Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 2: Itetsuita Kiokutachi / Raw Danger (PS2) (2006)
Developer: Irem

Review by Faididi and Co.

It's a small (and very disaster-prone) world

Story: Above Average

It's Christmas Eve, and the folks at the state-of-the-art underground town of Geo City are going about their holiday business as usual. That is, until foundation-related problems complicated by heavy storms cause massive structural collapses, quakes, flooding, and rampant death. Thrust into this chaos, several characters must now find a path to safety while sorting out other problems popping up in their way, ranging from solving a twisted murder case to saving the survivors from an evil viral infection. Although this is one of those tales where every hero turns out to be connected with one another, no matter how fleeting these ties, each protagonist does have her or his own interesting side of the story to tell, and the actions of an individual hero may carry serious consequences for the others.

Gameplay: Average

While its characters mostly differ from those of the first game, Irem's Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 2: Itetsuita Kiokutachi (Raw Danger) is an action adventure that generally sticks to the same ideas. The 6 playable heroes (whose stories are initially told in a predetermined order) all have to carefully work their way through hazardous urban environments, climbing broken slopes, crossing chasms, and weaving through unsafe buildings, sometimes with a companion tagging along to provide more drama.

As the full name of this sequel suggests, the heroes need to protect themselves from the deadly cold of the harsh winter setting. The old thirst and life system, which has been so easy to beat, is now replaced by a wetness and body temperature system that's less forgiving and appreciably more challenging. Whenever the heroes step out into the near-constant rain or snow, or whenever they wade through deep water, they'll start getting soaked, which leads to drops in body temperature. If their temperatures fall too low, they slump over. Luckily, they can still use items like food and medical supplies to keep their temperatures up, and they can also put on heavier clothing (thanks to the expanded clothing system). Safe locations with sources of heat, like stoves and flaming barrels, now serve as the save points, but they are far, far fewer than the abundant save points of the previous installment.

Another change worth noting is the locations where a hero can drop off unneeded items, which the other characters can then obtain (when you play as them later). This is a rather interesting twist on letting them cooperate, however indirect and optional it is. The rest of the item system remains about the same, as the heroes can still use bigger backpacks to carry more things, and they can still combine items to create makeshift tools (which isn't necessary to beating the game).

There are the new vehicle scenes, where the characters actually get to row across flooded streets on boats and drive around on a jetski or a car. Too bad these scenes are mostly limited to one of the protagonists, and even then he spends more time running around on foot than cruising about on the road.

One major drawback is that the level design doesn't match up to the first game's. Gone are the more unusual types of places like stadiums and amusement parks. Instead, the heroes here only visit lots of apartments, offices, restaurants, stores, tunnels, and other common city street areas. The fourth playable character gets shafted the most in terms of level design, because she merely explores a few buildings before her brief part in the story ends.

Controls: Below Average

The greater amount of slowdown now seriously hampers the controls, to the point of causing large delays on the menu screens. The crawling controls are clunky and unresponsive, and the heroes' rafts annoyingly tend to get stuck against objects.

Graphics: Average

The characters and the environments are noticeably more detailed and textured, and the effects of structures collapsing and columns of water violently crashing down still appear as stunning as ever. However, the slowdown and the loading times have grown incredibly worse, and you don't really play as much as drag through some ninety percent of the game. A few of the neater visual touches from the previous installment, like how a character will hold her umbrella forward to shield another person from the rain, are gone, too.

Audio: Above Average

The original voice acting continues to be good, but the sound effects have been significantly improved. The ambience effects are more consistent in quality, providing smoother, better balanced audio throughout the entire game without taking away the awesome noise and mayhem heard during the action-heavy scenes. Like the sound effects, the music also sees a marked improvement. The tunes are more inspired and touching, and the way each protagonist has her or his own theme music is very nice.

Overall: Average

Although Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 2 comes with several playable characters, its level design is no longer as creative, and the increase in visual detail fails to offset the now-incessant slowdown, excessive loading times, and weaker controls. This action adventure remains solid in many ways, but those new to the series may still be better off trying the original Zettai Zetsumei Toshi first.