Screenshot: Klang 2
I love rhythm games. They're definitely one of my favorite genres to just sit back with and relax--even despite their ocassional intensity. Even games like
Beat Saber have a calming, cathartic quality even as I'm jumping to the beats. I appreciate the amount of innovation rhythm games see to be making, with games like
Ragnarock and
BPM: Bullets Per Minute making bold moves to differentiate themselves from the pack and to change up the rhythm formula.
Klang 2 is a sequel to a game that looks about as much like an action platformer as a rhythm game.
Klang 2 is a rhythm game. It’s played from a 2D, side scroller perspective—but it’s not really a side scroller. In fact, most of the time the action on the screen doesn’t matter so much in regards to placement. There are three different objects that come in, and you have to “attack” them to the beat. One requires you to align a dash attack, another a more straight forward slash, and another requires you to hold the beat. The entirety of
Klang 2 is made up of these three notes—with some variations coming in during boss battles.
Screenshot: Klang 2
While certainly a psychedelic experience with pulsing EDM music—I’m not a huge fan of
Klang 2’s aesthetic. The entire game feels like a hodgepodge of art styles. The main character, Klang, looks like a character that you could unlock in
Mortal Kombat, and is so edgy and grim in dialogue it was hard to care what was even happening.
Klang 2 has a story, though you can choose to ignore it and play in Arcade mode. I almost wish I had, because I was inundated with walls of text that made me more confused than enlightened. Instead of being intrigued with the world of
Klang 2, I was mostly confused about what
Klang 2 was even supposed to be about.
Screenshot: Klang 2
Now, none of the above matters if the rhythm part is fun, right? Sadly,
Klang 2 is not a rhythm game that I enjoyed. While I really liked the soundtrack (I’m already a sucker for EDM music) the actual mechanics never felt very fun to me—or interesting. It was rare for me to get into a groove, and really feel like I was hacking and slashing alongside the music. The three different attack patterns come at you from different angles—requiring you to aim, but you don’t really have control over your movement, unlike games like
BPM: Bullets Per Minute a rhythm game was mashed up with a more traditional shooter.
Klang 2 isn’t a bad game. In fact, I’m sure there are those out there that would find it fun. It’s definitely not a rhythm game I enjoyed, however. It has some pretty great EDM tracks, but its art style—despite its almost neon arcade aesthetic—felt hodgepodge and lacking. It’s rare that I go to play a game that I’m hyped about just to be so massively disappointed—but
Klang 2 managed that.
Klang 2 is
available now on Steam.
A Steam key was provided to us for this review.