Poker Night 2 iPad Review

By , on May 28, 2013
Last modified 10 years, 9 months ago


Poker Night 2
  • Publisher: Telltale Inc
  • Genre: Card
  • Released: 23 May, 2013
  • Size: 449.5 MB
  • Price: $0.99
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Hilarious banter between characters from games, TV, and the movies.
  • Both Hold em and Omaha available to play.
  • Missions, unlocks, and trophies keep you playing.

CONS

  • You will hear conversations repeated.
  • The slider bar for how much money to bet is fiddly at the best of times.

VERDICT

If you want to play poker while hearing funny dialogue from an interesting collection of characters, Poker Night 2 is definitely worth a purchase.


  • Full Review
  • App Store Info

The Inventory is a strange place. It's a kind of nexus point for pop culture characters from multiple mediums to converge and play games of high-stakes poker. The first entry in the series was quite successful, offering a poker experience seasoned with the kind of hilarious dialogue that comes with such a varied and wacky group of characters. The sequel follows suit. Brock Samson from The Venture Brothers, Claptrap from Borderlands, Sam from Sam & Max, and Ashley Williams from Army of Darkness are your opponents. The game itself is looked after by the dealer, none other than the maniacal AI GLaDOS from Portal.

You can choose to play either No Limit Texas Hold 'Em (with which we expect many are familiar), or No Limit Omaha. Games of Omaha see you gaining two more cards at the start of each game. It's basically Texas Hold 'Em, but with slightly less chance of guessing what your opponents might be holding.

As for the calibre of the competition, the four characters you are playing against are not great players. They'll play almost every hand, and they'll bluff the majority of the time if they think they can get away with it. Considering that the main draw of the game is to hear the amusing conversations they have with each other, this is not as much of concern. That said, with the constant raising of the blinds, you do have to avoid getting bled dry if you play too tightly. The characters do have tells that will clue you in on whether they have a good hand or not, though some are more obvious than others. Like at a real poker table, watching your opponents can yield results.

Listening to Brock, Sam, and Ash swap adventure stories (and watching the blossoming love/hate relationship between GLaDOS and Claptrap) rarely fails to amuse. There's a decent amount of recorded content, meaning you shouldn't hear repeated dialogue too often. You'll come across missions that unlock the ability to win trophies from the other players. Tokens gained from victory can buy new chips, cards and even additional locations. This adds replay value, but is more of a nice addition than a reason to keep playing.

Those who like a little humour with their poker will certainly get a kick out of Poker Night 2. Due to screen size, we'd recommended those interested in the game grab the iPad version over the iPhone iteration to better handly the iffy sliding controls. Either way, Telltale Games certainly has a winning concept here, and it makes us wonder what kind of opponents we might see in future instalments.

Screenshots

Screenshot 1 of 8 Screenshot 2 of 8 Screenshot 3 of 8 Screenshot 4 of 8 Screenshot 5 of 8 Screenshot 6 of 8 Screenshot 7 of 8 Screenshot 8 of 8