Oh, wow, where to begin with this one? There is a reason this game made it to #1 on the worst Dreamcast games list, but I don't think you quite understand just how far it fell below those other games. Even Evil Dead, flawed as it was, was not as horrifically terrible as this game is. The worst thing about this game is that they expect you to follow this "story". There is nothing here that even resembles a lick of sense and they actually think you're even going to remember these characters' names after this?
From what I understand, this is supposedly part of the Ring universe in Japan. The story is somewhere in there, but in this game, the experience is about as far gone from anything even remotely resembling what we know as "The Ring". Marketing ploys like this will kill just about any respect anyone was going to have for you, because now we're dealing with a computer program that sends you to another dimension.
In this dimension, there are monsters and you shoot guns. Oh yes, it's just as dumb as it sounds. There is a much deeper story going on here, don't get me wrong. Try as hard as you can to pay attention to it. I double dog dare you to follow this story through all of the hours.... and hours.... and HOURS of talking. Seriously, keeping up with names, businesses, basically anything involving what is going on with this plot is like following algebra after reintroducing yourself to it 10 years after high school.
It does not help that the game is absolutely abysmal to play. It is so boring. You move so slowly from one location to the next and just follow whatever the game tells you to do. At no point does this get any better throughout its entire duration and there is no way I could ever dream of beating it. This game defeated me after about four hours. I tried to cope with the horrible tank controls, as if Resident Evil controls were programmed by sloths deprived of sleep.
The "horror" in this game is also undercut by a horribly annoying main character who just can't seem to get information through her skull. She seriously keeps asking so many questions that are irrelevant or not relevant enough to be interesting. She even undercuts the horror element! Seriously, you're walking down a long dark hallway and it's supposed to be all spooky and scary, but then she turns around and says "This is stupid! Where are the monsters!" And then the "monster" comes. If that wasn't bad enough, the monster looked like a guy in a bad gorilla costume.
This game apparently wanted to be a scary comedy whatever of sorts, or that's just how bad the voice acting and character designs are. Seriously, looking these characters in the face will test your endurance for the uncanny valley on every front. The main character girl, with whom I can't be asked to even look up her name- oh, damn, it's Meg- is one of the few characters that doesn't make your stomach churn. Everyone else has lumps on their noses and eyes that bug out as if all of them were wearing far-sighted lenses but without the glasses or the lenses. The dialogue is downright comical when spoken out loud. Especially when the cop guy goes to Meg who passes out and asks "you okay?" It was just such a horrible delivery for the situation! He should be asking her questions, getting a paramedic, but no, they just stand around and talking about her while a guy picks her up.
All of this begins when you get into a menu and pressing any option will make a squashing cartoon sound. It is a perfect representation of what you're about to witness. There really are no redeeming qualities about this game. The movement, the gameplay, the essoteric story latched onto a semi-popular franchise, all of it culminates to the fact that they really had no idea how to do Resident Evil, so we got this. The characters are bland stereotypes, the main character is annoying and boring, and you've pretty much can't find anything that will make you stick around. It does make you want to play other, better games but that's not a point in its favor. When all is said and done, I'd rather just watch the tape. 7 Virtua Days...
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