2D game, it's clear some has been made.

Special Effects
At points in the original game slow down was very occasionally evident when things got "a bit busy", and that appears to be a eradicated – and there's a whole hell of a lot more going on here.

Special effects, such as smoke, fire, water, glass and the gloopy, jammy explosion of objects on the confectionery levels add the game's unique graphical flare.

It has to be said, however, that the single most impressive improvement is in the lighting department. The volumetric fogging reveals impressive shafts of light breaking through gaps in the scenery, and multicoloured rainbows are befitting of a YouTube meme.

Big Audio Dynamite
Once again the audio is pristine. From Fry's narration to the curator creator's dialogue, the voice acting is second to none. And with such an impressive line up of licensed and original music, you could almost turn the telly off and crank up the volume, if only there were a soundtrack mode. Perhaps a "playlist" community level is on the cards?

Added to the typical PSN Trophies is the game's own "Pin" awards. Awarded in the same way you'd get a trophy, for skill acheivement or some random event (as I write, I've just been awarded to the "MM birthday pin" for no reason other than I'm playing on the 4th of January), these are awards specific to LBP2 and its community "bragosphere".

As I write this review, there's been no access to a LBP2 community server, so I can't say what's new on that front, but as you'd expect, there have been many changes to the creator toolset.

Creative Juices
At first glance it looks pretty much the same, but a quick poke around the tutorials reveals huge power. The existing tools have been refined to make creation a less frustrating process. It's now possible to hide objects to see and edit what's lurking behind, and a multi-select tool means you can highlight and edit several objects simultaneously.

Gluing multiple specific objects together is now possible, and the "UV" tool allows you to move and rotate textures independently of the object.

However, most important to the general hair-pulling experience of the original editor is the fact that those old school implements, the keyboard and mouse, are (apparently) now supported. With the support of key shortcuts, that should neatly see of the spectre of fumbling through arcane controller button combos to navigate the Popit menu or activate specific edit modes. Sadly, I say 'apparently' because I could not get a USB keyboard to interact with the game.

Link Multiple Levels
All this general tweakery would be for nought were it not for the new range of trigger, logic and control features. There are new event sensors, such as impact and projectile sensors that detect when an object hits something or is itself hit by a projectile. You can now link multiple levels, giving you the power to split up complex levels or produce multi-level creations, or tweak the play mode to change from co-operative to versus or even produce a cutscene.

However, all of these refinements and additions pale against the mighty Controllinator and gameplay sequencer tools. The former allows creators to maps joypad controls to object - the left stick could move the object and the right stick rotate it, while X could make it jump. In essence, you can create your own RoboBun or Defender space ship.

The sequencer is just like an audio sequencer (which, naturally, the editor also includes), but for gameplay events. Along a timeline you can visually define a sequence of logic controls and their duration.

These can then be wired up to control objects such as rotators, take inputs from buttons or other triggers, change the camera or switch an object from inert to hazardous or back again.

With such an awesome palette of tools and tweaks and great improvements to the already impressive (if a little cumbersome) creator tools, one just has to look at the community levels out there for LBP and think; this is a game changer for user-generated content. It's not a level editor, it's an authoring toolkit.

Conclusion
LBP2 is not only a masterpiece of entertainment but also of engineering. You'd have to be dead inside to not love this game. It's a buffet of fun and smorgasbord of possibilities. We've barely got a foot over the threshold of 2011, but already my money is on LittleBigPlanet 2 for game of the year. Pre-order it now. If you don't have a PS3, pre-order it anyway and go buy a PS3 to play it on.

SPOnG Score: 99%