We never had a UK version of Parasite Eve 1. I only learned about it reading videogame magazines and at the time I ate up everything made by Square after becoming infatuated with the Brand when I discovered Final Fantasy 7.
So it was a surprise when in my local Blockbuster one summer in 2001 that I saw Parasite Eve 2 sitting on the shelf for rental. I immediately requested it and within minutes had it booting up on my old playstation one.
Having no previous experience of the series I was quite surprised to find this game seemed to have more in common with the Resident Evil series at first glance. With it's detailed pre-rendered backgrounds and slow tank like controls. But these superficial and immediate features belied the more nuanced systems within the game.
Instead of conserving ammo it's about selecting the right weapon and ammo for each situation. It doesn't make sense blasting through hundreds of small foes with expensive M1 ammo that also has a slow fire rate when you can dish out reasonable damage with the handgun that has a better chance of critical hits and a faster fire rate.
On top of this, Aya our main character has the ability to reawaken latent powers that allow her to fire blasts of fire at her foes or shoot shockwaves of wind energy to down powerful creatures and can even steal their HP and boost the power of her shots!
Enemies also have weaknesses and resistances to further add to the choices you can make in combat. The real strategy of all this comes in the form of Aya's inventory; she is extremely limited.
Aya can equip armour and each armour has some perks such as bonus HP or restore some MP after every encounter. They also have slots to equip weapons, ammo and supplies. It's the inventory management that forces you to consider your combat choices in relation to the foes you are fighting. Ammo is plentiful and you are penalised BP (the games currency) if you flee from encounters. These features are clearly not survival horror.
There are themes of horror in PE2; after a short introduction in the FBI training department Aya is called to a terrorist attack on the Akropolis tower.
After meeting with the Sargeant you're cleared to investigate. SWAT is already on site but upon your ascent you find that the entire SWAT team has been wiped out by bizarre creatures. The alien music begins and you immediately feel tense.
Fortunately for us, Aya is no ordinary FBI agent, and when you encounter the game's enemies for the first time (called NMC or Neo-Mitochondria Creature) Aya is capable of dispatching the pale, hairless bi-pedal creatures with ease.
You enter the nearby restaurant and find a survivor but when Aya attempts to communicate with the woman she begins to convulse and mutates in moments into an enormous variant of the creatures we saw before.
It takes a huge amount of bullets and very quickly, we; the player must learn that position and movement is key to surviving encounters. Using the tables we can get some space from the creature and chip at it's HP. Sneakier players will flank the creature and blast it in the back with Aya's Pyro blast for massive damage.
When you finally down the creature you can breath a sigh of relief. But it gets back up! Fortunately Aya is saved by Rupert (a fellow FBI agent) who finishes it off and bestows the BP to Aya. (handy!)
From this point you can begin to explore the Akropolis tower to find some information as to what occurred.
Aya tracks down a SWAT member in hiding and gains some further info and tells him to leave the tower ASAP and then proceeds on eventually reaching a Church where she finds Rupert being attacked by a large humanoid in green armour. It flees and Aya gives chase culminating in a standoff atop the tower around the Heliport.
Up and till this point the combat scenarios have been simple and the enemies not entirely threatening. If players chose to snoop around the entirety of the tower they could find themselves a powerful MP5 and grenade launcher as well as some body armour.
Also hunting all NMCs awards you EXP along with BP and Aya can use her accumulated EXP to awaken more spells. Utilising these resources vastly improves Aya's chances of survival against the boss Number 9.
Number 9 is the name of Rupert's assailant and is the primary antagonist for most of the game and sets the motions for the events to come.
He ambushes Aya as she returns from investigating the helipad at the tower and he is an intimidating boss. Trapped on the walkway Aya can only retreat to the penultimate dead end and Number 9 closes the distance quite quickly.
Aya can shoot power lines along the walls to deal some high damage to 9 and stun him momentarily allowing the player extra chances to get hits in.
This battle is effectively time limited as 9 will push Aya further and further back and regardless of how much damage you do you will end up at the dead end and here 9 can activate a special attack with his sword and instantly kill the player.
You have one life save and that's the steam pipe and power line combo near the dead end. 9 has to get very close for this work but if timed right Aya can deal catastrophic damage to 9 and finish him off with a few grenades for good measure.
The aim of this fight is to teach the player to use all the resources available to them, only skilled speedrunners can be seen defeating this boss with the handgun and PE abilities alone.
After the fight we get some more story exposition and head off to the next locale; Dryfield out in the desert.
This area introduces new enemies in the form of "Puma" NMCs that are like bald horses with humanoid heads that charge at Aya to deal heavy damage. Later in the area the game increases the difficulty in fighting these foes by pairing them with other enemies such as the large Moths than while take only one shot to kill can swarm and blind Aya preventing her from auto-aiming and darkening the screen.
It's really subtle but the difficulty curve is really quite gradual and natural and it's in Dryfield that you gain access to buy new weapons, ammo and armour and give you the chance to balance your playstyle if you wish to primarily use guns, PE skills or a balance of both.
This is all done whilst exploring Dryfield that is effectively a large puzzle with sections blocked off until you obtain the relevant keys.
You also learn that once you clear Dryfield of all hostiles, after plot moments the ingame map will show new hotzones: areas previously explored that have been repopulated with foes.
It's a risk for reward choice: fight and risk draining supplies or evade and miss out on the extra BP and EXP.
The game offers a decent amount of BP and EXP through normal play but hoarding large sums can pay off in the late game where some very expensive and unique weapons and armour become available.
You also meet three NPCs; Kyle Madigan, Mr Douglas and his dog Flint. Kyle is a Private Investigator who has bitten off more than he can chew and Mr Douglas is the remaining resident of Dryfield. Stubbornly refusing to take refuge elsewhere like other residents.
Good for the player though as it's Mr Douglas who will be selling us weapons.
After a healthy dose of exploration the player will encounter Number 9 again, attacking a woman in an abandoned house.
After besting him in a fight that once again is about how the player moves and positions Aya for counter attacks she blacks out and reawakens at night. Kyle comes to Aya's aid and they head for her car but NMCs have destroyed it.
Fortunately Mr Douglas has a truck but it needs some repairs so Aya sets off to collect them. Once all are found Mr Douglas tells Aya to get some rest before she heads off but things are about to get stressful...
Aya is awakened in the night by the approach of an enormous NMC known as the Burner boss for little reason other than the flame thrower emerging out of it's mouth.
This is a turning point battle for the player; so far the enemies have not been static and Aya has had the ability to position herself for back attacks and counters but here all the player can do is dodge attacks and pummel at the boss.
It takes a staggering amount of damage and can dish out a shocking amount. Players are best advised to conserve their MP for the Earth PE abilities that improve defense and offense and can combo the later skill with the grenade launcher for high damage or even a handgun to get some good DPS out of the high critical rate.
The Burner boss attacks can cover wide sweeping areas forcing the player to flee, but bad positioning here can mean tanking a whole attack.
Further complicating things is this is a two stage fight and the boss becomes far more aggressive in the later stage.
The only respite you can get is the boss will flail in pain when receiving a critical hit during it's idle moments. (a quirk exploited by speedrunners)
Disposing of the Burner in double time means saving Flint the dog (the path to the true ending) but failure to do so results in the poor mutts death and thus the bad ending.
Regardless of what happens; Mr Douglas fixes the truck which allows Kyle and Aya to head to an abandoned mines where the entrance to a Shelter allegedly exists.
Delving into the mine is a short affair culminating in a boss battle with a large Puma creature. It's a relatively tedious battle compared to previous affairs, the Puma runs around the arena and tries to barge Aya over or leap atop her.
Players can dish out huge damage by exploding the flammable barrels as the beast passes but much like the previous fight this boss has a second phase. After being initially downed the creature's fur and skin melt off but it gets back up and goes in to a rage.
It's this section that can be tiring as it takes a lot of bullets to kill and you constantly have to be on the move in order to avoid it's attacks.
Once downed the Player is free to explore the arena and finds Number 9's motorbike and a switch that opens a secret wall and thusly the entry to the shelter!
The Shelter is a dangerous place, filled with NMCs. It's also the location of the stories biggest plot elements. The Shelter is a research facility that created the NMCs but the reason for this is quite shocking.
The player is ambushed by a strange NMC that can just about talk and it turns out the NMC was a researcher at the Shelter and along with his colleagues submitted himself for transformation.
Below the Shelter is an enormous sub-facility called Neo-Ark that is akin to a greenhouse with different eco-systems all under one roof. The purpose of this place is a home for all the humans who submitted themselves for mutation. Evidently, the perks of this life is you get to choose what you want to be and get to live a simple and carefree life, looked after by the facility.
After exploring Neo-Ark and shutting down the ANMC generators. (these created NMCs are called Artificial Neo-Mitochondria Creatures.) Aya is able to reach a sectioned off area where a small child is controlling an enormous ANMC that the player is tasked with defeating.
Victory here leads to some big exposition where we learn that the child; Eve was created via Aya's DNA and is technically Aya's daughter.
Number 9 appears and kidnaps Eve as well as activating an army of Golems stored in the Shelter to eliminate Kyle and Aya.
As you give chase Aya encounters the Golem soldiers who are by far the hardest enemies you will have encountered and some groups of them can be very deadly, especially with the currently available weapons.
Some of them are even virtually immune to PE abilities and some are only really susceptible to armour piercing weapons and ammo.
Fortunately, upon chasing Number 9 out the of the Shelter Aya is recued by a battalion of Golems by the US army and they quickly secure the Shelter only leaving Golems on the lower floor.
This is the climax of the story, though there are some additions if you fully explore the Shelter earlier and meet fellow FBI agent Pierce and save him in Dryfield and later in the Shelter with the aid of Flint the dog.
Flint the dog also helps Aya find Eve by following the scent of a dropped teddy bear. It's here we find Number 9 trying to get Eve to merge with a large NMC cocoon and it turns out Kyle Madigan was helping 9 and was the SWAT member hiding out on the Akropolis tower.
However, things go from bad to worse; just as Kyle sees the errors of his ways and stops Number 9 the president of the USA actions a satellite strike against the Shelter in an attempt to cover up the whole situation.
In the ensuing chaos Eve is swallowed up by the cocoon's fluids in the base of the Shelter chamber and mutates into a huge beastly ANMC.
Thus begins the first of the final battles, the first one against the monstrous infant ultimate lifeform. The player must damage the various parts of it's body that it also uses to attack with. It can inflict various status ailments that compromise the player's survivability.
As you break off sections of it's body it becomes seemingly easier to manage but eventually the only way to finish it off is to attack the core which is a dangerous process in and of itself.
The boss will only expose it's core when it prepares to unload a powerful beam that tracks Aya as she flees and can instantly defeat Aya if her HP is too low.
Once this attack has ended the player has a few free moments to blast at the core for good damage before restarting the whole process.
Eventually the player will meet success and the life form will melt into nothingness but it's not over...
Poor Eve has mutated into the "Ultimate Lifeform" and emerges and immediately attacks Aya. This being has amazing PE powers of it's own and can inflict various status ailments as well as attacking with energy orbs and warp strikes.
This fight is no doubt a huge strain on resources, most players will be low on MP and consumed quite a lot of restoratives in the previous fight and Eve takes a ton of bullets to kill.
Hopefully you were savvy and saved up for the best endgame weapons and used your EXP to unlock Life Drain, which allows you to steal the boss' HP and restore your own.
The tactics here depend on how you've been playing and how good at evasion you are. Less mobile players will prefer to tank attacks and steal HP and deal as much damage in one position as possible..
Eve becomes increasingly relentless and it's easy to become overwhelmed with healing when you're struck with multiple ailments and constant barrages of warp strikes.
It's a genuinely tough fight that requires your full attention and mastery of the combat mechanics.
Eventually you win. The lifeform crumbles before your eyes and Eve is freed. Those who pushed the boat out and ticked all the boxes for the True Ending will get to see Kyle Madigan again and enjoy seeing Aya take parental care of Eve.
It's ultimately a simple story with a well nipped up ending.
The game tallies your score at the end and awards some bonuses to you for a replay and also challenges you try it all again on a new unlocked mode called Golem Hunter.
Subsequent playthroughs unlock additional modes such as Scavenger and Nightmare.
This is a feature we rarely see in modern games which is a shame. Each of these modes have interesting cruxes that utilise the same game locales and resources.
Golem Hunter changes up enemy placements for tougher variants including Golems throughout all areas even at the beginning.
Scavenger hikes the price of items purchased with BP and drop rates diminished meaning that you have to genuinely conserve ammo to get through and lastly Nightmare mode, which is effectively Golem Hunter mode but Aya has only 1 HP throughout the entire game.
There is an amazing amount of content in Parasite Eve 2, it's an amazingly enjoyable game that's fun to play even to this day.
It's a shame that Square haven't explored this franchise again with the current technology. That it has been left as a niche entry in their back catalogue. A merging of horror, sci-fi and action games.
Sure the controls can feel dated, but overall the game has held up remarkably well. It's a joy to play and feels genuinely rewarding to complete and I compel anyone into action RPGs to give this a go.
A great game from the past.
Parasite Eve 2
No comments:
Post a Comment