Creeping Back to the Attic’s Aftermath
Once upon a time in the dim glow of a CRT screen, a deceptively cheery cartoon rabbit lured you into a web of wrongness that left you questioning every educational VHS you’d ever trusted. Now, Amanda the Adventurer 2 rewinds the tape with a sequel that’s as unsettling as finding your childhood teddy bear with a switchblade. Developed by MANGLEDmaw Games, the Ontario outfit that birthed the original’s analog anxiety, and published by DreadXP (the horror curators of Dread Delusion‘s deranged dreams and My Friendly Neighborhood‘s puppet pandemonium), this October 22, 2024, PC launch (with console ports trickling in through 2025) clocks in at 4-6 hours of head-scratching horror for $9.99 on Steam (82% Very Positive from 1,200+ reviews, Metacritic 73 “Fair”). It’s a short, sharp shock that’s “more of the same but better,” expanding the attic’s attic-dwelling dread to the echoing halls of Kensdale Public Library, where Riley Park, our reluctant tape-tamer, trades dusty VCRs for Dewey decimals and darker discoveries.
Picking up from the first game’s shattering finale (TV smashed, truths tantalizingly teased), Riley encounters a masked figure who claims kinship with the late Aunt Kate, dragging them to the library for a hunt for hidden horrors. Amanda, now “aware” of her audience and aching for escape, escalates from passive puppet to proactive predator, her episodes evolving from innocuous “let’s learn letters” to lacerating lore drops laced with cultish connotations. It’s a narrative that “delves much deeper into the lore” of Hameln Entertainment’s sinister studio and the “disturbing cult” behind the bunny’s buckteeth, blending “brilliant, layered writing” with “disarming children’s-show humour” and “sudden, creeping horror.” The masked man’s murky motives and new “friends” for Riley and Amanda add interpersonal intrigue, though some sigh it’s “poking more holes” for a teased third entry, a “Banban ass release structure” that structures suffering for the starved. For analog horror aficionados who analoged the original’s 73% acclaim into cult status, 2 doubles down on dread with library liminality, a “eerie” expanse that’s “liminal” and lingering, though its “lack of anything substantial” in spots leaves lore lovers longing.
Critics call it a “fun adventure title” with “solid puzzles” and “great performances,” a “nice, quick romp” that’s “worth checking out” if you stomach the “first cryptic conundrum,” though “sloppy decisions” and “headache inducing” head-scratchers hold it back. Steam sages (83% positive) savor the “lore filled” layers and “headache inducing puzzles,” a “10/10” for fans, while detractors decry the “unfinishes” story and “generic” graphics. Subtle humor haunts the horror: Amanda’s chipper “Let’s make a new friend!” as a grotesque gobbler gobbles the screen, a wry reminder that even in existential eclipse, kids’ TV’s terrible truths tickle the terror. With a trilogy capper teased for fall 2025, it’s a tape worth taping, proving DreadXP’s XP in expanding unease.
Puzzles from the Picture Pages: Tape-Terror Tango
Gameplay in Amanda the Adventurer 2 is a puzzle-horror pas de deux, a first-person frolic through found-footage frights where the library’s labyrinthine lanes lure you into logic-laced lore, a “puzzle-oriented” progression that’s “more challenging than ever” and “headache inducing,” though its “tricky” tricks “challenge your knowledge” with “confusing but enjoyable” conundrums. You prowl Kensdale’s creaky corridors, dusty stacks shadowed by flickering fluorescents, microfiche machines murmuring malice, pausing to pilfer clues from clippings, calendars, and creepy cassettes that cue the core: watch Amanda’s antics, pause at pivotal points to interact (drag a doll to a door, or feed a friend a forbidden fruit), solving riddles that ripple reality, where tape-time tweaks the tangible world. It’s a “core experience” that’s “streamlined more” than the first, with “freedom to solve puzzles” that’s “innovative and unique” when it clicks, though the opener’s “over-designed” opacity “gives a bad first impression,” a “nightmare” that nightmared streamers into surrender.
The tapes are the terror’s tango: episodes escalate from “let’s learn” larks to lacerating laments, Amanda’s awareness awakening with accusatory asides (“Why’d you do that, Riley?”) that warp the whimsical into wicked, a “masterful mixture” of “dark humor” and “creeping horror” where Wooly’s woolly worries wilt under her whims. Puzzles proliferate with perverse poetry: a bike lock’s four-digit fiasco from folklore fragments, or a piggy bank’s coin conundrum that coins conundrums from cartoon capers, a “logic puzzle” loop that’s “engaging” when enigmas enlighten, though “frustrating” for the finicky, with hints hidden in hindsight. Multiple endings etch agency: aid the masked man’s machinations for a “darker” denouement, or defy for deliverance’s dance, a “choose your own adventure” that’s “choose your own headache” for the hasty. New “friends” flesh the frights: animate allies or antagonize adversaries via tape tweaks, a “interactive fiction” that’s “interactive” and “fictionally frightening.”
The library’s liminality lingers: a “bigger space” that “gives more room to move,” with “back-and-forth” that’s “less interesting” in sprawl but “eerie” in emptiness, a “colorful psychological horror” that’s colorful but creepy. Quirks? Puzzles’ “obtuse” obtuseness obtuses the obtuse, a “starting puzzle” that’s “atrocious” and “generic,” and the story’s “step backwards” steps back from substance, leaving “unfinishes” unfinished. Yet, it’s this tape-terror tango, puzzles pausing the pandemonium, that pauses the pulse, a “must-have” for mascot horror masochists.
Analog Analogies: A VHS Visual Vortex
Visually, Amanda the Adventurer 2 is an analog analogy, MANGLEDmaw’s mastery mimicking ’90s PS1 polygons with a “vintage 3D art style” that’s “deceptively wrapped” in “90s kids graphics,” a “colorful” canvas that’s “colorful psychological horror” amid Kensdale’s “eerie library” expanse. Tapes twinkle with “creepy vibe”: Amanda’s animations animate with uncanny unease, Wooly’s woolly wobbles wilting into wrongness, a “masterful” mimicry that’s “nostalgic sweet spot” for millennials, though “dry graphics” dry the dread for the detail-oriented. The library looms with liminal luster: dusty tomes towering like tombstones, microfiche flickering like fireflies in fog, a “bigger plot” that’s “more room to move” but “spacious too spacious.”
Performance perches at pixel-perfect poise, 60fps fluidity framing the frights, though dense demo dens dip frames, a “heavy particle hitch” hitched but hardly halting. Audio arcs with analog allure: Amanda’s voice (Kayli Mills, chirpy with chthonic chills) crackles with “excellent” excellence, Wooly’s warbles warping into wails, a “great performances” that’s “layered writing” and “dark humor.” Sound design delights: tape whirr into whimsy-wrong, library creak creeping like a conscience, a “sensory sink” sinking hooks deep. Subtle sonics shine: a cartoon boing booming into boom of doom. It’s a VHS visual vortex that’s vortexing but vintage, minor menu mutes melting in the mystery’s mist.
Tape Twists and Library Lapses: Peaks and Pitfalls
2‘s tape twists tape a bounty of brilliance: the puzzles’ “solid” solidity, a “more varied and interesting” that’s “challenging” and “headache inducing,” and the story’s “rich in lore, secrets, and mystery,” a “delves much deeper” that’s “unsettling narrative” and “disturbing cult.” The tapes’ “excellent TV shows” are a “masterful mixture,” a “nice mixture of dread and humor.” At $10, with 82% acclaim and “fun adventure title,” it’s a value vortex worth vortexing.
Lapses lurk in the library: puzzles’ “very tricky” trickiness, a “first puzzle” that’s “atrocious” and “cryptic conundrum,” and the story’s “lack of anything substantial,” a “step backwards” that’s “unfinishes” unfinished. The “space is too big” spaces the “back-and-forth” into boredom, a “obtuse” obtuseness obtusing the obtuse. Community connoisseurs concur, one cozy case-cracker crowing a “mindmap maelstrom,” while whispers whine of “wandering without wonder.” Humor haunts: Amanda’s “disarming children’s-show humour,” a “perfect storm” storming screens with silliness.
It’s a tape-terror tango that’s tangoing but terse, a “must-have” for mascot horror masochists.
Rebecca’s Rabbit Hole: A Masked Manifesto
Beneath the tapes beats a bolder blueprint: Amanda the Adventurer 2 isn’t idle ink on an impact, but a manifesto of mayhem’s mastery, where MANGLEDmaw’s homage honors analog horror’s zenith, pixel-popping palettes as broad as the pit’s brink, while probing play’s playful potential: the puzzle palette’s “logic puzzle” loop a classroom in combinatorial calculus, teaching topography’s tricks without tedious tomes. It’s purposeful pauses, educating through elation: the tape-terror tango’s “remorseless attritional simplicity” a clinic in conversational conquest, mirroring Dora‘s dread with whimsy. The library’s liminality pricks the plot with prickly novelty, a “B-plot boondoggle” boondoggling the beating heart into beating broader.
Unique unpeelings abound: the “masked figure” system’s “perfect storm” of synergies, where tapes spawn spectacular spells, or the library’s “procedural pockets,” minting mini-mysteries like hidden holotapes hinting at Hameln’s horrors. Against Dora‘s peg-pounding glee, Amanda‘s narrative nabs the net of companionship, “friends” a “perfect storm” storming screens with silliness. Player pilgrims parade pride, one podcaster proclaiming a “puzzle perfect storm.”
It’s more than mush: a manifesto of mini-mystery mastery, where every pause etches elation.
Final Thoughts
Amanda the Adventurer 2 rewinds the horror reel with a library labyrinth that’s “fun” and “solid,” a 4-6 hour homage that’s “more of the same but better,” blending “excellent TV shows” with “headache inducing puzzles” in a “nice, quick romp” that’s “worth checking out.” The story’s “rich in lore” delves “deeper into the mystery,” a “disturbing cult” that’s “unsettling narrative,” while tapes’ “masterful mixture” of “dread and humor” crafts “great performances.” Puzzles “challenge your knowledge,” a “more varied” that’s “enjoyable” when enigmas enlighten.
The “very tricky” trickiness and “lack of substantial” snag slightly, with “first puzzle” “atrocious” and “space too big” spacing “back-and-forth” into boredom. Yet, these are nicks in a noble naginata, the sequel’s deft deployment of analog anxiety ensuring horror aficionados rewind afternoons in tape-terror ecstasy. For original obsessives or puzzle-horror pilgrims, it’s a par-fect parley, a library treat tying the trilogy tease without tightening the noose.
We prepared this review with a digital copy of Amanda the Adventurer 2 for the PC version provided by Evolve PR.
