Introduction
The second game of the Yooka-Laylee franchise is being reviewed. Is this game as good as the first part or maybe even better? The game leaves all the awesome ideas and progress it made in Yooka-Laylee 1 and creates all new ideas.
I was very sad to hear this, when something is not broken don’t fix it. I think they should have improved upon Yooka-Laylee 1 instead of trying to make a game like Donkey Kong Country with some other additions. The graphics are stunning and the ideas that have been brought in are amazing but there is one big problem. The final level is actually impossible even if you get a shield of at least 40 hits! In this game, you will need to collect bees on every level before attempting the impossible lair. I am going to suggest to just play the 20 chapters that you will find in Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair and forget about the Impossible Lair. It will make the game much better and leave a less frustrating mark on your experience with Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair. You can still have a lot of fun if you play the game without attempting the Impossible Lair, I could beat it but it felt like such a waste of my time that I did not complete it after trying several times.
What did I think of Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair before playing?
I got the key for Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair in the humble bundle and I had seen some requests for this game, I decided to put the game in the weekly poll and it emerged victoriously!
The game looked way different than the first game in the franchise which made me a bit sad, I had wished they would have built upon the formula and expanded on it.
The graphics did look great, I did not expect anything different from the developers of Yooka-Laylee. The tonics make a comeback, I was excited to see how they were implemented this time.
Seeing some of the footage I needed to blink twice, I was almost sure I accidentally watched footage of Donkey Kong. I don’t have a problem with games using features from other games at all.
I actually endorse this behavior as it can create amazing games but I thought Yooka-Laylee was a spiritual successor of Banjo-Kazooie!? I had thought they might have taken some things from Banjo-Tooie as this is what Yooka-Laylee stood for in the first game. This was a great departure from the gameplay that I had experienced in Yooka-Laylee 1 and loved. This made me a bit sad as I had hoped they would have expanded their formula and create a great collection game once again!
I had very mixed feelings while going into this game, I was hoping to get surprised by the gameplay and hoped to get blown away by a good story that continued from the previous game.
I rate Yooka-Laylee before playing with a 6.9.
The footage that I watched showed very good graphics but it seemed that Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair took a deep dive into dabbling into a different gameplay style. Everything that I had thought that Yooka-Laylee stood for as a spiritual successor to the collection games of the 90s games had been changed. This seemed very shady to me and I feel like this is more a spin-off than actually part two of Yooka-Laylee.
Story
Yooka-Laylee is fighting Capital B once again in a kingdom full of bees and honey but it is never actually explained how or why. Doctor Quack is also missing even though he kept saying he would be back in the next game.
Yooka-Laylee loses against Capital B and then they will need to save all the bees before trying to fight Capital B again.
Can you help Yooka and Laylee to beat the impossible lair? Spoiler alert, you most likely won’t be able to help them beat the impossible lair. The impossible lair is not just difficult or a challenge but it mostly uses cheap game mechanics and unfair mechanics to make sure you won’t complete the level. I have an extreme dislike against cheap mechanics and unfair game mechanics, I decided not to waste my time to complete the impossible lair.
I rate the story of Yooka-Laylee with a 3.0
There are many missing characters which might not be a huge problem at all, the problem here is that they actually told us in Yooka-Laylee 1 that they would be back in the second game. There are also some huge plot holes, where is doctor Quack? How did Capital B escape the book where he was trapped in? Where are the leaders that ordered Capital B around, it was kind of suggested we would see them in this next game? Why is Capital B still acting like the big boss even though we learned in Yooka-Laylee 1 he is not? why are we suddenly in the stingdom even though we see locations of Yooka-Laylee 1 like the Hivory Towers? I was very confused by all these problems and it made absolutely no sense and it just disconnected me from the story. The biggest problem with the story was the ending, I did not even see the ending! Locking the ending behind an impossible challenge that a lot of gamers will rage quit is just bad. I decided to not invest any time in beating these unfair mechanics, for some reason I don’t think I will be the only one.
Gameplay
Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair took a big nose dive gameplay wise compared to Yooka-Laylee 1. There are some fun things in Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair but there are more problems with this game than I had have expected.
The first thing I learned was that there are many moves missing, you will also not re-learn these moves while playing the game. The gameplay is very different compared with the first game and I think the developers went completely wrong here. The 2D levels are fun but I don’t think this is what Yooka-Laylee should be about. The 3D overworld is more like a small mini-game. It seems to me like they could not decide if they wanted a 2D or 3D game and they went like, (insert meme of El Dorado here) both!
The levels are fast-paced and you will need fast reaction times to complete them. The health bar has been removed completely in favor of a health system like Donkey Kong Country. If you get hit Laylee will fly away, you can catch her but when you are climbing or sitting in a barrel there is no chance of catching her. There are 20 chapters and they all have five coins to collect, these coins are needed to continue your journey. You will need to play each level twice, the second time there are some changes. The graphics are good but gameplay-wise most gamers won’t like having to complete the same level twice for the story. This brings us to the tonics in this game, these are implemented so badly that I could cry. When I first unlocked the tonics, I was glad to see some upgrades but that joy quickly faded away. I unlocked three tonics to help me in the chapters but suddenly I got no quills anymore. Apparently equipping tonics that help you in the game will diminish your quills that you find to 0.1! I unequipped the tonics quickly and barely even touched them anymore until I found other tonics.
There are some filters that make your game look different but I have not touched them at all, these cost quills to unlock but I think they should have been free. Eventually, I found a few tonics that I could use without diminishing my quills. They made the game more difficult by adding more health points to enemies. Some of the tonics are ridiculous, who would ever unlock a tonic to mirror their screen? The game even trolls you with a fourth tonic slot, you can usually equip three tonics. I was very interested, I had to bring down paywalls in the game. These are handled by Trowzer. You will need to pay him the coins that you find in the chapters to expand into a new area. I was told when I unlocked all five paywalls that I would get the fourth tonic slot! I worked really hard to finally get the fifth paywall down and get my fourth tonic slot! To my surprise nothing happened, I had to actually search online as to what was going on. This is something I usually never do as I play games blind. I almost even thought I had encountered a bug!
apparently, there was a sixth secret paywall. This made sense even though there is not a sixth paywall in the game. After collecting even more coins, I visited the sixth paywall which was just Trowzer at his house and I finally got the fourth tonic slot! I needed 2500 quills to buy it, this is very much so I decided to farm some quills in the chapters. After grinding enough quills in the chapters and collecting some more coins I finally managed to buy the fourth tonic slot. Imagine my surprise when the game actually trolled me! I needed to equip the fourth tonic slot to get it, which means I ended up with just three tonic slots like before. I tried the impossible lair and learned how cheap this level actually is, I could not even use tonics in the impossible lair. Why should you go through so much trouble to collect all these tonics to get stronger if you can’t use them in the final level? I looked up if I really got trolled or if I did something wrong but indeed this has happened to other people as well and they did not like it. I actually rage quitted a game! This was a momentous day for me as this barely happens.
I rate the gameplay of Yooka-Laylee with a 6.0
the gameplay is mediocre at best, there are a lot of flaws in Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair but it has its charms. I would advise to not bother with tonics at all and just complete the 20 chapters and their altered versions. You should also not visit the impossible lair at all and just have some fun in the overworld. Don’t bother too much with trying to collect the coins, unless you want the real fourth tonic slot. Collecting all coins will grant you the real fourth tonic slot but by then there is nothing left to do in the game. I wish that Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair would have followed in the footsteps of Yooka-Laylee 1 which was a great successor of Banjo-Kazooie. There is also a tonic that you can never unlock, you will need to beat the impossible lair without getting hit.
Sound and Graphics
Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair has amazing graphics and the work that must have gone into creating a 2D and 3D world is insane. I did think they could have added more levels, the alternate levels seemed a bit cheap to me.
I just wish the developers had chosen either 2D or 3D, they should have worked on both the gameplay and the story rather than the graphics. The gameplay is more important than the graphics!
The sound and sound effects are created well for this game.
I rate the Sound and Graphics with a 7.1
There is not much here to say, the developers should have worked more on the gameplay rather than creating all those screen filters that only a small % of the players use.
What did I think of Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair after playing?
It all rather seems like someone else is trying to use Yooka and Laylee instead of the real developers.
The story is all whacked up and full of plot holes, the ending did not even concern me and I think that many gamers would agree.
I heard many praise from other reviewers left and right but sadly enough I cannot agree with them.
Switching from 2D to 3D is indeed fun but it should have had much more work.
I really hope we get a message this a spin-off and we are getting the real Yooka-Laylee 2 soon!
I rate Yooka-Laylee with a 5.5 after playing.
The game seems more like a spin-off that takes place between Yooka-Laylee 1 and Yooka-Laylee 2. I think this game is a great disaster but you can still have fun playing the 20 chapters.
You should definitely not play this game for the sake of the story. I was very disappointed, it was completely unexpected that Yooka-Laylee 2 would turn out this way.
My personal rating
I really disliked what the developers did to Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair, in my eyes, they have mutilated the game but it can still be fun if you would see it as an alternate universe of Yooka-Laylee.
The chapters are fun to play but that might be the only good thing I have to say for me personally. I have actually not finished the game or 100% the game, I actually rage quitted Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair!
My personal rating of Yooka-Laylee is a 4.0
Pros and Cons
Pros
– The chapters are fun to play and they can change depending on situations in the overworld.
– The graphics in Yooka-Laylee the Impossible Lair are amazing, the developers did a great job.
Cons
– The story in Yooka-Laylee the impossible lair has many plot holes and forgets many things that needed to be addressed from the previous game.
– From what I have read online, many gamers have rage quitted Yooka-Laylee the impossible lair. Most of the people rage quit after trying the impossible lair.
– Yooka-Laylee the impossible lair is a large departure from the previous entry in the franchise
– The tonics in this game are implemented badly, trolling you with 2500 quills is a very bad idea. This would have been fun if I did not have to grind for over an hour!
– Using upgrades from tonics will diminish your quills(currency in this game) to almost zero.
– The impossible lair uses unfair mechanics to stop you from completing the game, this is a problem for both casual and pro gamers.*
* Casual gamers won’t be able to beat this as for pro gamers, I have heard many that did not complete it due to it being unfair. If the story was interesting for me, I would have spent hours trying to complete the impossible lair!
You can see in the steam achievements how few people actually managed to complete the impossible lair.
I would not recommend this game very quickly but if you can get the game in a sale it would be fun to play the chapters.
My final rating for Yooka-Laylee is …drumroll…
5.7
Don’t forget to leave your thoughts about this game in the comments!
I hope you liked reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
