parasite eve ii |

Publisher: SquareSoft

Developer: SquareSoft

Release Date: 01/12/2000

Available Exclusively On

Resident Evil significantly established the benchmark for survival horror games and 3D gaming in general. Games were still trying to figure everything out. Camera angles, movement, pacing, and combat. It was up to these developers to pioneer 3D games for the next 20 years. Parasite Eve may have been a short-lived franchise, but it made a lot of advancements in the 3D action/survival horror genre that Resident Evil was quickly trying to dominate. Despite its late PS1 release, this game felt ahead of its time, even though I haven’t played the first one.

The story is surprisingly simple to follow and fairly interesting. As a MIST agent, Aya Brea, you embark on a journey to the Nevada desert and the town of Dryfield. Here, your mission is to devise a permanent solution to halt the NMC (Neo-Mitrocondira Creatures). There is a lot more to the game. You also start out in a mall in Los Angeles. There are a couple of twisty endings, and the story is well-told and easy to follow. There isn’t really any voice-acting due to space constraints. The visuals alone explain why the game spans two discs.

The game has both RPG and action-combat elements. There are plenty of weapons and magic to use, and the game is a tight balance of the two. This is also the era in which missing a key item could make the game artificially more difficult, so I suggest playing the game on easy the first time with a guide and then doing a New Game Plus on your own. Despite the game’s linear structure, the vagueness of your objectives could lead to many missed or lost opportunities. At times, your map displays the locations of your objectives, while others do not. You can pull up the help in the map menu to see Aya give you a single hint; sometimes that’s also enough, and other times it still leaves you clueless. There are only a couple of puzzles in the game, but there is still a lot of item hunting. You need to find key items that not only advance the story but also optionally unlock new weapons or items to aid you.

Parasite Eve II‘s combat is surprisingly excellent for the time. 3D movement is tank-based, but it feels more fluid thanks to better camera angles than most games in this genre. There is an auto-lock system with a large reticle that you can easily swap between enemies. The game is fairly smart and usually picks the enemy closest to you, but not always. You can fire rounds off, and reloading happens when your clip reaches zero. Secondary attachments on some weapons can stun enemies or deal massive damage. These all cost money, and it’s imperative that you acquire the best weapons as early as possible; however, this becomes a juggling act with inventory vs. your attachments. You need to upgrade your armor to increase your attachments, but you can also find small pouches on the field. You should always have a single weapon in hand and equip at least one other. It’s good to know what types of enemies are in the area to be able to balance this just right.

Weapons vary, from pistols to shotguns, assault rifles, grenade launchers, and attachments that help you miss and match. You can equip an M4A1 assault rifle with the AS1S shotgun attachment, allowing you to combine both types of weapons without requiring two inventory slots. However, you must acquire precious BP by killing enemies to purchase these attachments. Bosses give the most, but it’s important to kill everything around you so you can get as much BP and EXP as possible to level up your powers. There aren’t random battles or respawning enemies, but opponents will spawn in the same area after each objective is complete. Harder enemies start popping up, as well as more of them, so it’s really important to know their weaknesses and what weapons and magic attacks work best. Some will attack you in swarms, so stun attacks are best for these enemies. You can’t move around much, so make sure you really get the hang of the combat system.

Magic is interesting, as you will use it for stronger enemies and large groups. As you level up, you acquire new magic in different categories. You can level up Fire, Earth, Wind, and Necro magic to a maximum of three per power, and utilize the magic wheel to activate these powers. This requires MP, so you will need to boost your MP to use it in combat. You should equip some key items instead of using them, as they can significantly increase attack damage and even magic. Therefore, it’s crucial to utilize a guide during your initial playthrough, as inadvertent use of these items, such as boosting a magic point by one level or similar effects, can result in waste. While you can’t use an auto lock-on (the game pauses when in the magic wheel), magic is incredibly useful for bosses. Green vector lines indicate the path, and enemies will flash green to indicate potential hits.

The map system is rather useful. Rooms in red mean there are enemies in that room, and once they are all defeated, it will not be red anymore. When you initiate combat, the screen briefly turns white and you hear the sound of a heartbeat. Sometimes, if the enemy doesn’t see you yet, you can quickly change weapons, heal, or do back attacks that cause more damage. Aya automatically reloads after clearing all enemies in the room, and your winnings window appears. Item drops are incredibly rare. They only become more common when you start fighting the game’s most powerful enemies, the GOLEMS, towards the last fourth of the game on the second disc. There are only a few shops in the game, so this leads to a lot of backtracking. Additionally, the game does not allow you to sell items, meaning that if you inadvertently purchase something, you are unable to return it. This means you can only discard items not needed in your inventory or store them in a box. I recommend saving before buying anything; in case something doesn’t work out, you can reload.

The visuals push the PS1 to its limits. We still get pre-rendered backgrounds with some 3D objects in place, but the character models look good, and there is a lot of detail in everything. While the game looks mostly generic style-wise, it is a technical showcase for the PS1. Sadly, the lack of voice work and infrequent FMVs kind of hurt the game presentation, but what’s here works. Overall, Parasite Eve II isn’t perfect. It’s a product of its time, with developers trying to figure out how to do action games in 3D. The weapon balancing act is frustrating, and missing out on key items to make the game more enjoyable can cause a lot of problems later on when you realize it’s too late. The combat system works well enough, and there are plenty of weapons and magic. The game’s main issues were mostly backtracking and a lack of knowing where to go. The story is interesting, surprising in depth for the time, and well told.