The short demo I played gave me a chance to play with some of the new elements. Acid works almost exactly as you would expect: it raises the temperature of your ship considerably. However, unlike other fluids, the acid will cling to your ship, continuing to damage it until you rinse yourself in water. It's definitely one of the simpler elements (for now, at least), but the levels do force you to swim through the substance, meaning you'll have to play even more cautiously than in the first.
Far more interesting than acid is the play on light and dark. As in the first Gears of War (or Pitch Black), staying in darkness for too long will summon a swarm of creatures that instantly destroy the ship. To rescue any marooned scientists, you'll have to figure out ways of getting light into darkened passages: whether it's by flipping switches, destroying rocks, or playing with the other elements. The mechanic lends itself really well in crafting complex puzzles; fans of the first game should be ecstatic.
As a huge fan of the first game, I'm incredibly excited for PixelJunk Shooter 2, and I'm a little disappointed that it's not a "Summer of PSN" title: it's currently pegged for a fall release. While I only got to play two levels, what I did see felt "complete" -- unsurprising, because it feels just like the first game.
There are a few additions being added to the experience, including a new competitive online mode with battle arena stages. Very few PixelJunk games offer online play, and very few are ever competitive, so it'll be interesting to see what new ideas Q-Games has to offer for the genre. The single-player experience is also more competitive this time around, with the addition of an "advanced" Score Attack mode, which records player "ghosts" a la Mario Kart and uploads them to the online leaderboards.
If you didn't like the first PixelJunk Shooter, I don't think there's reason to expect a very different experience out of the second. But, if you're like me, you've been hungry for more PixelJunk Shooter ever since its release last year. Hopefully, the final game will truly offer more -- we need a game that's longer than 3-5 hours this time around, Dylan.
