BAOBABS MAUSOLEUM EPISODE 2: 1313 BARNABAS DEAD END DRIVE / DEVELOPER: CELERY EMBLEM / PUBLISHER: ZEROUNO GAMES / RELEASE DATE: 27TH JUNE
We were first introduced to the insanity of Baobabs Mausoleum just over a year ago, when Episode 1 made the jump from PC to console. Following the exploits of vampire eggplant FBI agent Watracio Walpurgis, who has crashed his car in a town that only appears in nightmares once every 25 years, we were quite taken by the game’s many (many, many) quirks and gave it 8 out of 10 in our review (which you can read here, if you fancy it). Episode 2 was already available on PC back then, and is about to follow Episode 1 onto the Switch, so we thought it was time we paid another visit to Flamingo Creek…
If you thought that was a bit of a long intro – almost as if we’re stalling for time – well, OK, yeah, you’d be right. Baobabs Episode 2 picks up where Episode 1 left off, and continues the story in much the same vein as before. While the first adventure took in a few different gameplay styles, 1313 sticks to the top-down RPG-esque style all the way through, which makes it feel a little less inventive than the previous offering.
This episode packs plenty of things to do into its roughly two hour adventure, though. You’ll need to wake up a giant avocado dinosaur, get some fish from a tree, jam with a Ramones-style punk band, infiltrate a police station, and there’s also the small matter of a missing girl… The town of Flamingo Creek and its inhabitants change depending whether it’s day or night, and the game cleverly utilises the Switch’s internal clock to determine what time of day it is. You can advance the in-game time by sleeping at the hotel, but it’s a nice touch that we certainly appreciated.
Baobabs 2 might be slightly less interesting gameplay-wise than its predecessor, but it still contains all the endearing broken English, weird (and occasionally gross) characters, creepy comic book settings and off-the-wall quests that we’ve come to expect from playing Episode 1. It’s also got that spooky surfy Messer Chups theme tune which, as we mentioned last time, is incredible. We’re definitely still on board, and anxiously awaiting Episode 3!
