Summoner 2 Critic Reviews

Easily reigns as the best dungeon crawler on the PS2, and one of the most engrossing RPGs around.

Incredibly large (even by RPG standards), this game is packed with gaping quests, enthralling side stories, and a complex backbone the likes of which are rarely seen.

An admirable sequel with a fascinatingly lengthy quest, great characters and plenty to see and do.

I really enjoyed listening to the music of Summoner 2. The orchestrated music is done perfectly, and really fits the game’s theme.

This isn’t the prettiest adventure to hit the cathode-ray tube, but as an enjoyable and well-woven game it holds together in an enjoyable and consuming manner without resorting to pigeon philosophy and half-hour digital fireworks.

A refreshing, decidedly western RPG that could have been incredible with just a few minor changes. Nonetheless, Summoner 2 is lots of fun.

There’s a great side-quest-and-story-packed game underneath the not-so-luscious surface.

Rides the line between story and "freedom" well.

It's not the prettiest RPG out there, and it certainly isn't the best sounding, but it's got a massively long and interactive quest, plenty of land to explore, a number of interesting playable characters and a real dose of challenging gameplay.

The well-told story, furious battles, and engrossing settings should allow you to look past a few design problems.

Packing a solid plot, creative elements not really seen in RPGs, and tons of action, Volition looks to have another hit on their hands.

By and large a very good adventure role-playing game, with a memorable cast of characters and plenty of pure action.

The combat system is leaps and bounds above the first game’s, but things like pausing for spell animations and disjointed, eye-watering lighting and texture palettes keep the interest level down.

Ironically, Summoner 2's strengths (faster action, computer-controlled allies) expose the game's many weaknesses (poor camera during combat, enemies that swarm you, sluggish controls).

Blocking, for one, is not nearly as effective as it should be, and the controls suffer from a slight delay that reduces melees into button-mashing frenzy.

The first game had its strengths, however well-hidden, and the improvements in Summoner 2 help bring those qualities to the fore.

Summoner 2 is to the original Summoner what a case of shower grout is to a clogged drainpipe full of hair.

Animation-wise, what's here is nice, and the models are very good, but Maia especially needs more variety.

Despite the many faults of Summoner 2, I can’t stop playing. Given the several other RPG options available this fall, however, checking out Summoner 2 might fall on taste alone.

While the game certainly has aspirations to action-RPG greatness, it falls far, far short of the mark by instead boiling down to a trudging mess of relentless combat, character statistics and more quests and side-quests than you could shake some kind of magic stick at.