Early missions are certainly possible, workable with a bit of creative thinking.
Later missions, however, keep your YouTube videos of how to survive handy, and even then expect a few hundred restarts.
Having massive amounts of creeper starting the mission right next to your HQ, barely held in check by walls that will get broken before you can put up defenses, in quantities that a dozen fully powered and supported cannons couldn't stop... this is literally an exercise in non-winnable level design and there are a half dozen levels that are the same way.

Neat change of perspective but it's kinda just worse than the others in the series

No way close to first game, this one looks like generic flash game.

Like the first game it is a case of just establishing yourself and waiting to win. I consider it to be pretty boring.

Frustrating mess. The plot is dumber than in the first game, not as interesting mechanically, arguably worse presentation. What I hate the most is levels with gimmicky mechanics and railroaded solutions which just waste your time with trial-and-error until you get them just right - no save/load functionality by the way, you made a misstep after a long setup - consider your time wasted

EDIT: disregard my last point, there is save/load functionality. Nevertheless, it is not a fun game, and the worst one in the franchise

While the game's an interesting re-examination of the original, the lurching change in difficulty at day 13 "Horror" highlights balance issues that mean I can't recommend it.

The original had do-or-die levels that dropped you into situations that you had to do something about quickly, but they still had multiple solutions ranging from elegant/fast to brute force/patience.

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I bought Creeper World 2 (CW2) along with the first game during the Winter sale. They were both only $1, and I had an urge to replay them after so many years. Maybe a little too urgently with how I blitzed through them in such a short time. Oh well, it was enjoyable to play a game after buying it. A novel concept with my backlog.


CW2 as a sequel is an example of getting more of the same, while also having a new spin on things. You still pilot a mobile city or spaceship, which generates power necessary for the operation of all the machines and weapons needed to fight against the creeper. Creeper still functions as an acidic liquid, pooling up and overflowing various tunnels and canals, rapidly or instantly destroying what it comes into contact with. Some of the new units you'll work with include shields, tech domes, rifts, repulsors, and drills to mine ore. The reason for mining ore is that its used for creating a benevolent form of creeper. When the two come into contact with each other, its like matter and anti-matter colliding, as both are destroyed. Its a very effective weapon, though the nullifier actually destroys emitters, so its even more powerful.

Aside from new units, another key differences is the perspective. Before, it was like looking at the surface of a planet from overhead, even if only a very small portion of it. In CW2, it's like viewing everything as a cross-section, seeing an X-ray view of the land from the side. You're only shown a portion of things initially, needing to set up beacons for more vision. Sometimes you'll be on the surface, fighting your way downward, and other times start underground and have to ward off creeper long enough to escape. The gameplay feels largely similar, but it's a nice change of pace as well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2918755507
Despite the different perspective and some gameplay adaptions, as a strategy game, CW2 controls similarly to its predecessor. You can build several of the same unit after selecting what kind you want, and speeding up the action is more obvious with how the UI is arranged. I'm sure there's a way to select multiple weapons, but none of my commonsense attempts at doing so worked for me, so I had to move them one at a time. Considering how many you want to build in this game, that was certainly a nuisance. Otherwise, the controls were the same, if not slightly better, compared to the original.


Picking up from the first game, its now 30 years into the future. Civilization is stable, and research is being done on the creeper. Through the brilliance of one female scientist in particular, much more effective counter-measures are in place to not just hold the creeper back, but theoretically to destroy it completely. Seems like fitting revenge for all the devastation its already wrought. While working towards this end, some unsettling secrets might be unearthed.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2918755838
Most of the action in CW2 takes place on desolate planets or areas under control of enemy forces. Due to this, you don't get much opportunity to see the hyper-advanced technology of the far-distant future. If anything, you might think you're visiting Arizona or the like, as much of what you see is so sparse. I'm not opposed to the change in perspective, I just find the visuals a bit tedious. There wasn't much improvement here over the original.


You won't find many songs to listen to, but I did find them much better background noise compared to the droning in the first game. So much so that with the first, I actually started muting it and listened to a podcast while I was playing, yet didn't find it necessary in CW2. It certainly passes the indie game with decent enough music threshold I have. The phantom alarm is a bit loud and slightly irritating, but it captures your attention, as an alarm should.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2918755362
🌟 It's nice to see a developer trying something different in a game series instead of only doing the same thing each iteration.
🌟 Having more unit types gives different means to face off against the enemy. The strict limit on ore was disappointing though.


❌ The starting point of some stages, particularly later ones, is really unforgiving. Carving wrong paths or not putting shields up in time can easily cause a losing situation. It got so frustrating I gave up on beating it, as I couldn't figure out how to get past day 19.
❌ Since the gameplay is more streamlined and there aren't many stages, the amount of playtime is significantly less than the first game.


🔍 You might want to peek at a video to figure out good approaches for certain sections. Over-production of weapons and energy is often prudent.
🔍 Shields won't only block creeper, they can be used to contain your creeper. Otherwise, it tends to overflow and spill into areas where its useless.
🔍 Make sure you spend your technytes. I kept neglecting that mechanic throughout early parts of the game.


Although I wanted to replay CW2, my drive for the sequel isn't as strong as the original. Throughout the years I'm certain I've played it once or twice, but not with the same enthusiasm or consistency. I think that its ultimately due to certain features in how the creeper functions. Generally, I like the new mechanics and units. However, some stages seem really cheap due to what the enemy does and how particularly you have to play to handle it.

The beginning of day 18 is a great example of this. While fighting off what seems a normal pool of creeper, after a few minutes pass, it launches a large volume of creeper onto the right side of the stage, wiping out everything you've set up. Before you can reasonably undo this disaster, it does the same thing again, but on the left side, which is more than enough to wipe you out. There's a pretty simple manner to counter this, but the mission is impossible if you don't, and nothing in the stage suggests this was going to happen, “The creeper looks like a space invader and is raining failure upon me. I should have paid more attention to the weather forecast.” Honestly, it's unfair, so you're better off not learning through trial and error, but checking a video in advance. CW2 isn't a bad game, yet with the developers going back to form in the next two games, it's clearly the black sheep. With my own irritation in mind, I'd suggest skipping it.

Not very good compared to the first one

Game WAS fun, then level 13 hit. You have a hard timer of 5:03 and 17:18 to meet a goal, no exceptions. You will be under energy deficit the entire time, and worst of all cutting off the source of the creep doesn't even stop the timer! I had both emitters spawning the creep totally cut off from the pod, you'd think it would be safe now. Nope, at 17:18 the rest of the creep flows up (from where? There's no more going in to let it rise even) and destroys the pod, game over, try again.

I really hope these devs learn difficulty scaling someday. 3 was marred by Fardor which requires a total change up in strategy that the game never trains you for or teaches you either, though at least I got past that one eventually. If a high majority of your players have to go to youtube to learn how to beat a mission, you messed up.

Skip this one. Play 1 or 3 instead.

Too DOS-like for my taste.