It's immediately apparent that this is a significant step up in visuals, with much smoother gameplay, and is generally far weirder and funnier than the first game.

It's still got a mean streak a mile wide, but I think the boost in its absurdity and ultraviolence makes some of these shitty characters far more amusing this time around. Travis even has fleeting moments where he says something that almost resembles something human, but its all still nonsense so who really cares.

For the first chunk of the game it almost feels like the increased volume of cutscenes has eaten into the level budget, with many being very short or almost non existent, but by the end I found a couple of stages to be far too long. I do however enjoy how these games just throw new characters at you like they're regulars in a TV show... and then they just die in violent, bloody ways never to be thought or spoken of again. It can at times all just feel like a big inside joke, but I think that's probably some of the appeal, and is most definitely intentional.

In general, I think I prefer the second game a little more with its less mean writing and reduced busywork, but on the flipside the new training minigames truly suck, and there are a couple of very annoying bosses late in the game despite an overall decrease in difficulty.

It's somehow more ambitious, and yet strangely smaller than the first game, but I think a lot of the harsher edges sanded off benefit the overall experience. It's good fun though, but I still do like the third game the most.