The GCN's first and only online game
02/17/03 by Dan Chubaty
The Game: An enhanced port of the original two games released for the Dreamcast, featuring online play.
Gameplay: Anyone who has ever played Diablo, or any other online RPG for that matter should know what to expect. You more or less team up with some comrades and go about the online world, killing enemies, growing stronger as you do.
A game like this isn’t about a massive story line or tons of depth. It’s all about playing online, meeting new people and just trying to level up and find all the rare weapons you can. Depending on how you feel about that, PSO will either be one of the greatest games you ever played, or one of the most repetitive and boring ones.
When you first play the game, you create a character. Choosing one of 12 different character types. This is a key element, since some of the classes differ hugely, such as the weapons they can equip and the spells they can learn.
The battle system is completely Real-time. This creates a very frantic and real feel. There is no pausing or stopping; it’s either fight or run. Real-time combat also allows players to combine attacks and so on.
In order for it to all come together, however, one would assume that a great and possibly confusing targeting system would have to be in place. This is only half true. Sonic Team kept it very simple. Your character will basically auto target the nearest enemy at which point you can attack. Every so often this creates some frustration, especially when there are monsters swarming all over you, it tends to force you to take some unneeded hits. It’s still a great trade off, though, since it allows just about anyone to jump into the game.
The Camera is directly related to the targeting. You can press L to have the camera swing around and stay directly behind you, which, when used right acts almost as a “manual” targeting mode.
Of course, the most important factor in an online game is the community. It’s pretty safe to say, that if you cannot play PSO online (lack of modem or credit card for monthly fee) than the game is almost not worth a purchase. Playing with others is the only way to go. Co-operating and covering each other’s Asses is incredibly fun. So fun in fact, that that it felt just as great as when I first played the hell out of the original DC version. There are literally thousands of other players out there, all of which you can chat, play mini-games and send mail to.
Another important factor is player-to-player communication. Sonic team took the liberty of including an onscreen keyboard so you can type away, but this is incredibly cumbersome and downright slow. A big mistake on Sega’s part (or perhaps Nintendo’s would be more appropriate) was that they didn’t release a keyboard to coincide with the launch of the game. IT really does hinder the game, I’d rather just not communicate at all, instead of having to move a cursor over each and ever letter just to form a simple sentence. To slightly remedy this, there is also a built in system that allows you to easily string together commonly used phrases and questions, but this is still no match for he communication you could experience with a keyboard, I just hope that somebody, somewhere, makes one very soon.
Also, for anyone worrying about lag or a slow online connection, but your doubts aside. I’ve racked up many hours online, using the 56k modem, and it plays smooth and great. You’d be hard pressed to find a difference between online and offline. Also, setting up the modem and account info was painfully easy, and I was online in a minute or so.
Visuals: PSO episode 1 & II is a port of a Dreamcast game, make no mistake about that. It’s the very same graphics engine and all. It features mildly detailed texture work and just looks a little dated, and rightfully so. That’s not to say that it’s bad looking, though. PSO has a lot of style, featuring worlds that absolutely glimmer with color and ambience. From the futuristic settings of the lobbies to the organic green of the forests, it’s all so stylish and very well created.
The engine is pretty decent, running at a constant 60 frames per second and rendering a whole lot of enemies and characters all at once. It’s quite impressive. There is, of course, some trade-off, and as such, there is noticeable pop-up and the previously mentioned visual flaws.
Overall, PSO has great design and style, just with a slightly dated look.
Audio: The music in PSO can only be described as “futuristic” with a lot of synth style sounds at first, but as you proceed into different areas, like the forest, for example, you’ll hear very soothing and mellow piano notes with hints of that same futuristic style. Overall, it’s all well composed, but it can become quite redundant after playing for a long time. The music on pioneer II, for instance already has me pulling my hair out.
Sound is generally well done as well. The futuristic tone takes effect once again. Swing a sword, and you’ll hear a “light saber” sound, fire a gun, and you’ll hear a quick sounding laser blast. Other effects, like monsters approaching are a nice effect as well.
Control: Sega took the time to create a game that can be easily accessed and played, but also take some time to get used to.
The main face buttons on the GameCube controller can be customized via in game menus, so you can perform different functions. A is the normal (quicker) attack and X is the heavy (slower) attack, but it could be changed to suit whatever function you want, such as items, special attacks, or magic. Holding R allows you to switch over to even more options. For example, if A was your attack by default, when you held R and then pressed a, it could be a healing spell. This allows you to be able to add more commonly used functions without a lot of menu access.
Other controls are straightforward, the C stick and D pad are used to access shortcuts to commonly used phrases or symbols (you can choose your own).
Replay Value: If you have the option to play online, replay value will be through the roof. The thrill of fighting alongside new allies and finding new weapons is awesome. I logged 80 + hours on the DC version, and I find the GameCube version to be just as addictive and fun.
Offline, however, isn’t as great. It’s useful, since you can level up offline and use the same character online, but if you can only play offline, you might lose interest very fast. Even with the split screen action. Online play is a must here, folks.
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