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Alundra 2
"It was nice to see the game switch from the first Alundra's sprite based adventure and into a full polygonal world with nice animation and environment interaction"
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Developer  Matrix Game Type  RPG
Distributor  Activision Review Date  Mar 00
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Setting the Scene:
 
      The kingdom of Varuna was a land of peace. In a world where happiness and prosperity was prevalent, lurking in the shadows deep in the hearts of some evil men where insatiable appetites for greed. Descendants of the first king Telcontar ruled this land but close to the current king, Baron Diaz plots for control. At his service is Mephisto, formerly the palace wizard. Surrounding this man are mysterious powers. Able to transform living creatures into monsters that obey him, the powerful wizard follows the will of the dark baron. After Baron Diaz took control of the kingdom a dark cloud of hopelessness and despair spread. With evil seeds in the very foundation of the kingdom, pirates and other evil creatures have sprouted throughout.

Fade in to poor Princess Alexia who was the rightfully next in line to rule before Baron Diaz regime. With the will to take back what is rightfully hers she must find a way to defeat this evil menace.

Enter the story's hero…At a young age Flint is known as one of the great pirate hunters. After seeing his mother's untimely death at the hands of pirates, Flint dedicated his life to hunt down this scourge. Together with Princess Alexia they have a common enemy and together they will try to thwart the intentions of Baron Diaz.

As their adventure continues they battle gruesome monsters, solve mind boggling puzzles, meet allies where no one expected, and uncover a deeper and darker truth.

Sound and Vision:
 
      The game opens with story sequences that are introduced frequently into the game. At times the character interactions are read while other times spoken dialogue is used. The background music does a decent job in setting the mood for the story. The music quickens during bosses and special mini games that are scattered throughout the game. Weapons used gave their distinct noises while learned techniques gave their own battle cries. The overall music was decent and is what is expected at this stage of any quality game.

The visuals where also pretty good. Alundra 2 replaces the old sprite based world of its predecessor with a very functional 3D-polygon engine. Taking advantage of the 3D environment, the camera can no be rotated 360-degrees most of the time by using your R1 and L1 buttons to revolve the landscape. This is useful because many treasure chests and boxes hide in the nooks and crannies of the environment. Many vibrant selections of color were used and the characters were extremely well detailed. Especially the pirates who slotted into the story perfectly. The big, bad bosses were surprising well animated considering their size. The backgrounds looked decent enough except for some obstructed views that would suddenly swing into place when rotating the scenery. Another feature allowed a player to select his view. By pressing the select button you could choose one of three different perspectives during game play. Overall the face-lift worked out really well graphically and takes Alundra 2 to the next level in visuals. The game may not retain the first's unique visual appeal but it certainly had some good qualities of its own.

The game combined sound and graphics to make over two hours of in game cut sequences. They used voice-overs and appropriate musical scores to progress the story line seamlessly.
 
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