Summary
Although it suffers from an overdose of Japanese aesthetics, D-2 is an unforgetable experience
The Good
"D-2" is a landmark game. It is great and important for many reasons, starting with its unusual genre fusion and ending with its significance as a new generation product - a product of the time where games try to ascend to the level of "legitimate" art, to prove they can compete with movies. "D-2" is one of the most serious attempts on this field. It is a genre-crossing, movie-like experience with wonderful ambience, memorable scenes, characters to care for, and a typically Japanese, thought-provoking story.
"D-2" is the hybrid of all hybrids, representing at least three main genres: survival horror adventure, shooter, and RPG. It grew on a terrain that was previously cultivated by several generations of games, is a product of a long process of genre-defining, and a heir to many famous games of the past. Among classic games that influenced "D-2" there are, most importantly,
Alone in the Dark,
Phantasmagoria, graphical
Zork adventures, and even
Phantasy Star series and
Cobra Mission. A modern-day close relative is another great hybrid - the horror RPG
Koudelka for Playstation.
In a certain way, "D-2" continues the popular trend of the mid-nineties - it is an interactive movie. Instead of live actors there are 3D models walking around through full 3D environments. The abundance of cut scenes almost makes "D-2" a game-movie hybrid. Luckily, its interesting gameplay doesn't allow the movie to take over the game. Very cleverly, "D-2" incorporates elements of many genres, but none is too strong to dominate over others. The result is a surprisingly balanced game, that is always ready to change styles - sometimes it feels like a shooter, sometimes like a pure adventure, sometimes like survival horror, sometimes like a RPG, and sometimes like an interactive movie. As if all this weren't enough, "D-2" also throws in a great hunting mini-game (in order to get healed, you can hunt wild animals and eat their meat), and some cool snowmobile-driving sequences! What is really great here is that the player is never frustrated, because "D-2" has a perfect difficulty level. It requires the player to be moderately skilled in survival tactics and in role-playing, but it is never too hard in either of those aspects. The diffiulty level of the adventuring part is the lowest - there are no puzzles worth mentioning, but it is compensated by the RPG elements. The RPG part also seems underdevelopped, since all you have from an RPG here are the levels, but it appears to be enough to make the player think in this direction. Enemies gradually become stronger, but so do you. Survival horror kind of thinking can help in a situation which is poor from RPG point of view (Laura is at a low level, but the player has quick reflexes and good concentration), and RPG strategies can come useful when survival becomes too hard (level up Laura to make the battles easier). This works great, and all is left is to wonder why so few games tried this promising hybrid. Random battles don't disturb at all, since you have weapons with unlimited ammunition (although they are somewhat weak), healing items are theoretically also unlimited (since in areas where it is possible to hunt there are always some animals), you can rest in your current "base" (usually a deserted cabin), and your HP gets automatically restored every time you gain a level.
There are three main modes in the gameplay of "D-2": 3rd person roaming with survival horror controls (like in Alone in the Dark, but with more fluent changes of camera angles), 1st person adventure (like first graphical Zorks), and battle mode, which is an interesting mixture of a shooter and a console RPG fights. Like in console RPGs, you can't move when you enter a battle screen: all you can do is aim your weapon (you have only guns in "D-2"), and if a monster approaches from the side, you can press B or X button in order to turn to the desired direction. A similar system was implemented in "Cobra Mission". It is actually more fun than it sounds: the intimidating monsters appear right in front of your face, and unlike in standard 3rd person survival horror games, they actually come closer and closer to the player, forcing you to fire at them frantically until they explode, splashing green blood all over the screen... Some monsters are quite clever - they jump around, making it more difficult for you to aim correctly, they back off, they dig into the ground in order to appear suddenly right in front of you, they attack you from both sides simultaneously, etc. Often you need good reaction and aiming to get rid of those pesky suckers. They also like attacking in groups of three, making the matters even more complicated. Powerful weapons like shotgun or grenades will usually wipe them out in no time, but such weapons have limited ammunition, which should be spared. Boss battles are really exciting in "D-2": the bosses are all very intelligent (except the last boss, who is surprisingly stupid), some of them are constantly moving around during the battle, and all have only a few vulnerable body parts that will take damage.
The pure adventuring gameplay is the least important one in "D-2": the game uses it mainly to generate cut scenes, and to let the player take a break from battles and exploring. The real exploration occurs outside, while inside areas (which are not so numerous), all being in adventure mode, offer little to explore. The somewhat unusual engine for a console game (you can't roam freely while in adventure mode, you can only go from a fixed position to another), that goes back to the days of first graphical Zorks, is there more as a tribute to the game's famous predecessors, rather than as an inseparable part of the gameplay.
Survival horror is evident not only in 3rd person roaming mode, but, more importantly, is inspires the game's setting and story. It might be a RPG/shooter/adventure as far as gameplay is concerned, but the true essence of "D-2" is undeniably survival horror. The setting of "D-2" is remarkable in its unique influence on the player. Most survival horror games lead the player into dark, narrow areas, underground, or into a deserted mansion. "D-2" throws us into the Canadian snowy mountains - an absolutely open area. The effect is amazing: you'll feel more scared and more lonely in those mountains than in any dungeon possible to imagine. The sheer indifference of nature, the huge, majestic landscapes, that make human beings look so little, the cold earth, devoid of plants and any other colors but white and grey - all this makes the setting of "D-2" one of the most unusual and realistically terrifying places ever created for a video game. This wouldn't be possible without adequate graphics, but "D-2" excels also in this aspect. The real-time 3D graphics of "D-2" belong to the highest achievements of our time. Character graphics are even better than in
Shenmue. Wind, snow, fog, sunset, and other weather effects make the environment credible and realistic. It is enough to look at those grey trees, deeply sunk in snow, shaking under wind currents, to feel the terrible loneliness of the place. And when you also must face monsters while desperately looking up at the pale sky, walking a narrow path between two mountains, the feeling of horror takes over you...
But in those places, devoid of hope and joy, develops a wonderful story full of unforgetable moments. The "epic" part of the story is, by the way, the least impressive one (more on that subject in "Bad" section). But the touching personal stories of the game's characters bring a lot of kindness and warmth into the cold landscape, and the contrast between the indifference of the nature and the care of the people is stunning. Especially memorable are Kimberly and Parker - both belong to the most truthfully portrayed and appealing characters ever to grace a video game. Their story is sad and touching, but without the melodramatic flavor typical for Japanese RPG. In such parts, the game's ideas are expressed subtly and not as blatantly as in "main story" parts. Luckily, this main story, being revealed piece by piece, also has a great deal of suspense, which is broken only by the somewhat too global ending. However, David's story, which is also concluded just before the final "earth-embracing" cut scenes, makes up for all that follows. It is genuinely beautiful, with a slight Buddhist touch.
The Bad
The cardinal problem of "D-2" is the same one we encounter in many Japanese games, and even in Japanese movies and novels. Here is not the place to discuss the mentality of the Japanese people and its inevitable influence on the art it created; but it is hard to explain what I mean by saying "D-2" is too Japanese without referring to this phenomenon. It seems that the desire to "embrace the world", to express the ultimate truth and the ultimate values of mankind in a most direct, childishly naive way has been the trademark of Japanese art for quite some time. The influence of the West is undeniable. Foreign values enter Japan and become more radical than they have ever been. Since the Meiji revolution in the end of 19th century, Japan has been absorbing Western ideas and values in an insane tempo. Just as they radicalized the huge Chinese heritage and the teaching of Buddhism, the Japanese captured perfectly the spirit of Western sentimentalism, Western fear, and Western insecurity, and brought it to its logical conclusion. In the end of 19th century, "fin de siecle", popular Western ideas were passionate belief in technical progress on one side, and despair (caused by the loss of religion) on the other. In the end of 20th century, popular Western ideas are those of globalization, "equal opportunities", the humans' responsibility towards the nature, newly found (and falsely understood) mysticism, and apocalyptic prophecies of ecological disasters. All those ideas form the core of "D-2" - and they don't do it very subtly.
Now, I write all this stuff in the "Bad" section not because it is bad, taken as it is, and not because the Japanese tradition of populating a single piece of art with all possible ideas, often expressed in a very banal way, has found its way into games. On the contrary, that just might be the most precious thing in "D-2"! But the constant moralizing and the attempt to put into "D-2" the whole world created a certain ambiguity. The ending of the game is a typical example for that. The message of the game is already clear enough, but, true to the canons of Japanese modern art, Kenji Eno decides to tell the obvious once more, in a monumentally trivial way. It is beautiful, and it is touching to a certain extent, but it is unnecessary. It makes the game less fine and encumbers it with banal, slogan-like ideas it is unable to carry. It really reminded me of the ending of Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" - a work of art that tries to be more than it really is. Once again: all this belongs in the "Bad" section only because it is objectively weak. But in fact, those are perhaps the very things that make "D-2" so charming...
The Bottom Line
"D-2" is a bit like
Metal Gear Solid 2: it is banal and profound at the same time. It overreaches itself, it tries too much, it tells more than it was supposed to contain - but in the end, its genre-fusion technique convinces, and the sincerety of its big heart cannot be ignored. It is one of those games that I keep in my collection for their undeniable value as true testimonies of our time. To put it simply, "D-2" is important. It aims at the new generation of games, it takes a new generation console with all its power to new heights, and there is something majestic in its attempt to be the perfect game. Like all other attempts of this kind, "D-2" fails. But in its failure there is more grandeur and noble truth than in some successes of others.
