Parasite Eve 2

You'll have seen the outline of the story, so I won't bother you with that, what I will mention is the wonderful sense of progression you get as you work through the plot, the satisfaction of solving the puzzles and defeating the (Particularly gruesome) creatures and the impressive vistas generated by your humble PS1.

The fighting system is a pleasure to use, and even the powers are quite easy to deal with (More so if you're used to Final Fantasy VII), so you can concentrate more on the plot and adventure than getting bogged down by too-difficult-to-defeat monsters.

I played this solidly for quite some time, and never encountered any of the graphical glitches reported in one other Amazon review, so that really isn't a worry.

Is it better than Resi? I wouldn't like to say, maybe it lacks a little of that series' satisfaction. Certainly better than Dino Crisis 1, so well worth your time

The playability is increased by having additional playback modes, oddly some of the playback modes are actually easier then the inital game, but most are of increasing difficulty and challenge (with the traditional "nightmare" mode also making an appearance when several other playback modes have been completed.)

Overall i'd highly recommend Parasite Eve II if you want a fairly involved action based game and even if you just want to run around and shoot things.

Parasite Eve blended an involving storyline with a fairly sophisticated and, as far as I'm aware unique, RPG type (but far better than usual) tactical fighting system. This was later used in much greater depth for the peerless Vagrant Story.

Parasite Eve 2 continues the story although still making sense as a stand alone game. It also uses the same presentation style ie. plenty of cinematic cut scenes and decent dialogue (in sub-titles not spoken). But what they have changed is the fighting system to a slightly more simplified version. This seems to be why some fans of the orginal game are a bit harsh in their criticism of Parasite Eve 2.

What they replaced it with is perfectly good real time third person shooting: auto-aim + target shift whilst the parasite energy (magic) attacks are selected in 'frozen time' but delivered in real-time. It makes for exciting fighting. The comparable aiming systems used in PSOne/DC Resident Evil are truly crude in comparison.

Unfortunately where the fighting fails is in exactly the same way as Resident Evil and a host of other games using pre-rendered backgrounds. This means fixed camera angles and that, far too often, the cinematic viewpoint chosen is far from the best for an action packed fight. And, all too familiarly, if you accidentally or deliberately move between screens during the confrontation the controls may reverse with enemies doing you damage often completely out of sight.

If you've played this type of game before you do get used to it but it can get very frustrating when dealing with the more dangerous enemies.

Only other complaint I have is that the analogue stick movement control isn't very user friendly. You're far better off sticking to the reliable old d-pad - this holds true for SO many PSOne games (Tomb Raider 3/4/5 being good examples and even PS2 Silent Hill 2). People forget these games' control systems were often originated before the twin analogue joystick Dualshock was universal. The d-pad control is often much more precise and subtle.

Apart from that I can't think of anything else to say about PE2 which isn't included in the other positive reviews here. Once finished a largely pointless Replay Mode is released but also a Bounty Mode which lets you replay with harder enemies and get a few new items or those you may have missed on your first run.

In conclusion: Parasite Eve 2 is, in my opinion, as good as and in many ways superior to any of the PSOne Resident Evils. But they set the standard and as PE2 is not dramatically better or different enough so I can't rate it any higher. This is why I've given it 3 stars ie. on my scale, above average and well worth playing but it's definitely less original than it's own predecessor and still contains those all too familiar flaws and cliches.