More like Nightmare at the Museum…
Museum guard-turned entrepreneur Larry Daley discovers that his favourite exhibits, and some of his best friends, from New Yorkâs Natural History Museum are being shipped off to the archives at the Smithsonian. Larry gets a distress call from the miniature cowboy, Jedediah, reporting that Egyptian ruler Kahmunrah and a trio of heinous henchmen â namely Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and Al Capone â are plotting to take over the museum, then the world. Speeding to the nationâs capitol, Larry is clearly in over his head. But with some impressive new pals, including the irrepressible Amelia Earhart, along with familiar friends Teddy Roosevelt and Octavius, Larry will stop at nothing to restore the Smithsonian before dawn.
Night at the Museum 2 is your typical movie tie-in game. Itâs short, it offers nothing spectacular and is average at best. Itâs not a terrible game by any means, it just lacks anything special. The game lets you play as Larry Daley, but gives you some control over some characters during the course of the game. There are plenty of collectables to be found, which unlocks the gameâs achievements. If you make an effort to get them all, you can probably earn all 1000 points in a matter of hours, as the game is incredibly short.
The game has some good areas, although it does feel a bit âby the numbersâ and incredibly manufactured. It lacks any charm besides the bits of dialogue with Ben Stiller, the only apparent cast member to reprise his role in-game. I wonder why the other actors didnât do the same? On the plus side, the game has plenty of trivia questions, in game audio tours and factoids. For the younger gamer, Night at the Museum 2 seems to do enough to please…itâs just a shame that in 2009, standards still arenât higher for these types of games.
As soon as I popped the game in, itâs pretty clear that it was a Wii game first and itâs been upgraded to HD. Besides that, the visuals arenât impressive in any way. Load times are fairly short, making the game even shorter…but thatâs a positive. It does seem to run the course and when it ends, youâll think itâs enough…for all the wrong reasons.
The Verdict
Night at the Museum 2 is a very average game, but what did you expect from a game based on a film? Well, maybe itâs time standards were raised…but it wonât be happening with this one. A ok game for the younger gamers, but sadly doesnât last enough to keep them playing.
