Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 review: Ace in the Hole

Telltale's Poker Night 2 surprisingly shows itself to be more than the original game, but still shows some flaws that keep it from hitting the jackpot.

Ozzie Mejia

April 29, 2013 1:30 PM

I'll be honest, I completely expected Poker Night 2 to simply be a rehash of 2010's Poker Night at the Inventory--and for the most part, it is. However, Telltale's solo poker experience adds a number of new features that definitely makes this new installment a more worthwhile effort than the first, albeit with some persistent issues keep it from hitting the jackpot. Once again, the name of the game is Texas Hold'em and the opponents are comprised of Venture Bros. strongman Brock Samson, Borderlands chatterbox Claptrap, Army of Darkness hero Ash Williams (not voiced by Bruce Campbell, unfortunately), and Sam of the Sam & Max series. Just as the first game, one of the main draws is watching the interaction between the four characters. This time around, there are a few more characters that join in the conversation--Portal's GLaDOS (who acts as the dealer) and Max (who also has a new voice actor), who will occasionally add his two cents to any of Sam's lines. Poker Night 2's dialogue remains a major highlight and it's a lot of fun to discover new lines. This game also adds some improvements with GLaDOS's inclusion, since most tournaments will inevitably come down to two people. This allows the remaining character to banter with GLaDOS, rather than have a one-sided conversation with the silent player protagonist. However, repetition is a major issue, especially after checking, folding, or going all-in on a hand.

Buying drinks is among Poker Night 2's new ideas

Speaking of going all-in, AI behavior remains erratic. I've been a part of hands where characters would randomly go all-in without any rhyme or reason. It's all the more frustrating this time around, because there's no difficulty setting to adjust, meaning there's no chance to adjust AI behavior. Characters will also raise the pot randomly, only to fold their hands immediately after. This isn't as chronic an issue as it was in Poker Night at the Inventory, but it remains fairly prevalent in the sequel. A new mechanic will allow players to gain a tactical advantage by purchasing drinks for any of the players at the table. The idea behind this is to make it easier to tell if anyone is bluffing, but it proves to be a bit imprecise. Animations will occasionally jerk around, making it tough to read tells. Buying drinks won't alter anyone's dialogue, either, so those hoping to hear a drunken Claptrap will be sorely disappointed. Most people will pick up Poker Night 2 for the platform-specific unlockables that include Borderlands skins. Unlike Poker Night at the Inventory, unlockables in Poker Night need to be earned differently. Taking a page from iOS games, players will be given a random set of three goals to accomplish over the course of the game. Completing these goals will give players a shot to earn special items from one of the game's characters. It's far preferable to the first game's approach of throwing out the special item at random and gives players something to shoot for. Finally, there's a whole new option for Poker Night 2--Omaha poker. After the initial Hold'em hand, players can switch the game to Omaha, but don't expect an in-game tutorial here. I attempted to play hands of Omaha and felt lost and the game doesn't make clear what constitutes a winning hand. Fortunately, there are game rules hidden within the pause menu for anyone that gets lost. Omaha didn't resonate with me, but the fact that Poker Night 2 is branching out to different card games is a big step forward. Poker Night 2 suffers from several notable glitches. On top of the ones mentioned earlier, PC players may notice that certain display settings won't sit well with Brock Samson's unique character model and will result in flickering and Windows 8 owners will be lucky if they can get the game running at all. Despite all that, not only did I have fun with Poker Night 2, but I noticed a significant amount of progress over the original game. I came away from this game with a genuine desire to see a fully fleshed-out third version, but for now, I'll spend another weekend anteing up here.

The Poker Night 2 review was based on a PC version of the game purchased by the reviewer. The game is also available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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Shacknews

 reply
April 29, 2013 12:53 PM

Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 review: Ace in the Hole.

Telltale's Poker Night 2 surprisingly shows itself to be more than the original game, but still shows some flaws that keep it from hitting the jackpot.
- OzzieMejia
  
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  April 29, 2013 1:41 PM
  
  It appears I didn't get the same kind of repetition issues that Raoul Duke got.
  - multisync
    
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    April 29, 2013 1:42 PM
    
    his impression has made me decide against buying it :(
    - hirez
      
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      April 29, 2013 1:45 PM
      
      for $5, its fine. for $10... meh. I think of it as wrapping some fun DLC in a game to unlock.
      - pyide
        
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        April 29, 2013 2:00 PM
        
        I'm way more interested in unlocking the chip/card/table stuff in the game to see the different themes for the inventory and when using a set than the external TF2 / BL2 junk. I don't give a shit about any of that.
        
        It's been well worth the $5 already for the handful of laughs, though five hours in it won't be long now for every one of the longer dialogues to start repeating, some already have. It may be a slog to get all the tokens for the Portal theme.
        
        hirez
        
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        April 29, 2013 2:04 PM
        
        maybe it was just me, but the first couple games repeated a lot of dialog. Now that I've played a few more, I've heard some new stuff. But man, maybe it was just me, but the first couple games repeated a lot of dialog. Now that I've played a few more, I've heard some new stuff.
        
        OzzieMejia
        
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        April 29, 2013 2:07 PM
        
        This has not gotten old to me yet.
        
        harold.johnson
        
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        April 29, 2013 2:17 PM
        
        there's more dialog in general, and activating sets gives new dialog specific to that set.
        
        hirez
        
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        April 29, 2013 3:30 PM
        
        oh really? I will have to do that. I do seem to be hearing more dialog the more I play.
        
        pyide
        
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        April 29, 2013 9:36 PM
        
        The different sets also contain unique introductions, apparently you have to activate the three items after starting a new game to see them. The one for Army of Darkness is all Raimi-cam'd :P Can activated it before betting on the first hand, but the the set is already turned on between games the new game just goes on as usual. You may also see some set specific outros for characters that get knocked out.
        
        Neat how in addition to the props and unique dialogues, the lighting and UI changes, as does the background noise, the character tied to that set has a different skin or accessory, too. Even the music is different, hearing Telltale's take on Borderlands' soundtrack is really strange. Army of Darkness has no soundtrack and just ambience, which is kind of a bummer. The Venture Bros set music is slightly too upbeat for poker. Sam & Max's music is perfect, haven't unlocked all the Portal stuff yet.
        
        OzzieMejia
        
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        April 29, 2013 11:37 PM
        
        I freakin' LOVE the Borderlands theme. Steve's cameos are hilarious!
        
        [deleted] 355768971
        
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        April 30, 2013 12:56 AM
        
        [deleted]
        
        pyide
        
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        April 30, 2013 1:12 AM
        
        Afaik, the only way to see them is by activating the set once you are at the table, choosing new game w/ intro from the start always plays the normal inventory intro.
        
        And once you've seen the long version of the themed set intro, activating it again plays a different shortened version without any dialogue. Probably have to wipe your save or something dumb, not worth that, they're short and will be on youtube eventually.
        
        Xevo
        
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        April 30, 2013 2:33 AM
        
        I will note that one of the bounty goals is activating a set or something like that and I had zero fucking idea what that meant until this thread.
  - maulla
    
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    April 30, 2013 5:01 AM
    
    Ive only played 3 tournaments, and its very repetitive already. Doesnt help that the AI is just horrible and all three times I have been heads up with Sam. play a few hands and hes already repeating stuff from just a few minutes ago.
    
    it's pretty disappointing
- hirez
  
   reply
  April 29, 2013 1:46 PM
  
  oh and with regards to repetition: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=30082703#item_30082703
- pyide
  
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  April 29, 2013 1:47 PM
  
  Has Telltale said why they hired a new voice for Max after many three seasons worth of games from the previous guy?
  
  Also, animations occasionally jerking around is an understatement. It happens constantly, damn near every transition and then some. Worst part of the game for me, visually distracting. And it's a problem Telltale has always had with animations in all their games, but here those quirks seem to be magnified because the characters are always sitting in the same positions for the most part.
  - OzzieMejia
    
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    April 29, 2013 1:50 PM
    
    No comment yet from Telltale, but we'll keep you all updated.
  - Evan_C
    
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    April 30, 2013 12:36 AM
    
    The awful animation tweening in The Walking Dead game was distracting to put it mildly.
- OzzieMejia
  
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  April 29, 2013 1:56 PM
  
  Wishlist (if they're insistent on making Poker Night into an evolving series):
  -Animation fixes
  -Additional forms of poker
  -More than 4 characters. Take a cast of about 8 different characters, select the 4 you want to play with, and have the dialogue adjust itself accordingly.
  
  I realize that last one would probably push this to higher price tier, but I think it would be worth it. Wouldn't you?
  - one random winner
    
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    April 29, 2013 1:58 PM
    
    Yup, eventually you'll get to poker tournament and things should really shine.
  - Clasifyd
    
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    April 29, 2013 2:02 PM
    
    The more characters would be nice. Even switching seats would be welcome. The characters seem to have a certain play style, so it would be nice to mix up who's sitting by whom. Sam and Claptrap seem to be much better players than Brock and Ash, for instance.
    - [deleted] 355768971
      
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      April 29, 2013 2:12 PM
      
      [deleted]
      - OzzieMejia
        
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        April 29, 2013 2:14 PM
        
        Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed that Ash almost always busts out first. He ended coming in 2nd place maybe once in all the time I've spent with this game.
        
        pyide
        
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        April 29, 2013 6:07 PM
        
        It seems fairly random. I've seen Ash go out early, win it, as well as be the last one I knocked out.
      - Xevo
        
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        April 30, 2013 2:30 AM
        
        My Brock and your Brock play basically completely differently, so I don't think they have specific AIs
    - Mad Brahmin Disease
      
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      April 30, 2013 12:56 AM
      
      Good point about switching seats.
  - hirez
    
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    April 29, 2013 2:05 PM
    
    multiplayer.
    - rosewood
      
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      April 30, 2013 5:08 AM
      
      I don't mind just playing with myself.
  - harold.johnson
    
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    April 29, 2013 2:08 PM
    
    characters i'd love to see:
    - Archer
    
    that's about it.
    
    hell, Poker Night at OSI would be awesome.
- asianwaste
  
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  April 29, 2013 2:07 PM
  
  Makes me kind of think that Telltale has a (classic) Evil Dead and Venture Bros. adventure game somewhere in the back burner... which both would be incredibly awesome.
  - Draingored
    
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    April 30, 2013 4:32 AM
    
    I concur with that possibility, nay, probability. Why would Warburton et al do VO for a one-shot 5 dollar game if there are no plans for future gigs? Why would they make an Ash model just for this game?
    - Mecha Tofu Pirate
      
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      April 30, 2013 5:04 AM
      
      They did it with Tycho from Penny Arcade
      - Draingored
        
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        April 30, 2013 3:42 PM
        
        1.) Getting Tycho to use his IP would cost a lot less.
        
        2.) http://www.rainslick.com/