Evolution

"So... When can I evolve.... or Digi-Volve at least?"

The first three Dreamcast RPG's was calssified the worst of the Dreamcast RPG's. There was Evolution, Evolution 2 and Time Stalkers (Not to be mistaken with the PS2 classic, Time Splitters). in my opinion, I think Evolution is one of the Dreamcasts best RPG's, and there is only a handful, like Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II and the all-time classic, Shenmue. Evolution is a two part story (could they be more parts) and Evolution is the first part (If your wondering, the movie, Evolution is not the second part ;)) and it is also the best of the two. The characters in Evolution are named after guns and weapons, The main Character his called Mag Launcher, he has friends called Linear Cannon, Chain Gun and Pepper Box. Mag also has a butler called Gre Nade.

Storyline - 7 : Mag Launcher and Linear Cannon are searching in runes for something special, they climb up a tower and Mag reaches out for something. the tower begins to crumble, so he gets out his weapon, which is a giant hand and he and Linear grind down a vein which takes them in to the runes. Mag hears something, it is Chain Gun. Chain Gun, Mag's rival takes the artifact mag and Linear was looking for, and runs away. Back at Mag's hometown, word has spread that Prince Eugene from the eighth empire is coming. The player now learns that Mag owes the bank a whopping 80 000 bits (treat these as pounds, dollars, francs whatever), so Mag has to take his friends and pay of his debt by finding artifacts.

There is a bigger plot twist with the 8th Empire which you'll hear more as you progress, which adds a bit of excitment and surprises to the game. As the synphosis says, There isn't really evolution in the game, nothing evolves, apart from the dungeosn which change. There is something what happens very late in the game, which is part evolution, but much more of a secret power.

Graphics - 5 : The game might look a bit good at first glance, but it could easily be done on the Playstation. The developers have done some great back grounds and some rather dull animations. There is a bit of detail in the game, but not enough in my opinion. the odd FMV is alright, but nothing special. The Nintendo 64 used Real Time cutscenes, like if you worse a blue hat in the final battle of a Nintewndo 64 game, your character will wear that hat in the ending, and the Playstation uses FMV's, The Dreamcast is capable of both of these, and so is Evolution. Some cut-secnes are in real time, others are in FMV.

Sound and Music - 8 : Unlike Evolution 2, Evolution does not have voice acting (well....the only voice acting it has is grunts and battle commands like ''CHARGE!''. The music is alright in some places, but the music in dungeons in just appauling. There are several battle tunes, all of them are brilliant, and adds excitiment to the battles. The sound effects are also good and sound like they should.

Gameplay - 8 : Being a RPG, Evolution has a system called the ''Turned Base system'' which your characters and the enemies on screen take it in turns to fight in combat. Each character uses a different weapon and magic, some are great like Gre Nades rifels, and some are humorous, like Linear Cannon's frying pan. The magic is far more advance then most RPG's, no, no robots come from the future and shred enemies to their death, it is advance because there are so many commands which some companies would never have thorght of. One of the worst things what bothers me in RPG's like this is a small bad, and you have to get rid of some items to keep another. The dungeons in Evolution are known as Ruins, and these ruins are different every time you play a new game. They are different in number of floors, enemy locations, item locations and stairs leading to another floor.

In Evolution, your characters need to level up to gain magic. To gain magic, you need to win battles, and when you have enough points to master a new skill, you can select it in the window and buy it. Once you have bourght it, your character will preform that attack for free. Neat! There is a lot of enemies in the dungeons (Sorry, Ruins) and don't go thinking you can beat bosses with ease if you level up real high, because enemies level up with Mag, if Mag is weak, so are enemies, but if you train Mag like a power house, he will fight tougher enemies. This doesn't go for Mag's allies though.

Challenge - 4 : If you have a weak Mag but strong allies, you will clear this game in no time. There are the few bosses which will beat you the few times, but you will be able to defeat them in the end.

Replaybility - 4 : You should be able to clear the game within a few sittings, but then you can go back any ruin you want. The debt will also take a bit of work to clear, and you might have a larger debt then you bargained for. The dungeon / Ruin maps are random so if you are an insane or a HARDCORE RPG fan, you might find yourself getting every altenative, but by time you have done that, I'll be playing Final Fantasy 20.

Overall - 7 : An under-rated RPG for the Sega Dreamcast. The first RPG for Dreamcast does bargain fun, so spoil yourself at a bargain price of £9.99 at most game stores. If you want to get in to RPG's, I wouldn't recommend this as your first RPG, Try a Grandia game or a Final Fantasy.

Pros

The first Dreamcast RPG Game.
Comical.
Never play the same map twice.

Cons

Over too soon.
Not that good graphics.
Random maps (This maybe bad...)
The evolution bit doesn't kick off until much later in the game, making the first part of the game an utter time waster.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/01, Updated 08/06/01