Shapik’s second quest leads to playable demo

Written by Jack Allin — February 25, 2018 at 12:14

The end of the world is no laughing matter... but the thought of it sure does lead to some interesting entertainment. The latest to use the apocalypse as a springboard to fun and games is Shapik: The Quest 2, the commercial sequel to a Samorost-style freeware adventure released in 2013.

As with all games of this type, the story of Shapik: The Quest 2 is intentionally broad. Players control the titular protagonist, a "humanoid creature" (if a rather sickly looking one) who must make his way to the surface of the planet many years after it was destroyed by a nuclear holocaust. As you venture out to explore the aftermath of this devastation, you will meet many "interesting characters and creatures" and must solve a variety of puzzles if you're to "uncover the mystery of what caused the fallout."

Like its free predecessor but with a signficant increase in quality, the sequel features a cartoon style of animation with vivid hand-drawn environments that feel more alien that earthly. The game controls very simply, with left mouse-clicks moving Shapik around the many levels of self-contained environments and interacting with any applicable hotspots to solve the numerous puzzles blocking your way.

There is currently no firm release target for this game, but the four-man indie development team from Russia and the Ukraine are hoping to complete production sometime this summer for Windows, Mac and mobile devices. While you wait you can check it for yourselves, either through the playable browser sampler or by downloading the demo. If you want to go all the way back to the beginning, the original Shapik: The Quest is still available to play online as well.