Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2

Belgian developers are on a roll, first Larian’s Divinity 2 and now the developer from Kontich, Crazy Monkey Studios releases the sequel from 2015’s Guns, Gore & Cannoli on our beloved Xbox One. In this sequel we still control our friend Vinnie and battle against all kinds of enemies in a beautiful 1940’s setting. So what did we think about this latest 2D action game? Find out in our review. 

THE GOOD

• Beautiful design of enemies … The artists from Crazy Monkey Studios have some of the finest design talents in Belgium. Vinnie and the gangsters, police or scary looking monstrosity have so much personality and are simply one of the best looking stuff that I have seen in a 2D game.
  • … and environments. Another proof about my “best design in Belgium” statement are the diverse and great looking levels. Sure, it is only a handful but the visuals are really worth buying the game for. The animation work helps giving the game an edge on the eyes too, from destroyable items, great looking fire effects or seeing enemies fly through the air from explosions. 
• Challenge! With single players and co-op in mind the challenge in Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2 is as sweet like the sicilian ricotta cookies. (Haven’t tried it yet? You should!) Even on the easiest difficulty you’ll have to be careful and not just blindly rush into the dangerous enemies. 
• Audio Voice acting a guy like Vinnie isn’t an easy task, his one-liners and typical cynical humor is hard to deliver but the voice actor (John Bell) did fantastic work. All of the voiced work has been done excellently but it is hard not to mention my love for mister Vinnie. Regularly laughing about his accent and one-liners. 
• Thanks for listening, online co-op! I know the costs, I know the extra work, especially for a small indie game from a country known for the “hellhole Brussel”. So big respect for the devs from Crazy Monkey to include a much requested online-mode. 

• Playing it a little bit too safe Nothing wrong with playing it safe but I hoped to see a little bit more risk in gameplay, I was an itsy bitsy disappointed in the boss fights since they lack some creative punch. You don’t have to reinvent the genre but having something original would have been nice. 

• Rather short with limited replay value Our story with Vinnie ends rather quick, timing around three or four hours, without any replay value whatsoever, sure you have the online and local co-op mode but you won’t be playing that for hours and hours. While not every game should have a lifespan of ten hours, an extra hour of content would have been desirable. 
• Some frame drops Some hectic scenes are plagued by some frame rate issues, considering that the Xbox One X is by far the strongest console this was rather surprising. Nothing game breaking but worth mentioning. 

Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2, SCORE: 83/100

We gave the first GG&C a good score of 78%, the sequel plays the same and is improved in all aspects. The additional online option is a welcomed feature. Visually the 1940 setting looks pleasing and the audio is first-class.