Page 74 - PC Gamer - UK (February 2020)

RE VIE W

Dragon Quest Builders 2

STOP:HAMMERTIME

DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 ’s lighthearted

frolics hide a deep RPG. By Daniella Lucas

espite having an entire island as my building playground to destroy the world by summoning a
shape how I please, I’m spending most of my time making NEED TO KNOW demon. Their appetite for destruction
bathrooms. Washrooms, spas, shared toilets – there’s a lot to WHAT IS IT? is so ravenous that creating anything
choose from, and each one makes my citizens burst with A creative building RPG is considered heresy. That’s where
Dhappiness (which I can then spend to unlock more things to EXPECT TO PAY you, the legendary builder, step in to
make even more bathrooms). Dragon Quest Builders 2 is as weird as it is £50 rebuild forgotten settlements and
delightful – and a very different beast to the main series. restore peace. It’s full of traditional
DEVELOPER fantasy fare, but it’s told with humour
Square Enix
The world needs saving and there are cities, sculpting blocky statues in your and some excellently written
goofy Slimes to bash, but here you’re own image, or, in my case, building a PUBLISHER character dialogue.
more Bob the Builder than dashing multiplex of bathrooms, and your In-house The port job is fine. There are a
swordsman. This quirky offshoot sees time investigating other islands REVIEWED ON few basic graphical options and it
you go from building basic bedrooms where you’ll help people out with GeForce GTX 1070, runs smoothly, but there’s not much
and kitchens to help people survive quests and more specific builds. i7-7700, 16GB RAM room to customise your experience.
in dire times, to It’s a great mix of MULTIPLAYER
constructing elaborate freebuilding with just Up to 4 players SLIME SPREE
castles and giant There’s a hell enough direction to LINK My one complaint is that the pacing
magical trees, all in the of a lot of help you make some bit.ly/2E6haGy gets a little odd sometimes. About
name of defeating the block types to impressive-looking halfway through you’ll reach a
evil Children of stuff. For most quests section that you’re stuck on until you
Hargon. After keep things you’ll be given a rough complete it – no being able to switch
inheriting a deserted fresh room recipe – a pot to the freebuilding of the Isle Of
island from a hairy and a towel rail will Awakening or accessing the
mole-thing with a make a toilet, a chest multiplayer. It’s not bad, it’s just a
hammer and befriending a chap that and some bonfires will make a strange choice when you’ve had so
likes hitting things a little too much kitchen – but you can shape them much freedom. Although the
you start about your task of creating however you please. There’s a hell of mandatory stealth section can do one
your own kingdom. But you’ll need a lot of block types to keep things – why is it in a building game?!
more people and resources to do that, fresh so even if you decide to build Calling Dragon Quest Builders 2 a
so off you pop to different islands, ten restaurants in a row there are Minecraft clone is a disservice. Yes,
solving the issues there before enough blocks to keep them varied. they’re both block-based building
returning with everything you’ve There’s also an absolutely massive games, but DQB2’s story gives all of
learned and plenty of materials. RPG story here full of peril and plot your building purpose. You might not
The game is mostly split into two twists that ties into the original be able to craft circuitry, but at least
halves: your time on the Isle of Dragon Quest II on the NES. Set the furniture looks like something
Awakening when you can do ‘some time’ after the events of the you can use rather than wool,
whatever you want, be that creating game, the Children of Hargon seek to trapdoors and guesswork slapped
together. By having so many
individual items, DQB2 feels way
more polished. It’s also easier to
GAMING’S TOP 5 HAPPIEST MONSTERS make something that looks good even

if you don’t feel creative. There’s
What are they smiling about? always going to be that person who
can somehow create entire cities out
of perfectly coordinated blocks, but
you can take pride in your simple
square bedrooms and toilets when all
of the pieces fit together so nicely.

DR AGON QUEST UNDERTALE DARK SOUL S RESI 3 DUNGEON VE R D I C T
SLIME SANS FR AMP T NEMESIS K EEPER
These guys are just His own terrible Happy because he’s He only smiles HORNED RE APER Dragon Quest Builders 2
having the slime of puns tickle his covered by the because he has no Having a dungeon is lighthearted with 84
their life and feeling funny bone. (Which Lordran dental lips, his life is and no morals is a plenty of opportunities
goo-reat! isn’t actually bone.) plan. Lucky! actually very sad. barrel of laughs. for creative building and
a surprisingly solid story.

74 FEBRUARY 2020