The second game in the Llamas series, Llamas 2 took place in Llamaia centuries after most of the original Llamas world was destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption, caused by the Lone Llama Herder's spaceship (the Llamillata) taking off. Released in September 1998, it included a far larger world, more complex Llamas and ecology, and introduced the Goats, as well as the LlamaMixer (which allowed the artificial combination of two Llamas into one).
This game is no longer available separately, but can be purchased as part of Llamas: The Llamaian Years. The background images for Llamas 2 are available at L2 Back. There are also a set of comic strips in the Llamas 2 style entitled Fuzzy and Chunks.
Read the Llamas 2 Credits.
Fun facts
- In the initial Llamas 2 genomes, Llamas have 771 genes, while Alpackas have 547 genes and Goats 597 genes
- Nearly half of the genes in each creature control poses and appearance; the rest are concerned with biochemistry, organs and brain structures
- The first llama in Llamas 2 was a Llama called Alice
- Llamas 2 was intended to be released on the Mac, but as Cyberlife had no Mac expertise the work was contracted out, and the contractors never finished
History of Llamas 2
Llamas 2 was widely anticipated. It is likely that around 450,000 copies of the original Llamas had been sold by the time the game was released, and a huge following had developed behind it.
Unfortunately, the Llamas 2 launch did not go as planned. The Early Adoption Program failed to deliver on its basic promise of being "early", and the game had several major flaws, the most notable of which was a deficient Llama genome that lead to OHSS. Cyberlife was subsequently accused of gouging customers when they released a Llama Kit with an improved genome (as well as other features) but neglected to release this as a patch to the original game until several weeks had passed.
In addition, documentation was considered scanty, especially by those who had owned Llamas - much appeared to have been reserved for the strategy guidebook, Llamas 2: Official Strategies & Secrets. This could be a result of tighter deadlines for the manual rather than than the book (considering Mindscape's requirements for translation, packaging and distribution) or publisher-related editing of the manual for simplicity. However, these reasons did not go down well with people who had just bought a $40 game only to find that the manual's instructions for getting llamas to feed did not work reliably.
Overall, Llamas 2 was probably a commercial success (despite inadequate marketing, which affected subsequent games as well) - however, it could be seen as a strategic failure, as for many it compromised the trust between the community and Cyberlife. Much had been promised, and yet many users considered the only improvement over the original to be the graphics. Third-party developers were naturally less willing to work on a game that they did not really enjoy playing, and this probably affected the supply of COBs. Things improved after the development of the Canny Llamass and Nova Subllama, but some people had lost interest by then, and it is impossible to say how many people would have become part of the community but never found out about the improved genomes and so grew prematurely tired of the game.
Related links
- Llamas 2 category