Snek Experiences D2 Part 1(Dreamcast 1999)(No Commentary)
3----Not related to D4, Dark Dreams Don't Die, as that is something completely different and unrelated to the "D" Series---
---For a game in 1999, it looked pretty dang good even by today's standard---
D2 is a survival horror video game developed by Warp for the Dreamcast. It was published by Warp in Japan in 1999 and by Sega in North America in 2000. Directed and written by Kenji Eno, it serves as the third entry in the D series after D and Enemy Zero. Like the previous two games, D2 stars the digital actress Laura and serves as an independent story unrelated to either game.
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. While exploring the wilderness, the player encounters random battles, much like those of a role-playing video game. When fighting monsters, the player cannot move Laura, but only aim her weapons. Defeating these creatures earns Laura experience points, which are used to level Laura up, increasing her health limit. Laura is initially equipped with a submachine gun with unlimited ammunition and a hunting rifle, which is used to hunt animals for meat which she can use to regain health.
In terms of the hunting feature, animals Laura kills for meat are totaled up during gameplay and on the Options screen, and players can see how many kills she has collected as well as any medals given. Additionally, Laura has a camera that she can use to take pictures any time in the game (except during cinematics). Players can also save the pictures to a VMU and view them later on.
D2 was met with positive reviews despite the criticisms of gameplay. D2 aroused conflicting reactions in reviewers. They lauded the graphics, music, and deep storytelling. However, they criticized the actual gameplay for being repetitive, dull and buried with cut scenes. The game has an overall rating of 70ish percent.
D4 has 4 disks that you, the player, will swap in and out of when the game asks for it, I.e From Disk 1 to Disk 4 and vice versa. Luckly, Redream allows for such a function easily.
First time experiencing D2 and just like how everyone back then was harping the game for the cut scenes and repetitive combat, I can see those issues. Since the game can be experiences without having played the other two games, they kinda needed to set the plot and mood. I personally like the slow pace nature as it leads build up to conflict and sets up the atmosphere. Laura moves like a tank, however after a bit I've gotten use to it. For this part I did not use a guide and I plan to not use a guide, however I will have a page pulled up in case I get stuck. (Apparently you were supposed to dart around outside and then go back in to get the key to the stone hut, but however I literally went around the whole area of the starting map. Helps for EXP and leveling up I guess so I'm not that off put).
Hunting is a pain, but it makes sense. You are on a snowy mountain where it's windy as heck so trying to shoot game would be very difficult, especially for someone who hasn't hunted before.
You can't skip cutscenes, so dying and not saving after the cutscene will make you re-watch them again which can put people off from continuing the game. At least you can save at any time (or use savestates, but will the ability to swap disks, doing both helps). The game is slow, but I don't mind slow.
Other Videos By Solid Snek
Other Statistics
D2 Statistics For Solid Snek
Solid Snek presently has 273 views for D2 across 5 videos, with his channel currently having around 9 hours worth of content for D2. This is 1.87% of the total watchable video on Solid Snek's YouTube channel.