Everhood 2 Review: What is Existence?

The sequel to 2021’s Everhood has arrived with more action, stranger characters, and even more opportunities to question your existence. But first, let me ask you, “Are you prepared to determine the color of your soul?”

Once you load into Everhood 2, you’re immediately asked to answer a series of seemingly benign questions. What do you like in games? Do you like puzzles? Within seconds, the game throws more philosophical and spiritual questions. How does the world end? What are mistakes? Do you believe in God? In this opening sequence, I immediately had flashbacks from the original Everhood - that this would be a trippy, mind-bending experience, with plenty of shenanigans and self-reflection for players to enjoy.

After this sequence, you awaken in a space between reality where a cosmic conflict is well underway. As a lost Soul within this plane of existence, you’re quickly thrust into the ranks of battle to defeat a monstrous creature known as the Mind Dragon. But in order to achieve this nearly insurmountable goal, you meet a Raven who claims that they are willing to help you if you defeat the dragon. This seemingly final-boss then becomes a catalyst for the player to begin their journey.

Initially, I felt as if I was merely going through the route motions of the game to progress the story. I saw a door, so I opened it. I heard a strange drunken blob of existence’s request, so I obliged them. I found myself in an unusually long hallway, so I progressed to the end of said hallway. All these innocuous moments all stacked together and began to form a mosaic of mystery that only further pushed the game’s lore.

Within Everhood 2, you meet a wide array of characters - not only in physical appearances, but also in philosophical differences. One character can be a literal pixelated amalgamation of light questioning what it means to be human and then thirty seconds later you’re chatting with an innuendo-focused green slime being. You’re also thrown into several eccentric worlds - ranging from warring sentient vegetables to slave-driven colonies. Somehow though, these characters and worlds work flawlessly within the game and you absolutely believe that they can all coexist within this experience. It can be a little jarring bouncing back and forth between serious thought and silly comments, but if you’re willing to go for the ride, you’re in for a special trip. 

Once the game hooked me with its ethereal existence, I was able to start thinking of each moment within Everhood 2 as a piece to the puzzle that I wanted to solve. Each interaction with the slew of characters gave me more insight on what was seemingly happening in this reality, and allowed me to formulate my thoughts on what exactly I wanted to do within this game. With several overlapping realities, questionable timelines, and interwoven stories, I excitedly and quickly grabbed a pen and paper to connect all the dots in a full-on conspiracy board. Though I found plenty of epiphany moments, I can only imagine there are plenty more ethereal stones left unturned within the game. There’s also numerous callbacks from the original Everhood game for returning players to enjoy - extending the reach of connective tissue within this path of existence.

Building from the original game, Everhood 2’s combat system also provides an impeccable evolutionary form to an already fantastic experience. Within the game, you’re thrust into numerous battles against knights, vegetable royalty, and even a literal toilet. These encounters occur in a 5-lane zone where you must maneuver through the lanes to not only avoid obstacles, but create a plan for your attacks. These encounters are unique to each enemy, allowing for dozens of sequences that are individualized not only in combat strategy, but in their musical choices. I was in awe once again from the team at Foreign Gnomes to make each battle their own experience. Going from a light-jazzy inspired battle to a hardcore-metal-syth-angelic vibe completely worked in the context of the game and never felt out of place.

In order to mount attacks, you must absorb enough energy from one particular color/symbol. The more you absorb, the more powerful your attack. However, if you hit an obstacle or absorb a different color/symbol, then your energy gets reset. Since the pacing of the energy and obstacles are so quick, you’re never down too long. Instead, you may have to change course and continue the flow with the new color/symbol. The fine line of weaving in and out of obstacles, while simultaneously keeping track of how much energy you absorb in order to do massive damage with a fun push and pull throughout these encounters. Certain enemies also flip the script and create unique mechanics within the entire battle system, providing more and more moments of disbelief that kept me on my toes and grinning throughout.

In addition to the pulse-pumping score and battle mechanics, players are also able to upgrade their weapons through various consumables within the game. This, along with gradually leveling up your character, allows you to feel more powerful as the game continues.

With all this, the visual aesthetics of the game is yet another compoundingly alluring aspect of Everhood 2. With a focus on 2D pixelated worlds and characters, Everhood 2 does not limit itself to its self imposed norms. Instead, it leans into the psychedelic kaleidoscope-esque chaos that comes with creating a game of calamity. Whenever something new happened with the visuals, I sometimes caught myself messing up within the combat. Attempting to focus on the gameplay while the visuals went in all directions (at times literally) made it perfectly ok when I had to replay an encounter. 

Breakdown

Game: Everhood 2

Developer: Foreign Gnomes

Publisher: Foreign Gnomes

Availability: PC and Nintendo Switch

Game Length: 10 - 12 hours

Accessibility Options: Difficulty options, customizable keyboard layout, image sensitive, controller vibration

Reviewed on PC via Steam Deck

Final Thoughts

Everhood 2 is a great follow up from the 2021 original game. The philosophical conversations, paired with quirky humor offers an interesting blend that wonderfully supports each other through the story. Combine this with an incredible combat system and score and you get an absolute banger that I’m still thinking about long after finishing the game.