Genre: Action
Perspective: 3rd-person
Gameplay: Fighting, Shooter
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developed by: Hudson Soft Company, Raizing Co.
Released: 1999
Platform: PlayStation (PSX, PS1)
Bloody Roar II is a great 3D fighting game where your werewolf fighters can transform into animals, thereby increasing the strength and variants of combo attacks. In order for your character to turn into a beast you should wait for the filling of a special aggression scale and press the button. Bloody Roar II is not far away from the original, but it's still a wonderful game with amazing graphics, spectacular special effects and impressive fighting techniques.
Unexpectedly for all the team of Japanese developers Hudson Soft, well known to any player a series of games Bomberman, took and launched a 3D fight called Bloody Roar (Bloody Roar). Even more unexpected was the success that this project was able to achieve, so the emergence of the continuation was just a matter of time. Bloody Roar and, accordingly, Bloody Roar 2 swung to the holy for almost the owner of the PlayStation - the Tekken series. However, in the course of work on the game, a lot of curious moments were added, which ultimately, and not the graphics with music, became the "calling card" of the project. Yes, in Bloody Roar there is no tricky plot, and there is not enough originality, but there is an unusual graphics, a well-developed system of combo, as well as an impressive number of options for settings and game modes.
Bloody Roar 2 continues the theme of fights of people / animals, or rather, turning into beasts of people. Seven fighters will obey your commands, tearing each other to shreds. Excellent graphics, responsive management is designed to further brighten this project in the eyes of every fan of virtual fights. And although the name Hudson strongly associated with the series Bomberman, in their new creation both beginner and professional will find something for themselves - the Bloody Roar series has firmly taken its place of honor on the Olympus PlayStation fights.
In the first part of the player's efforts "The very evil corporation Tylon" was destroyed. However, its creation - modified at the gene level mutants of people and animals called Zoanthropes - did not want to share the fate of the company that gave birth to them. Lovely creatures joined in independent bandit formation. Having established themselves, having clearly gained courage, they frightened people, who soon began to hate the Zoanthrops fiercely. As a result, small local conflicts began to flare up, threatening to result in a full-scale war. Mutants in the meantime created a real army and set out to destroy everyone and everything, whether it was a person or Zoanthrop who did not want to join. The goal of the game is to save the world from "other guys".
Let's begin our discussion of Bloody Roar 2 from what is first of all striking - with graphics. Undoubtedly, everyone will be pleasantly surprised by its quality, as well as the fact that the game engine uses high resolution to display the picture on the screen. Thus, the fighters and components / surrounding polygons look just five with a plus, we can confidently say that this is one of the best in the visual plan of games on the PlayStation.
The characters themselves are not very original, but wait until they begin to turn into ferocious beasts! If anyone has already forgotten all the heroes - mutants, have become such as a result of monstrous experiments to cross DNA of man and beast. Seeing these terrible creatures for the first time you start to relate in a new way to the perverted Japanese mentality. Fighters, being turned into this or that animal, do not become horrible or disgusting, on the contrary, having absorbed some of the distinctive features of the animal prototype and crossing them with certain clearly expressed characteristics of a person, they turn out to be beautiful in their own way, but, most importantly, very, very unusual . Especially memorable Busuzima-Chameleon and Stun-Insect. This you have not exactly seen.
Deserves the closest attention and the arena, which are fights. The abundance of all sorts of details, together with multi-polygon models of fighters and high resolution, all this does not hamper the game, once again emphasizing the high level of skill of programmers.
Three character creation used motion-capture technology, which gives them an even more authentic look (at least, while heroes are people). However, despite all the abundance of details in the design of the characters, to the level of Tekken characters from the Bloody Roar 2 do not hold out, although they try.
Among other graphic refinements, it is worth noting the demonstration from several points of view of a series of strokes with which the opponent was defeated and the ability to break walls. I want to say a couple of affectionate words about the excellent use of lighting and various related effects. Every attack, block, special impact is accompanied by a different backlight, sparks and other bells and whistles, but the most memorable is the holding of the final super combo. Then the arena loses all the polygons, preserving only the outlines, and in the meantime your hero strikes a series of powerful blows, accompanied by such a riot of colors, which even the fireworks for the 850th anniversary of Moscow would envy. It remains only to note once again that Bloody Roar 2 is one of the most impressive graphics games on the PlayStation.
Now it's worth discussing the audio merits of this project. Sound effects on the level, nothing supernatural. Musically, Bloody Roar 2 is a set of heavy music that, undoubtedly, will appeal to all fans of Heavy Metal. It should be noted, however, that the Japanese vision of this musical style, or rather, its hearing, roughly corresponds to the creativity of various collectives playing Hard Rock and Heavy Metal in the early 80's.
But the Bloody Roar series is still most famous for its gameplay, and Bloody Roar 2 is an additional confirmation. Having included the game, you knock out one of the many game modes. Arcade is the base point in any virtual fights. In this case, it is necessary to compete with one of the 10 opponents, having filled up all, the hero is rewarded with a new special blow, they are sent to wet all over the new one. A live enemy, in the person of a best friend, brother or someone else, can join at any time by clicking Start, or selecting the item Versus. To all fans of fights "not with a computer" is dedicated.
But on this list of available modes does not end. Story, Survival, Watch and Custom will brighten up the time of communication with Bloody Roar 2. In Story you will be told and will show the hard life of the chosen character, will explain the reason for the difficult relations with other Zoanthrops, and will also give the opportunity to dunk them. Survival - you fight against all opponents with only one strip of energy until the forces are over, there is nothing unusual in this mode. Watch - choose two any fighters, take the popcorn and watch as they each other flutter. The interest lies in the ability to contemplate new special attacks, as well as carefully reviewing the fight, to understand for themselves some weaknesses of the selected opponents. Finally, Custom, where before the fight you determine how perverted the fighters will appear in the ring. Such deformities include the inclusion of long arms / legs / heads, deformation of characters and so on. Find out yourself what is more suitable for your pets.
The combat system in every game is trying to present something new, but after Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken it is impossible to reinvent the bike again, you can only make it more beautiful and sophisticated, which just happens in Bloody Roar 2. Ordinary blocks, legs and jumps - today this is no surprise, so the developers have implemented the possibility of evasion, "juggling" the enemy and "rejuvenation."
The ability to evade a powerful special blow or combo? No problem, pressing a button - and your hero will simply step aside, which undoubtedly adds to the feeling of full 3Dity of what is happening.
"Juggling" is the ability to catch an opponent while he, for example, flies after a particularly brutal attack from your side, another deftly used special strike, preventing him from coming to his senses and even reaching the coveted land.
These features of the game, despite their scarcity, surprisingly organically fit into the overall combat system, making fights interesting and exciting, which significantly increases the attractiveness of Bloody Roar 2, practically raising it to the category of hits.