Warp founder Kenj Eno is a major gaming celebrity in Japan on the equivalent
of America’s Lord British or Jane Jensen. His new projects are treated with a
reverence accorded superstars. Yet, in North America, his games have been bigger
bombs than Pearl Harbor. D, which was released on every imaginable platform,
is in our Turkey Hall of Fame. Players were dismayed to discover that gorgeous
graphics were not a barometer of gameplay as many an adventure gamer finished
D in thirty minutes or less. Enemy Zero was four CDs of mind-numbing
lethargy as you wandered through a meandering labyrinth of spaceship corridors
facing aliens who could be heard but not seen. Now with the release of the four-disk
D2–which, though it features many of the same characters from D and
Enemy Zero, is not a sequel–we are again subjected to a game that is heavy
on full-motion animation and very light on player interaction.

This is not
to insinuate that D2 is a bad game, it’s just that the Eno’s intentions
seem to have been overshadowed by his desire to create an opus. With the exception
of The Longest Journey, never have I played a game with longer, more tedious
dialogues. Many conversations go on for as long as five minutes, and while they
add nothing to the overall outcome of the game, they are admirable for the depth
of insight and introspection they create for the characters (Kimberly Fox, the
costar of D2, is one of the more memorable personalities in adventure gaming
history). Much of the plot development should and could have better been handled
with more player interaction and less of the passive full-motion videos.

D2
begins with Laura and a young girl name Jannie aboard a plane during Christmas
Day, 2000. As terrorists attempt to overtake the flight, a meteorite is hurtling
towards Earth. Little does Laura know that this cosmic coincidence will soon place
her in a predicament that will pit her against the elements, mutated humans, and
her forgotten past. She awakens in a desolate cabin in the middle of the Canadian
wilderness, tended to by another crash survivor, Kimberly Fox. Kimberly’s intuition
that Jannie has also survived the crash convinces Laura to search the hinterlands
for the young girl. But not before Kimberly tells a story of humans mutated by
the meteorite who blossom tentacles and other ancillaries from their soulless
husks (some of these creatures are actually pretty terrifying with their plant/insect-like
bodies and human heads). Worse yet, the only way to discover if another crash
survivor is human or mutant is by the color of their blood (red/good, green/bad).
Thus begins what Kenji Eno has said is the last journey of Laura.

Without
the heavy reliance on plot, D2 could easily have been labeled as a survival
horror game. Yet it is easily one of the better examples on how to balance the
diverse elements of the adventure, action, and RPG genres. Laura’s skill with
a weapon and her physical stamina (i.e., hit points) are both increased as she
defeats more aliens. This is a simple but effective method of character improvement.
The action elements, which basically consist of blowing away aliens that are hiding
in the snow, quickly become tedious and intrusive. The game would have been much
improved with less of these confrontations. In fact, they became so numerous and
increasingly difficult they I finally gave in to my basest instincts and purchased
a Game Shark just so I could activate an unlimited ammo and health code.

One
of the more ingenious aspects of the gameplay is that you must hunt for your own
food. Unlike other games where many objects are left laying around with no explanation,
Laura is able to supply her own food source by hunting hares, grouse, moose, and
caribou. For those who are opposed to hunting, the option to instead take photographs
is provided. Guiding a snowmobile rounds out the action elements and is actually
a lot of fun. The adventure portions of the game are the standard remember-a-code,
find-a-key, explore-a-room situations that console adventure games are so dependent
on. As stated previously, this could have been much improved with less reliance
on the full-motion animations.

As with any horror story, logic is sometimes
thrown out the window. The expected momentary lapses are not the usual “don’t
enter that room” situations, but rather “why would you break a pane
of glass with your fist when you have weapons in your inventory” and “why
doesn’t Laura ever get cold?” Especially since she spends the entire game
cavorting in ankle-deep snow wearing only a red dress suit, stockings, and shoes.
I really question whether the developers of D2 have ever spent any time
in real snow as the only nod Laura ever gave to the weather was an occasional
rubbing of her arms and her breath in the cold air. I was shivering just watching
the wind whip through the snow-laden pine trees. Finally, the unearthing of the
plot asks for a great suspension of disbelief, but if you are already a fan of
these type of games, then you know what to expect.

D2 is not for
everyone, though hardcore adventure gamers will probably enjoy it the most. Action
gamers will find little to appease their reflexes. The outdoor settings with the
sun glistening off the snow are absolutely incredible. The full-motion animations
are the best of any other console game on the market and manage to not become
static by occasionally changing camera angles. There exist occasional lip-synching
problems, but not enough to distract from the overall experience. The game’s “Mature”
rating is well-earned, not for the violence but for some of the subject matter
(reliance on drugs) and a battle with a nude female mutant. If you come into D2
already knowing what to expect, you will not leave disappointed.

Final
Grade: C+

If you liked D2:
Watch: The Thing
Read: The Last Man on Earth by Isaac Asimov
Play: D