Reus 2, released in 2024 by developer Abbey Games, is the sequel to their previous title, Reus. As with the previous title, the game is a blend of puzzle and God Game elements, with an emphasis on setting up synergies between the different biomes and "Biotica" — plants, animals, and minerals — spread across the world.
Similar to the first game, the player has the ability to alter the layout and contents of a planet by giving orders to Giants, enormous, god-like creatures associated with particular biomes. Their ultimate goal is to maximize humans' Prosperity, as measured by each human settlement's access to Food, Science, and Gold. Unlike the first game, each village is now associated with one of nine Leaders, each of whom provides different benefits and prefers different resources.
In 2025, the Cataclysm update released alongside the Ice Age expansion. The former added relationships between cities, allowing friendship or war, as well as relationships between cities and Giants which can result in cities building shrines to your Giants if they like them, or attacking them if they don't. The latter added a variant on the Frost Giant that can create a new Ice Age biome, plus four new Leaders and four new Turning Points to shape your worlds with.
The six Giants present in Reus 2 are:
- The Forest Giant, Satari, returning from the first game. Its primary biome is the Forest, a straightforward biome which mostly provides Food.
- The Swamp Giant, Reginald, returning from the first game. Its primary biome is the Rainforest, which mostly provides Science and Food. Rainforests thrive on variety, with many local Biotica gaining benefits from high overall Biodiversity or from being entirely unique within the biome.
- The Ocean Giant, Khiton, returning from the first game. Its primary biome is the Ocean; areas close to the nearest coastline will be Shallow, while areas far from the nearest coastline will be Deep, and some Biotica can only live in one or the other. Instead of prioritizing one particular type of resource, Ocean biotica specialize in providing Mystery, which grants a different mix of resources depending on what Leader has access to them.
- The Savanna Giant, Jangwa, new to the sequel. Its primary biome is the Savanna, which mostly provides Food and Gold. Some Biotica in the Savanna gain bonuses based on the other Biotica in the same row, making careful placement especially important; others gain a Set Bonus based on getting as many of a certain tag or type of Biotica as possible.
- The Rock Giant, Atlas, returning from the first game. Its primary biome is the Desert, which mostly provides Gold. Many Desert Biotica benefit from being near empty slots (or Biotica with the "Barren" tag); others have a high base yield, but lose effectiveness when particular conditions are met.
- The Frost Giant, Aegir, new to the sequel. Its primary biome is the Taiga, which mostly provides Science and Gold, and comes with two entirely unique mechanics:
- Certain Biotica gain benefits based on their distance from the nearest city, encouraging you to make long stretches of Taiga with remote Biotica. You can also artificially increase distance by placing Biotica with the "Lost" tag.
- In addition to tracking overall Biodiversity, Taiga biomes track "Ruggedness," which increases with mineral deposits, mountains, and predators, and decreases when food is plentiful.
- The Ice Age DLC adds a variant of Aegir, who can create the Ice Age Taiga, which mostly provides Food and Gold, as well as a few unique mechanics.
- Some biotica have the Extinct tag, causing them to automatically disappear on an age transition, while upgrading the node they were located on.
- Other biotica have the Evolve tag, meaning you can only place one of that biotica. However, it then unlocks a random other biotica and boosts its output.
Reus 2 contains examples of:
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only bring three Giants to any given planet: one that can create Plants, one that can create Animals, and one that can create Minerals. This, in turn, limits the number of biomes and Terraform abilities you have access to.
- Art Evolution: Abbey Games' artstyle underwent a noticeable improvement, becoming more painterly and detailed than it's predecesor. The forest and swamp giants designs' were overhauled from their original iterations, Satari now has a more a primate posture with a huge canopy for hair, and Reginald went from being a sentient mass of swamp-water to a tortoise.
- Elemental Giant: Like in the previous game, the giants are living embodiments of their respective elements.
- Evil, Inc.: One of the more morally dubious Turning Points involves helping the up-and-coming Sludge Corp become ludicrously wealthy by monopolizing the world's food supply, hurting the enviroment in the process.
- Geo Effects: Two types.
- "Boosters" are randomly generated on certain tiles (and re-rolled whenever you upgrade those tiles). Depending on the type, they might boost a specific type of Biotica, a particular resource, or all resources generated by Biotica placed on that tile.
- Each Giant can add a unique feature to the planet using Terraform Charges. For example, Atlas and Aegir can create different types of mountain, creating additional slots with guaranteed boosters, while Reginald can create an "invasive spot" occupied by any Biotica at all, regardless of its usual native biome(s).
- It's All About Me: The Goddess thinks the world revolves around her, and part of her requests will always be that she has more gold than one of her neighbors.
- Lighter and Softer: The "Greed" mechanic from the first game has been entirely removed, and even if you select one of the "evil" Turning Points, you're still working with humanity, never against it. And the giants don't sleep at the end of a playthough, dooming the planet's inhabitants.
- Rage Against the Heavens: If you ignore a city's request, they can grow to hate your giants, even attacking them if they get annoyed enough. Your giants can fend them off easily enough, but if you do lose one, you get a Game Over.
- Video Game Caring Potential: You're encouraged to create a healthy, varied world, and to provide ample resources to the humans that dwell on it. You can also defend cities from invasion.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: However, depending on the Turning Points you pick, you may also get the opportunity to foster and unleash a zombie plague, feed the world to an Eldritch Abomination, or pollute everything and destroy all reliable sources of food. You can also aid invasions or damage cities for the heck of it, with each Giant having their own natural disaster to unleash.