horror

First off, the game spends too much time back tracking instead of killing off mutants. There are times where I find myself spending more time looking at the map of the ship trying to figure out where I have to go rather than actually playing the game. Secondly, the camera angles absolutely, positively SUCK! More than half of the time when trying to kill off the enemy you can't see them. Furthermore, even when you're walking or running you not able to see what's in front of you. After a while it gets old and frustrating. However, the game has great graphics and sound. But even with that it still isn't enough to make up for the lack of lasting appeal. Also, the game is pretty hard to play if you don't have a manual or a walk through guide. There are so many things that you would not even think of doing that you must do in order to complete a level. I would suggest that you either rent this game first or borrow it from a friend before you decide to buy it.

Plagiarizing makes the video game world go 'round. Sega had Streets of Rage, Nintendo had Final Fight. Before that, there was Double Dragon and Renegade. And that's just one subgenre. It is perfectly common for a game to be released on the heels of another game, utilizing the same structure, topic, and style of gameplay. In the case of Carrier, it is obvious that their developers stayed up a lot of nights playing Resident Evil. But if you're going to rip off a game, at least attempt an improved version, not just a pale knock-off.

This game does nothing better than the Resident Evil series. The graphics are worse by being so simple (and dark, dark to the point where I had to turn up the brightness on my TV to see necessary objects.) The premise is twice as hokey as RE's S.T.A.R.S. group. It isn't nearly as scary as RE. The long stretches of dialogue exposition in Resident Evil were tolerable because they were interesting and revealed plot points. Here, they are tediously boring. RE has minimal backtracking, this has copious amounts of backtracking. And, most comically, Resident Evil had one of the most cheesy, hokey, unbelievably delivered dialogue of any video game EVER. So Carrier should have at least got THAT right, huh? Well, sadly, no. How Jaleco managed to find voice acting even MORE uninspired, boring, and wooden than RE, I'll never know, but they did.

So that's the story. Gameplay is a mirror image of Resident Evil. Same artistic backdrops, same wanky control, same "spooky" atmosphere and gradually revealing storyline. Just twice as boring and unnecessary. Especially now that RE2 and RE3 are available on Dreamcast, you might want to make Carrier the last of the "survival horror" titles you obtain for the Dreamcast.

Well, it is better than Blue Stinger. That's a plus, right?

Carrier is a pretty good Resident Evil clone for the Dreamcast. It takes place on a giant ship where humans are turning into hideous mutants - now thats original! But actually, it has a couple of neat innovations of its own such as the scope that lets you see who is infected, and the opportunity to replay the game as a second character. Its also quite tough to finish, but worth the effort. Mind you, the climax is such a rip off of the tyrant battle from RE1 that I'm surprised a lawsuit didn't follow! Should be going fairly cheap now, so pick one up.