Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones review for PS Vita, PS4, Xbox One

I’m on to you Curve Digital. You released the first Stealth Inc. game in 2013, and it promptly became one of my favourite games of the year. Then you released Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones “exclusively” on the Wii U late last year, and again, it was one of my favourite games of 2014. Now Stealth Inc. 2 is getting wider release in 2015, and you think that you can just be responsible for my favourite game of the year for the third year in a row? Sneaky. Very, very sneaky.
Then again, I’m a sucker for playing games I love on a platform that I also love, so it should come as no surprise that I’m just as enamoured with Stealth Inc. 2 now as I was last year.

Admittedly, this version isn’t all that different from the original. There’s nothing in the way of new content; in fact, it actually has less than the Wii U version did, since there’s no asynchronous multiplayer. Nonetheless, it’s nice to be reminded not just of how good Stealth Inc. 2 is, but how much of an evolution it was from the first game. The writing is still Portal-esque in its snide humour, taunting players about their impending doom every step of the way — which, really, is kind of justified since you’re probably going to die lots and lots of times for every success you achieve. Not only that, the puzzles here are every bit as addictive as they were the first time around, striking just the right balance between demanding and fun.

The evolution comes in the addition of an open world — or, at least, an open map. By opening up the factory in which the weird little main character was created, the game is able to build on the hilarious/devastating ending of the first game to add in even more of a story. Plus, as a bonus, it gives ample opportunity to anyone who wants to try out new skills, since there are plenty of places where you’ll have to puzzle out how to get to the next portion of the map. (And since Stealth Inc. 2 features a much broader skill palette than the first game, that practice comes in awfully handy.)

Is Stealth Inc. 2 worth picking up if you’ve already played the heck out of the original release last year on the Wii U? Possibly not, unless trophies or Xbox Achievements are your thing. If you don’t have a Wii U, though, you owe it to yourself to pick it up ASAP — it’s seriously that great.