PlayStation

Nightmare Creatures II

As 3D hack-and-slash games go, Nightmare Creatures II has a lot going for it. It's comical, gory, and taps the adrenaline of action gamers with perfect precision. It's a wild, bloody romp, and in that it's good. Of course, it's too simplistic for its own good, and for anyone who wants to play a game for more than three of four levels will probably grow bored with this. You'll want more creatures to kill, more fatalities, a better story, and more strategy in your fights than this.

However, this game is for a mature audience looking for a gruesome bloodfest, and it delivers. I give Nightmare Creatures 2, 3 1/2 GiN Gems. I based my rating on Resident Evil 2, a game I thoroughly enjoyed. Nightmare is Resident Evils little brother. They got the right idea, it just isn't executed as well. I have not solved this game yet, and I have some aggression to work out, so I'm going back in. Heads will roll.

Any sense of horror, which may have been generated, is lost thanks to the workman-like and incredibly dark visuals. Whilst a copious amount of the old claret is shed, the overall effect looks rather unconvincing as it sticks to the (frequently breaking-up) polygon backgrounds. Nightmare Creatures 2 is not as gory as the hype would have you believe, but it will no doubt provide the inevitable knee-jerk “videogames make kids violent” debate that the ill-informed daily press relish. It’s also nigh on unplayable. Cheers lads.

Un titre à l'ambiance sinistre qui essaie de jouer sur deux tableaux à la fois (Tomb Raider et Resident Evil), mais qui du coup n'excelle dans aucun des deux genre. Il souffre en outre d'une réalisation beaucoup trop inégale.

Regardless of the game's positive multimedia qualities, Nightmare Creatures 2 fails miserably at its obvious attempt at creating a cross between Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. It's been more than two years since the original Nightmare Creatures - two years that Kalisto could have developed the characters, created a consistent plot, fixed the control, and added limitless variety. Instead, the company has just made the game look and sound pretty. If you've never played Soul Reaver, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, or the first Nightmare Creatures, this game may be a decent purchase. Otherwise, don't believe the hype - it's a rehash.

To put it succinctly, Nightmare Creatures II is unimpressive. It's better suited for a rental than a full purchase; sometimes you feel like you want to play a game that will let you smack something around for a few minutes. Sadly, though, a few minutes is all it will take before you are looking through your Playstation library for something else to play.