D2 - Sega Dreamcast
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Product information
ASIN | B0000488VR |
---|---|
Release date | August 22, 2000 |
Customer Reviews |
3.1 out of 5 stars |
Best Sellers Rank | #82,254 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games) #61 in Sega Dreamcast Games |
Product Dimensions | 5.6 x 4.9 x 1.1 inches; 3.2 ounces |
Type of item | Video Game |
Rated | Mature |
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
Item Weight | 3.2 ounces |
Manufacturer | Sega of America, Inc. |
Date First Available | September 4, 2000 |
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Product Description
Product description
Disc(s) only. Ships in generic case. Disc(s) are professoinally cleaned. Guaranteed functional or replacement.
Amazon.com
The long-delayed cinematic adventure game D2 has finally surfaced on the Dreamcast. Despite several years in development by innovative Japanese game design team Warp, D2 seems to suffer from a lack of solid gameplay. Fortunately, the gaming environment is stunning to look at.
D2 offers gamers a curious combination of adventurous exploration and first-person shooting. Gamers assume the role of airplane crash survivor Laura (not to be confused with game icon Lara Croft of Tomb Raider infamy). The game begins with Laura embarking on an airplane flight that soon goes horribly wrong. The plane is hijacked by a handful of terrorists--but that effort is foiled when a meteor crashes into the plane. Laura emerges as one of the few survivors of the plane wreck, which has occurred somewhere in the mountains of Canada. Laura must try to survive the icy elements by routinely killing and cooking cute bunnies for food as she travels through the snowy terrain. Animal activists might object to the casual nature of these deaths, which are essential to winning the game.
Several tentacle-wielding creatures attack Laura frequently during her travels. When this occurs, the game immediately shifts from third-person to first-person perspective. While these point-and-shoot segments are challenging at first, they soon become tedious. It is impossible to travel more than a few feet without being attacked--and Laura must travel quite a bit to advance the game. Despite the presence of impressive graphics, these action segments amount to little more than a glorified version of the mass-market PC game Deer Hunter.
Still, the ambitious world of D2 is worth a look and a listen. This game is highly stylized in design, including several artistic cinema sequences that will keep you riveted. A stunning new age-meets-opera soundtrack accompanies the title screen, while creepy instrumental music adds tension in all the right places.
With an awkward balance of both adventure and action elements, D2 ultimately succeeds more as a curiosity than a remarkable gaming coup. --Brett Atwood
Pros:
- Art-house appeal for eclectic gamers
- High-quality animation
- Awkward gameplay
- Tedious and repetitious action sequences
Review
Originally conceived and even partially developed for 3DO's ill-fated M2 console, Warp's D2 has been in the works for more than three years now. While the name would indicate a sequel to the eponymous D (originally released for the 3DO, Sega Saturn, and Sony PlayStation), the only relation it bears to its predecessor is the main protagonist, Laura. While the original concept for D2 put Laura's unnamed son in the lead role, it is Laura once again who basks in the game's limelight. According to Warp impresario Kenji Eno, D2 is to be Laura's last appearance as the main character in one of Warp's games, and what a game it is: part CG, part FMV, part real-time third-person adventure, and lastly, part first-person shooter. While Warp's previous games (with the exception of Real Sound) all touched on these various features, D2 makes the ambitious leap into combining all of these disparate elements into one highly anticipated stew. In this pseudosequel, Laura is a passenger on a plane flying high above the Canadian mountains, which, as fate would have it, is moments away from being skyjacked. Once the onboard terrorists reveal themselves, all hell breaks loose - conveniently displayed in computer-generated FMV. As if the chaos wasn't enough, a meteorite blows a hole through one of the plane's wings, causing it to plummet to the ground, making a wreckage of the plane and its passengers. Of course, Laura survives, along with Kimberly Fox and young Jannie, two other passengers on the plane. After a short opening sequence, which sets up the plot and introduces Parker Jackson, another pivotal character, the game begins. Strangely, despite every character having loads of things to talk about, Laura herself says but three words throughout the entire game. The bulk of the gameplay revolves around a few basic functions: walking around and exploring, watching extensive chunks of FMV, and shooting things. The walking around parts can get rather tedious, because unlike the shooting parts, the exploratory bits are handled via a third-person (think Tomb Raider) perspective. While this was probably an aesthetic decision based on the desire to bring Laura into full-on 3D, it adds almost nothing to the gameplay. Since you spend the majority of the game walking or running from place to place, but have no other abilities except using items (first-aid spray) and rudimentary hunting (shoot bunnies for food), you get all the foibles of 3D gaming (awkward control, bad camera angles) without any of the benefits. The control is awkward because D2 adopts a Resident Evil method of control (push forward to move forward, press left and rotate left, etc.). While this may be of use in a Tomb Raider type of game where alignment and positioning are important, in a game where running is your main task, it proves virtually useless. A Super Mario 64-like movement scheme would have solved many a headache in this game. Another source of extreme annoyance is the random battle elements. For every ten to fifteen virtual feet you walk, anywhere from one to three monsters will pop up out of the snow-covered landscape and "surprise" you. These monsters are all plant-mutated folks who have caught something a bit worse than influenza and as a result would like to kill you for breakfast. While these appearances may come as something of a shock when you first see them, nine hours later they are merely predictable and aggravating. While each successfully completed encounter adds a few more points to Laura's experience meter, and in time raises her levels, the only effect this has is to raise her hit points and steady her aim. This could have been better achieved by fewer random encounters that were a little more challenging and worth more points. When these creatures appear, you automatically switch to a first-person mode that allows you a better, more detailed view of the monsters. This is one thing that initially seems to work well since it provides an easy aiming interface. You can't move or strafe but instead you must keep your opponents in view by pressing the X or B buttons and then shoot with the X. The monsters fly around, burrow in the snow, or just move around, making it necessary to pivot on the spot. Shooting these guys up close results in green blood being splattered all over your face, making it difficult to see, so you must keep your eyes open for the X or B prompts that indicate where the enemy is at all times. Another thing that D2 suffers from is back-and-forth syndrome. Instead of giving you a clear-cut idea of what you're supposed to accomplish next, much of D2 is spent running back and forth to various locations on the map (a building here, a cabin there), all seemingly at random. Rarely does anyone say, "Go to the cabin with the old woman in it," and this makes your success in D2 an exercise in trial and error. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that almost all of this is done on foot. Sure, there's a snowmobile that you get to use, but you only really get to use it at length on disc two (D2 spans four discs). For about 75 percent of the game, Laura is found hoofing it through 30 virtual miles of barren snow-covered Canadian landscape in stockings and heels. Even when you get to use the snowmobile, all that does is speed up the random monster battles. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2013
The same loving care can be said about the characters, they are given more than enough emotional depth from the poetic yearnings of Kimberly to the childish innocent and desire to see her grandfather that characterizes Jeannie. The voice acting does a lot to add emotional depth, it is excellent in most respects save for a few laughable lines and some volume problems (Kimberly seems to be speaking in a whisper for the 1st half of the game) -- but the characters do a lot to add to the story which despite a slow, deliberate pacing keeps you hooked after a few cinematic set pieces put the mystery in motion.
The gameplay is interesting, mainly consisting of random encounters with mutated creatures that is handled in an on-rails 1st person shooter engine -- it is difficult at first, the encounter rate is somewhat high, but the experience points and leveling up more than help add incentive. Also an interesting gameplay mechanic is hunting for food using a rifle, shooting rabbits, birds, and caribu -- it is quite immersive and fun to crest a snow bank and see caribu feeding, taking a quick aim and letting off a shot. The idea of getting food and using it for health is also innovative (though there is a plethora of healing items around like first aid sprays).
There are some rough spots about D2, the random battles get monotonous, the environments are stunning to look at but also get quite repetitive after some time since the majority of movement is back and forth from one place to another and then back to the original. The plot points are interesting though some people might be turned off by the infrequency of them as well as the length. And the pacing is slow, things that happen take a long time to build and there is a lot of down time between major scenes (though there is a lot of random battles between there, they get old too). I can understand the mixed reaction this game got when it was released, it does have some flaws, but the overall immersive atmosphere of the game hooked me, it is a different kind of game, like all of Warp's games. It might not be for everyone, but for the certain type of gamer, it will be a masterpiece.