Paintball 2 Review

Paintball, developed by Crazy Soft from Greece was a very addictive and fresh puzzle game. The objective was to form groups of three balls of the same color near a pipe by painting them so that they are sucked in and replaced by balls falling in from above. The game seems to have sold pretty well, that is why they made Paintball 2. The question that arises is if Paintball 2 is only a try to cash in even more on the success or if it is actually a game worth checking out.

The first thing you realize when you start the game is the visual makeover. The balls look a lot crisper and overall the game looks more professional. The tubes and the background still leave a bit to be desired but you will not notice when playing the game. Why? The action is even more intense.

The game is a little faster and it certainly feels faster. Thanks to the visual improvements it is easier to recognize the patterns but this also means that you have to be quicker to recognize them in order to get a good high score. Hard mode has gotten harder and the new Panic mode, which is essentially Hard mode with a 100 seconds time limit and without the annoying grey balls, is just insane.

On the other side there are the modes without time pressure. Normal mode has not changed much apart from the fact that you can now collect all letters of the word “Paintball” and get a bonus. This is also possible in the other modes but it is very hard to play them long enough to actually achieve it. Chroma mode has not changed much apart from the fact that you have to press an onscreen button to see the color wheel which might be annoying for people who are new to the game.

The new tactical mode is called Heat. It is different from Normal mode in that only some pipes are active (heated) at a time. Also the useless grey balls are not in the way. Once you get balls sucked into one of the active pipes, other pipes become active instead. It is not easy to figure out how to best play this mode. There is a new mode I have not yet mentioned which is the new multiplayer mode. Unfortunately I was unable to try this.

A new visual feature is that you can choose different textures for the balls. I did not find this too useful, especially since there is not much of a difference and I liked the default texture best. They should have made more distinct textures like flowers or crystals or added the possibility to make your own textures. The sound in the game has not changed too much; the same satisfying sucking sounds are still in place.

So, do you need Paintball 2? If you don’t have Paintball yet, the answer is a definitive “yes”. Paintball still is a fresh and amazingly addictive puzzle game. If you have Paintball already, it depends. If you are addicted, the two new game modes are certainly worth your attention. If you did not get into the game too much, the new version does not really have the potential to change that. However, you should get the demo since it lets you try both of the new game modes.