Evolution 2

"Better RPG, please!"

Evolution 2: Far Off Promise (Dreamcast) Review
by Tailspower5

The sequel to the first Dreamcast RPG ever, this doesn't play any different or better than the first game. And that's exactly where this game goes wrong.

Runs Your Guns Up High!

The story takes place roughly after the first game. This time around, Mag Launcher, his best friend Linear Cannon, his butler Gre Naid, and Chain Gun are all boarding a train to Museville from Pannam Town. Anyway, the train is attacked by the theif Carcano, who has been staeling things from the Museville Society. Mag and co. quickly beat him and go on their way.

<P> When they get to Museville, the Society asks Mag if he and his friends will collect these orbs or something to help Dr. Whitehead with his experiements to find how more about the ancient civilizations of long ago. Mag quickly takes the job and goes on his merry way, unaware of a boy who has a mysterious linking to Linear Cannon, Mag's best friend...

Anyway, the gameplay to the game is simple: get a job from the Society, go to a dungeon, beat boss of dungeon, report back to Society for reward, get some rest, watch cinema, get another job, etc., repeat for another 4 dungeons. If it sounds repetitve, it is: aside from the dungeons, which you'll spend 90% of the game in (leveing up you characters to beat the high-leveled bosses, that is), you'll shop at the one measly town in the game and get to go to a tower to learn new magic skills for your characters.

The skills your characters learn are perhaps the most interesting thing about this game. It kinda works like the Materia system from FFVII, but instead of magic, they're weapons. You can upgrade the slots for characters who have upgradable weapons called Cyframes (except for Linear and Gre, who don't have Cyframes and most buy their weapons from shops). For example, Chain has a blade part to perform really strong blade attacks with, but she can also get a jet part, which allows you to blast at full speed into enemies for damage. It's expensive to buy the slots it takes to equip new parts, though, and it's even more expensive to upgrade them to increase your attack power. Since enemies in RPG's nowadays don't leave money on the ground, you'll have to sell items you find in battle to upgrade them. Otherwise, th only other ways to get money is through clearing dungeons and finding Appraisal Items, items found in dungeons that you can sell for money. There are 200 in all, but odds are you won't want to spend the ridiculous amount of time in the game it takes to find them all..

And why not? Well, traveling through dungeons is a pain in the butt. You can't save except for the very last floor unless you manually leave during the middle of the dungeon. Also, enemies are everywhere, and you'll have to fight EVERY SINGLE ONE to be in good shape for the boss, since the bosses can be from 3 to 12 levels higher than the enemies you encounter in the same dungeon. Needless to say, you won't have much fun spending a half-hour leveling up your characters just because they weren't strong enough to fight the boss. Evolution 2's not a very hard game, mind you, but it can be frustratingly difficult to deal with the long, boring dungeons. If you hate leveling up your characters for hours on end, this is not the game for you. I advise you to stop reading this review right now if that the case with you.

Far Off Premise

The graphics are nice...until you get into the dungeons. Sure, the enemies look pretty cool, but the dungeons themselves are so bland-looking for a Dreamcast game. Once you arrive in the first dungeon, you'll wonder if you're playing a 128-bit CD ROM or a high-res N64 game. Thankfully, the rest of the game looks very nice. The character designs are very nice..and some like Mag and Linear, are very cute. The cinema sequences look very nice.

The sound is a mixed bag. Japanese voices fit the mood but quickly get annoying to listen to, but thankfully the music is pretty good. Not the best ever in a video game, but at least it isn't annoying. There aren't many sound effects, but those that are there fit in all well.

And now we get to the best part of the game: the controls. Your charaters have some very basic, but very effective, maneuvers. Out of battle, they walk with either the analog or D-Pad, jump with the A button, and you can switch between your party members by pressing Y. In battle, one button selects all commands, and one cancels them (the A button is also used to equip parts to your Cyframes, and that's simple to do too). The camera is sometimes stupid, but I doubt it will give you any serious problems like other Dreamcast games (coughcoughSONICADVENTUREcoughcough).

De-evolutionized gameplay

Graphics, sounds, controls. These mean nothing without gameplay and replay value. And while Evolution has some gameplay, it has nearly no replay value. The game only takes about 20 hours to beat, and although there's a second game, by then you'll be wanting to sell this game to FuncoLand instead of having to go though all the same long, boring, tedious dungeons again, which is the what the 2nd adventure is anyways. Many if they gave you something new to do, it would be worth it...

Graphics: 7/10 Mostly nice, but the dungeons are terrible looking.
Sound: 6/10 Nice music, annoying voices. Doesn't mix well.
Control: 9/10 No problems whatsoever.
Replay: 2/10 It may be only 20 hours long, but it will be arguably the most boring 20 hours you'll ever play in a RPG. I played FFVIII more than this, and I LOATHE that game.

Overall: 5/10

Play it if you didn't play the first one (like me), or if you're looking for a short, easy, cheap RPG. Then again, if you own a PS, you could probably find better RPGs at the cost this game costs. Overall, this is only worth a rental, tops, or if you can buy it cheap. Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II blow this game away, and you should focus on them instead of this...remember, visuals and audio do not a great RPG make. Without gameplay, all is lost, which is the case with Evolution 2.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/01, Updated 10/26/01