D2 by Sega of America
for Sega Dreamcast
Review
by : Russ
Ray
Not that
it's a bad thing, but the success of Resident Evil
really oversaturated the video game market with horror video
games. Very few bring anything new to the table, but in the
case of D2, there is at least an attempt to get away
from the norm.
Laura,
the game's main character, is one of the few remaining survivors
of an airplane crash in northern Canada. The crash (caused
by a meteorite striking the plane) is curiously timed with
a terrorist attack on the plane and the appearance of human
"blossoms" near the crash site. Many of the survivors were
turned into monsters, which burst out of the human hosts like
a flower. The appearance of the monsters is quite startling,
as are the moans of the still-living human beings attached
to them. The object of the game is to head south before getting
killed and turned into a monster.
That's
the most clever thing about D2. There is a simplistic
explanation right out of a 50's creature feature that human
blood is red and monster blood is green, and that's supposedly
the only way you know if a person is a host. I also find it
silly that Laura traipses around in Arctic temperatures through
a foot or two of snow in a business suit with a miniskirt.
Hypothermia is not an option for death in the game. The rifle
is also an annoying option, which allows you to hunt rabbits,
birds and caribou for food. If Laura didn't shake the freaking
rifle so damn much, you might be able to hit something. And,
if she's that cold, then she should have a damn coat on.
D2
employs an old RPG method of combat where the monsters spring
out of nowhere and fight you. The firing of the machine gun
is not very intuitive and is more like flying a plane. If
you want to shoot up, you have to aim down, and vice versa.
You also have to hit some of the control pad buttons to turn
a full 90 degrees instead of just moving the control stick
left and right. The neat thing is that all the combat phases
give Laura experience points (just like a real RPG), thus
increasing her shooting skills and her endurance as she fights
more powerful monsters.
Walking
around in the world of D2 is fairly easy, but sometimes
Laura ends up running in circles if you're not careful. A
left- and right-trigger set-up on the Dreamcast probably would
have worked better for turning in place or maybe just a normal
8-direction set-up. The controls are a bit rough, but tolerable.
My main
complaint about the game, though, are the movie sequences
that can't be skipped through. Although there is an optional
opening movie that explains the crash, the actual game starts
out with Laura recovering in a cabin and a monster attack.
Too bad that it takes over 5 minutes to let the thing play
out. There's no way to stop it or skip over it. In addition,
the voices are dubbed in and don't match the characters speaking
movements. It's not a totally bad thing, but it is lazy programming,
I think.
If you're
a fan of games like Carrier, the Resident Evil
series, and Parasite Eve, then D2 might at least
be worth a rental to try out at home. Don't expect anything
phenomenal from the game, but do expect to be intrigued and
entertained.
|
