Parasite Eve II

"Will I be fighting any giant cactus creatures? No, Aya, what you'll fight is much tougher..."

I ended up playing this game by accident, but now I'm very glad that accident occurred. My friend Nate and I were at Blockbuster to rent games. We got there and saw Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. That's what we wanted. We were going to rent that, but then his mom had a rent one, rent one free coupon. We picked up a game that I didn't even know was out, Parasite Eve 2.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is fine, it just loses a point for being a little repetitive. There are several weapons shops throughout the game to buy weapons with. There are a few interesting characters for you to interact with. I'll zoom in on the battles next.
Battles
Again, the reason gameplay is down is because of repetitivness. Otherwise, the shooting, item usage, spell casting and overall set-up of the battles is fine. Battles are live-action, unlike most Squaresoft games. A typical battle goes like this:
*Walks into room.*
*Looks around a bit.*
*A heartbeat sounds, and the screen goes black and white for a second to warn you of the upcoming battle.*
*Some NMC(s) (NMCs and ANMCs are the 'monsters' of the game) comes and attacks*
*loads gun and begins to fire, while dodging attacks*
*reloads gun, or casts spell, or uses item*
You get the idea. Repetitive, but fun.
Graphics/Sound:10/10
The sound is this game is quite good. There are a large supply of music tracks, and the weapon sound effects are very realistic. Graphics are very good in this game. The in-game graphics are nice. The FMV cinemas are very good-looking, and tell the story well. Speaking of story, that's the next segment.
Story:10/10
I can't say much about the story, except it's good. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just leave you with a summary of the beginning. Aya, a former police officer, is now part of a special FBI agency known as MIST, and agency designed for monster-hunting. She is called on a mission to investigate 'monster' sightings at the Akropolis tower. Eventually, you'll find your self in a small Nevada desert town, Dryfield, and in a mysterious shelter, and all 3 of those places have many spots to explore.
Replay Value:10+/10
After beating the game you will unlock 'Replay Mode' which is like an easy mode. You'll also unlock 'Bounty Mode', where you fight tougher monsters earlier in the game, but win big prizes. You can eventually unlock 'Scavenger Mode' where you are very poorly equipped, and 'Nightmare Mode' where you fight the monsters of Bounty Mode with the equipment from Scavenger Mode. Very hard indeed.
Adding to the replay value is the game's ranking system. Upon beating the game, you will receive a rank. Depending on what rank you get, you will be given new items to buy from the shops in your next game. The weapons carry over, as does your BP and EXP (BP is the 'money' and EXP is what allows you to earn spells). This mean that it is possible to start out a new game with enough BP to buy a M4A1 (assault rifle), a Mongoose (magnum, not normally sold in stores), a grenade pistol (grenade launcher, not usually available at the start), and much, much more after beating the game enough times.
Rent or Buy?
BUY!!Now! Go out and get this game. Since having this game I have gotten an XBox, and PS2, yet I still play this game. Yep, that's right, I play this game along with the likes of HALO, MGS2:SOL, FFX, The Thing, Dynasty Warriors 3, and any other great Xbox or PS2 game you can think of. If you still are unsure about buying it after my 400+ words telling you to, buy it anyway!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/02, Updated 10/10/02