REVIEW - International Track & Field | PS1 | 1996

GENRE(S): Sports
RELEASED: June 1996
AVAILABLE ON: ARC, PS1
DEVELOPER(S): Konami
PUBLISHER(S): Konami

Track & Field was one of the few franchises originating from the 8-bit era that skipped a whole console generation. When International Track & Field was announced for the PlayStation in the wake of the Atlanta Summer Olympics in '96, eight years since the release of the previous major title in the acclaimed franchise, critics were overjoyed, but many also made note that the game would not survive if it was carved from the exact same wood as the previous games. ...Yes, it would have.

It's in your face, but you can't grab it

Discus fuckin' sucks.

I wanted this game so bad. I didn't have a PlayStation back when the game was released, but my friend had it and he called me one day to tell me that his dad had bought him the new Track & Field game. I rushed over and found out that the game he got was actually Olympic Summer Games, the official video game of Atlanta '96 which came out around the same time as International Track & Field, and it wasn't very good. My desire for International Track & Field kept on growing and the game was nowhere to be found at any right time. I finally downloaded the game 12 years later from the PlayStation Network, and was immensely disappointed.

The game looks quite all right, considering that it's a relatively early game for the original PlayStation, but the music and sound effects are absolutely horrid.

Could we just go already? Like, today?!

For years, I've been complaining about Hammer Throw in all the forms it has taken in all games it's been featured in. Not only is that event in the game, but it's accompanied by similar, and just as frustrating events in Discus and Shot Put. That's not the whole story, not by a long shot. The game utilizes a new type of button mashing system, which requires you to alternate between two dash buttons, with an occasional press of an action button. Not only is this uncomfortable, but it requires you to come up with a specific, even more uncomfortable technique for merely holding the controller.

And I thought pole vaulting in Track & Field II
was frustrating.

Even if you do come up with a technique, you have to get used to the game's idiotic ways of teasing you with the thought that you're actually doing well, when you're not even close to qualifying the current event. Javelin Throw is a good example of a deeply frustrating event; it's always been one of my favourites, but in this game, it drives me nuts. No matter if I manage to do the perfect approach, no matter if I find the perfect angle, the throw can still go both ways: just barely above qualification, or just barely below it. I swear I did two 100% identical approaches, and ended up with results that differed by ten whole meters. Doing well just once in Practice does not mean you're ready to take on the real deal, 'cause the game is a two-faced BITCH! You can't work with her at all.

Out of the 11 different events, four or five are playable. Just trying the rest is like pissing in the wind and having the piss soar back in your face. I simply don't get why this game is so acclaimed, and because it is, I wasn't sure if I should even have reviewed it, 'cause my opinion on it seems to be so different from everyone else's - International Track & Field is a worthless waste of time and money. It's frustrating and uncomfortable, and that's the bottom line.

UPS
+ It looks pretty good

DOWNS
- It sounds pretty terrible
- It's frustratingly random, which becomes most evident in the main mode in which not qualifying actually means something
- Alternating between three buttons is hard, slow, uncomfortable and even painful; they should've just stuck with the classic system, win or lose
- The opening sequences for the events last for decades

< 4.4 >

REVIEW - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999)

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: August 1999
AVAILABLE ON: DC, PC, PS1
DEVELOPER(S): Crystal Dynamics
PUBLISHER(S): Eidos Interactive
PLAYERS: 1

Long before Amy Hennig broke the bank with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on Naughty Dog's payroll, she helped create Legacy of Kain, a cult franchise which chronicled the afterlife of nobleman Kain, who was murdered by a group of assassins in the beginning of the series and later became the enigmatic, vampiric tyrant of the world of Nosgoth. The 2D, Zelda-like adventure game Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was the first title in the series, but it was the 3D action adventure Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver which defined the remainder of it and brought the franchise to mainstream attention. To this day, this unpredictable cult classic stands as one of the original PlayStation's most gratifying gameplay experiences, and one that paved way for many more followers than many critics are willing to admit.

From vampire to vampire hunter 

STARRING
Michael Bell : Raziel / Melchiah
Tony Jay : Elder God / Zephon
Simon Templeman : Kain / Dumah
Neil Ross : Rahab
Anna Gunn : Ariel
Richard Doyle : Moebius the Timestreamer / Morlock the Guardian

When the vampire Kain murdered the Circle of Nine, he was given a choice: he could either sacrifice himself for the salvation of Nosgoth, or take control of the realm and continue his legacy. He chose to appoint himself as Nosgoth's new ruler. Not too long after that, Kain surrounded himself with vampiric lieutenants, to whom he also refers to as his children. Raziel was the first to turn - therefore he is the oldest of Kain's children, and his right-hand man. However, Kain's arrogance drives a wedge between his and Raziel's alliance, as Raziel surpasses his master in terms of vampiric evolution by growing wings. As punishment, Kain orders Raziel to be cast into the bottomless Lake of the Dead. Raziel's body is utterly destroyed by the abyss, but what's left of it is reanimated a few centuries later by the Elder God, who encourages Raziel to begin anew as a devourer of souls, find Kain and exact revenge upon his former master, who has now led both his brethren and the whole world of Nosgoth into complete ruin.

You shouldn't fuck with a guy who broke the
world record in the Track & Field javelin throw
event three times in a row.

This game brings back sweet memories, and I can tell you right now they aren't only memories; the game is almost just as good as it was 13 years ago! I had a friend who was a sucker for Blood Omen, the first game in the series, and I wasn't that sweet on it. I thought the game was quite boring, but I liked the story and I liked listening to my friend talk about it. Then Soul Reaver came along - a completely different game from Blood Omen. A gothic, violent tale of revenge somewhat influenced by games like Super Metroid and more obviously, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, only that it had an array of unique tricks of its own up its sleeve, and it was in 3D. My friend got the game, of course, and he loved it even more than he loved Blood Omen - it appealed to me, too, just by the looks of it, and when I first tried it myself, I couldn't get enough of it. After three or four playthroughs, I named Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver one of my favourite video games of all time. Even if the basic patterns of the gameplay have been repeated and successfully outdone by many more recent, totally unrelated games, it's Soul Reaver's great, unique story and its innovative ways upon launch that make it a lasting cult classic, and still one hell of a trip to have in present time. Yes - even with its few ugly, obsolete spots, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver still counts as one of my favourite video games of all time. 

Soul Reaver sports a great story, and it actually has the same common theme as the first game. The main character is killed and resurrected in the beginning of the game, and the main goal is to get back at whoever's responsible. The vampire cliches were used up in Blood Omen, so there's none on show here. This game actually makes very slight notions to vampires, even though the cast is comprised of them. It ain't a typical "tale of revenge" either, though it plays out like one for the longest time. You'll just know there's more to it than that, eventually... unfortunately, you'd have to play the rest of the trilogy to find out what it is. The thing that has pissed off a lot of people about this game and its story, to this day, is that it ends by hitting a brick wall - we're not even talking about a simple cliffhanger, we're talking about bringing the game to an abrupt halt, with not even a final boss battle or closing cutscene impressive enough to tell your friends about. The facts are obvious: Crystal Dynamics was in a world of hurry to finish this game. It's sad, but true: the game is equal to hours of some of the best third-person action available on the PlayStation, but the crappy ending will inevitably evoke a serious fit of nerd rage in anyone who appreciates a great story. I'd like to add that to this day, I've never played the sequels, which makes the ending that much more enfuriating. I'm planning to fix that mistake soon enough, and that mistake does not affect the joy I get from playing Soul Reaver at all.

General graphics were never this game's focus, and perhaps that is exactly why Soul Reaver is one of the least dated PlayStation games when it comes to its visuals. Almost every game that was initially promoted as "the greatest looking game on the PlayStation", had carefully rendered backgrounds, a lot of colours and a million cutscenes, looks butt-ugly by today's standards. Soul Reaver is in full 3D, it's very dark, and it only has a couple of those classic lagging FMV's, and it looks quite OK; the clean, round blood effects typical to console games of the generation are quick to catch an evil eye, though.

The reaver of souls equipped with the Soul
Reaver. I see what you did there.

The music is also great. Kurt Harland replaced Steve Henifin as the main composer here, and remained that 'til the end of the series. The soundtrack captures the vengeful spirit of the whole series quite well, not to mention the thick, gothic atmosphere. The voiceover work's a fine mix of serious talent and some deliciously cheesy melodrama. Simon Templeman reprises his role as Kain from Blood Omen to great success; Templeman's voiced a lot of great villains in his time, but I will always regard Kain as his most iconic performance. Michael Bell, voiceover artist since the early 70's, made his first of many major video game appearances in this game as Raziel. What's notable is that he was 61 years old at the time, and Raziel sounds like a character in his 40's, which already stands as proof of versatility required from a good voice actor. Throw in the legendary Tony Jay (R.I.P.) as the "mentor" character, and you've got yourself a title that helped define voiceover quality in the early days of voiceovers becoming standard in video games.

If some kid who first got into video games during the last, say, nine years - the time that's passed since Defiance, the final installment in the series thus far - and asked me what Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver's all about, my initial answer would be very simple. "Ever played Batman: Arkham Asylum?" If he's a smart kid, he has, and Soul Reaver is very easy to explain to him. There's a relatively small hub world with several smaller levels, a lot of different abilities to learn and use to gain access to most upgrades, as well as to unlock new areas. Nosgoth ain't that big in the long run, but it has a lot of small corners to explore, and you can only explore those corners by having certain abilities in your arsenal. It even has a couple of bonafide sidequests, which you do not need to conquer to beat the game, but doing that does help your general progress a little. That's not all, though. A lot of puzzles in Soul Reaver are based on being able to take full advantage of your ghost-like being, and entering the spectral realm.

A mere sealed gate won't hold a true badass - he'll
simply phase through it.

The spectral realm is a contorted version of Nosgoth, where no physical laws apply. Water's as thin as air, there are no truly living beings, and shapes of the real world - called the "material realm" - are twisted, usually to your convenience. For example, decorated parts of walls may stick out, forming platforms for you to climb, and round, strictly vertical pipes might turn into horizontal walkways. However, you cannot physically grab anything in the spectral realm, nor can you interact with doors or levers. You can enter the spectral realm at any given time, but you need a conduit to return to the material realm, which is usually placed just so that you need to really work on some puzzles that are based on the whole realm-roaming schtick. Oh yeah, and there's absolutely no way to lose in this game. When your life is drained in the material realm, you are taken to the spectral realm, and you cannot return before you can reave enough souls to regain full health, and find the nearest conduit. If you get mauled by the spirits of the spectral realm, you return to the starting point of the game, but nothing's lost along the way. You can keep everything, you just need to fight your way back. It's a bit annoying, sure, but let me tell you that if you have the slightest practice on your side, it's pretty much impossible to die in the spectral realm. The enemies are very frail, and devouring just one soul boosts your health greatly.

Although Raziel's no longer a vampire, instead he feasts on the souls of fallen enemies, in the beginning of the game he suffers from many vampiric weaknesses that prevent him from accessing certain areas, or just otherwise screw with his progress to find Kain and slap his former master silly. Roaming through any area with any natural light will slowly drain his health. Water scorches the poor bastard like acid, and even though his physical power is increased upon his resurrection, his former agility and ability to glide are toned down "just a bit" due to his badly injured body, limbs and wings. Raziel's very weak in the beginning of the game, but as in every great game of fetch, he will very much be the "angel of death" the Elder God's constantly selling him as by the end of it. You can count on it.

There are much more ways to kill a vampire than one could spontaneously surmise; fighting enemies in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is awesome. The game was THE most entertaining third-person melee game of its time. The bosses are all different from each other and most require additional strategies beyond Raziel's standard arsenal to stay down, including general environmental awareness and taking advantage of the whole battlefield, from small limited areas to whole levels. "Standard" is an incorrect term to describe regular enemies, as well. You see, beating them to half-death (or "half-undeath"?) with ANYTHING you can find (decorative staves, spears, poles, vases, torches etc.) is not enough. Every vampire flick ever made should make you know better: vampires don't go down easily. Either destroy the whole body, or its heart. These are exactly the things you need to do in this game.

A typical puzzle.

If you don't have a weapon at hand, you can use Raziel's hands (turned boney claws) to inflict minor damage. Later on in the game, you can also go on the hunt for some spells that'll especially help you with large groups of enemies. Also, you will gain a kind of a "Master Sword", a permanent weapon that's only available when your health is full in the material realm, and always in the spectral realm. Like I said before, you can use just about every long object, whether it's blunt or sharp, as a weapon. Just beating the enemies to a pulp is not enough, you also need to impale the enemy through the heart, and finally, devour its soul, before you can safely pick up the weapon again. Torches can be used as weapons and to kill enemies instantly with fire, but you'll need to reignite the torch after each enemy at the nearest bonfire or some other source of flame. During "fist fights", in which there are no direct means to kill an enemy, you'll want to check the environment for sharp wall decorations, cracks for sunlight, and moats. You can then grab the enemy and send him flying to his doom, whatever its nature might be. The clumsy camera and the oversensitive analog control - which are the game's most constant and annoying flaws - might piss on your killing spree a little, but you'll get used to 'em. Add in stealth kills by "javelin throw", and you've got yourself some crazy killing time. It still feels awesome.

Making progress in the game's a constant puzzle. Not a hard one, but it does require constant awareness of your surroundings, moderate navigational skills and some sense of logic. The individual puzzles start repeating themselves towards the end, as most are either related to realm-switching or filling gaps in walls with conveniently placed tiles or boxes, so that their patterns match the walls'. Anyway, Soul Reaver has them - puzzles, I mean - which I think is the most important thing. It wouldn't be the same game without them to balance all the vampire-killing out. Since you can't really die, Soul Reaver's not a hard game in general. It's just an entertaining action adventure to be had. Extremely so.

In news that are probably old by now, the Legacy of Kain franchise - at least Soul Reaver - is up for a reboot or a remake. I just heard about this a couple of days ago, and I'm kinda ecstatic, but also a little curious about the point of it all. After all, after 13 years, the original game still manages to deliver high-quality passtime. Of course I'm going to try the remake as soon as it comes out, no question about it - Soul Reaver is that great. Now if I could only get my hands on the sequels. 

UPS
+ Great story and characters
+ The enemy design
+ Innovative combat, and wide variety of both tactics and weapons
+ The graphics are still quite good
+ The music's good and thick in atmosphere
+ There are lots of puzzles... 

DOWNS
- ...Sadly, they start repeating themselves more than necessary towards the end
- The ending sucks - unlike Mass Effect 3's, this one REALLY does suck!
- The camera is a bitch, and a bitch to control (the old L2/R2 system instead of analog control)
- The controls are oversensitive enough to piss you off real good on narrow walkways

< 9.2 >

REVIEW - Die Hard Trilogy (1996)

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: August 1996
AVAILABLE ON: PC, PS1, SAT
DEVELOPER(S): Probe Entertainment
PUBLISHER(S): Fox Interactive
PLAYERS: 1 

Probe Entertainment. A game studio that always went both ways with their licensed games. They made extremely bad video game adaptations in their time, most of them on Acclaim or LJN's payroll at that, but sometimes they surprised us with titles that were more than decent. In 1995, Probe Entertainment made Alien Trilogy for the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Windows '95. The game was surprisingly well received, considering the poor quality of their previous Alien games. Probe then went on to make a game based on the Die Hard series, which had just expanded into a trilogy with the premiere of Die Hard with a Vengeance. Die Hard video games had never been half decent, and considering Probe's very inconsistent track record, the game could've failed miserably. Instead, it turned out one of the best licensed games in history.

Yippie-kai-yay, motherfucker!

The game chronicles the worst days in the life of N.Y.P.D. officer John McClane - known as a man who's always at the wrong place at the wrong time. In Die Hard, he takes on a group of terrorists who have seized control of a Los Angeles office building where his wife works. In Die Hard 2: Die Harder, he goes solo against a group of mercenaries that have taken over Dulles International Airport in Washington. In Die Hard with a Vengeance, he tries to save the whole city of New York from a vengeful bomber together with a reluctant shop owner.

Although I've anxiously waited for a good reason to slap Die Hard Trilogy in for the first time in 14 years or so, the thought ultimately scared the crap out of me. The moment I grabbed the CD was a moment of hesitation. Most PlayStation games haven't aged well, nor have many games of that generation altogether, in comparison to how well honest retro has aged. I seriously thought whether I should play the game, or just leave it be and remember it how it was. Remember the countless hours I spent on the demo alone back when the PlayStation was brand new. I promised long ago to take it on along with the rest of my collection, even its truly ugly spots, so in the end, I just started the game with a win or lose attitude. Die Hard Trilogy is still a damn entertaining game. Sure, it has aged, a lot - in countless less graceful ways. But, it was an outstanding, tense, unique action game in its time - and it has remained that to this day.

Terrorists: brown shirts. Civilians: white shirts.
Got it.

The most unique thing about Die Hard Trilogy, of course, is that it's not just one game - it's three different, arcade-style action games in one, unlike its spiritual predecessor Alien Trilogy which was an FPS all the way. The games based on the first two movies are somewhat influenced by earlier video game adaptations; they both have the same basic ideas and gameplay similarities. They're much better, though. The third movie was a new one at the time (damn, I'm old...), so the gameplay concept was entirely up to Probe to decide. They went with a generic 3D Grand Theft Auto schtick... five years before 3D GTA existed. Hell, a year before the whole GTA franchise existed. A straightforward action game, the best rail shooter in the history of the genre, and a joyride against time on the streets of New York City, all in the same package, and in the hard, unforgiving style of arcade. Oh yeah, and it's all based on a trilogy of stellar action films. Yippie-kai-yay!

Visual presentation is what makes fifth-generation games age so sadly. While some 16-bit games still manage to astounish with their amazing visual output, such as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island or Chrono Trigger, the rough polygons and the grainy image of the 32- and 64-bit era burn your eyes like acid. There's a lot going on in Die Hard Trilogy, and it's a complete mess. Good thing most of the joy in gameplay's still intact - not all of it, though. I'll get to that later. The music is pretty good, although it's techno all the way. They captured the spirit of blowing shit up quite well. You can actually listen to high-quality versions of these tunes from the game disc using any stereo set - naturally, they don't work that well without context. A very transparent Bruce Willis impersonator spews out a number of clean punchlines ("Yippie-kai-yay" needs a "motherfucker", seriously), an even worse (and God damn annoying) Samuel L. Jackson impersonator appears in the last game, and both the hostages and terrorists yell out some generic, random quotes to inform you of their presence. That's it for the "voice acting" - that's what the atrocity is referred to as in the manual. The sound effects are still great, and count for the great bang 'n' boom experience the game basically is, despite its many flaws in the audiovisual department.

Cops flying around, blood splatters on thin air,
uh... *something* blowing to pieces... yep, it's
a McClane kind of Christmas in low definition.

The first game, based on my favourite action film of all time, is a very straightforward third-person shooter, with all of the genre's most basic arcade gameplay elements in place. Power-ups, weapon upgrades, grenades, body armor, the ability to dodge, those ones. Your goal is to free all hostages on each floor of the Nakatomi Building - those floors which you have access to - and kill all the terrorists. Simple, ain't it? The idea might be - but the game is DAMN HARD. Die hard? No, it ain't hard. It's very easy. Die easy. The controls of the game are quite outdated. Analog control would help the game greatly, but the game was released prior to the DualShock's arrival to the scene, and unlike many other re-released games, Die Hard Trilogy never got the patch. The button scheme is laid out somewhat clumsy, and the digital pad doesn't make the already hard aiming any easier. Nevertheless, it's a fun game, once you get the hang of it. It's incredibly satisfying to blow whole units of unsuspecting enemies to piles of blood, bone and shit with a well-placed grenade, and blow up all kinds of shit for business or pleasure, even if you know damn well you're never going to beat this one. One death, and it's over. That "New Game" in the beginning? Just for show. There ain't no continues.

The second game blows Die Hard 2 - the movie - off the map. It blows every rail shooter that came before it, even Virtua Cop, CLEAN off the map. It makes the original Die Hard 2 computer game that much more laughable. Rail shooters used to be so damn boring on home consoles - arcades were a different thing. Having a light gun made them a little more interesting to play at home, but not by much. Die Hard 2 does not need a light gun; most rail shooters of the time had specific targets. You couldn't do shit to the environment. In this game, you can demolish just about EVERYTHING. Like in the first game, killing civilians drains your health, but just about everything else gives you bonuses. Secret routes, better weapons, LOTS of points for those who are interested, and simple pleasure for one who simply loves virtual demolition... like me. This one's ultra-violent, and ultra-cool. Unlike the first game in this "collection", Die Hard 2 is hard and you have only one life to go on, but play it enough and you'll learn it, and eventually beat it - you have the basic gameplay concept to thank for that. ...And after you've beaten it, feel free to try again and see how much destruction you can conjure up this time around. This game rules. It's the best rail shooter of all time, and it's only a part of a larger whole. Imagine that.

Crazy Taxi just got a whole lot crazier.

In Die Hard with a Vengeance, you have three chances, and I gather it's because it's not only skills and reflexes you have to worry about here, but sheer luck as well. Simon's been planting bombs all around New York City, and your goal is to reach those bombs and run them over using different vehicles - upon impact, the bombs still explode (naturally), which makes this game kinda hilarious and the goal kinda pointless. Zeus is by your side, barking directions in a really nasal, heliumized voice that sounds nothing like Samuel L. Jackson - except when he got high in San Andreas - and there's a GPS to aid you as well. Although you have two virtual aids giving you clues to the locations of the bombs, you have an extremely unforgiving time limit to meet. The controls are again quite clumsy, civilians are extremely hard to avoid hitting, other cars tend to get in your way constantly whether or not you honk them to death, and all in all, I must say this is the weakest game in the bunch. It can be fun once you're in the right mindset, but I can't guarantee it. If my memory serves me correctly, I've beaten this part of the game once, so it's not impossible. Just extremely hard, and in my opinion, the only part of the game that can turn from hard to exclusively tedious.

After a decade and a half of letting the game rest, I headed into Die Hard Trilogy with deep fear of totally botching one of my childhood/pre-teen favourites, but exited the game with a smile. It's still got a lot of explosive power in it, although admittedly most of it is found from the second part of the game, which is all about murder and total obliteration of public places. The remaining parts have their flaws, but they're good, blood red entertainment nonetheless. On Probe's usual scale, Die Hard Trilogy could almost be named a masterpiece. It's not quite as great as I remembered it to be, but it's an achievement considering its makers' reputation as licensees.

UPS
+ The game sports unparalleled tension across all of its segments; they're very challenging, but short enough to make you want to try again... and again
+ The Die Hard 2: Die Harder segment is an amazing effort in its genre
+ EXPLOSIONS! MORE EXPLOSIONS! EVEN MORE EXPLOSIONS!
+ The music is quite good in this context
+ You can still feel the violence... 

DOWNS
- ...Even though the game is ugly and messy as heck
- I can't really decide if the "voice acting" is hilarious or simply damn bad
- The first and third segment could really use analog control; movement is clumsy as it is
- The Die Hard with a Vengeance segment is entertaining, but notably weaker than the first two

< 8.0 >

REVIEW - Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)

GENRE(S): Action / Survival horror
RELEASED: September 1999
AVAILABLE ON: DC, GCN, PC, PS1
DEVELOPER(S): Capcom
PUBLISHER(S): Capcom
PLAYERS: 1

A Hall of Famer in the categories of both "revolutionary action games" and "revolutionarily bad voice acting", Resident Evil popularized the term "survival horror" in 1996. Resident Evil 2, released in 1998, is still considered a masterpiece in the genre. Since then, the series has evolved - some bent on disagreeing would say degraded - from a balanced mix of puzzle solving, thick, bone chilling atmosphere and the occasional, desperate fight to survive to a much more easily explained franchise of fast paced, constant action, in which efficient combat tactics have taken over for smart item management as the most important key to survival. The first Resident Evil game of the new generation was Resident Evil 4... wait, rewind a bit! What happened to Resident Evil 3? Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was released on the PlayStation in 1999. The game was well received by critics, but its sales were nowhere near those of its predecessors, and you could say the game went almost unnoticed by casual players for years. In recent years, the game has become revered by many as perhaps the best game in the vintage Resident Evil series. I didn't buy that praise then, and I don't buy it now. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is a good game, but it lacks plenty of what I fell in love with the franchise for.

Big Trouble in Little Raccoon

STARRING
Catherine Disher : Jill Valentine
Vince Corazza : Carlos Oliveira
Ben Campbell : Mikhail Victor
Roger Honeywell : Nicholai Ginovaef
Evan Sabba : Brad Vickers
Tony Rosato : Dario Rosso / Nemesis
Peter Windrem : Tyrell Patrick
Richard Clarkin : Murphy Seeker

Raccoon City has been taken over by zombies. While Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield are still both very unaware of the situation, S.T.A.R.S. operative Jill Valentine is stranded in the heart of the city, fighting for survival. As she makes her way through the zombie-infested streets to find the way out, she discovers she is the primary target of a new bio-organic weapon designed by Umbrella to assassinate every surviving member of the group that nearly destroyed their research.

Anime hater says "wut".

I consider myself a lifelong fan of Resident Evil, and though it might therefore be hard to believe, it's only been two years since I first played Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It just somehow slipped past me, just like it slipped past many a player back in the day - as a matter of fact, back when it was released, I didn't really play anything else besides role-playing games. Apparently I was so taken by the Final Fantasy storm that even a major game in one of my other favourite franchises managed to avoid my attention. When I finally realized I had missed a Resident Evil game, I was furious, but when I read about the game, I wasn't too taken by it. Something about it just didn't add up; I was in no rush to try the game. Years passed, and I forgot all about its existence again, right up until I stumbled on it on the PlayStation Network. I just happened to have some extra money, so I thought I'd finally enlighten myself with the game other Resident Evil fans were suddenly calling the classic franchise at its finest; I wonder how much the popularity of the second movie, loosely based on this game, had to do with the sudden popularity of this game. If I were more into guessing, I would say quite a lot, 'cause I consider Nemesis a quite good game with some good ideas and a fantastic main villain - but the worst game in the main series, bar none.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is split into two acts; the first one's events take place 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2, and the second one's take place two days later. The game is full of mistakes related to the timeline; for example, the police station from the previous game - yep, we go back for a brief visit - is all boarded up and the only surviving cop that Leon met in the beginning of the game is already dead. Also, in general, the city's in total chaos from the very beginning, while it seemed very peaceful in the beginning of Resident Evil 2. So, basically, the guys at Capcom wrote a good story, but executed it so that nitpickers like me could fart out blood. Resident Evil 3's meant to work as a functional prequel, sequel and an interquel, all at the same time, but it works as none.

Step a little bit to the right. No, my right. Good.
Good. Now, stand still and die. Again.

The general graphics are quite good - outdated, for certain, but that's not really the point. What really surprises me is that the game actually looks somewhat hairier than Resident Evil 2. I wasn't a big fan of the doll-ish cutscenes in the previous game, but here they took them even further by removing everything human about the characters' looks. I really don't dig the cheap-looking cartoons that the cutscenes are, even less the overtly Japanese intro - you'll know exactly what I mean. It simply does not mesh with my idea of Resident Evil. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't miss the first game's intro, the one with real actors - I just thought they would take at least half a step forward and not two steps back with the cutscenes.

The music is good, pretty much the same as Resident Evil 2's jive; some are ripped straight off from that game, such as Masami Ueda's classic, haunting piece that still plays in the main hall of the R.P.D. station. The voice acting is still nearly as bad as always, but this time, it's more of the fault of bad lines than bad actors - Jill and Brad have totally different actors they had before. The dialogue is ridiculously bad, and I think the actors survive the atrocious script with moderate honour. There was pretty much only one true "IS THAT YOU, REBECCA!!!???" or "You were almost a Jill sandwich" moment here, one which made me take a break and calm my nerves stressed by sheer amusement before continuing on with the game. That is quite an accomplishment, we're speaking of old school Resident Evil here.

The first thing that clearly separates the game from the previous installments is that you can't choose your character - the game is a surprisingly story-driven game, and that story revolves around Jill Valentine and her desperate escape from Raccoon City, which is literally falling apart to not much more than goose shit around her. Apart from the zombies and the utter destruction of the city, Jill's got one personal, eight-feet tall problem; a new Tyrant prototype is on her tail, and not only is this son of a bitch highly intelligent, he is incredibly fast, strong, and he knows how to use a rocket launcher. Ouch. Unlike others of his kind, he doesn't kill for a primitive urge, instead he's been "programmed" by Umbrella to eliminate every surviving member of S.T.A.R.S.. His name: Nemesis.

Hey, I know this place.

On paper, Nemesis is an awesome villain. The production team didn't even try to create a human antagonist this time, they focused all their energy on a true monster that possesses every nasty quality of the original Tyrant, Mr. X and the little less nerdy Dr. Birkin, all in one neat package, and a few more of those qualities. However, they made the mistake of overplaying the character. The "JESUS JUMPING CHRIST!" I yelled out each time Mr. X burst through a brick wall or whatever at the most unpredictable moment in Resident Evil 2 very quickly turned into "oh, for fuck's sake, not again" in Resident Evil 3. Sure, Nemesis can, and will, scare you on the first couple of times he shows his ugly face, but when he starts appearing around every damn corner, the fear turns into pure frustration. Most of the time, you get good power-ups by putting him down, but it ain't easy, and you really don't have any bullets to spare in this game.

Let's take it from the top, from the title screen, in fact. When it comes to difficulty level, there are two options: Easy or Hard. What happened to Normal? This is just like in Ghouls 'n Ghosts for the Sega Genesis; the developers are practically laughing at your face by forcing you to play on "Easy", just like they forced you to play on "Practice" in Ghouls 'n Ghosts - which, of course, was FAR from practice. Well, Easy in Resident Evil 3 is exactly that - easy. You get all basic weapons in the beginning of the game, and plenty of ammo for all of them. Ink Ribbons are infinite - I wonder why they still hadn't figured out they should've left them out altogether - and considering you have three First Aid Sprays to start out with, you could say you have much easier access to health power-ups. Also, Hard is definitely hard. There is nothing normal about this difficulty level at all; going at the game on Hard is the only way for a self-respecting Resident Evil player to go, but it will get very frustrating, much sooner than you would want or expect. The Nemesis, respawning zombies (ouch), a pathetic abundance of everything practical, from ammo to health items to Ink Ribbons, a LOT of painful backtracking... hell no, I would never even imagine recommending this game to one new to the franchise.

Burning buildings are a standard in this game.
Get used to 'em.

At first glance, the game looks exactly the same as the ones that came before, but then the truths about the game start slapping you across the face. First up is a new feature that a lot of fans like, but I personally think there's no point to it: you find very little ammo in this game, you are responsible for the creation of ammunition with a reloading tool which takes just as much annoying space in your equally annoying inventory as the Ink Ribbons. You can create ammunition from gunpowder of different colours, which are scattered all around just like ammo in the previous games. By combining two different types of gunpowder, you can create more powerful ammo for more powerful weapons. ...Great. I think I could've breathed just fine if they would've just given us the ammo straight up like before. I am very rarely in the mood to go back to the nearest chest to dig up the reloading tool every single one of the million times I run out of bullets within an hour. Of course the supposed greatness of this feature lies in the fact that you can create ammo that you truly need, but finding the proper type of gunpowder takes time, and again, there is absolutely no sense in hauling that reloading tool around all the time!

The second "huge" addition to the gameplay experience is the optional use of advanced combat tactics. Interaction with the environment is cool, and a good thing for the later games to exploit further. For example, you can blow up a barrel of fuel with a single shot whenever there's a horde of zombies passing by and shred them all to pieces in the process, without having to waste a lot of good firepower by pumping each one's brain full of lead. Dodging attacks does not work very well against anyone or anything else than Nemesis himself, since his attacks are so much more physical than the age-old, sudden and unpredictable grappling attacks fancied by the zombies.

I saved the best for last, and this time it truly is the best new feature in the game: Live Selection. The game's progress is very dependent of the decisions that you make. In tight spots such as an ambush by Nemesis or the ground breaking from under you, you have only a few seconds to decide between two options. Some of the worse options simply don't work, most of them do, but usually force you to move on to a plan B, which tends to be way less practical than your original one. I truly dug this system and got the chance to try both options in many different situations, all due to dying so often.

God damn it, Predator! Leave me alone already!

The inventory system is seriously worse than ever before, or even after. There's no secondary, permanent item slot, which means that even a lockpick or a lighter takes up one main slot in your inventory. You're most likely going to die so many times in one single spot, that Ink Ribbons or the reloading tool can easily be forgotten to take up valuable space in the inventory after loading the game.

Last thing I'll mention - or criticize - about the game is the setting. Resident Evil might have moved on to wide open, exterior areas as of late, but the genre and style of the games have also changed a lot - it has turned out awesome. I think that in old school Resident Evil, one of the main attractions was the constant fear of the walls of a narrow corridor crumbling down on you, with someone other than your own footsteps on the wooden floor and heavy breathing mixed with unearthly moaning creating an uneasy feeling you couldn't rightly describe. In Resident Evil 3, you mostly wander around streets - literally, since the game is full of some of the most dastardly backtracking I've ever seen - and it just doesn't feel the same. The whole theme of the vintage franchise, as it was known based on the first two games, kind of loses its point in my opinion when 90% of the action is taken to the outside. What also hurts the game is that Nemesis is the only truly frightening enemy in the whole game. There are a couple of new Hunter models, but no Lickers or anything new, persistent and out of the ordinary when it comes to being a real asshole. Just some venomous Spider-Men who think too much of themselves. Oh, and fat zombies that are just hilarious.

The big cheese, and he ain't a nice guy at all.

As I said, the game is highly difficult in comparison to its predecessors, and the constant backtracking from one side of Raccoon City to another, mostly between puzzle solutions, makes the challenge a little too tedious to bear. Running out of everything you need at the exact same time isn't impossible at all - it's hard to enjoy the game when you have no ammo, no Ink Ribbons, no health items, you've last saved two or three hours ago and indeed, you don't even have a rock to throw at the most pathetic enemy. You just need to RUN, and hope that whatever lies behind that mysterious door from the beginning of the game, which you can finally open, is the solution to your problems. For a serious fan, the hefty amount of unlockables is good news. There's a Mercenaries minigame, plenty of alternate attires for Jill and eight Epilogue Files, which detail the ultimate fates of many of the central characters. Unfortunately, to see each of the files, you need to play through the game eight times. Kind of an aggressive solution by Capcom.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was a fun experience, but simply not a fun Resident Evil experience. I get why people praise the character of Nemesis, but not their praises towards the game in general. I'll truly, now and forever, stand by Resident Evil 2 when it comes to the ultimate experience in old school survival horror of the zombie-killing type. 

GRAPHICS : 8.3
SOUND : 7.9
PLAYABILITY : 7.3
LIFESPAN : 8.0
CONCLUSION : 7.6

TRIVIA

a.k.a. Biohazard 3: Last Escape (JAP), Biohazard 1.9 (working title), Resident Evil: Nemesis

GameRankings: 81.11% (DC), 63.71% (GCN), 74.15% (PC), 88.48% (PS1)

Producer Shinji Mikami was against the game being called Resident Evil 3 (or Biohazard 3), as he thought Code: Veronica - which was under development - advanced the story enough to be a "real" sequel. He came up with the working title Biohazard 1.9..

Since the release of the game, Nemesis has become one of the most popular characters in the franchise. He has since made appearances in Capcom's obscure action game Under the Skin, in the popular Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games, and of course, the Resident Evil 3 scenario in the Wii game Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.

Nemesis was originally designed to appear in Resident Evil 2, but his appearance was deemed too "distinct", so he was replaced with Mr. X - hence their similar taste in clothing.

The second film in the Resident Evil movie franchise, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, is loosely based on Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It features characters Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), Carlos Oliveira (Oded Fehr), Nicholai Ginovaef (Zack Ward), and Nemesis (Matthew G. Taylor). In the movie, the character of Matt Addison (Eric Mabius), captured by Umbrella in the end of the first film, became Nemesis.

REVIEW - Resident Evil 2 (1998)

Genre(s): Action / Survival horror
Released: 1998
Available on: DC, GCN, N64, PC, PS1, PSN
Developer(s): Capcom, Angel Studios, Factor 5, Sourcenext
Publisher(s): Capcom, Virgin Interactive, Nintendo
Players: 1

Resident Evil 2 was to be the first sequel to Capcom's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful game of the decade, so yeah, you could say creator and producer Shinji Mikami was under a lot of pressure when he promised a bigger, better, badder and scarier Resident Evil with a truckload of more zombies, as the game's production began right after the release of the first one. Wanting to stay one hundred per cent true to his word, he unceremoniously canned the whole project when it was about 70% done, and ordered director Hideki Kamiya and his team to start from scratch. After over a year and a half since it began taking form and a near dive into development hell, Resident Evil 2 finally hit the shelves in January, 1998. It turned out to be everything Mikami promised it to be, and more - no less than perhaps the best traditional survival horror game in history.

The serious disorder of the keepers of order

STARRING
Paul Haddad : Leon S. Kennedy
Alyson Court : Claire Redfield
Sally Cahill : Ada Wong
Lisa Yamanaka : Sherry Birkin
Jennifer Dale : Dr. Annette Birkin
Rod Wilson : Ben Bertolucci
Gary Krawford : Brian Irons / Robert Kendo
Diego Matamoros : Dr. William Birkin

Over the course of one night, just few months after the mansion incident at the Arklay Mountains, Raccoon City turns into hell on Earth. Umbrella Inc.'s most advanced type of virus, labelled G, spreads over the city like wildfire. Claire Redfield is a young, motorcycle-riding tomboy come to search for her brother Chris, who's been missing for some time. Leon S. Kennedy, on the other hand, is a new recruit at the Raccoon City Police Department, which has become somewhat of a hive to those infected by the G-Virus. They may be strangers to each other, but they must work together to survive the viral outbreak and escape the city.

Leon... or a newly rendered Max Headroom.

Back when Resident Evil 2 was announced, I was just getting to know the fabulous world of the Internet, and for about a year, I scooped up the latest on Resident Evil 2 every chance I got. If I got no more than five minutes online, I sacrificed it to Resident Evil 2. I don't remember anticipating any game, ever, as much as I anticipated Resident Evil 2. When they announced the project had been rebooted several months into production, I wasn't disappointed; I was more fired up about the game than ever! I thought the first version looked fantastic, and if Mikami abandoned it 'cause he thought it was boring, then what could they possibly be brewing up now? I didn't have a PlayStation at the time, but I had been promised that when Resident Evil 2 came out, I would get to borrow the game from a friend, and the PlayStation from another source. This did happen... the thing was, I didn't get a memory card. Still, I managed to beat the game. Or, I mean, one scenario of the basic four. I tried six times. I died in the final boss four times, out of those six. How could I muster up the energy to play through the whole game that many times during one week, or just actually a few days? That, I don't know. But I do know one thing: if there was something I loved in a video game, it was shooting a guy's head off with a shotgun. In other words, I loved Resident Evil 2; I loved it so much that I wanted to play it, with or without the ability to save. I still love it. It's lost some of its beauty and original appeal, but it still manages to scare the player more positively shitless than most of 'em, and it still packs quite the standard-setting survival horror challenge. And shooting the heads off of four to five zombies with a single blast from a customized shotgun with amazing recoil is still a gas.

The game begins with a disclaimer: "This game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore." To my recollection, Resident Evil 2 was the first game I ever played that had this disclaimer, since the original version of the first game didn't. The first time I saw the disclaimer on the screen, I sincerely said to myself, and to my brother who was giving me some parental advisory - or just enjoying the show - that "the game doesn't even need to be good, it just told me a good reason to play it anyway." But, it turned out to be a great game, and it did cash in on that promise. Still does. Unlike the first game, this one has endured the fangs of time quite neatly and its detailed, gory violence is still quite remarkable; the game remained one of the best-looking games on the original PlayStation right up until the end of the platform's lifespan. The character polygons stick out from the pre-rendered backgrounds with a lot less volume, and although the FMV models are ugly and doll-ish by today's standards, watching them in action is oh, so much easier on the eyes and mind than suffering the previous game's ridiculous live actors, or their nasty lip syncs.

This guy totally missed the landing zone.

One evil remains extremely resident: horrible voiceover work. The first Resident Evil is a classic when it comes to bad voiceovers, but overall, it didn't have that much dialogue. Resident Evil 2 features a lot of interaction between characters: the two leads, the other survivors and the crazy villains. Back when this game came out, the script sounded like a masterpiece compared to that of the previous game, but it's almost just as bad. The lines are dope, and the cast is just another bunch of grade F actors summoned to the studio from the street. I don't have any "favourites" here, though, except for Sherry, who's a kid in a survival horror game and that says it all. I do have a couple of lines in mind, such as Claire's discreet "You're a cop, right?"; she's sitting next to Leon, who's in a complete police uniform, and driving a police car, so my guess would be: "UHH... YEAH!?". Or Leon's repeated line: "Ada, wait!". Why doesn't he ever run after Ada? Can a chick in high heels really outrun a young, buffed-out police officer? Man, I tell you, the state of law enforcement these days... on a lot of occasions, Leon strikes me as being just as dumb and oblivious as Chris was in the first game. The lead females have at least some potential, it's just the awful lines that do them no favours; no wonder Alyson Court and Sally Cahill got to reprise their roles in later installments of the franchise.

The music by Masami Ueda, Shusaku Uchiyama and Shun Nishigaki is exceptionally good. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the score of the first Resident Evil game - Ueda was the only person of the three to work on that one - but here, it's less ambient. Dark, melodic, intimidating, very piano-driven stuff that you'd expect to hear in a Japanese horror movie. And no tacky guitar rock this time around.

Resident Evil 2 comes on two discs, and that should already give you an idea of what length, variety and visual goodness we're dealing with here. The first Resident Evil had two different scenarios - one for Chris, and one for Jill - and that was it. End of story. If you could meet certain criteria, you could play the game again using different clothes and even using a rocket launcher with infinite ammo, but there was nothing concretely new about your second round. In Resident Evil 2, both characters, Leon and Claire, have two different scenarios each. It depends on who you start out with - if you start the party with Leon, you'll first have to play through Leon A and then, Claire B. You'll then proceed to the reverse order - Claire A, Leon B. The B scenarios are a bit tougher, since a lot of stuff you do in the A scenario has an effect on the B scenario. Just an example: if you find a machinegun in the A scenario and decide to take it, it will not be available for the character in the B scenario, since the scenarios both take place simultaneously.

Leon and Claire bump into each other a few times during the game, but they both have their own ways to reach the end, and their own problems to deal with. Most of those problems are brought on by the other friendlies they meet on the way. That's right, there are two additional characters, one accompanying each from time to time, and who are even playable in choice situations. Leon has to deal with a very mysterious woman in red named Ada Wong, who has supposedly come to Raccoon City to look for her missing hubby who works for Umbrella, and Claire has to suffer the remarkable pain of looking after a lost little girl, the daughter of two Umbrella scientists who have seemed to go missing as well. If you haven't figured it out by now, children and teenagers always spell trouble in games. Especially survival horror games. Resident Evil 2 is no exception. As a matter of fact, it more or less started the trend. As much as I'd like to cut down the points due to that fact, I can't. 'Cause it's a great fuckin' game.

The streets are crawling with zombies, and the
chief of police is a grade A nutjob. I love this
town.

The gameplay's almost identical to the first game, and that unfortunately means the extremely annoying inventory limit is still intact. Once again, by default, Claire has more space than Leon, and now I'm pretty positive that this is some kind of a sexist joke by Mikami. It's definitely the bra cups. There's a very welcome special item in this game - the side pack, which adds two inventory slots, and therefore, in my mind, it's a natural choice for Leon. Don't go thinking it spares you any tedious backtracking, though. You need to sacrifice space for four spark plugs to open a certain door, there are a million herbs which you will most certainly need but you just can't carry them all, some weapons take up two slots, you still need those stupid ink ribbons to save the game... hell, why am I even explaining it? The inventory limit is straight out of the retard zone in every possible way! A limit this strict was obsolete even before it was introduced in the first game! Well, at least this time the small keys, exclusive to Leon, stack. There aren't a lot of them, though. Why's the female lead always the master of unlocking who doesn't need this shit?

I won't go into the inane logic of a police officer not able or willing to break into a closet or a drawer even in an emergency, this time around, and besides, the small keys are very useful. Not only do you find ammo from drawers, but also parts which you can use to upgrade your weapons. For example, your basic handgun can be equipped with a stabilizer and rapid fire to make it a much more efficient tool for killing. Which is good, since there are a lot of downright excellent weapons such as the bowgun and the machinegun, but you rarely find ammo for them. Ammo for the more basic weapons is available in large amounts - you shouldn't be TOO trigger happy, though, since there are a lot of zombies in this game. And things that are much worse.

Lickers replace Hunters, and man, these bastards do know how to make an entrance. Not only are they scary as fuck to begin with, but they can kill you with just a couple of slips of their tongues if they are close and precise enough. Without a shotgun or something better, you'd better pray when there are more than one of these guys after you. The bosses range from a giant sewer alligator to different abominations spawned by just a drop of the G-Virus, to a colossal, seemingly immortal guy in a trenchcoat only known as Mr. X, who is also a fan of big entrances. I seriously almost crapped my pants the first time this guy made his presence known. He is most definitely one of the creepiest dudes I've ever seen in a video game.

Since I've managed to play through both Leon and Claire's A scenarios without a memory card back in the day, it's not that hard to figure out that it's not impossible, in fact it's quite easy. But it's not the point. The first scenario of the game is, for all intents and purposes, only the first quarter of the game. You can't say you've beaten the game after just one scenario because there are so much details and crucial events that won't be unlocked until you've beaten all four scenarios. Doing this takes about 20 hours from the most seasoned player, so yeah, we're dealing with a lengthy, challenging game lightyears ahead of its predecessor on this front - the first and only Resident Evil game that took full advantage (and more) of having two main characters. You could say the team put a whole lot more effort into Resident Evil 2 than they should have. The next couple of games were bound to disappoint, since they were stripped of a lot of small elements that made Resident Evil 2 so great.

X, dude... can't we just talk this through?

If you consider yourself a seasoned player of Resident Evil 2 and want to push yourself to the very limits, you could try unlocking three additional game modes - it ain't easy, though. The 4th Survivor is a bonus mission which puts you in the boots of HUNK, a special agent of Umbrella who is mentioned in a couple of notes. The To-Fu Survivor is another bonus mission, a parody of The 4th Survivor, in which you play as a walking block of tofu. Japanese humour at its best and worst. Extreme Battle is just what its name implies, and to my knowledge, it's only unlocked if you've beaten the game to the hilt, and both Survivor missions. Not only do you need to beat the game in order to unlock the Survivor missions, you need to get the highest possible rank in each scenario. Now everyone who still believes in their bullshit about this game being easy, put your hands up.

I had a lot of trouble coming up with a decent written review of Resident Evil 2. I was actually considering of just rating the game. The biggest problem was that I couldn't really put my final opinion on it into words. The game was so fuckin' awesome when it came out, and it still is, but after a million playthroughs and the more recent games which are not thematically as good, but have incredible gameplay, parts of it make you want to quit in midway and just remember the game as the flawless masterpiece it was. A friend of mine, who's probably the biggest fan of old-school Resident Evil there is, managed to inspire me during an MSN conversation and I'd like to end this review by flat-out quoting him. "Resident Evil 2 was the life and death of true survival horror. There will never be another game which is as genuinely scary and action-packed at the same time. They tried with Nemesis and Code: Veronica, but they lost balance. Then they stopped trying." Might sound harsh, but that's about the way it is.

Graphics : 9.1
Sound : 7.7
Playability : 9.2
Challenge : 9.5
Overall : 9.3

Trivia

a.k.a. Biohazard 2 (JAP)

GameRankings: 79.75% (DC), 63.30% (GCN), 86.77% (N64), 79.59% (PC), 92.57% (PS1)

Strangely, the game was released in North America first, and even more strangely, the Japanese version of it is notably easier and features less explicit violence.

The scrapped version of the game is known in the Resident Evil fan community as Resident Evil 1.5, a title coined by the development team. Leon S. Kennedy was the male lead, but he sported a totally different, more militaristic look. College student Elza Walker was the original female lead; her love for motorcycles is the only characteristic carried over to Claire.

Members of the original development team have expressed interest in totally remaking the game in the same fashion the first game was remade for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002.

REVIEW - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

Genre(s): Action / Platform / RPG
Released: 1997
Available on: PS1, PSN, SAT, XBLA
Developer(s): Konami, Digital Eclipse
Publisher(s): Konami
Players: 1

By 1997, the Castlevania franchise's popularity in the United States and Europe had waned. There hadn't been a decently selling game in the series since Super Castlevania IV. In Japan, however, the series flourished - it could almost be described as Castlevania's golden era back in the East. In 1997, Konami brought their "wicked child" to the Sony PlayStation and introduced a whole new type of Castlevania experience, making it more RPG and adventure oriented, something that hadn't been even tried since the much debated Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a direct sequel to the Japanese cult classic Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, which was infamously remade (and rewritten) for the SNES as the sloppy Castlevania: Dracula X in 1995. As was expected, American and European promotional efforts for the game were minimal. Critics all over the world praised the game, but it just wouldn't sell anywhere else than Japan. The Sega Saturn version, which was released in 1998, didn't help the game's sales at all since the Saturn itself flopped. Today, an original, physical copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is considered a collector's item, since all versions were drawn from the market rather quickly. The game itself, on the other hand, is considered the best and most innovative Castlevania game of all time, as well as one of the finest video games ever released. I'm in a tight spot here, since I've said a lot of bad things about it in the past... and now that I've finally seen the game through for the first time, I've got to admit that perhaps I've been wrong about some things. It still isn't my favourite game in the series, but it is great, and most definitely the most original and influential Castlevania game there ever was.

Even vampires have daddy issues

STARRING
Robert Belgrade : Adrian Tepes, "Alucard"
Scott McCulloch : Richter Belmont
Kimberly Forsythe : Maria Renard
Michael Gough : Count Vlad Tepes, "Dracula"
Dennis Falt : Death
Alison Lester : Succubus
Barbara Whitlow : Lisa Farenheights
Jeffrey Manning : Shaft

Four years after defeating Dracula, Richter Belmont goes missing and Castlevania once again manifests out of the darkness, foreboding the resurrection of the evil one. While Maria sets out to search for Richter in Dracula's cursed keep, Alucard awakens from his deep sleep and also travels to Castlevania to investigate the threat of his father's resurrection, and make sure it will never take place.

The first theoretic steps into Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are a hoot and/or a shock for those who care. For the first time, we're not playing as a Belmont or a distant relative of theirs, we're playing as a friggin' vampire! This fact alone raises the bar of expectations when it comes to control and character movement, and those expectations are cashed in for sure. Of course Alucard made his debut years before in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, in which he wasn't exactly a pixelated athlete, but in this game the whole character was rebooted, and damned if that cool looking, brooding long-haired dude wouldn't had been able to impress us with his vampiric movement!

"Yikes." No, in reality, the Skull Lord's the lamest
"Lord" in the game.

The game is in 2D, like any good Castlevania game. Before you start blasting me about how decent Lords of Shadow is, keep in mind that the game was still 12 years away and the first time Konami tried to render Castlevania in 3D, they failed miserably - I'm talking about Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, of course. I remember when the game came out and one dude on my class had his piratey brother-in-law copy it for him; he said it's total crap. A friend of mine who liked the game very much took the opportunity to ask a very crucial question. "Well, how long did you play it?" "About five minutes..." "You might be able to type in your name and make it through the first room in that time." "What-EVER! The graphics were so yesterday!" Sigh. The mistake I have made with Symphony of the Night in the past is that I've passed judgement too quick. I had played it more than five minutes when I made those remarks writing the review of Aria of Sorrow, I assure you, but I'll now admit that it was not enough to form a concrete opinion. Symphony of the Night is one slow hook, and it might take as much as three game hours to make you realize that hey, you might be playing a decent game here.

Besides, yesterday is exactly what the graphics should be. It's purely intentional by Konami, and they made a good call by sticking to releasing a 2D game when 3D flourished. There are some minor 3D effects to bring in a little extra depth, and they look awesome. Stylistically the game is in its own league. The use of colour, shading and special effects is simply genius. Perhaps it's not the most polished game around, but there's a surprisingly huge attention to detail and all forms of movement are absolutely seamless. Think of how good a classic 16-bit Castlevania game could possibly look - double it, and you've got something pretty close to the look of Symphony of the Night.

The soundtrack is widely praised as one of the most incredible video game soundtracks there is. I have to disagree on this one. You can pretty much guess the reason if you've read any earlier reviews. "Bloodlines" is the only classic Castlevania tune in this whole game. It means a lot of things, like... "Vampire Killer" is missing - of course, the song would be rather awkwardly placed in a game that stars a vampire. "Beginning", "Wicked Child", "Heart of Fire"... no, none of them are here. WHAT'S STILL MISSING, I WONDER? "Bloody Tears" is not even found on the official soundtrack CD or the game, since it's exclusive to the Sega Saturn version. Saturn got exclusives?! I'll be damned. To praise Michiru Yamane for something for a change, I have to say that version of "Bloody Tears" is the best recorded version of the song, ever. But it's not found here. As much as the game might be the most classic Castlevania game there is, it sure as hell misses out on a truckload of classic music. OK, OK, the soundtrack is technically very good, the original music is quite sufficient and fits the 'Vania bill, no problem. There's sharp orchestration across the board, a bit of rock, a bit of jazz, and a bit of cold ambience I so admire. Yamane always throws in one or two mediocre songs which stick out like a sore thumb, but there's no total crap here. I dig it. "Lost Painting", "Wood Carving Partita" and "Dracula's Castle" stand out as some of my new favourites across the franchise. Cynthia Harrell, who went on to perform the classic theme song of Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, contributes with a sung ballad named "I Am the Wind", which is pretty good and the song she seems to be better known globally for.

Then, to the good parts. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was the first Castlevania game to feature voice acting and also one of the few major console titles to have voiceover work before Metal Gear Solid made it a standard. Actually that game's a pretty good example of how much Konami alone developed on this front just within a year, 'cause the voiceover work in Castlevania sucks on Horse Cock Harry's fabled family jewels. It's funny, for sure, but I'm also sure that wasn't the intention. The dialogue is absolutely horrid and the actors are just saying their lines instead of injecting any sort of emotion into them. It's funny to hear them read lines with Yoda's grammar, awkwardly pausing every time there's some sort of weird order to the words, or if a single word can't quite slip off a modern tongue. It sounds like Capcom lent their in-house talent to Konami; Richter sounds just as dumb as the guy who played Chris Redfield in Resident Evil... wait, it IS the guy who played Chris Redfield in Resident Evil! This Scott McCulloch's falsely credited everywhere for voicing Dracula himself, which isn't such a wonder since the credits only state the names of the actors, not their roles. For their sake, Konami could've just left them uncredited. Two actors, Robert Belgrade (Alucard) and Dennis Falt (Death), actually remained Konami's in-house "talent" for many years to come, as they both appeared in Silent Hill 4: The Room... in which the overall voiceover work is not too bad. A bit of useless trivia, there. I know, I'm such an off-topic kind of guy.

These teleports would be quite useful, if they
didn't always take you to a random location!

I don't rightly remember if I've gone through all of this before, but let's review: the first game I played in the Castlevania series was Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, which I hated. Believe it or not, the next game I played - if not taking into account quick tests of both Super Castlevania IV and Dracula X - was Castlevania: Lament of Innocence on the PS2, which I also hated. The Castlevania series didn't really become one of my favourite game franchises in history before I played Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for the first time on the Game Boy Advance. I loved the game, and if I wrote the review now, I would probably praise it even more. At first, Symphony of the Night struck me as a standard, overrated game. Remembering Aria of Sorrow, since it was the first "Metroidvania" I played - it felt like such an upgraded version of Symphony, even though it's a quite simple handheld with less buttons to use. While the RPG elements made their presence known right off the bat, there was nothing as exciting as devouring enemies' souls, and the game seemed like an aimless beat 'em up drivel in which you just ran forward and took a raping from bosses that just happened to cross your path. I thought to myself: the liberty to explore, and non-linearity, those are good things. Having no restrictions isn't.

What it needed was just a little time. There ARE definitely restrictions. Just after little over an hour, the game goes all Super Metroid on you - in better, and worse. You will find yourself scanning just about every wall of the castle again and again after getting one single upgrade to your schtick, such as the ability to make a double jump, fly around the premises in the guise of a bat, or being able to morph into a cloud of mist and flow through cage doors. This brings on a lot of backtracking, which always was Super Metroid's greatest weakness, but strangely, a notable strength as well. Why backtracking is a bad thing is easy to explain, but you never could quite point out what was so great about it in Super Metroid's case. Konami managed to capture that same, hmmm - magic - in Symphony of the Night and the many Metroidvanias to come, but what brings this particular game down some is the fact that as big as Dracula's home sweet home is, it's no Planet Zebes. There's very little left to explore in spots you've already been to. Sure, all of the stuff found in those small areas is most definitely useful, but usually not mandatory. On the first round, I beat the game easily by collecting 70+ something per cent of the items. Hell, I didn't even face all the bosses! I kind of beat the game by accident, though - I didn't quite plan to face the final boss, instead I was actually looking for hidden items to max out my HP stats to dare to face another boss. Well, I'm glad I did face him, though; after all, I found out that you could actually go and face off with the big cheese the moment you have the ability needed to reach him. So, the bottom line is, that ironically, I disliked the first few hours of the game because it lacked some healthy restrictions, and it turned out that during those few hours, you ARE restricted to enter most areas in the castle. The less restricted the game became, the more I started to like it, but then, one certain ability brought on a total lack of limits, which made me complete the game way too early, and I kind of began to dislike a case of total non-linearity again since I missed out on a lot of the storyline. Like I said, it's all kinda ironic.

The good news is, that Death rarely changes
his basic methods. The bad news is, that those
methods are quite damn effective.

Alucard's ability to morph into animals introduced in Castlevania III - although here he needs special relics to do it - is only one definition of his coolness. Despite having a monotonic, baritone voice that's more of the voice of a 500-pound black dude than a totally ripped, immortal spawn of Satan, Alucard looks cool and everything he does looks cool. For weapons, he can use different types of swords, maces, hammers,  enforced knuckles and many varieties of expendable weapons. You can assign him a shield to use with one of the weapon buttons, or another sword if you're more of an offensive kind of guy. The controls are very simple at first, but as your abilities grow by the number, so does the full utilization of the PlayStation control scheme. The menu is a bitch to use, there's no way around it, and there's a very dumb feature that I never understood about the game. You need to equip (as in equip) even all sorts of health items before you can use them. If the weapon of your choice is a two-handed sword and you want to use a Potion, for example, you need to equip the Potion instead of the sword, exit the menu screen, use the Potion and then go back to the clumsy menu screen and re-equip your weapon before you notice that you're attempting to punch the shit out of Death unarmed. They made a menu screen straight out of any classic J-RPG, and they couldn't add the simple feature of using an item straight from the menu? Beyond me. Way beyond.

The Master Librarian works as the one shop clerk to rule them all. By using a Library Card, you can return to the Long Library at any time to stock up on items, weapons and perhaps a magic spell or two. However, you won't get out of there by any other means than manually backtracking your way out and back where you came from. In addition to items, the Librarian keeps a list of enemies which uncovers their actual weaknesses, as well as a tactics journal of how to speedrun bosses you've already beaten. You can't sell any excessive equipment or useless items, which is a total drag - you can only sell gemstones found around the castle, and gather the rest of your funds by other means, like by vandalizing every breakable background item and wall you see in the vintage 'Vania style.

What would a Castlevania game be without secondary weapons? Given the games I've played recently, a wiseass would answer "Castlevania: The Adventure". Anyway, Symphony of the Night has them. Holy water, throwing knives, throwing axes and the clock, they're all here, but there's more, like a devastating white cross which allows you to do just a few attacks even if your heart meter's at its maximum, and the Holy Bible, among others. Yep, the Holy f'n Bible. I know you're already thinking of running around and slapping zombies silly with the big book, but that's not quite how it works. I'll just say it's my favourite weapon in the game and I rarely part ways with it - if I do, I usually do it to make a switch to holy water, which is an absolutely phenomenal weapon when it's used right.

The spells are quite useless for the most part. What most makes them useless in the long run is the way they're executed - by memorizing and pressing button combos straight out of any beat 'em up game. Not really useful in a constant, dynamic action game. If your aim in using these spells is to make yourself resistant to an element or heal yourself, though, it's the better choice than any accessory or special piece of armour. A "fire-resistant" mail sounds fancy, but makes very little stinking difference when you actually get burnt. Experience level's really the only thing that will truly help you in the worst parts of this game, as well as the hidden containers that increase your maximum HP by a great deal.

One of Symphony of the Night's exclusive special features is the group of Familiars. These little guys are often described as sort of party members, but they're more of perks with forms. Their powers are acquired by finding special cards hidden around the castle. They are party members in the sense that they either attack enemies or use their powers to heal you, but for example a Faerie is generally just good to have along for the ride, since she senses breakable walls and floors. The Familiars gain better stats and special abilities as they level up in conjunction with Alucard. Sadly, you can only utilize one's powers at a time.

Got any of those love potions that would make
me a less intimidating, less foul-smelling, less
antisocial creature of the night?

Just about every special auto- and command ability in the game is gained via a Relic of some sort. These range from morphing abilities, to being able to unlock magically sealed doors, to simply being able to see the name of the enemy which you're beating to yet another case of death. Humping monkeys are finally officially called Flea Men, after all the Igors and other shit - well, to me, they're still humping monkeys. Are the flying bastards still here? You betcha. Worse than ever. Well, this time there aren't any chasms for you to fall into and die, and you won't fall through staircases either. Still, they're as hard to hit as always, and since enemies' health fully regenerates whenever you leave the screen, you can imagine how it feels to slap a Lord enemy (very, very tough sons of bitches) almost silly and then get knocked to the previous screen by a devious Medusa Head - that can now turn you to stone upon impact, by the way! - again, and again... and again. I don't remember when I've last cursed at a game as explicitly as I did at Symphony of the Night, ONLY because of all the flying bastards. Oh well, perhaps a few untimely Game Overs as well.

Death - and I don't mean the legendary boss - can creep up on you surprisingly fast and totally out of time in this game. There are many save points, but at times, their placements are extremely illogical. A relatively comfortable (what a word to use in this context) spot, in other words a location which doesn't have too many rooms and not a very tough boss fight for you to stress about, might have even two save points, while some long stretches with a horde of pumped up enemies and a boss waiting to congratulate you for defeating the horde and then, without further due, fuck you up the ass, might be 20 minutes away from the nearest save coffin.

Just to clarify that even if Castlevania's not
Zebes, it is big. And you have to beat all of
this twice to completely conquer the game.

A casual playthrough of the game is not hard, though, not at all, and considering that it has an immensely solid RPG vibe, it's not very lengthy either. It took me about six hours to beat the first round with a 70% completion rate... I'm quite disappointed in that number. Of course, I didn't rightly know where I was going, so I can't really blame myself, and besides, if I want to take on rest of the "stages" and the bosses, and find the rest of the hidden items, it's certainly not too late to reload the last save and stay the hell away from that damn tower. The more difficult parts of the Castlevania complex are quite challenging, but like I said, twice actually, you don't need to do them in order to beat the game. I think it would've been for the game's benefit if Konami had made it so that you couldn't beat the game if you don't reach at least an 85% mark, 'cause you can easily miss crucial parts of the story (if you're interested in it) by entering the final battle too soon. Keep in mind, though, that in order to TRULY beat the game, you need to beat precisely 200.6% of it - yes, there's a traditional unlockable Round 2 as a reward for the 100.1% mark. What that's all about, you can see for yourself.

I downloaded this game from the PlayStation Network for its reputation only, and because I was doing the first Castlevania marathon at the time. I never planned to actually play it, except in some really desperate situation, basing my opinion wholly on my first impressions of it. First of all, there's this second Castlevania marathon going on - and probably the last - and what would it be without dealing with the most hyped game in the franchise? I'm glad I did. I still think the game is overrated, but I can definitely see why it blew a lot of people away in its time, and perhaps even why it continues to do that to some who have only recently awoken to see what all the fuss is about. It's relatively easy, although at times extremely frustrating due to even some vintage Castlevania nuisances, and there's a hulking amount of aimless backtracking, but the game is a very solid experience once you truly catch on to it.

Graphics : 9.1
Sound : 9.0
Playability : 8.6
Challenge : 8.0
Overall : 8.5

Trivia

a.k.a. Akumajo Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight

GameRankings: 93.41% (PS1), 89.58% (XBLA)

Castlevania: Dracula X, the rewritten SNES version of the game's direct predecessor Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (or Rondo of Blood), was completely scratched from the series' timeline around the time Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was released.

The game was re-released as an unlockable part of PSP's Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, which is primarily a remake of Rondo of Blood.

The game's events take place in the year 1796, which means that Alucard has slept for 320 years after aiding Trevor C. Belmont in his battle against Dracula in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.