Since I’m still working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R and trying to figure out if screenshots for 3DS games should be taken on the hardware or via an emulator here is a small review for a casual game.

Poker Night at the inventory 2 is the sequel to a game whose name you can guess. It carries on the tradition of playing Hold ‘em poker against famous opponents from different mediums. If you are a FaceBook addict then think of it as Zynga poker, just with good writing and interesting characters. Let’s get to the review.

Story:

You’re a guy playing poker with 4 famous people and an annoying robot while having the cards dealt by a homicidal robot with a love of tests. If you guessed the two robots from that line congratulations, you’re a geek. If you didn’t guess them or have never heard of Poker Night 2 here are the characters

• The player: YOU!
• Brock Samson: A body guard for Dr Venture and his family. Part time secret agent, full time psychotic badass. Stars in Venture Bros.
• Ashley Williams: The only guy on this planet with a girl’s name and occasionally a chainsaw for a hand. Has a habit of reading magical books of the dead. Famed for being the main character in the Evil Dead series before it was horribly rebooted. Occasionally mistaken for Sam Axe from Burn Notice
• Sam: The talking dog in the team of Sam & Max, the other member being a homicidal bunny thing.
• CL4P-TP: Better known as Clap Trap is an egotistical little robot from some unheard of game called Borderlands and its sequel Borderlands 2 along with whatever Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is.
• GlADOS: A homicidal robot that everyone who plays decent games or reads memes on the interwebz knows about. If you haven’t seen GLADOS but can name 3 evil things in Call of Duty please leave your gaming card in a bonfire.

While all the above are the players and the dealer you also meet Claptrap’s sidekick Steve along with Max, Moxie and your host Winslow.

Sound:

The voice acting for all the characters is really good. They sound like the memories I have of them from their actual outings. This is really noticeable when they start talking among themselves and telling stories which are really well written. The dialogue too has some really high standards of writing and you will laugh at the stupid jokes that they make.

The other sounds too are quite good. They keep the tone and feel going. The background music while quite subtle fits the mood.

Graphics:

The graphics are cartoony and the animations though simple are nice to look at. Each character is drawn quite close to how they look in their own original shows or games except Sam & Max who are closer to their rebooted series by Tell Tale Games.

Gameplay:

Do I have to explain how to play Poker? No? THANK GOD!

Besides the standard poker playing there are lots of nice touches like the character’s complaining about their cards, giving out tells as well as having arguments with each other. This makes the rounds a good bit of fun and feels like you are actually playing against someone. Hell, they bluff too so you need to either call them on that bluff or bluff yourself.

You get tokens after each round that you can use to buy cosmetic changes for the cards, the coins and the table. If you buy a set the full design of the room is changed adding more dialogue from the characters which matches the themes.

There is also an add on challenge that makes you complete 3 tasks. Once these tasks are completed you are playing for a prize from one of the other players. The best part of these prizes is that they activate things in Borderlands 2 and Team Fortress 2.  

Conclusion:

While a simple game, it is fun to play and there is a good bit of dialogue from the characters to keep you entertained. It’s a quick pick up and play and since it’s price is usually quite low it’s a no brainer,

However it is not a game that will get you immersed, it will not get you addicted for the simple reason that it is just poker.

Final Score: 7/10