2/5 ★ – Brendan88's review of Parasite Eve II.

I gave up on this game after dying in the final boss and I don't think I'll be back. I don't care. This was my first time going through Parasite Eve 2, and what a disappointment. First off, one thing they did improve on from the first game is the movement during battle. You're much faster now, and can actually dodge enemy attacks, which makes it feel much more fair. That's probably the one good thing about the game. Everything else is a downgrade. Story is boring, muddled, and really kind of a "so what?" the whole time. Atmosphere isn't there. Pacing is all out of whack. Enemies (and status effects especially!) are incredibly annoying. Puzzles are horse-shit. For this game, they switched to tank controls and more claustrophobic camera placement, but they didn't include a 180 quick-turn - unforgivable when Resident Evil 3 was already out. There's no weapon or armor upgrading system like the first game at all. And the item management - THE ITEM MANAGEMENT - in this game is insane. Item boxes aren't linked. Ammo loaded in guns still takes up inventory (?!). There's no way to increase the number of items you can carry. You can only increase the number of "quick items" you can use in battle because - here's the really good part - you can't even access your inventory in battle!! Run out of ammo for one gun in this 15 minute boss fight? Well if you didn't put a different gun in your quick items before the battle started, you can't switch to that gun. Need to use a healing item? Even if its in your inventory, you can't. Its such an insane decision, I have no idea what they were thinking. This game is clearly going for more "survival horror" than the first game, but even Resident Evil let's you access your fucking inventory in battle. Honestly, fuck it.