Discolored 2 review – A pigment of your imagination

Just as 2024 comes to a close, a blast from the past manifests in all new vivid shades, prompting obfuscation, deduction, and discovery. It’s been a while since I thought about Discolored, a small, delightful indie game from 2019 that plonked the player in the middle of the desert to work out why the colours of the world had vanished and how to get them back. Though a very small outing, the game boasted a very distinct aesthetic and interesting puzzle mechanics, making it short but ultimately satisfying.

Fast forward to the present and digital artist Jason Godbey has returned with a follow-up to his 2019 title. While it may have some shortcomings, Discolored 2 builds on the foundation laid by Discolored and delivers a captivating experience with a unique vision.

Taking place immediately after the events of the first game, Discolored 2 reveals that your de-saturated surroundings are the work of a malicious organisation hellbent on extracting colours for their nefarious agenda. As a member of an agency tasked with saving the world from a monochromatic fate, you need to conduct your investigation, search locations, solve puzzles, and wield the power of colour to lead you to the truth.

Almost immediately, Discolored 2 reveals itself to be a much more ambitious project than its predecessor. Not only is the game significantly longer – a full run-through with the help of the occasional hint took around four to five hours – but it also boasts an expanded narrative, human character models, stalking antagonists, quick-time events, and even a splash of metatextual gameplay. The leap is so far forward, in fact, that it has the unintended effect of making the first Discolored feel like a demo, though the original game remains ideal playing to understand the context here.

Discolored 2 consists of two fundamental types of puzzles. The first are those rooted in observation, with the player looking around the environments to notice unique installations or details. These then lead to the second type of challenge, those that are more straightforward – winning a game of chess, hacking pipes Bioshock-style etc. – but carry the throughline of using colours to manipulate circumstances and variables.

It’s with the first type of puzzle that Discolored 2 slides the difficulty scale above and beyond the first game, which was the biggest criticism I had of it at the time. There were moments when I had to open the hint system, which is controlled by a timer that prompts the player to investigate further before learning the answer. This elicits concerns that the environmental puzzles are too confusing, but what reinforces them is the solidity of Discolored 2’s world mechanics and how past actions help telegraph future ones. There is logic to how you progress.

That said, don’t go looking for logic in how this world is constructed. Because the game is heavily dictated by its visual execution, the locations and the story being told do not make that much sense. Whereas the puzzles in Discolored were integrated quite cleanly into the game environment, their distribution across the different locations in 2 feels at times very random. Solving for the sake of progressing through the game isn’t always enough, and you can come away from a play session with a sense that all you’ve achieved is being allowed to move on to the next stage, which isn’t particularly satisfying.

This also feeds into flaws in the narrative, which is the weakest part of the game. While just enough exposition is given to inform the player, the story includes several bizarre additions that don’t add much to the greater arc. The story also suffers from a weak conclusion. While I’m happy to assume that the ending tease sets up Discolored 3, the lack of an elevated final confrontation and its abrupt cap does feel lacking, especially given the buildup that has taken place over the course of the game.

Where Discolored 2 truly shines, though, is with its aesthetic and atmosphere. Jason Godbey has crafted a style for his game that is all its own. Though it may wear its inspiration on its sleeve, the symmetrical lines, location layouts, primary colour mixing and symbol motifs coalesce into a mysterious and haunting setting. The music mixing and character designs add an extra facet to the mystery, and at no point is one confident about what’s beyond the next corner. If there’s one niggle regarding the visuals, it’s that character animation could be a bit more refined, especially in terms of the fellow agent that the player meets during their investigation. But apart from that, Discolored 2 is a feast for the eyes, with a pleasing, sinister edge. There is no other game that looks like this.

Discolored 2 is a bold step forward. On top of affirming my appreciation for the original game and how Godbey started this franchise, the new release exemplifies progress and delivers a fun time to boot. It can be sometimes frustrating, but all the good puzzle games are, and there’s never a moment when said frustration dulls the palette. Not when it’s this vibrant.

Discolored 2 releases on 8 January 2025 for PC. The game will be available on Steam, and you can currently download the demo off the game’s store page to try it for yourself.