Here’s the scenario: you wake up in a warehouse trapped in a cage made of deadly laser beams. Your nemesis, who wears a high-tech mask that allows him to impersonate anyone, archly lays out his evil scheme of geopolitical terror before leaving you for dead. Freeing yourself from this death trap won’t be easy, but lucky for you, you’re the world’s greatest superspy (with telekinesis.)

I Expect You To Die 2 revels in tropes of the spy genre but, like its predecessor, offers a style of camp and charm that is entirely its own. And while the sequel doesn’t do much to evolve the IEYTD formula or mechanics, it's simply a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I Expect You To Die is one of the earliest VR hits and remains one of the best puzzle games you can play on the Quest, and IEYTD 2 is even more of what you love.

Related: I Expect You To Die 2 Preview: Watch Out For Exploding Fruit Bowls

IEYTD 2 picks up almost directly after the events of the first one. Zoraxis is up to some evil shenanigans again, and it’s up to you to avert the impending nuclear attack and rescue a group of world leaders from their clutches. It’s a straightforward affair that leans into all of the common espionage conventions, but the missions themselves are tied into the plot so deftly that it never feels rote. It’s very much style of substance, but that approach serves the gameplay extraordinarily well. All I needed was a megalomaniacal villain, a wailing trumpet, and to be called “agent” with a British accent, and IEYTD 2 delivered.

I’ve spent some time in my preview complimenting the control scheme, but I’ll never pass up an opportunity to talk about how intuitive and easy it is to play I Expect You To Die 2. As you explore each mission from a stationary position. You’ll be able to grab and manipulate any objects you can see using your telekinetic powers. Objects you grab at range can be moved around the room simply by tilting your wrist and are brought in closer/ pushed away by pressing up or down on the stick. You’ll often need to combine items or save items for use later, but there’s no inventory system for collecting objects. Instead, you can simply press the A button and they’ll freeze in the air wherever you put them. It’s not always easy to interact with physical objects in VR, but IEYTD’s controls feel as natural as if you actually had telekinesis.

While escape room is an easy shorthand, only two of the six missions are structured around finding your way out. The rest begin with typical spy scenarios: interrupt an assassination attempt, infiltrate the bad guy’s office to secure intel, and eventually, stop a nuclear warhead from launching. Your objectives in these missions evolve as you progress through each one, and objects with seemingly no purpose at the start will suddenly become very important at a crucial moment. Some of the best times I had playing IEYTD 2 were when I found something that I knew would be useful later on and kept it floating right at the edge of vision so I could grab it out of the air at the perfect time. The best puzzle games make you feel smart when you find the solution, but IEYTD 2 makes you feel even smarter for finding answers before there’s even a question.

If I have one major hang-up about this series, it’s the fail states. IEYTD 2 routinely puts you up against a clock and demands that you find a solution to a puzzle immediately. While the tension can lead to some thrilling moments of last-second escapes, more often than not it led me to death and restarting. I derived absolutely no pleasure from replaying entire missions from the beginning every time I died. There’s nothing fun about solving puzzles you’ve already solved, and every time I restarted a mission I felt like my time was being wasted. I understand that death traps and ticking time bombs are part of the game’s theme, but I don’t want to be punished for exploring the room and experimenting. Opening a drawer that explodes feels like a troll. Every time I got killed before I could suss out a solution, my gut reaction was to blame the game for being too obtuse.

IEYTD 2

Sequels are often expected to be bigger and better, but sometimes a good sequel is just more of what made the original geat. I suppose I would have liked to see Schell Games push the mechanics and missions further, but ultimately I’m satisfied to play another round of cleverly designed spy puzzles. It’s not particularly ambitious, but it’s consistently good from beginning to end. If you liked the original, there’s absolutely no way you won’t like I Expect You To Die 2.

I expect you to die 2 review card

A review copy of I Expect You To Die 2 was provided to TheGamer for this review. IEYTD 2 is available now on Quest and Quest 2.

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