Remember that camp counselor you swore you’d never forgive for that poison ivy prank gone wrong? Well, buckle up, campers, because in Slayaway Camp 2, the tables have turned, and you’re the slasher with a bone (or chainsaw, depending on your preference) to pick. This sequel to the surprise 2017 indie hit, Slayaway Camp, takes everything that made the original great – the darkly comedic premise, the intuitive yet challenging puzzle mechanics, and the gloriously cheesy 80s horror aesthetic – and cranks it up to eleven. Is it wrong to laugh while brutally murdering pixelated teenagers? Probably. Is it incredibly fun? Absolutely.
Slayaway Camp 2 doesn’t waste time getting your reacquainted with this killer and how things came to be. You’re Skullface, a hockey-masked murderer with a high body count and still killing. Picking up after the events of Slayaway Camp, he gets transported inside the most recently deceased’s phone after it was damaged. It’s here you’re introduced to the Netflix-model called TERRORTUBE which contains parodies of over twenty-five “movies” to select and play out in bloody detail. While the game is about killing, the humor keeps things light.
The core gameplay remains the same: slide Skullface around a grid-based map, strategically dispatching camp counselors in increasingly creative ways. While the basic mechanics are simple to grasp, the level design is where Slayaway Camp 2 truly shines. Each stage presents a unique puzzle, requiring you to consider factors like counselor movement patterns, environmental hazards, and power-ups scattered throughout the level. As you complete these levels, new challenges unlock that encourage replaying. Completing objectives within levels gives you stars. These stars can unlock new categories and movies to play in. Each environment is meticulously crafted, oozing with 80s charm and packed with unsuspecting victims (and some truly hilarious environmental hazards).
It’s great to move in single-step increments, as you work to plan out how to ensure no one escapes alive. Blue Wizard Digital has even brought back some of the ice puzzles that were a gameplay highlight of the original, having you really needing to think several steps ahead in order to kill the unsuspecting campers. It’s great to chain events together, often triggering deaths directly as well as indirectly. Early on you’ll get a taste of what’s possible as you knock one camper into a fire while another gets startled, and runs into water and drowns, and the last one gets killed by their head being squished by Skullface. It’s all in good fun, and finding the perfect strategy is never boring.
The gruesome kills are where Slayaway Camp 2 truly comes into its own. The developers have gone above and beyond in crafting a delightfully absurd array of ways to send your victims to their pixelated demise. Do you want to impale a counselor through a giant lollipop at a carnival? Go for it. Fancy dropping a piano on their unsuspecting heads in a music store? The option is yours. The sheer variety of kill animations is impressive, and the developers have a knack for finding the perfect balance between dark humor and satisfying brutality. Accompanying the carnage is a fantastic soundtrack that perfectly captures the cheesy synth vibes of classic 80s horror flicks. Every successful kill is punctuated by a satisfying squelch and a triumphant riff, adding to the overall sense of gruesome satisfaction.
Slayaway Camp 2 isn’t just a one-weekend slasher spree. The game boasts a massive amount of content to keep you coming back for more. The main campaign offers a healthy challenge, with increasingly complex puzzles the further you progress. Completing stages unlocks a variety of new playable characters, each with their own unique movement abilities that alter your approach to the puzzles. Want to experience the thrill of the hunt as a stalking werewolf? Or perhaps a vengeful mummy with a killer dash attack? The possibilities are endless.
Some levels will have hidden machetes to find and collect, both an in-level weapon to use for killing but to further the depth of this already big lake of content. These levels are a fantastic homage to the genre, perfectly capturing the look and feel of iconic films like “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween”. Beyond the single-player experience, Slayaway Camp 2 also offers a robust online leaderboard system. Compete with friends (or the entire world) to see who can rack up the highest body count in the fastest time. The leaderboard adds a whole new layer of replayability, encouraging you to master levels and perfect your slaughter strategies.
There’s more than just Skullface in here. You’ll find that there’s categories dedicated to slashers, beasts, witches, monsters, and really spooky ghosts to unlock. The sequel has expanded not only the weaponry, types of kills, but now the killers themselves to incredible depths. Add in the new Endless Mode, and replayability is off-the-charts with not only challenges, but now the new killers to choose from.
While there aren’t a lot of options, there is a whole section dedicated to trigger warnings. They range from real to funny, not sure how actually impacting it is, even after turning everything on. It was hard to know what was impacting, and what was not, but it’s all great.
The fact that this game was originally accessible via a Netflix subscription means that this game could run on phones. However, it’s been updated for PC, and is slim on graphical options, but looks and plays great on an ultrawide monitor. The developers have included a revamped interface, Steam achievements, and leaderboards. The game was also designed specifically for the Steam Deck in mind, with its own additions to enjoy there. The requirements are low, but the fun is high.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
Slayaway Camp 2 is a masterclass in taking a winning formula and making it even better. The game’s darkly comedic tone, intuitive yet challenging puzzles, and violent deaths are nothing short of amazing. Blue Wizard Digital went hard on this one to make it endlessly enjoyable, and it’s incredibly silly as it is gory. Slayaway Camp 2 is much bigger and more diverse of a game, making it an intensely satisfying sequel with an absolutely perfect execution.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes