Youtubers Life 2 Review – Fun Gameplay Hurt By Bugs and Crashes

The follow up to the popular 2016 management simulator Youtubers Life has finally released. The sequel called Youtubers Life 2 makes a number of new additions to the core game players loved five years ago taking it into the adventure-life realm with a new open-world experience. I got a chance to play a PlayStation 4 review copy on my PlayStation 5. Here’s my thoughts in HTR’s Youtubers Life 2 review.

Being a NewTuber is a Fun Gameplay Loop

You begin Youtubers Life 2 by creating a character then head off to NewTube City to take up residence. NewTube City is home to many characters and a wide variety of activities. The major activity you take part in is growing your NewTube channel. This can be done predominantly through posting content featuring gameplay, just chatting, unboxing, livestreams and other types of media.

Content is posted by completing different mini-games. Each mini-game serves a purpose and you can both succeed and fail at them. The better you do in the mini-games the better the content you create. Once you’ve made a video you then edit it and publish it to NewTube so the likes, follows, and money roll in.

To advance through the game you want to make as much content as possible. The more efficiently you do this the more you make, thus allowing you to upgrade your computer, purchase more consoles and games, buy new studio space, upgrade your apartment, and change the look of your NewTuber. New, better equipment means better videos which means better audience reception and growth.

The core gameplay loop works very well and I found it to be very fun. There is a nice mix of progression so you never feel like you are stagnating as long as you accomplish things each day. When you start upgrading things you can begin to really boost productivity making your videos and post more impactful. There is also a ranking system in the city with the ultimate goal of being the number 1 content creator. This main goal gives you a central focus and makes the grind more interesting as reaching certain milestones unlocks new locations around the city along with other bonuses.

The NewTube City is Bumping

When you are not creating content to grow your channel you can spend your time exploring New Tube city. The city itself is filled with stuff to do and explore. Like other games of this type there are a variety of seasonal activities to take part in like PlayCon, award shows, and more. There is ton of stuff you can do and a bunch of people to meet in town.

Many of the NPCs have special storylines attached to them and give special rewards making their completion interesting and rewarding. The more you get to know each resident the more you learn about them and why they are in NewTube City. Many of the storylines are interesting and fun to complete. If that’s not enough interaction there are eligible singles around you can meet and marry if domestic life is more of your jam.

Alongside the fictional NPCs are 10 real world YouTubers in the game. These YouTubers all have special quest lines featuring nods to their channels and content styles. Completing these questlines unlocks various YouTuber themed rewards you can place in your apartment to decorate and make it more personal.

Overall I was fairly impressed with the open-world aspect of the game. NewTube city feels like a living, breathing location with there being a surprising amount of shops, people, and activities to visit and interact with. There are some fun changes that occur as the different seasons progress. Winter, for example, brings snow to the city. Even some quests bring different weather or changes to the city to add a little bit of spice. This is welcome and makes spending hours upon hours in the city fun as it is constantly changing.

A Tube Full of Crashes and Bugs

While YouTubers Life 2 is a fun and enjoyable experience there is one glaring issue that reared its head across my 30+ hour playthrough. The game crashes, a lot. I initially experienced only a few issues in the first few seasons but once I reached year 2 of my playthrough the game consistently crashed whenever I went to bed. Because the game saves when you sleep often times a full day of progress would go unsaved resulting in having to replay the day and make the progress over again. Eventually it got so bad I could no long advance days as the game would crash whenever I slept, regardless of whether I did anything that day.

This is a very unfortunate issue that makes the game virtually unplayable in its current state on consoles. This issue will need to be fixed if you wish to play the game for extend periods of time. It is especially unfortunate for a game genre like this were serious progress can be made in a day only to be impeded by an unfortunate crash.

Besides crashing often there are a number of other bugs and issues that effect the experience. Things like strangely worded dialogue, disappearing characters, strange audio issues, quest issues, and stability issues. All of these issues can be patched and fixed, but it is unfortunate to see so many prevalent so close to launch.

Judgement

YouTubers Life 2 is a fun experience when it works blending a life simulator and adventure game fairly well. The core gameplay loop of making content and growing your channel. NewTube City is fun to explore and full of interesting characters. Unfortunately my experience with the game was filled with bugs and crashes that occurred far to frequently to outweigh the fun to be had. For the $29.99 and $39.99 price tags attached to this game the lack of general game stability is unfortunate. I recommend you wait for patches before diving into what could be a fun experience down the line.

6/10

Our review copy was provided by the developers of the game. YouTubers Life 2 launched on October 19th for Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.