Making its way from mobile and web browser formats to console, Paper.io 2 is a modernised take on the classic games Qix. Its an arcade battle ground of tactical ground takeovers and its adaptation to console is largely a successful one.
If you haven’t played a Qix-styled game before, the aim is simple. Each level is a map or playing arena which you need to either cut shapes out of or into to take over the level. For Paper.io wherever you steer your character, you need to loop back around to your own territory and anything inside your drawn loop becomes yours. Its a tactical battleground game in the most basic but arcade form and Qix styled games have entertained for decades because its so simple to play and aggressive at all times.
Paper.io 2 has a single player campaign which turns a map of the world into your campaign. Each country is a level map and that means every map has something different about it. Some countries are square, some are narrow, and others have sprouts and odd curves to them. You are placed on the map at random with lots of other AI opponents who are all tasked with taking over more than 90% of the map for themselves. The AI isn’t very clever half the time but there are a lot of them so you need to be careful and not too cocky. If you are drawing a line and an opponent hits it before you can complete the loop, you lose a life. The flipside is that you score points by doing that to others. They also join a conga line behind you like a colourful snake which is a nice touch. Levels have powerups too. One speeds you up, one makes your line invincible so others die when they hit it instead of you. You can combine these for a real power trip and add the third zoom out power up too to see where you are going. These power ups can be beefed up by the coins you earn through the campaign mode too, which can lead to you feeling a bit overpowered.
Single player is huge but the gameplay doesn’t change much between maps. The coins you earn can also be used to unlock new patterns for your territory and characters too and buying the Complete Edition unlocks all the bonus DLC adding more variety to play with. I did run into a few issues with single player mode though. Sometimes deaths occur and you can’t work out why as you can’t see an opponent attacking you. This is a minor annoyance but more distracting is the visual glitches that occur when using the zoom out camera power up. The game clearly doesn’t scale it properly so everything outside the edge of the level flashes harshly.
Where Paper.io 2 shines is in local multiplayer. Between 2 and 4 players (8 players on Switch) can try out 50 maps where you all battle for supremacy. What was simple in single player becomes accessible in multiplayer and despite its one-note gameplay loop, battles do get heated and surprisingly tactical. Luck is involved to a degree as some starting places are better than others – especially if tactical players try to box you into a corner. With battles lasting only a minute or two, its quickfire fun that doesn’t require much learning and so it could be a simple family game night staple for many.
Paper.io 2 is a decent port from mobile to console. From that perspective, this is a good addition to your game collection but I have to call out that the web version has so many more features for free. If you are on PC, I’d recommend going web browser based first. Anything else – console it is.
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