Nightmare Creatures II

"This game gave me a nightmare for the wrong reason"

Nightmare Creatures II is a 3D adventure/action/fighting game. Let me break it down for you.

Game Play:
Let me first start by saying the game play in this game is not good at all and it the biggest flaw in this game.

Concept: The concept is quiet simple. The idea of EVERY level in this game is to just make it to the end. You fight enemies and complete puzzles. Some times there is a boss...

Movement: The movement in this game is the common why most third person games (and shooters) do it these days. Hitting forward moves you up, while hit left turns you. This is very tomb raider-ish. But the way you move is kind of odd. You turn weird and you do not run accurately. Yes, you heard me right, you do not run well. You will find your self falling of edges and running into walls all the time. Jumping is horrible in this game. Thank god you do not have to jump a lot over pits or this could cause a very big problem. You can also swim in some areas of this game. Swimming is actually done pretty good, I think.

Combat: The combat in this game is either all melee or all item usage. First let me discuss the melee combat. You character has an axe. You have only TWO buttons to combine combos with... You can do...
Two downward slashes
Two Side ways slashes
Then two downwards and a sideways (and visa versa)
This is ALL there is (Say the single strikes, which are useless). The combat is NOT in depth at all. What more, is that you and the enemies can block. What is wrong with this? Well... They strike, you block, you strike, you hope they don’t block. Nothing good at all. Enemies do have unblockable “throw” moves that each enemy can use once, but you don’t get a single one! Items make the game a little easier but take no skill to use. You touch one button and usually the enemy will die. In most cases there is no point for different items because they all really do the same thing. One saving grace is the finishing moves. Yes, some are lame and get repetitive, but they are cool and sometimes funny the first time through the game.

Enemies: The enemy designs are great first of all. All the monsters or creatures look fantastic! But their well-ness ends right there. First of, you even fight an enemy, you must get in it range, if you want to just walk by him (if you can) you must hold in both of the back triggers. Any ways, usually you start a fight with the enemy doing its unblockable move, with are really cheap. But there Ai just plain sucks. They do the SAME thing over, and over, and over again till they die. These enemies do come in a large amount of variety however. These range from zombies, things with chain saws, and mammoth behemoths. Each enemy also has its own unique finishing move that you can perform on them.

Boss: The bosses in this game are some of the most lame I have ever seen in a video game. They have NO personality, and no character. There is no dramatic music or even a great challenge. So what point do boss serve? Well all they are is strong enemies with more health at the end of a level. Most of them are stationary and are easy to beat. The only cool boss is the one with the cross, but I don’t know his (its) name nor does he even have a point.

Puzzles: The puzzles in this game serve one purpose. They make you run all over the levels looking for huge keys and hidden switches to make things happen. These puzzles are not that inventive nor are they even fun to do in the first place. Most of them involve you running back and fort for a large period of time. There is a level with a lot of water in it where you have to keep going back and fort through it, this will most likely piss you the hell off to no end.
Poor

Challenge:
This game is easy and hard depending how you look at it.

This game is easy if you know what you are doing. First off, all the enemies are disposed of, of the same way. All you need to do is do a AAB or BBA combo for every time. Why else is this game easy? Well after every level you lose all of your power ups or items. This means (if you know where the end is) you can just kill all the last enemies in seconds and move on...

This game is hard if you suck at realizing patterns. Every enemy does the same thing over, so it should not be hard at all to find an opening.

This game also sports three different difficulty levels. I do not know the exact details of each, but I played all of them and the most I noticed was that the enemies took WAY longer to kill.

The only hard part about this game should come from being lost in a puzzle.
Below Average

Control:
Well I already told you how the controls make you run weird, but I will tell you more. Attacking is easy to pull off. You need two attack keys and a key for blocking. Every other function has its own button. There is only one other bad thing I must point out. The buttons to switch weapons and to use them are the triggers on the back of the Dream Cast’s controller. To avoid combat and run away from enemies, you must hold in both of the back triggers. Now why is this bad? You will find yourself using items you do not want to use by accident.
Below Average

Story:
The story is not great. You start the game not knowing why or really what the hell you are. All I think you really know is this girl named Rachael. I also know this other guy is trying to kill you... Any ways, the story does in fact blow, and it is only told... oh wait, I don’t think it is told at all. The cut scenes usually show the main character avoiding danger.

The bosses in this game have NO personality and add nothing to this dismal game. They did not even get ONE boss the ability to talk.
Poor

Visuals:
The graphics are actually quiet good in this game. Well what did you expect from a Dream Cast game? Any ways, the game has a very eerie tone to it and it shows great.

The levels are actually designed pretty well too, with not major flaws at all.

The enemies, despite their other crappy points, actually look good. They are well detailed and bleed. Their arms even fall off if you damage them enough.

Sadly, this is this games best quality.
Great

Audio:
This part is udder crap. The music in this game is horrible. Wait a sec... I do not remember if there even was music in the first place... It must have been that bad if I did not remember. Any ways, bosses do not even have great battle music. This aspect ruins the atmosphere.

The sound effects are sub par too. Well the blood noises and the sound of you chopping off a head kicks ass, but his voice is bad and does not fit his character, in my opinion.
Lacking

Re playability:
Well lets see here, with all these bad parts to this game, why would you want to play through it again? I do not know. I played through this game on each difficulty, each was actually worse than before. I think I must have been really bored at the time. There is also no point in even beating the game as it will not unlock a single thing. This makes you think the game’s maker was cheap and lazy.
Lacking

Pros:
The rain looks good...

Cons:
Boring and repetitive combat system
No point in playing this game more than once
Story is not great at all
Monsters ALWAYS get cheap unblockable moves in

Rent or Buy:
I would rent this game first, you probably will not like this game.

Final Rating:
I give this game a three out of four.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/03