Once you've beaten the first boss, and once the storyline cinematics begin to increase, it's at this point where the game itself truly derails and initial joy turns to sorrow. By the time you become accustomed to the game's fighting and hunting mechanics, you've assured yourself of beating it. Wandering around becomes tedious, because you know you're not going to die. To add insult to injury, for every hour of actual gameplay, you must sit through another hour of cinema scenes. The next boss offers 15 minutes of plot development, the one after that offers 20 minutes, and the one after that offers another 15 minutes, and so it goes. You don't even control Laura on the fourth disc until a half-hour-long cinema has played. By the time you finish the game, you've spent more than two-thirds of your time watching the story take place, as if you're taking part in an interactive movie rather than a video game. Sure, it's nice to see Laura regain her memory and come in contact with the other crash survivors, but is a loss of gameplay a fair cost for this? This is the question that D2 forces upon those who play it.
Outside of the obvious gameplay conundrum, D2 has a plethora of minor issues as well. The game is set in the Canadian Arctic, but Laura is wearing a skirt. Why does she not freeze to death? Secondly, if Laura is hurt or fatally wounded during the course of plot development, she is resurrected, but if she dies in battle, the game ends. What's with that? Furthermore, while Kimberly, Jannie, Parker, and the rest of the cast speak volumes, Laura utters only nine words during the entire course of the game, five of which are repeats. This leads to another aggravating problem: While Laura, the mute that she is, and the supporting cast are all superbly acted and are flowing with life, the one character who is poorly executed happens to be the one with the greatest overall screen time - Kimberly. Her lip's out of sync, her voice is devoid of emotion, and the stops and starts in her performance leave much to be desired.
Despite minimal gameplay and a poor voice actor, D2 is not a total failure. While it may not pack much in the way of actual gameplay, the story it tells, the visuals behind it, and the soundtrack supporting it are top-notch. Be it the initial encounter with Parker, the confrontation with Jannie's grandfather, or the later reunion of Laura with her mother, the full-motion cinematics and plot are a masterwork of storytelling. Not since Metal Gear Solid has a video game been this captivating. As you progress, you can't help but become immersed in Laura's search for David, Kimberly's fight for sanity, Parker's battle with illness, or the terror that Death, the final destroyer, holds. Furthermore, the game's many plot twists are near impossible to deduce, which results in a story that is both gripping and non-contrived.
Despite technically being a first-generation game, D2's visual style and graphical beauty nearly equals that of Capcom's more recent Resident Evil: Code Veronica. While the graphics are a tad rough around the edges, the game's arctic environment and sinister atmosphere actually create an ambience greater than that of Code Veronica, simply because the plausibility of it all makes Laura's plight ten times more frightening. The game's location is based upon a real place, not an artificial environment. D2 also shows us why people are mutating, making it poignantly clear that the same fate could happen to us. Furthermore, unlike Code Veronica, D2 is graphic in such a way that you actually see creatures come into physical contact with people. Earning the game's M rating, you see people ripped apart, you see them mutate, and you see them utterly abused. With 60-frames-per second animation, high polygon counts, little to no slowdown, and tons of oozing tentacles, D2's visual experience is solidly sickening.
If the game's rich story and gorgeous visuals don't make up for its lack of gameplay, D2 has another ace up its sleeve, the soundtrack. Whereas Kenji Eno proves himself a master storyteller with D2, his true forte has always been musical scores. From the frantic crescendos of Enemy Zero and D to his early work with Gainax, Eno is a true virtuoso when it comes to creating auditory backdrops. As impossible as it may seem, D2's in-game musical score is his crowning achievement. The hauntingly soothing mountain melodies combined with the jarring bass of enemy encounters creates an experience that's altogether chilling and relaxing at the same time. On a personal level, I rarely become enamored with a video game's soundtrack, but D2 got to me, and it did so in every possible way. From a strictly musical level, D2's soundtrack is so perfect that it makes competing offerings, namely Code Veronica and Silent Hill, seem amateurish and ill-conceived by comparison.
Ultimately, despite a near-perfect showing in graphics, sound and story, D2 boils down to a battle of pros and cons. Taken in pieces, the game has an excellent interface, a number of innovative gameplay features, and enough variety to satisfy even the most jaded gamer. However, these features don't mesh well, the game itself is too easy, and the quest is far too short compared to other survival horror offerings. Kenji Eno has created one of the most engaging stories of all time and given it support in every way possible, except the one that matters most: gameplay. Still, with an A+ story, uniquely mature visuals, and a glowing soundtrack, D2 is a game to be highly recommended, provided you don't mind a weekend rent.
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