Carrier
- March 30, 2000 00:00 AM PST
Carrier is the latest survival horror game to creep its way onto the Dreamcast, and in the tradition of Resident Evil, brings with it some chills, thrills, and a few minor nuisances.
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Ship of Ghouls
In the not-too-distant future, an aircraft carrier returning from an anti-terrorist mission in the South Pacific is ordered to investigate a mysterious organism on a nearby island. Soon after, the ship goes silent and an investigative team is dispatched to find out why. Like a good B-movie, Carrier is about as deep as a kiddie pool, but it offers an engaging story, creepy atmosphere, and plenty of ghoul-blasting action.
That Sinking Feeling
Instead of the usual zombies found in most games of its type, Carrier's enemies are crewmembers that have been biologically infected and mutated into strange human/plant hybrids. Men with plant-like organisms and fleshy tentacles for heads shamble through the halls, which are overgrown with plant life. The animations are fluid, although some serious slow-down creeps up occasionally. Like most survival horror games, the sounds are sparse, consisting mostly of your own footsteps and some creepy background music to create a suspenseful atmosphere. And, as is the tradition, the voice-acting is ridiculously bad.
You won't find many difficult puzzles in Carrier, as most are the "find the key that fits the door" variety. Instead, the action focuses on exploration and blowing away the bad guys. Control is typical of the genre and can occasionally be frustrating, but also includes some nice features, like the ability to switch weapons on the fly and an excellent aiming system that lets you target various parts of an enemy's body. The fixed camera angles can sometimes be a problem when you know enemies are offscreen and can't shoot them, but this doesn't interfere too much with the gameplay.
Carrier may not win any awards for most original gameplay, but gamers who have played through Code Veronica, or who are just looking for a change, should definitely check it out.
