Drawn to Life: Two Realms

Drawn To Life: Two Realms is a sequel that fails to replicate what made the Drawn To Life games so compelling: the actual drawing part. It's pretty (and pretty cheap), but the puzzle-platforming underwhelms and the story drags; if you're a hardcore fan of the franchise then we dare say you'll be able to extract a modicum of enjoyment here, but there's an equal chance that, as a series aficionado, the changes made to the basic gameplay will annoy you the most.

Though the game has nice visuals and is the continuation of a creative series, Two Realms failed to maintain the magic Drawn to Life had on DS. Unfortunately, my disinterest in the story kept me unmotivated to wait through cut scenes to get to the next levels. Levels could be fun, but they could also be terribly too easy or frustratingly hard. The best moments in the game are dispersed too far apart and they don’t feel worth the hassle to get to.

Drawn to Life: Two Realms lacks creativity in the gameplay and is overall a pretty dull experience.

An enjoyable overworld dragged down by tedious, imprecise platforming gameplay. It's not devoid of merit, but Drawn To Life: Two Realms isn't the jolt of electricity needed to shock the franchise back to life.

Drawn to Life: Two Realms presents an interesting premise and an occasionally charming world, but never quite lives up to any of it.

I am happy to see that Drawn To Life is still mulling around in the minds of the creators. I'm not the world's biggest fan of platformers, but I greatly enjoyed the playful creativity and customisation that the original games offered. That Two Realms has somehow pulled back on a concept that even primitive DS and Wii titles managed perfectly well is very disappointing, but I hope that the low price point means that this was just a token first effort that will lead into a more substantial, and conceptually true, re-boot down the track.

The only good things I can say about this game is the cute appearance and the reasonable price. With drastic change in gameplay and the downplay of drawing this is a lackluster continuation. Personally I didn’t find it fun or appealing even trying to consider it on it’s own merits, consisting only of tedious levels divided by boring cutscenes. If you’re interested in puzzle platformers I’m sure there’s better options, and as a fan of the series you’re better off ignoring this.

It is beyond simplistic in terms of gameplay, but it’s challenging enough to keep it interesting. It features some interesting level editing mechanics and it does let your imagination run wild if you’re skilled enough when it comes to drawing characters with a mouse.

The failure to allow a stylus to be used is a huge oversight in my humble opinion, and, at worst, you could use your fingers to draw on the touch screen or place the level editor items around, and this would have been more intuitive and fun. Everything feels overly simplified, and though the more you play the more you get to experience, it's quite a task to endure it all.

You can draw the hero of this tale… and that's about all there is to say about this. Fun and mildly addicting as that part is, it's not enough to hide the fact that Drawn to Life: Two Realms lacks the necessary depth expected from a puzzle-platformer. Besides the lack of polish here and there, as well as the unexciting level design, the bland story one has to endure adds to the general feeling of boredom. It's also sad that aside from the character creation window, painting doesn't really feel like a big part of the whole experience.