My Early Runs of Temple Run 2 (for Android)

"Kayong dalawa ay magkahawak-kamay na tatakbo nang sabay. Bibilisan kung may hahabol. Iiwas kung may haharang. Tatalon kung may bangin."

- Rolly Hugo, May 12, 2012

[Rough translation: You two would run together hand in hand. Go faster if chased. Evade if obstructed. Jump if there's an abyss.]

This was my Dad's message to me and my wife on our wedding last year. I thought it was quite profound, until he told me later that he had Temple Run in mind. Story of my life. Anyway...

Photo from Google Play

For reasons I don't want to disclose :D, I had time to burn these past couple of days, like playing Temple Run 2 from Imangi Studios (and time to review the game as well). I've been playing with it since its free public release to Android and I personally think it's a nice sequel to an addictive and already epic game.

For one, the monster chasing Guy Dangerous actually sounds like a monster now (more like a T-Rex or maybe the adult Simba), instead of hungry monkeys from the zoo.

The guys added a little more texture to the terrain like slopes, stairs, and a nice combination of varying radii of curvature. There are also more obstacles like rivers and spikes, and I find the ropes and the rails sections to be cool additions that disrupt the monotony of temple graphics.

Photo from Google Play

Photo from Google Play

Another interesting addition to the game is that you have the option to save your life i.e. continue from where your character died instead of starting all over again. This option is available when you have a gem which you get along the road.

There's also like an RPG feel where you get to choose which special bonus power-up for each character will be available. [In the photos above, Guy's bonus power-up is a Shield while Scarlett's is a Coin Bonus. In Temple Run 1, this power-up is assigned to Coin Bonus only.]

With better graphics, you also now see what actually happens when your character dies, like the monster actually holding Guy or like Scarlett actually being swept away by the river.

This is a bit trivial, but I'd also like to acknowledge the work done on the character's shadow. :D Although it's quite disturbing for me that the angle of the shadow does not change when the character turns (always about 15 degrees to the left from the positive y-axis if your character is the origin), it is very much better than the black circle of Temple Run 1. You even see the shadow jump or slide! :P

I haven't played it long enough to find any bug that affects the game play, although the game sells you boosts in-game, which is good if it's free or if you have lots of coins already, but it's annoying when you have just downloaded the game and you end of using "all" your coins.

Overall, I think it's a pretty good game to waste your time on. :P And by the way, it's free so you can delete it without regret if you don't like it.

I'm sure one thing didn't change. I still suck at it and my wife would probably very much own the high score again.

If Temple Run 2 had been out before I got married, I think my Dad wouldn't be able to resist adding to his message: "Aakyatin ang mga hagdan, luluksuhan ang mga tinik, at magkasamang kakapit nang mahigpit habang nagpapadulas sa tali ng pag-aasawa."