The D in D2 must stand for dumb. Almost everything about this game is dumb.
D2 begins with a plane crash in the Canadian tundra. Laura is one of the few survivors.
Practically mute, she has the most peculiar behavioral patterns. Never before has a character
gotten out of bed with so much precision and grace.
Complimenting this fakeness is the horrendous dialogue writing. The characters are forced to
utter loads of expository dialogue that would make any SAG member cringe.
The in-game cinemas are blocky and unattractive. The sound is equally refined, as it sounds like
every noise was taken from a cheap sound effects CD.
The snowy landscapes are not as impressive as one would expect. As a result, the game does not
quite capture the feeling of being stranded in extreme weather. Laura running around in a red
skirt, oblivious to the freezing cold, also undermines the game's credibility.
The music sounds exactly like Parasite Eve in places, just as the game play is a rip-off of
Resident Evil. The endless, mindless battles with alien trash are about as fun as being probed
and tagged.
Also aggravating is the strange branch structure of "looking around." How the heck am I going
to explain this one? Here goes: Say you're in a truck, and you want to look around. Imagine a
first-person point of view.
At the moment, you see the steering wheel in front of you. You notice the glove box on the
right. Naturally, you push the control stick to the right. Next, you have to push up to look
closer.
Now here comes the weird part. To look back at the steering wheel, you can't just press Left.
You have to pull back to the wider view and then pan left. This is ridiculous.
To make matters worse, some items, even in plain sight, require you to hold the Y button to
"spot." When you are looking in the general area of certain items (again, in plain sight), you
have to press Y, which results in a periscope-like circular field of vision.
You then press A to grab the item as normal. Were the developers so at a loss to construct real
game play that they decided to "challenge" us with this nonsense?
Little bugs in the game contribute to the sloppy overall impression. The very first playable
portion of the game… turns out to be unplayable. Before you can shoot, the game advances to
the next cinema as if you had already shot the alien.
The text in the archives area cuts off the lower portion of letters, making g's look like a's. When
you scroll down, you get a glimpse of what's missing, but you can't stop the scrolling to get a
good look.
One novelty I did enjoy was hunting for food. Hares and caribou are fair game, thanks to a mean
rifle with a zoom sighting scope. A portable cooker turns a day's catch into a fine meal.
This game really makes you appreciate Capcom's mastery of pacing and suspense. D2 seems to
think its premise will carry it all the way. Unfortunately, the game is mostly a bore.
Publisher: Sega