Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 - Review

It feels like an age since I have written a review, it turns out it has only been two weeks.  I started replaying Persona 4 Golden Week and I am struggling to put it down.  Sometimes though you need to take a break from playing a game so you can play another one.  Recently myself and my Nollsy played Guns, Gore and Cannoli and we had a lot of fun, so when we saw a sequel had just been released we thought hells yeah let play it.


I like cannoli, they work really well with coffee. Wait? What?  I know what you are thinking  I said this only recently.  I did, but this time it's a little different.  Have you ever eaten a stale cannoli?  It looks okay from the outside but on the inside, it's barely filled and is dried out.  Playing Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 I found myself asking was this worthy of the name cannoli?

Story

Vinnie Cannoli is back in the fray and this time it's personal, well it was personal last time, this time it's extra personal.  This time the game is set in 1944, and the event of the first installment has been swept under the rug.  Vinnie ends up getting dragged back to Thugtown and takes a trip to Europe during World War II.

The story is all over the place and not in a comical weird kind of way but just nonsensical. The story has the feeling that you are constantly being set up, which is a little derivative as this was the plot of the first game.  But in honesty it's more than that, everyone wants you dead even though they actually want you alive?!  Vinnie's dialogue is similar to the first game and one of his standout lines was 'some turds are just too big to flush'.

Overall the story is similar to the first game with two exceptions, it doesn't make any sense and also it doesn't make any sense.

Visuals

I have to give props for the visuals they are fun and quite comical for such a dark backdrop.  There is more attention to detail and some of the level designs look great.  My favorites being the Normandy beach landing, the Theater and the Secret Research Base in the woods.

Overall the visuals are improved and only suffer one issue, for some reason this time the camera is panned out quite far.  Great for enjoying the view, not always great when trying to see where you are.

Music 

The score is pretty similar to the first game focusing on a twenties sound.  The score is once again is created by Belgium composer Matthias Claeys who worked on the music for Empire, Siegebreaker, and Coin Army.

The score runs a little over twenty minutes, my favorite tracks being 'Tank Boss Theme',  'Normandie'

and 'Storage Radio Mix'.  

Overall the soundtrack isn't bad but no risks were taken and you would be forgiven for thinking it was the same as the music from the original game.

Gameplay

Sooo, the gameplay.  The first game had a number of issues with the gameplay, it seems like the developer realised this too.  Instead of making minor tweaks they instead ended up doing a 360, you read that right.

The first issue is that it looks like your character is far away, it helps show off the visuals but it is also quite easy to lose track of where you are.  There is now a menu wheel for your weapons, this takes up a large section of the screen and becomes really awkward if both of you are trying to change your weapons.  It's okay in theory but the game is fast paced and having a wheel taking over such a large portion of the screen is crazy.  The game now allows you to shoot and aim upwards, yay!  The only problem is you have one analog stick for movement and another for aiming.   I know what you might be thinking, what's the big deal?  Well for you average release no problem, but for a 2D side-scroller it is needless fiddley and hampers the gameplay.

There are now cars featured in the game that try and run you down, they are kind of fun and add a new element.

Boss battles...boss battles are...they are...a little frustrating.  They are generally quite long and have too many parts to them.  I like a challenge, it's fun but the bosses in this game are just annoying.  In Cuphead, for example, they were tough but they were doable there was a pattern to it, but in Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 they were just a pain.

Unusually the game silences all swears and even removes it from the on-screen text.  Except for crap, crap apparently is not a swear word which seems to me like a load of $#*!

Final Thoughts

After what felts like twelve hours but was only about five hours how did I feel?  Disappointed.  The sequel had the chance to really improve on the first game, but it didn't and in many ways went backward.  The story was all over the place, the visuals were good, the music was okay but no great changes and the gameplay, oh the gameplay.  Overall this one gets 2 out of 5

Guns, Gore, and Cannoli

Sometimes I am just not sure what to play, when this happens I inevitably see what's on offer on the PlayStation Store (Steam has way too much on offer).  On one of these recent occasions, I came across a fun comic style action adventure shooter called Guns, Gore, and Cannoli.  It sounded and looked like my kind of fun so I thought why not give it a go.


Cannoli are crispy Italian pastries filled with sugary goodness.  I like them but I just realised while typing this I would probably like them more with coffee roll on Sunday.  They are crispy and really sweet which may not be everyone, but they do it for me.  Playing Guns, Gore, and Cannoli I found myself asking, do I really like cannoli?

Story


The story is about an enforcer for the Bellucci family called Vinnie Cannoli.  The game is set in the 1920's during the time of prohibition, in a delightful place called Thugtown. Vinnie has just pulled into Thugtown only to find it overrun with zombies, unfazed by this he decides to finish his job, find Frankie.


The story is fun and there is lots of cheesy dialogue and some fun catchphrases, my favorites being, 'Napoleon Blown-Apart' after...well blowing apart an enemy and 'He had more brains than I thought," after shooting someone in the head.  The only drawback as such was that the subtitles never seemed to match the dialogue.

Visuals


The visuals used in the game are a fun comic book style which I really liked.  Everything has a slightly over-exaggerated feel which works really well with the kind of game Guns, Gore, and Cannoli is.  One of my favorite enemies at least in terms of the design was the Leprechaun zombies, they float around on balloons throwing bombs and shouting gibberish. 


Overall a visually fun game that I never get tired of looking at.



Music



The score has a swinging twenties sound and like with everything else in the game works really well.  The music is composed by Belgium composer Matthias Claeys who has also worked on the music for Empire, Siegebreaker, and Coin Army.


The score runs a little over twenty minutes and is just the right length (hehe), my favorite tracks include, 'When Cannolies Come Marching Home', 'Top of The Bellucci State', 'The Overwhelmed Way to Zeppelins', and 'Thugtown Edge'.


Overall a short but fun soundtrack that works well with the game.

Gameplay


Onto the Cannoli, I mean meat.  With an army of zombies and wise guys, you're going to need guns, lots of guns.  There are quite a few weapons to choose from which unlock at a steady pace, my favorite one being the Tommy Gun.  My complaints with the guns are that almost all of them reload really slowly, which did impact my experience.  While you do have lots of guns you also have Molotov cocktails and turning enemies into bacon was always fun.


There are a lot of different enemies, all varying in difficulty, but for me, there was one enemy that really stood out from the rest - the football player zombie.  No matter what weapon I had equipped he always managed to send me flying.


I had two rather larger issues with the gameplay, the first was stairs, getting up them was often a complicated task.  The game for some reason just didn't recognise them all the time and did cause problems on more than one occasion.  The biggest problem I had was that you could not shoot up!  Between some of the floating enemies and the final boss, this was a real a pain.


Overall it had some great gameplay which could have been improved by some relatively minor changes.




Final Thoughts

So, after six or so hours how did I feel?  Pretty good, I had a lot of fun, the story, music, and visuals were good but the gameplay suffered from a few annoying issues.  I want to give a big shout to Nolls who helped me enjoy this experience by playing it in co-op with me - thanks Nolls!  Right, back to it, this one gets a solid 3 out of  5