Hello and welcome back to “The Backlog,” the weekly column where I review video games based on a certain topic each month. This is the last edition for October, which means we’re wrapping up our reviews on scary games. Personally, I think horror is a great genre for video games; the medium is immersive and can be more terrifying than watching a movie. But today we’re going to be looking at a game that was released just in time for our last review this month. Today, we’re looking at “Amanda the Adventurer 2.”
“Amanda the Adventurer 2” was released on Oct. 22 and published by DreadXP. Developer MANGLEDmaw Games is a small studio based in Ontario. Their first release, “Amanda the Adventurer,” was a popular choice for gamers, particularly on YouTube, and people who loved solving Internet puzzles.
To summarize the plot of the first game, you play as Riley, who receives a letter from their deceased aunt, Kate. The letter gives her home to Riley but also alludes to secrets within the attic and to a mysterious tape. Upon putting the VHS tape into the TV, players begin watching an interactive children’s show titled “Amanda the Adventurer,” which is very similar to the real show, “Dora the Explorer.”
Throughout the first game, Riley watches the tapes and completes various puzzles to progress, revealing that there’s more to the tapes than meets the eye. Through hidden lore and by playing the game, players discover that originally there was a live-action children’s show, “The Amanda Show,” which was created by a father named Sam and starred his adopted daughter, Rebecca. After gaining popularity, a bigger company named Hameln proposed another show starring Rebecca and switching to an animated format, being the show players are watching on the tapes.
It’s clear that Rebecca, or some form of her, is trapped within the show and the tapes. It’s up to Riley to save and free her, but a monster resembling Amanda, dubbed by fans as the Entity, can attack players and trigger a game over.
The second game takes place right after the first one. After Riley solves the main story of what’s happened to Rebecca, and to other children that Hameln has gotten their hands on, a masked figure gets the player out of the attic and brings them to the library — Aunt Kate’s place of work.
It’s once again up to Riley and the player to find the rest of the tapes and try to help Rebecca, or whatever is left of her as Amanda. There are much smaller details littered throughout both games that explain the lore deeper, but “Amanda the Adventurer 2” continues the story through difficult puzzles and tricky tapes.
“Amanda the Adventurer 2” is made by a small indie studio; their LinkedIn profile estimates they have two to 10 employees, yet they’ve been able to create a popular game that manages to maintain a great fan base. On its surface, the graphics are not very polished or fancy, but that’s not where the game excels.
One of the biggest reasons why the game is so popular is because of the mystery surrounding it, and how players across the world have searched both games for secrets to explain more about what happened to Rebecca.
Most of the gameplay involves watching the tapes and pausing them at appropriate moments to complete puzzles. The first puzzle involving the tapes is to fill up a piggy bank with 10 coins. Whatever happens on that tape influences reality, and vice versa. By placing the piggy bank next to the TV when Amanda gains coins, players can fill it up and receive the next tape.
This was one of the easier puzzles in “Amanda the Adventurer 2,” since all that most players had to do was pause the tape and take the piggy bank off the table or put it back on. Others are not so easy, which is a major complaint for this game.
Usually, I don’t complain about the difficulty of a game since that’s how it should be experienced. Unfortunately, a lot of players got stumped on the first puzzle in “Amanda the Adventurer 2,” which was looking through a series of books to find the code to open a safe, which houses the first tape. This puzzle was also used for the demo of the second game. The tricky part about this puzzle is that there are more books than necessary for this puzzle available to the player. Some books do hold the code, but others should be used for a puzzle later on in the game.
Poor design like this can stump players, forcing them to either look up the answer or get frustrated and turn off their screen. As this was the first puzzle, I can see how it can spark a negative initial reaction.
But most puzzles are fun, and much easier to solve than the first one. What “Amanda the Adventurer 2” rewards is patience — a theme of one of the episodes — and diligence. On a first playthrough, most players could get by without too much trouble, since the game only takes a few hours to complete. But those who want to uncover more secrets will replay the game over and over again, getting each ending and solving puzzles they didn’t before.
An aspect that differs from the first game is that the second gives hints to players who are stuck. Around the library there are printers, and if players interact with them, they’ll print out a page with drawings associated with the current puzzle. They usually show drawings of important items, so it can help players move along.
Small design choices like this display MANGLEDmaw Games’ growth as a studio. They listened to what fans said about the first game and designed around that while maintaining the aesthetics of “Amanda the Adventurer.”
Unfortunately, I do feel that this sequel is not as scary as the first game. It could be due to already having knowledge of what’s going on, or the environment being brightly lit with a homey feeling. The original took place in a creepy attic, while the sequel is set in a library with a fun children’s area.
However, it does leave players anticipating more from MANGLEDmaw Games. Without divulging major spoilers, the ending of “Amanda the Adventurer 2” hints towards another game coming, which isn’t necessarily a spoiler since the previous game did the same thing. Either way, I’m excited to see what else is in store for us, and as to whether we can save Rebecca and stop Hameln.