D2 (Dreamcast)
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| D2 | |
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| Developer(s) | WARP |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Kenji Eno |
| Release date(s) | August 2, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Survival horror, Action Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: M |
| Platform(s) | DC |
| Media | GD-ROM x4 |
D2 is a survival horror video game developed by the Japanese company WARP and published by Sega in Japan and the United States for Sega Dreamcast. The third and final game starring Laura, it was originally created for the never-released Panasonic M2 as a direct sequel to the original. After the console's stillborn fate, the project was redone from scratch with a much different direction. The released game has very few direct connections to the original game, sharing far more with WARP's Enemy Zero.
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[edit] Plot
The game opens with Laura falling asleep on an airplane trip to an undisclosed location. Suddenly, a group of terrorists violently take control of the plane and seem to be guided by some kind of mysterious cultist who is chanting to himself. A policeman on board the plane attempts to stop the terrorists, but he is thwarted when a meteorite strikes the plane, sending it crashing into the Canadian wilderness. After lengthy bad dreams, Laura awakens in a small cabin being cared for by another woman who also survived the crash. She explains that Laura has been unconscious for two days and during that time, a handful of survivors of the plane crash have been exploring this region of the snowbound forest in an attempt to find a way to be rescued. Laura herself sets out into the wilderness in order to investigate the possibility of contacting the outside world only to discover that strange, hideous creatures are lurking in the forests. Something is having an effect on the crash survivors which is eventually turning them insane and into the very same monsters she must avoid and battle while travelling through the forests. Laura is driven deeper into the mystery when she must venture further into the isolated wilderness in order to locate a lost little girl, one of the plane's former passengers.
[edit] About the game
The game was the brainchild of Japanese musician and game developer Kenji Eno who wanted to create a somewhat experimental and conceptual game based around isolating the player in an expansive survival horror setting.
[edit] Gameplay
The game has a few different kinds of gameplay. The majority of D2 involves exploring the Canadian wilderness from a third-person perspective while interior locations are encountered in a first-person perspective familiar to fans of PC "point & click" adventure games. When fighting monsters, the player cannot move Laura, only aim her weapons. Defeating these creatures earns Laura experience points and she "levels up," gaining additional hit points like in a computer role-playing game. Laura is initially equipped with a sub-machine gun with unlimited ammo and a hunting rifle, which is used to hunt small animals (rabbits and snow grouse and if you're a good shot, a few caribou or moose) for meat she can use to regain health. During the game, Laura will find a total of five different weapons: a sub-machine gun, shotgun, handgun, m-16 and a few hand grenades.
In terms of the hunting feature, animals Laura kills for meat are totalled up during gameplay and on the Options screen, players can see how many kills she's collected as well as any medals given. Additionally, Laura has a camera that she can use to take pictures anytime in the game (except during cinematics). Players can save the pictures to a VMU, but need to be careful, as too many photographs will fill up the card quickly. These additions make the game a bit more than the standard survival horror title and are entirely optional. For a real challenge, players can try to play the game by not hunting and relying only on the assorted health sprays they'll find scattered throughout the game world.
[edit] Response
D2 received mixed reactions from gamers in Japan and North America. Some appreciated and praised the game's storytelling and attention to the characters' backstories and emotions. Others criticized that the game's atmosphere and plot was lengthy and boring compared to other titles such as Resident Evil. The game was also criticized because of its poor localization and dialogue. Despite some gamers proclaiming D2 as a conceptual masterpiece and one of the best horror titles available on the Dreamcast, the poor performance of D2 in North America and Japan prevented the release of the game in Europe.
[edit] Controversy
The game was heavily criticized for its sexual imagery (there is some nudity in the game), suggestive nature and some extreme violence (one lengthy scene has two female characters being menaced by an unstable man with a gun). Sega did very little marketing of the game and were probably not expecting much profit. D2's initial publicity came from women's groups protesting the violent imagery found in the game.[citation needed] Sega did edit slightly the game's second opening movie (where one character is attacked by a phallic tentacle creature) for the North American release. There were also one or two other minor changes to the visuals, but otherwise, the US version is exactly the same as the Japanese version.
[edit] Trivia
- D2 had originally started life as a game project for the never-released Panasonic M2 console. Originally, a pregnant Laura was to have died in the opening credits (during a terrorist attack on a plane), but her unborn child would be "warped" back in time. The player would have taken the role of Laura's son - now a teenager - trapped in a large, European castle, from which he had to escape while being assaulted by supernatural phenomena. The game was practically finished when Panasonic officially announced that the M2 was not going to be released, leaving WARP with no way to sell the title. When given the chance to put out D2 for other systems, Kenji Eno decided to abandon the entire original project and start over from scratch with a new setting.
- D2 was the very first title to be announced for the Dreamcast console when the system was first presented to the public.
- In Japan, a demonstration version of D2 was packaged with another WARP produced game, the Dreamcast "remake" of the sound-only Sega Saturn title, Real Sound: Kaze no Regret (Winds of Regret). This early preview of the game, known as D2 Shock Demo, features modified opening credits and "heads up display" compared to the completed game released later. Additionally, this demo version contains a save file that copies to the Sega Dreamcast VMU and unlocks a "secret movie" in the retail Japanese version of D2. This secret movie is a preview of the shelved M2 version of D2.
- This secret movie was removed from the North American version but can briefly be seen as in-flight movie during the hi-jacking sequence.
- In the mine on Disc 1, the player comes across a group of lunchboxes, each bearing the name of a crew member from the Aki in WARP's previous game, Enemy Zero.
- After the end credits, a clock will appear displaying the current time and either the time left till December 31, 1999 or time elapsed after, depending on the time kept on console.
- The initials on Laura's compact change between LH in the game and LP in the change disc screen.
