Star Sky 2

Developer: Mårten Jonsson, JMJ Interactive | Publisher: PLAYISM | Release Date: 2016 | Genre: Casual / Adventure / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

The original Star Sky allowed players to experience the story of a man out on a midnight stroll. The goal was simply to soak up the experience and find all the strange encounters. It was a simple game that could be completed in a matter of minutes but offered enough replay value to make it worth the low asking price. Star Sky 2 follows directly in the footsteps of its predecessor but tries to be a little more mysterious.

The developer describes Star Sky 2 as a personal experience offering players a deep atmosphere and meditative gameplay. However, it is pretty much the same in style and gameplay as the original game, so players once again walk along a path while listening for audio cues, indicating they can trigger certain events by remaining stationary for a while. Players can choose between two characters this time, meaning more choices and consequences. 

Visually, Star Sky 2 features the same 2D visuals with simple silhouettes for the characters and foreground details. The backgrounds are also pretty sparse, and as the name suggests, the entire game takes place at night, which makes for a very blue color palette. In addition, the animations are just as simple as the original game, and the different environments are quite limited. 

After starting the game, players can view a short explanation of how to play or jump straight into the adventure. The gameplay remains unchanged, so players can only move in one direction with no option to turn back. However, this time, it is possible to loop through the areas instead of restarting the game. Since there are now two characters, each with their own areas, it also means that some events in one path can influence what happens in the other. It’s still very simple; for example, scaring away birds in one route will cause them to appear in the other, so don’t expect to be solving intricate puzzles. Some actions are very obscure, so enabling the hint system for visual clues can be a big help in discovering a few of the available interactions.

The audio for Star Sky 2 is as sparse as the visuals, but the game retains the relaxing atmosphere of the original with some nice ambient sounds. Unfortunately, while trying to be more mysterious, the game does lose some of the charm that the original had. The environments include areas such as the Moon Bridges, Lakeland, Fog Field, Tundra, Peak, and Cave, but each can be traversed in a few seconds and is not really that memorable. The game tries to make up for this by offering multiple endings, but getting all of them involves a lot of repetition, and the payoff tends to be rather vague and unrewarding.

Controlling the characters involves holding the right-arrow key to move to the right when playing as the “Dreamer” and holding the left-arrow to do the same as the “Gardener.” Holding the up-arrow causes the character to run, but since there’s no way to turn around, this comes with the risk of missing some interactions. This is less of an issue than the original, as it is now possible to loop back around, so it’s easy enough to return to scenes. 

Overall, Star Sky 2 offers more of what Star Sky had, which means fans of the original should enjoy it. There’s not really a continuation of any story, so fans of walking simulators who have not played the first game can play this one without fear of missing out on anything important. Although the game didn’t manage to captivate us as much as the first, it was still interesting enough to earn all the achievements. Anyone who couldn’t get into the first game or have no interest in short, walking simulators can safely give Star Sky 2 a miss.