Beyond The Ice Palace 2 Review: Should You Buy It Now for PlayStation 5?

by Jim Smale · March 11, 2025

Dive into our in-depth Beyond The Ice Palace 2 review for PlayStation 5, where we break down the gameplay, graphics, and overall experience of this highly anticipated sequel. Discover whether this game lives up to the hype and if it’s worth adding to your PS5 collection. Keep reading to find out if Beyond The Ice Palace 2 is the next must-play title for gamers and enthusiasts alike.

Beyond The Ice Palace 2 Review Pros:

Beautiful pixel art graphics.
701.2MB download size.
Platinum trophy.
Action Metroidvania gameplay.
2.5D game World.
Tutorial pop ups as you play.
Heavily inspired by the Castlevania series.
Your whip is used for attacks, but also grabbing and ripping open doors and chests, you use it to grapple hoops, and for breaking enemy shields.
Being 2.5D means you can go up and down the world with the ledges and stairs like in other games in the genre.
Breakable objects and candles to be broken for possible drops.
Health bar system, and you collect food to replenish.
Gold can drop from enemies and breakable, use these at shops to buy items and materials.
Power crystals can be earned, found, and crafted. Sit at the Guardian throne and use these to increase your stats like – vitality, strength, and rage.
Awesome soundtrack with horror undertones.
Rage is a bar you fill up when attacking and then press the buttons to activate rage mode, which makes you stronger for a time.
Locations have so much depth from secret areas to alternate routes.
The game looks fantastic and very 16 bit.
Controls are simple enough, but you can remap the controls from the pause menu.
Excellent animations.
Play timer in the pause menu.
Big boss encounters.
Straight from the off you can slide, jump kick, and grab onto ledges.
Dodge has a cool down, but timing it, does a perfect dodge and gives you a window of opportunity.
Blood chalices can be found, and these let you instantly respawn with full health.
Play how you want to a certain degree, a lot of the world is open and you have many opportunities to go exploring.
Craft power crystals with crystal fragments, and trade pearls into weapon upgrades.
Damage numbers pop up as you attack and get hit.
Enemies will respawn when you leave and return to an area.
Possible to farm for random drops and build up cash, etc.
A cool mechanic is that some enemies, once killed, will go down, you then have a short window to get to their body and press a button to stomp them to kill them completely, otherwise they get back up.
Many enemy types.
The locations look really cool.
Unlock and use fast travel points.
Puzzle elements scattered through the world.
Fast loading times.
The forge acts as a safe hub area and here you can level up, craft, and upgrade weapons.
If you die, you lose all gold in your. Visit save locations to bank your gold.
Auto saves frequently when you just walk over a save point rather than interact with them.
A lot of rooms and caves will be dark and you get a generous light around you, but it’s still small enough to make you cautious.
It’s a game that scratches many itches and feels like a Castlevania remix.
Enemies like fire dudes will throw firebombs and set the ground on light or burn away grass.
Do not underestimate how bad ass it fills ripping doors open with your whip.

Beyond The Ice Palace 2 Review Cons:

The issue with games like this is that the screen can be so bright and full that it’s hard to make out ledges, obstacles, power-ups, etc.
No game settings like Colourblind mode or difficulty.
Only one game save.
The whip swinging is tedious and not as smooth as you would like.
At times the game gets very swing heavy making a simple task a real pain in the ass.
Boss fight can be very claustrophobic, which makes moving around a lot harder.
I don’t like how grappling a hoop is not adjustable in terms of the length, so you can jump and put yourself in more danger than before.
Major platforming bits can be tedious with grapple ledges not always smooth or responsive.
Having the level ups tied to crystals means you cannot just Farm areas and exp to get better. More a pain when stuck in a boss fight.
No voice work.
There is no real loot as it were, like items and weapons.