Professor Layton and Pandora's Box Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 24th September 2009

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Professor Layton goes in search of Pandora's Box.

Professor Layton & Pandora's Box Details:

Goto Professor Layton & Pandora's Box Game Page

	Puzzle
	Nintendo DS
	Level-5
	Nintendo

Out Now

Almost a year ago a little DS game involving a professor and his young apprentice made a big noise and was sold out in all stores in the run-up to Christmas. Finally, the sequel has been ported across from Japan (where it's been available for months!) and has reached our shores, but have Level-5 managed to make Professor Layton and Pandora's Box an improvement on his previous and highly praised adventure?

Overall, I would say yes, but only just. As expected and is so common with successful games, the basic formula has not changed. You follow the protagonists on their travels and have to solve the puzzles that are thrown at you throughout the game. The puzzles are still the stars of the show! They are brilliant, engaging and varied with plenty of challenge and clever use of wording to confuse and mislead, and there is thankfully little repetition from the first game. Hint coins can be discovered by clicking around unusual objects on the backdrop, and used to obtain hints to solve puzzles that you are struggling with. Any unsolved puzzles still go to Granny Riddleton’s shack for you to solve at a later time.

The presentation remains the same with the charming backdrops and pencil drawing style, but there are more of the beautiful cut scenes to watch as you continue your adventure, which thankfully involves more locations then the occasional compact village of the first game. Each location is bordering on the size of St Mystere and there is much more to investigate and more characters to interact with. This is one of the most obvious improvements. Level-5 has also developed some of the recurring characters and their personalities and made them more involved in the storyline.

The story, of course, has also changed and has you seeking the Elysian box, which according to legend kills anyone who attempts to open it, Dr Schrader Layton’s mentor, was in possession of the box until his untimely demise when it was stolen, clues they find at the scene of his death catapult them onto another great adventure that spans many more locations and allows a greater sense of freedom than previously offered. The story itself is very well written with twists and turns along the way and a cliff-hanger ending! The game also throws up some surprises reincorporating characters from the Curious Village. The story is but a means to make you solve the fiendish puzzles set before you as you investigate, many will test your powers of deduction and reasoning and it’s very easy to get carried away and keep playing late into the night. The number of puzzles has been upped to 150, and there is also a downloadable puzzle every week to complete and the mini-games have been altered. This time you have to get a fat hamster fit by clever placement of items that are collected throughout the game or fix a broken camera, by finding all the pieces, this then triggers a spot the difference mini-game for certain locations. This is a little tedious and difficult on the small screen of the DS, but it is a welcome break from the norm. Finally, there is the tea brewing mini game where you must help people you meet by serving them the ideal cup of tea, this is brewed from the ingredients you have obtained on your travels and mixing them in the correct way. Again it’s a nice change of pace from the main game and allows some experimentation.

The soundtrack is actually quite good with some sedate music to walk around the towns and villages you visit, but the tune that is continuously played whilst you attempt to solve a puzzle is the same one from the first game and will become the bane of your life! The voice acting is really good and is used more often in this game, which helps to pull you into the game world and engage you into the storyline of Pandora’s Box.

Pandora’s Box feels like Layton V1.2 if I’m honest, as there is so little different from the previous game, but there’s nothing wrong with that, as the game and puzzles are still such high quality. Curious Village was a hard act to follow, but Level-5 have used this as an opportunity to flesh out the characters and allow them to travel to more locations, which has allowed for more beautiful backdrops to discover and explore and a wider cast of characters to meet and chat to. The story is excellent and will keep you playing up to the credits and then make you wait impatiently for the next game!