PlanetDreamcast | Games | Reviews | Evolution 2

Evolution 2 Page 2/2 Another dungeon, another coma. - Review By Mr. Domino The Bad The new town looks nice... I had high hopes for Evolution 2, and my first trip through the Blaze Ruins really made me think Sting had a winner. There are pits in the first dungeon which can lead your party to a new area that is inaccessible from any other method, but unfortunately such puzzle-like gameplay (the hallmark of any good dungeon crawl) is completely absent aside from this initial occurrence. Adding insult to injury, Mag only finds a map after applying his brain to fall down the correct pit. Another nice touch was that the Blaze Ruins are a relatively short and a quick romp (a small dent in the game's 100+ lengthy levels of exploration). It also doesn't have the mundane, recycled look of past Evolution dungeons. Sadly, it really seems that Sting gave up on designing something interesting and worthwhile halfway through completing this first area. While the original game's dungeons weren't that good, their random nature at least offered up some new stuff to explore every trip. With Evolution 2's fixed dungeons, the total lack of good level design really hurts the game, and makes for a boring, repetitive experience. There are secret rooms hidden in the dungeons, but finding them is just a matter of banging away at the button while running along walls. It's disappointing that these fixed dungeons still sport Evolution's randomly-generated, stale look -- the developers spent no time sprucing the layouts up beyond their basic "line and box" appearance. In reality, E2 offers up the worst of both worlds -- the haphazard layouts of E1, but with none of the variety afforded by its random nature. Another aspect which hurts the game is the automap feature. Both Evolution games feature an automap function, and such an extra completely destroys any navigation skills which could have made such a dungeon romp enjoyable. With an automap, a dungeon exploration game basically guides the player by the hand and removes a good bit of the challenge, since it is impossible to get lost. The game is also too easy, Bad guy. both finding your way through the levels and defeating enemies, up until the last area in which the game skyrockets in difficulty. The final encounters feature attacks which can kill your party in a single blow if you haven't attained enough levels, at which point you'll find yourself leveling up just so that you can live through that first attack. When I reached the end, I had to gain another eight levels before I was strong enough to win the game, resulting in many tedious battles that I could have lived without. I suppose there are people who may find leveling up just for the sake of leveling up fun, but I am not one of them. One of the neatest things about the original was the story, with Mag Launcher and cast delving into the dungeons to uncover artifacts to sell to repay the Launcher family debt. One of the good things about this system was how selling these appraisal items were the only way Mag could make some real money aside from completing a dungeon and getting a reward. In the first game, the player had to decide on whether or not to keep those relics or make room for life replenishing Naolin. However, in Evolution 2 the game automatically sets aside relics in their own separate list which does not detract from Mag's storage capacity, destroying all of the strategic inventory maintenance which gave the original a real sense of adventuring. Evolution 2 keeps most of the music from the first game, which just reeks of laziness. I also still can't figure out why Sting even bothers to include a jump button and animate all the characters for it when the game never ever requires jumping (after all, the first game only used it once for a pretty bland sequence which should have been left on the cutting room floor). Finally, the story this time around is really, really stupid. Evolution certainly won't win any awards for its script, but at least its shallow but cute story made sense. Of course, the development time between the two games is minimal, so players really shouldn't be expecting a huge leap over the original. I could overlook a lot of this recycling and problems if the game made some worthwhile improvements over the original, but on most counts it fails to do that. The Final Word Evolution 2 is a good example of how a developer can fumble a franchise loaded with possibility with just a few choice mistakes. A decent start leads to a disappointing, tedious finish. While Evolution 2 certainly retains the charm of the original game, players will not be able to cast the game's flaws aside as easily as before. Developer: Sting Publisher: Ubi Soft Genre: RPG Highs: Cute characters, Good Japanese voice acting, Decent battle system. Lows: Extremely boring fixed dungeons, Recycled music, Unbalanced difficulty. Other: 1 player, VMU Compatible (10 blocks per save, Linear Clock (a very cute clock program) takes up 30 blocks), VGA Box Compatible, Jump Pack Compatible. Media: Intro (MPEG) - An unremarkable intro. [Big (12.1M)] - [Med (6.5M)] - [Small (1.4M)] Gameplay 1 (MPEG) - E2's first enemy encounter. Players of the first game will feel at home. [Big (17.7M)] - [Med (9.5M)] - [Small (2M)] Final Score: (out of a possible 10) Visit this Game's Dreamcast Database Entry Previous Reviews Comments on this review? Mail Feedback.