Dark Cloud

$49.95, PlayStation 2

Teaches: creativity, strategy

CTR Review

This PlayStation 2 RPG (Role Playing Game) follows the adventures of Toan, who finds his world annihilated, ruled by "big boss" enemies who live in graphically rich mazes of caves, dungeons and so on. The goal of the game is to gather as many parts of the "old world" as possible (trees, people, buildings) and then assemble them using a "Georama" (not unlike SimCity). Once assembled, it is possible to walk around and share printed dialog with other players. The more people you find and restore, the more clues you discover about the dark cloud and the truth about the mystery. Weaknesses include the lack of speech, which we would expect for a PlayStation 2 game, and the less than fun set of command-based fighting routines. Strengths include the dazzling light effects, which take full advantage of the PS2's capabilities. The bottom line? A beautiful game with rich graphics, but weak on the speech and game play.