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ChromaGun 2: Dye Hard ‥‥Disclaimers‥‥: Right now, there's only the demo freely available, so the review is about that only. Furthermore, since ChromaGun is about colors, it ‥has‥ a specific colorblind mode, which I didn't test, and I'm also not the right person to test this. ChromaGun 2 (Demo!) is a puzzle platformer which surprised me with a good story and challenging puzzles, especially for a demo. Often enough, the story and the complexity of the puzzles in a demo are reduced to a bare minimum, not showing too much to make people buy the game. In this case however, the demo is perfect for exploring what the game is about. It even has enough replay value due to achievements and collectibles. The demo teases a great and deep ‥‥story‥‥ which can't hide behind other great puzzle platformers, most notably ‥Portal‥. While the story shares some similarities with Portal (“Testing”), it is clearly not a clone. In the story, the player is guided through different dimensions with very distinct styles. Each dimension has its own sections with puzzles to solve, and a different narrator. Judging from the demo, it seems like there's not much choice the player has about the story; there are no branches, no different endings. It would be easy to spoil more parts of the story, but it's even easier to say: Just play it—it's worth it! ‥‥Gameplay‥‥-wise, it looks very similar to the first part ‥ChromaGun‥, though I can't really tell as I haven't played it. The player has the ability to color specific plates and objects in the level using the Chroma Gun. These colored plates will behave like magnets for various gameplay objects with the same color. The challenge is to color the correct plates in the correct order to manipulate the level so we can finish this section and continue. The colors themselves are oriented around three primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and their secondary colors (orange, green, magenta). Those secondary colors can be achieved by mixing the primary colors accordingly. It's worth noting that at some point the plates and objects are “overcolored” and just turn black, deactivating any magnetic behavior. This, and the fact that some objects can't change their color, is used as an additional puzzle challenge. Throughout the demo there are challenges of varying degrees. While some challenges can be solved very easily by just looking around and coloring two objects, others require careful thinking and also thinking out of the box. One challenge even let me pause playing to continue at a later point. Yes, the demo is not just made for a single testing session—you can enjoy it multiple times! The ‥‥graphics‥‥ of the game are kept simple, there's no over-realism or hyper-realism. The image is clear to read, there are no strange lighting artifacts or blurring happening. Various effects and animated objects fill the otherwise almost sterile levels with life. And did I notice some very well known Niagara effect somewhere? Other than that, it's hard to judge the game graphics based on the demo and in total. Each dimension has its own art and graphical style, one going into a more organic direction and the other looks like a comic. Each style however looks very well thought out and matches the dimension. As a game developer, it would be quite interesting to take a look behind the scenes and see how they achieved those different styles. And of course, I noticed a few things that I'd have done differently. ‥‥In total‥‥, the ChromaGun 2: Dye Hard demo is a wonderful demo that showcases what a demo in 2025 can be. It gives a good taste of the story, and has a lot of replay value for a demo by making use of achievements and collectibles. The gameplay covers a nice range of easy and complex puzzles, I sure hope they can find the right balance in the final game. Pixel Maniacs, good job! [[[ms .IP • https://store.steampowered.com/app/2982340/ChromaGun_2_Dye_Hard/ ]]] [[[ebook <ul> <li><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2982340/ChromaGun_2_Dye_Hard/">ChromaGun 2: Dye Hard on Steam</a></li> </ul> ]]] Comment: [[[ms .CW https://pleroma.envs.net/notice/ArPM0sC5Xp2tGkgQgS ]]] [[[ebook <a href="https://pleroma.envs.net/notice/ArPM0sC5Xp2tGkgQgS">Fediverse Post</a> ]]]