Alawar’s Rescue Team 2 is the the newest addition to an ever-growing number of resource management titles. The goal is to rescue injured or threatened citizens and to rebuild large parts of a variety of islands that have been struck by a series of natural disasters. We definitely had some issues with itspredecessor, and for the most part those flaws haven’t been addressed in the sequel.
Alawar’s Rescue Team 2 is the the newest addition to an ever-growing number of resource management titles. The goal is to rescue injured or threatened citizens and to rebuild large parts of a variety of islands that have been struck by a series of natural disasters. We definitely had some issues with its predecessor, and for the most part those flaws haven’t been addressed in the sequel.
Rescue Team 2 features 50 levels that are spread over three different islands. It should take the average player about four to five hours to complete. Depending on how quickly a level is finished, the player earns money that can be invested in recreating a part of Greenfield Island, which is similar to the house that had to be rebuilt in the first part of the series. There is also additional bonus money to be earned by certain achievements such as collecting a specific amount of wood or saving 100 citizens, but unfortunately those achievements are listed nowhere.
Compared to its predecessor Rescue Team 2 plays pretty similarly, although some minor elements from Rescue Frenzy have been added to spice things up a little. Fans of this genre will immediately know what to do even without reading the hints (although it has to be said that the game lacks a real tutorial for absolute newcomers). Most of the game mechanics and features are very familiar and the game definitely does not go out on a limb to challenge certain standards of the genre. Fortunately, the game is rather challenging without being over the top difficult – you often have to replay levels but in most cases it is pretty obvious what could be done differently for a better outcome.
Basically you distribute tasks to your workers such as removing obstacles, collecting resources, repairing buildings and constructing new structures. You certainly need resources to do anything and besides wood, food and gold you are also able to produce and collect fuel here. While wood is needed to build diners, houses and sawmills gold enables the player to construct a hospital which makes it possible to cure hurt citizens and workers to support your team. And in the end that’s all you do each and every level – collect some gems, cure a couple of citizens and remove some obstacles, that is all there is to it. Fuel is only needed in levels where a helicopter is required to put out fires or a boat that can rescue drowning citizens or retrieve resources from the sea.
The graphics and the general design of Rescue Team 2 are somewhat disappointing. The landscape is pretty stark and inanimate. Furthermore the three islands differ only very superficially but are far from being as distinguishable and beautiful as areas in games such as My Kingdom for the Princess 3. Moreover the goals of each level strongly resemble each other which, along with the graphic similarity, quickly evokes a feeling of “been there, done that”.
The biggest issue we had with Rescue Team 2 is that it’s still impossible to chain actions or give workers new orders in advance. While this is also more or less frustrating in similar titles, the lack of this feature is even worse with regards to gameplay here. It basically often feels as if you are either waiting for a resource to accumulate or there are too many tasks to be done at once. It also does not help that it is both not possible to train new workers or to upgrade existing buildings, which would have increased the depth of the game without a doubt.
All in all, Rescue Team 2 is a pretty average title that does not differ too strongly from its predecessor. While fans of the genre will without a doubt appreciate the solid challenge and the proven formula, the game definitely lacks in nearly all important areas, although not as much as to make the game really bad. The landscape would gain by more variety, and some new twists as well as goals would also be welcome, but all in all fans should still be entertained by this title.
