What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord 2? is the sequel to What Did I Do to Deserve This?, a quirky dungeon builder/ simulator released by NIS last year. Originally titled Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman 2: Time to Tighten Up Security, it was forced to undergo a name change for certain legal reasons. Name changes aside, My Lord 2 does what any good sequel does; it builds on the first game without sacrificing everything that made the original fun.

My Lord 2 retains the original's presentation, but makes a few upgrades. The jump between games is akin to the upgrade between Mario 2 and Mario 3. It's not a major overhaul, but there's a noticeable amount of detail creeping around every corner of your underground fortress. It's a little plain compared to other games, but considering how much attention gameplay requires, bright, shiny things would only distract.

The most noteworthy visual improvement is the cleaner interface. The GUI is easier to understand and better laid out. This is great since managing a dungeon can become hectic.

While the original isn't exactly well known, the basic premise revolved around building a working eco-system in a dungeon that was able to sustain itself and protect Overlord Badman from pesky heroes.

Gameplay is split between three modes. Training serves as an introduction to the game and challenges you to work out solutions to scenarios that may come up in Story Mode. In some ways, the playing through Training Mode is a better introduction to the gameplay mechanics than playing the original. As much fun as it was, you were left to your own devices when trying to figure things out. I originally intended to drop in just to look around and ended up staying for longer than expected.

Story Mode presents you with five worlds composed of multiple levels. Playing as a magical pickaxe, each level presents you with a blank slate and the goal of creating a dungeon to protect the Overlord. Levels are split between two phases. You begin by carving out a dungeon and encouraging life to spring up and prosper, effectively creating a pool of soldiers to keep heroes at bay.

Once you've expended your build points, heroes will come knocking. No matter how good you think you did, it's a nail-biting experience every time the heroes visit. Design flaws jump out immediately and most of your happy family of monsters will meet an untimely death. This helps to emphasize My Lord 2's soul-crushing difficulty, but also helps you develop better strategies for your return trip (and you will return).

Badman's Chamber is a more relaxed mode and a great compliment to Training. This is the game's sandbox mode where you can build dungeons and witness the miracle of life. For a challenge, you can set restrictions on monster types or how many nutrients you have. It's great for chilling out, but also a fun way to experiment without having to worry about losing or heroes crashing the party.

Even with Training and Badman's Chamber, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord 2? is frustrating. When I say it's "soul-crushing," I mean it. It's heartbreaking to watch your fully functioning menagerie fall to pixilated heroes. All is not lost. My Lord 2 offers plenty of opportunity to experiment and learn the mechanics' subtleties. It never becomes overwhelming, but patience is a virtue and mandatory if you want to make any sort of progress.

One useful new addition is the ability to create earthquakes. If you have enough leftover power, you can shake the entire level, stunning any heroes. It's more of a stopgap measure than anything else, but can sometimes give your defenses enough time to regroup.

My Lord 2 knows it's a challenging experience and does everything it can to dull the edge. Pacing is a little smoother than the first game and doesn't dump a bunch of information on you without offering the chance at baby steps. Once you're stumbling though, it will do everything it can to knock you down. Gameplay moves at a nice tempo though, so even if you're forced to restart, you're only losing out on five or ten minutes of your time.

Knowing how to create, manipulate and sustain a working eco-system is everything. Dungeons start as a series of blocks you can begin to chip away. Building a functioning dungeon is the first big step towards success. It's tempting to start hacking away at bricks, though doing so will usually lead to failure. The key is making something that is challenging for heroes to navigate, but also supports the transfer of nutrients and mana.

As you break blocks, Slimemoss will begin to appear. These non-descript creatures spread goo throughout your labyrinth and make up the foundation for the rest of your food chain. As nutrients build up, they begin to collect in unbroken tiles. Smashing a nutrient-rich tile frees an Omnom, the next step up in the food chain and your first line of defense. As time progresses Lizardmen show up, adding another group of monsters to your motley zoo.

Mana works in the same way as nutrients, only they give rise to even more powerful monsters like dragons, demons and Liliths. It's important to make sure nutrients and mana are distributed across your level evenly, otherwise you'll end up with a few massive choke points in an mostly empty cavern. Since monsters will also eat each other, you need to make sure the population doesn't consume itself. It's a tricky job, but incredibly rewarding when you strike the right balance.

Failure to find equilibrium will result in mutations, another new feature. For example, if your Lizardman population gets out of control, the Omnoms will develop defenses against them. Conversely, if there aren't enough Omnoms, Lizardmen will become slower. Mutations can yield just as many benefits as they do consequences, adding yet another layer of complexity.

My Lord 2 comes in two flavors, UMD or PlayStation Network download. The UMD version is a little pricier ($30), but packs in the original game as well. The PSN download doesn't take up a lot of space and is $10 cheaper. While two games for one is enticing, the sequel is such an improvement you might not want to go back.

What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord 2? is a challenging, quirky game. It comes highly recommended for strategy fans, but probably won't appeal to anyone outside of that demographic. Even if you're curious, the steep learning curve might chase you off.