Youtubers Life 2 [Xbox]
Developed by U-Play Online, Youtubers Life 2 is a simulation game where you’ll get to live out your dreams of becoming a famous Youtuber, in NewTube City - where all the best YouTubers live. Upon starting, you’ll meet Xavier, who will be your guide - welcoming you to the City and encouraging you as you begin your career. You’ll pick a location to settle down, from Downtown, the Port and City Hall neighbourhoods, each with their own selection of stores and general vibe that will influence the content you make. There are different types of channels to run, such as Gaming, Fashion vlogs and more, and you’ll go from strength to strength as you upload more content, completing tasks and building your following. You’ve got your own little drone that follows you everywhere, meaning you’re always ready to produce content - however you’ll need to purchase various upgrades for this to get the most out of it.
Each day there will be new trending topics, each given different coloured rankings to specify how much of an impact they can make to your channel’s growth. Higher trending topics will pull in more views - and more subscribers - so prioritising content that can utilise these hashtags is beneficial. Wandering around the city, you’ll come across various places and events that you can record, whether for a YouTube video or just a quick pic for InstaLife, and you’ve also got the main story-based missions to work through via Main Quests, as well as Side Quests to complete. The story focuses on tasks you can complete to improve not only your YouTube presence, but your other social media followings too - and networking with other content creators along the way. There’s Commissions to pick up, which are mostly to deliver packages to other characters, as well as producing specific content for social media, and these will earn you some money to spend on furniture for your house, games and clothing, as well as PC upgrades to produce better content. You can build up friendships with the characters you meet, unlocking Friendship Quests to boost your relationship further - ultimately being able to gain a roommate or even a spouse!
Visually, Youtubers Life 2 looks great and there’s plenty of customisation for your character as well as your little basement abode. It has a kind of Pokémon look, in the vein of the Let’s Go games, which is appealing enough - but sadly there is a lot of repetition around the world; there’s loads of NPCs wandering around consisting of a handful of designs, so you’ll witness a lot of ‘glitch in the matrix’ type scenarios. The only NPCs that have really had any effort in giving them non-generic looks are the ones you can actually interact with, from Blair that runs the gaming store, to Captain Vain the fisherman. You’ll come across various real-life YouTubers, including PewDiePie and his dog Maya, which is fun to see - particularly if your favourite YouTuber makes an appearance! The soundtrack is upbeat and joyful, with a relaxing feel to it that is nice to listen to as you wander around the city whether by foot or on your scooter; once you get your license!
Creating your content is fun, but could have a bit more variety to it as each video is done in a similar way whether it is Gameplay, Interviews or Vlogs, with a few Reaction Cards having to be chosen during each video to determine your ranking. As you level up, you’ll unlock more Reaction Cards that will help you get better scores. During the editing process, you’ll have to line clips up with a puzzle-piece style chain, with more connections equalling more points, and once that’s been done and you’re ready to publish, you’ll need to give your video a fitting title - or you can choose a pre-written click bait title, at the risk of upsetting your fans. You can also Livestream content, which is done via a rhythm style mini-game, and utilising this as well as all of the trending topics will lead to bigger and better growth for your channel.
Sadly, the time factor is the most infuriating thing in the game. Days change to night in a very short amount of time, and without the Night Vision upgrade for your drone, this renders you incapable of doing very much outside of your home after dark. An early mission is to be able to get a ticket for Play-Con, at a cost of 500 coins. Completing commissions to earn money will help you reach this target, but this requires you to hold back on purchasing energy-replenishing items as well as new games, consoles and drone upgrades so you can ensure you’ll be able to afford the ticket on time. There is a way to get a ticket for free, but it requires you to post a photo on InstaLife with each of the three Play-Con reps dotted around the different neighbourhoods, however, by the time I found the second one and started to look for the third, it was dark out - and without the money to buy the Night Vision, I’d been locked out of being able to complete this task - forcing me to continue saving up for the ticket. Similarly, the energy meter drains absurdly fast, so recording a video will easily tire you out and often prevent you from being able to edit and publish a video the same day - causing you to miss out on current trends.
Available for £34.99 on the Xbox Store, Youtubers Life 2 is a little expensive for what it is - particularly considering that the game will mostly appeal to a slightly younger gamer with less cash to splash, and the frustration of having so little time in each day to get anything done does wear on you a bit. If the daytime could be extended (such as by slowing the clock to 50% of its current speed), and have tasks use slightly less energy than they do currently, the game would be a lot more satisfying to play, as it is decently enjoyable - and the story is fun to progress through, uncovering the secrets of NewTube City and skyrocketing yourself to YouTube fame - if only it was this easy in real life!
In the end, we decided to give Youtubers Life 2 the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.
Have you played Youtubers Life 2 yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to RenaissancePR for the Youtubers Life 2 Xbox review code!
