Parasite Eve 2

Recently I have finished my second replay through Parasite Eve 2 on my PS Vita. Most people agree that though this is an average-good game, that it was a big step down from its predecessor, Parasite eve 1, which featured novel combat mechanics that would be developed further in the PS one masterpiece “Vagrant Story”. I am not one of these people. I think that PE2 is as good as PE1, despite the obvious Resident Evil DNA that remained from its troubled development history. In fact, this was the first game featuring tank controls that I actually completed, which has opened the door for a number of other games from this generation.

The story follows Aya Brea, 3-4 years after the events of PE1, who is now a member of the organisation MIST, a division of the FBI dedicated to dealing with mitochondrial creatures that escaped new york after the events of the first game.

The opening segment of this game is one of the strongest I’ve seen, up there with Chrono trigger and Halo CE. It starts with a short spectacle- a walkthrough of an ultra detailed police cordon at night- before putting you in control of Aya in the Akropolis tower, where you witness a woman transform into an NMC (Neo-Mitochondrial Creature), shown above. After this, you comb through the rooms of the tower, initially looking for clues to the origin of the incident, later looking for an exit to the building after discovering explosives planted in the tower.

This first level has great pacing, introduces the games mechanics well, without explicit tutorialization and looks gorgeous. The Akropolis tower has a luxurious outdoor garden, centred around a water feature and a quaint little café off in one corner of the rooftop. The indoors areas are all polished marble halls with a smattering of Hellenic sandstone columns and little side rooms for janitor’s supplies, fuse boxes and CCTV.

The second level takes us to Dryfield, a tiny settlement in the desert. Dryfield really nails the run down Arizona truck stop town feel. The place is almost totally abandoned, involves a lot of backtracking, but is overall enjoyable, introducing some new characters in Douglas and Kyle and ends with an interesting looking but mechanically simple boss battle that helps determine the ending you will receive. Douglas is the last (living) resident of Dryfield as well as a gun-nut who functions as the weapon store for this portion of the game, selling you weapons from his personal collection. Kyle is a private detective, who sporadically accompanies Aya throughout the game from this point forwards. Supposedly during early development of the game, it was intended that he would be the protagonist.

The next area is the most hated area of the game, “the shelter”. This area consists mostly of industrial grey metal gantries, with some laboratory areas. Whilst the appearance matches the purpose, it is visually uninspiring. It takes quite a while to get through this area, but I won’t dwell on it too long here. The main plot point is the discovery of a giant NMC that could infect the entire western US if it were to awaken. Thankfully, it requires a special pilot to enter the control chamber and we can prevent this by entering a secret facility beneath the shelter, called Neo-Ark.

The shelter control room

Neo-Ark entrance

Neo-Ark is a great area with a tropical nature reserve theme, some difficult puzzles, fantastic ambient sounds and new enemies. The plot really leaves goes off the wall here, with the US president being pressured by his aide to authorised an orbital strike on the Neo-Ark facility with our hero’s still inside. Some plot critical shenanigans occur and Kyle does his best Revolver ocelot impression, revealing that he was actually a triple agent all along. In the end, we have to fight mitochondrial Eve in a two stage boss fight from hell.

The enemy design really carries the game, with a selection of tanky flesh golems, agile imps and creepy chasers- horse like enemies with a humanoid face that charge in a strait line. Despite the wild body horror of the enemies, the game still feels grounded, with real world weapons such as the Beretta, PA3, SPAS, M4 and MP5 being staples of Aya’s armory. Additionally, Aya’s Car is the 1973 AMC Matador. These elements add a sense of realism to what would otherwise be a bizarre and jarring story.

Relating to miniature wargaming the Parasite Eve setting is ripe for the picking for campaign and scenario ideas. Next week I’ll show some models that I picked up with the idea that one day a PE one-shot could be on the cards.