Review NaN of 39
, from St. Petersburg, FL
Price Paid:
$30.00
from Blockbuster Summary:
I can remember a great game I once played called "Parasite Eve." It was an Action/RPG with great graphics, an engaging storyline, a likable heroine, and monsters that made your flesh crawl. I liked it enough that I couldn't wait for the sequel to come out. Now I've played that sequel, and one thing is going through my mind.
WTF?
"Parasite Eve II" can be considered a classic example of how NOT to make a sequel. The main reason for this can be summed up in one word. Gameplay.
Unlike the original, PE2 is not an RPG. It seems that the designers have taken a great potential franchise and turned it into a poor man's Fear Effect or Resident Evil, complete with the same lousy car-control steering you've all come to know and love from both games. To put it bluntly: When I press "left" on my gamepad or analog stick, Aya should move left, dammit! Instead, she rotates left. And not always my left, either. No, that would be too simple. It's always Aya's left. A minor detail, easily forgotten when you're doing something important, such as trying to get out of the way of some creature hellbent on disembowlling you.
But it can't be that bad, right? Well, let me put it to you this way: After getting my butt kicked due to such utterly crappy controls, it took all the restraint I had not to throw my PSone out the window. Aya steers like a pregnant whale. It's annoying when you're just trying to get from point A to point B; it's utterly frustrating (don't you dare tell me that it adds to the challenge) when you go into battle. Call me a naive old-timer from the 8-bit Nintendo age, but I still believe that controller and character should move as one, so that the player can get into the mind of the character and become him or her. That's what an RPG is all about.
Oh wait, I forgot. This isn't an RPG. My bad.
Another place where Squaresoft went wrong is the elimination of random encounters. While some may think that having fixed enemies that don't regenerate until you trigger a part of the story that's needed is a good thing, it was just another painful reminder of how much PE2 had strayed from the RPG genre. A limitted amount of enemies makes for a limitted amount of experience and bounty points. Even after clearing out entire areas twice over, I found that I didn't have enough BP to buy the type of weapons and armor I wanted, or enough "experience" (and I use that term loosely) to upgrade/unlock my Parasite Powers. This is a type of problem that shouldn't be in ANY video game, let alone an RPG sequel.
Story-wise, it has a solid plot, but doesn't stand up to the original, based on what I've played. Aya has moved from NY to LA and has joined an FBI devision by the name of MIST, whose job is to mop up all the Neo-Mitochondrian Creatures left over by Eve. And to make matters worse, humans are being turned into NMCs as well.
However, there are two positive things to note about PE2: The new and improved spells (much more offense oriented than in the original, and would have been welcome in the original as opposed to being wasted on this tripe.) And the graphics are... well, it's a Squaresoft game. What more can you say?
Overall, if you were looking for a good RPG sequel to a great RPG, don't bother with this game. Come to think of it, don't bother with this game unless you're a huge fan of the survival/horror genre. Report this review >>
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