03/22/01

D2 

System : Dreamcast 

MSRP : 39.99 (but WAY more likely to be less now.) 

Genre : Survival Horror 

 Spiders. The Ebola Virus. Hearing Kathie Lee Gifford sing. These are some things that most human beings are frightened of. After playing D2, I can add it to that list, but at least I was frightened in a good way.

 The story is centered around Laura Parton, the heroine from the first two games (D and Enemy Zero) in which she is involved in a plane crash in which a meteor downs the flight she was on (while it was getting hijacked...cue snickering) and she somehow survived for 10 days after the crash, looking no worse for wear along with a small child. Apparently as well, the meteor was part of some prophecy seen by a cult that is somehow tied in with the strange parasitic aliens that are taking over humans in the Canadian wilderness where the plane went down. And you thought your weekend was exciting. As goofy as the story gets (Honestly, it's a little less goofy when you see it yourself instead of it being explained to you. A little, not much though.) you won't be paying attention to it because you'll be too frickin' scared. The alien parasites love to just pop up out of no where, looking like deformed human beings, and making godawful noises that will make you cringe a few times. I can honestly say I enjoyed the atmosphere of the game and caught myself going "Oh my God..." more than once.

 D2 really tries to please on all fronts and graphically it is no different. The characters in the game look really well modeled, almost, but not quite Shenmue beautiful (they're just TOO rigid looking...) even though the monster design, in my opinion, is spectacular. The genuinely look frightening, especially when you're so used to the whole shuffling, wait for 5 years to attack zombies of Resident Evil. The icy Canadian wasteland looks nice as well, but all that white tends to just make it a bit hard on the eyes, especially when you're trying to make it back to a certain point.

 D2's weak point has got to be sound. Even with the nice environmental audio of the arctic wind blowing about, the character voices are comparatively lame. Not quite as bad as Resident Evil's legacy of awful voice acting (I'm Steeeeve. I'm whiiiiiiny.), but nowhere near as good as it could be (Sword Of the Berzerk comes to mind.) The monsters' screeches are suited to what they're coming out of, but they gradually get annoying as well. Also, I noticed that on occasion, the FMV's audio would drop out of synch, which led me to believe that I was watching a bad Japanese dubbing of a disaster movie.

 The control for the most part was unobtrusive and user friendly. Moving around is (thankfully) not Resident Evil style and is just push the analog and go, although Laura tends to be a bit of a slow walker, bad news for the impatient. Item selection is easy to navigate (just L or R to select items or weapons? Great!) and your pause menu give you detailed information on whatever item you select. But where it gets a little meddling is the fighting. Gameplay switches to a 1st person fighting view where you control a crosshair and blast the hell outta a parasite with whatever gun you have (which your main one, an Uzi [!] thankfully has unlimited ammo that only needs to be reloaded once it's cartridge is spent.) But this is easier said than done sometimes. You cannot move around during a fight, so your only hope is to turn quickly with the X and B buttons and HOPE you don't get assaulted by enemies when you're focusing on one. Any game that gives the opportunity for free hits and leaves you with no true defense needs to get a better game plan. This was really my only true complaint, even though the fights tend to get a little monotonous and (although I hadn't, shamefully) I have heard the game is surprisingly short.

 Overall, I came in expecting an awful Resident Evil clone of a game and now I want to buy it. Go figure. Despite its supposedly short run (I say supposedly because the game IS four discs) D2 looks like it could scare the pants off some people with its decidedly nice movie pacing (the stewardess boss scene is fondly though of) , graphics that rival a lot of the stuff on the DC and...well...just a good old time. Just leave a light on, would you? 

The Reverend Mofat Jones is still REALLY, REALLY scared of Evil Dead : Hail to The King. Please don't make him play it again.

-Mofat

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