Poker Night 2

Who here likes Poker?

So this one is pretty simple folks.

A few years back Telltale Games released a game called Poker Night at the Inventory featuring a chance to play poker against Max, Strong Bad, Tycho, and Heavy Weapons Guy from TF2.  The characters all banter and make fun of you as you play them in a game of texas hold em poker.  This should've been a good thing right?

It really wasn't.  For a game that sold itself on "Your favorite characters come to life again" there wasn't enough dialogue.  Lines repeated ad nauseum.  The poker engine was spotty at best (characters go All-In for no reason with terrible cards), there was little to no variety game to game.  The only reason this game sold?  You can win items in TF2 by winning tournaments at random times when the contestants didn't have the money and offer up the item as a buy-in.

Even though I didn't love Poker Night 1, Telltale caught my attention with Poker Night 2.  The main reason? 3 of my favorite characters of all time are featured.  This go round you have Brock Samson (Venture Bros, I havent watched it yet, its in my netflix queue), Claptrap (YES!), Ash (Hail to the king baby!), and Sam from Sam and Max.  And the kicker.  GladDos is the dealer.  I bought this solely for GlaDdos and Ash with Clappy just being an added bonus.  The second reason I gave this 5 bucks (its cheap, so I can't bitch too much) is it contains unlockables that are Borderlands 2 skins.

So sue me...they suckered me in.

And...not alot has changed.  The game feels more like luck than skill, and even with the bevy of unlockables its kind of a chore to get through.  Again, there's not enough dialogue (although the first time you hear most of the lines you will laugh.  Tons of nerdy references throughout), the poker engine is odd, and I've even encountered a few graphical glitches like the owner of the bar missing his arms (That just shouldn't happen in a game this basic).  You'll go through a stretch you feel like a poker god, winning constantly, then go through a "You Can't Win" phase constantly and it makes this less fun than it should be.

The biggest bit of blasphemy?  Bruce Campbell didn't voice Ash.  Come on people.  Just pay the man, he doesn't ask for much.  I know he's busy with Burn Notice but I bet he would've done the VA for this on the cheap, over the phone, in like 2 hours.  It was just lazy when you got all the other proper voices in game.

Is it a bad game for 5 bucks? Not really.  But if you don't want the TF2/Borderlands items, dont expect a good game of poker.  Go to youtube and watch videos and you'll see all the funny bits.

What confuses me here is Telltale knows how to make a good game.  They made The Walking Dead game that won every award last year.  If they had put just a little more effort in, this could've been a great little diversion to sink a few hours into.  At the moment, I'm just chugging to get my skins, then I'll probably never touch it again.  Such a shame GladDos and Ash didn't get a better showcase than this.


Really bad at poker virtually and in Real life
-Oz