Evolution Worlds

"At first it is great, but later very boring and repetitive"

I first heard about this game in a magazine. They said it was not a good game and it got 57%. But since Evolution Worlds is a RPG I got it nevertheless.

Graphics (6/10)
Well, the graphics did not hurt my eyes, but they are not excellent as well. The towns look pretty, the dungeons look repetitive.

Sound/Music (8/10)
I do not remember too many music titles from the game but Evolution Worlds has voice acting. The complete dialogue in the game is spoken. I like this and I think this voice acting is well done.

Gameplay (7/10)
This is simply explained: You come into the town (there are only two towns in the game), get a new mission, you go to the dungeon, clear it and defeat the boss. Then you automatically return to town, go to your house / the hotel and rest up. Then you will see many cutscenes and you will finally get a new job.
Equipping new is easy but it is horrible that the inventory is limited to 30 spaces (later 40). You always have to throw away items. I don´t like this. .hack did solve this problem better: You can have up to 40 differnt items - up to 99 of each item.
In the dungeons (some are randomly generated) you have to move around, kill monsters, find treasure and find the stairway to the next level. The first dungeons are short but once there are 15 or 20 floors this can get boring and repetitive *yaaawn*. And you can only save before the bosses.

Story (5/10)
There is not much of a story in this game. But the story which is there is told nicely in many cut scenes between the dungeons. Well done, but I hope that the next sequel will have some more interesting plot.

Challenge
Evolution Worlds is an easy game. I did only have problems will the 2 bosses in the final dungeon (I bet the first of them only with the very last attack of the last party member alive - when the final boss died all characters had run out of FP). But most battles are no challenge at all - later in the game you will start to avoid them and just look for the exit.

Overall (7/10)
This game started in a good way. I liked it but I am very happy that I bet it after 17 hours. This was enough. Now I am waiting for another great game - Skies of Arcadia Legens for the Gamecube.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/03, Updated 04/03/03