Candy Box 2 promises a brave new ASCII world to explore

Candy Box has a sequel and it's available to play right now .

If you're still reading and a bit baffled, then here's some background: Candy Box was a surprisingly deep (but not that deep) ASCII browser-based RPG released earlier this year. It tasked the player with accumulating candy, and importantly lollipops, in order to conquer a series of increasingly difficult dungeons. Some people didn't even face the dungeons, preferring instead to focus on the resource ~~management~~ accumulation aspect of the game. Which is fine, but now those people have Cookie Clicker.

We enjoyed Candy Box so much that we tracked down the creator for a chat , and we're happy to report that Candy Box 2 ups the ante in several positive ways. For one, the ASCII graphics are a lot prettier now. Dungeons can be abandoned mid fight. There's more immediate freedom to explore the world and a bigger cast of characters. This is the Skyrim of browser-based ASCII RPGs, probably.

We're only just scratching the surface of Candy Box 2, so for the time being you'll have to make do with actually trying it. We'll report back if anything amazing happens. It probably will.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.