Since the launch of The Tribloos back in 2011, dozens of time management games have been released that tend to focus on a different layout, giving The Tribloos 2 a feeling of freshness, even if it is a sequel. We’re back once more to help our furry friends repair their home after a series of storms, and the gameplay here is just as fun as it was the first time around.
Since the launch of The Tribloos back in 2011, dozens of time management games have been released that tend to focus on a different layout, giving The Tribloos 2 a feeling of freshness, even if it is a sequel. We’re back once more to help our furry friends repair their home after a series of storms, and the gameplay here is just as fun as it was the first time around.
While The Tribloos 2 suffers graphically from an outdated appearance and a lack of widescreen support, it does look better than the first game, and it makes up for its remaining graphical issues with its side-view presentation. Instead of viewing the world from the sky, you view it from the side, with platforms stacked on top of one another, connected by ladders, ziplines and more. Each stage of this time management experience asks you to build specific structures, gather materials, or protect dragon eggs, as examples, and each is timed as you’d expect.
As with the first game, The Tribloos 2 is incredibly challenging if you’re looking to earn the Gold rating on each stage. Time ticks down quite rapidly, and you’ll be in Silver or Bronze territory before you know it, encouraging forethought before you ever make your first action. Your furry blue workers move quickly throughout a stage, and some buildings do take longer to construct than others, increasing the challenge. Unfortunately it’s possible to back yourself into a corner where you run out of a particular resource (most likely wood) and will be forced to restart a stage, which is annoying when you’ve almost completed the entire level.
That shortcoming aside, the game’s building variety is appreciated, and you’ll be able to add tons of new workers to your pool in each level by simply constructing homes. In other time management games, you might be lucky to have three or four workers in a stage, but here, it’s not uncommon to have 15 or more. You have a bit of freedom in assigning workers to tasks, as you can assign up to 10 to some building projects, and as few as three to others. There are very few tasks that are completed instantly, making actual time management so much more important here. Shockingly enough, that’s not something we see too much of anymore in time management games.
Even if you allow time to slip into the Bronze time rating, you’ll never fail a level unless you back yourself into one of those darn corners. Even with slower performances, you’ll still be able to unlock achievements across stages, and you can replay them as often as you’d like to increase your score or decrease your elapsed time. In between major areas, the environments will shift from dense forests to floating islands and more, and you’ll even be greeted with the occasional mini-game connecting them all. For instance, you may be asked to guide an airship through obstacles by sending workers to buttons that change your flight path.
For a game with such simple graphics, there’s a surprising amount of depth and challenge in The Tribloos 2. It’s unlikely that even a hardcore time management fan will earn the Gold rating on each stage on their first try, as the game’s sideways layout and lack of many circular pathways can add additional time to your game as workers backtrack across bridges and ladders instead of instantly moving from one task to the next. This does cause the levels to start rather slowly, but this picks up with the addition of more workers and you’ll quickly find yourself in a hectic sea of blue furry Tribloos running to and fro before you know it.
If you’re tired of the “ancient” settings and cloned gameplay of many recent time management games, The Tribloos 2 is a great change of pace.
