Death Proclaimed II

Death Proclaimed 2 is a continuation of the Death Proclaimed series, making up shortcomings in the first game's programming, but not quite as scary.

I must state that the original Death Proclaimed blew my mind when I first played it (in spite of the problems), but the sequel, not so much. It's probably because I had never heard of this Springhorn fellow before when I played DP1, but I all ready knew of his style and tricks when DP2 appeared. This continuation of the Death Proclaimed series is technically far superior to the first game, and although it's a continuation of the story, I don't feel it's necessary to play DP1 first to enjoy DP2. The holes in the story are filled in well enough, and there will probably be much more to surprise you.

You play as Cory, a boy who lives with his aunt in a secluded cabin. One day your aunt strolls off to market ... AND NEVER COMES BACK. Well no. But she's gone for a week, and you decide to make your own way to the city to see what happened to her.

Your suspicions are first aroused by a field full of animal corpses, then, sure enough, you encounter your first monstrosity of the game. Most of the monstrosities were drawn by the designer, and Mr. Springhorn proves himself a very disturbed individual when it comes to their design. (Game dialog supplies the interpretation that they look like "monkeys that have been digested".)

Death Proclaimed 2 uses the same action combat system as the original, this time executed flawlessly! There is a modest selection of melee weapons to slash and clobber with, mainly spanning the continuum between power and speed. There is also one ranged weapon in the game (a boomerang) which can only be acquired on a replay, and it too functions almost perfectly.

The game also has a custom menu which is simple and bug-free.

I praised the enemy AI for Death Proclaimed 1, but I must confess, some of that magic was lost in the sequel. Most of the foes follow a simple script of close-on-player-with-a-constant-speed-and-occasionally-random-step. There are other surprises of course, including enemies that ignore the player altogether unless provoked, but I found it a bit less FRIGHTFUL than in the first game, where you weren't sure if an enemy was going to bound right through a wall at you.

The boss battles, of course, have thrilling AI and lots of surprises, but basic enemies didn't receive this attention.

The only other issues with the combat system are those which plague all action games made in RPG Maker: i.e. your movement is restricted within the grid of the map, you can't face in a direction without taking a step in that direction, and so on. This makes positioning yourself for attacks difficult once enemies close, particularly if there are several of them and they move as fast as you. The best strategy for many areas of the game is to continuously leave and re-enter the room, reseting all the monsters to their starting positions.

It's not long into the game before you encounter Valerie, a girl who becomes your traveling companion for most of the game. She tends to fill the role of Blundering NPC Help, as she doesn't attack enemies but instead blunders into the way and crowds you from behind. Enemies don't target her, so the only way she can take damage is by getting accidentally hit by one of the player's swings, which can happen quite frequently, since taking damage causes the player to turn around, even if you're in the middle of a swing, and if Val is snuggled up to your backside you hit her instead. The number of healing items you use on her in the game is pretty much a tally of how often this happens. There are areas where you must guide her to the exit so she can unlock a door for you, but more often than not it's smartest to just ditch her at the entrance of a room.

Progression through the game follows a pretty basic pattern; you explore a maze, fight creatures and solve puzzles, and the reward for completing one area is access to the next. I found this a touch less interesting than in the original Death Proclaimed, where each area had its own story and mystery, rather than simply existing as an obstacle.

Death Proclaimed 2 still shows its Silent Hill influences in the tasteful scarcity of gore and mind-bending map design, although sometimes, especially in the Labyrinth area, the design seems not twisted and spooky so much as simply random, and some puzzles seem to exist simply for the sake of being puzzles, rather than an expression of the cloud of horror and confusion that hangs over Cory.

This probably sounds like a nit-picky review, but it`s inevitable that a sequel will be compared with its predecessor. Some knowledge of the first game is necessary to understand the story in the second (at least the identity of the principal players in the first game). There are several endings you can get to Death Proclaimed 2, and you have to see all of them to learn the whole story behind the game, which is a sneaky way to encourage replays.

So, compared to the first Death Proclaimed, Death Proclaimed 2 is programmed much better, while not quite living up to the first game in terms of atmosphere. Nevertheless it is the superior achievement, and the promised THIRD installment can only be better!! =O

Rating: 4 / 5

Most excellent feature of this game:
- Combat system

"Needs improvement" feature of this game:
- Arbitrariness of some puzzles and areas.

Juiciest combat situation:
- Final room of Allison's dungeon (with 4 moving bed monsters)

Story element that you're left to WONDER ABOUT:
- Why and by whom the city was quarantined

Best moment in the whole game:
- Heads flying from fan unit.

Scariest thing that probably wasn't meant to be scary:
- Those horrible frog-things in the subway. (garbage bins??)

Worst idea for a tombstone inscription:
- "Here lies Pamala Ree. Dead."