Evolution

"While Evolution could have been a classic it instead settled for average"

You are Mag Launcher, son of the famous explorer Asroc Launcher. Your father has been lost for three years and you find yourself with a mysterious girl named Linear and a preachy old servant named Gre. You have two goals: to repay the Launcher family’s $80000 dept and to find the legendary cyframe, Evolutia. This is the story of Evolution: The Sacred Device

While Evolution could have been a classic, it instead settled for average. The game suffers from extremely straightforward gameplay; no side quests, and lacks the overall feel of a classic RPG. Yet its amazing battle system, good graphics, and well thought out characters keep the game from being a total failure. Let’s get into specifics…

The story of Evolution is decent. It isn't anything entirely new but still manages to keep you into the game. But it's the characters that truly shine in this game. They all have rich personalities to go along with a look that separates them from the rest of the RPG crowd. Mag has a head full of spiky red hair and a device called a cyframe attached to his back. Gre looks like Steven Segal and Alfred the butler's love child. There are many other well-designed characters you'll stumble across as you play this game. Ubi Soft also did a nice job giving all the characters good dialog that brought them to life.

One of the biggest aspects of an RPG besides the story and its characters is the battle system. Thankfully, Evolution has one of the best. For starters, no random battles! You'll actually see the monsters walking around in the dungeon and you can choose whether to fight or avoid them. If you're lucky enough to get behind the monster you can start the battle with the advantage. This adds some strategy in the way you plan your attacks. For example, I always fight the monsters I know I can beat and try to avoid the ones with better abilities and HP. Once engaged in the fight you have the choice of attack, skill, item, or defend. If you choose skill, you have the option to use one of your characters special attacks. These attacks are plentiful and vary with each character. Mag has cyframe skills, which include a combo of three punches, or a shock wave punch that explodes the ground under one row of monsters. Gre uses cooking skills to cause things such as blindness and confusion. Linear is your healer and has a variety of helpful skills to learn. The other characters such as Pepper and Chain Gun have there fair share of unique skills as well. You learn skills by using TP (Technique Points). You earn TP along with EXP (Experience Points) by defeating monsters. If anything will keep you playing this game it's saving up TP and trying to learn new skills. Because your first time through you'll never know what technique you can learn next. Only the skills you've learned and the first unavailable skill are visible. The rest are all covered with question marks. Yet another great aspect of this battle system is a meter on the right side of the screen that displays turn order. For example: you may see a skull (standing for a monster) then your character face followed by another skull. This tells you that it's monster, your turn, then monster again. If you like to fight you'll have a field day with this excellent battle system.

Unfortunately, even the fighting gets old. Mainly due to Evolution's extremely straightforward gameplay. There isn't a side quest to be found in this game and amazingly no other towns! All you really do is prepare for dungeon, beat dungeon, watch cut-scene, prepare for next dungeon, etc. You never really have the freedom to say to yourself ''I think I'll go over to that town and check some more things out.'' Instead you stay in the same dull looking town doing the same things over and over. The closest thing to a side quest in this game is finding rare objects in dungeons and getting them appraised. The only thing that keeps the game's pace from becoming unbearable is each dungeon floor's layout, monsters, and treasures are randomized. This way you never see the same layout twice or know what you'll find around each corner.

Graphically the game is a winner in my book. The textures in the dungeons and in Panamn town are both excellent. The animations are smooth and the particle effects are amazing. The character models are great looking as well. Evolution isn't the best looking title you'll find in the Dreamcast library but it's up there.

The sound isn't disappointing either. It has a real old school SNES feel to it with some modern flare thrown in. The music does a good job of setting the mood. If a monster surprises you, you'll hear some gloomy battle music. But if you surprised the monster you'll be treated to a triumphant upbeat tune. This lets you know how the pace is going to be before the battle screen even loads. The spells, smacks, and grunts all sound good too. They even left in the original Japanese battle cries! Whoo-hoo! Now you don't have to worry about hearing some badly dubbed English battle cry that makes you cringe with each syllable.

Here's the bottom line folks: Evolution lacks the elements that make up a classic RPG and for every positive there is a negative. In the end Evolution is either a you'll love it or you'll hate it game. I suggest you rent the game at your local blockbuster and give it a spin for five days. If you end up liking it, you can purchase the game for a mere ten dollars at EBGames.com In my eyes that is a solid buy and a solid addition to your Dreamcast library. There is some replay value found in the skills department. Your first time through you won't master all the skills with all the characters. So on a rainy day you might pop it in and give it a go with a new character. This game isn't a classic but it deserves some respect.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/01, Updated 11/30/01