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While the paths taken are fairly linear, character interaction is where the real freedom is. Your character is rarely alone for long, and you get to know your companions in this desperate struggle better than what is usually possible in videogames. Though how well they react to you will depend on how you treat them. The game allows you to be a nice guy, a loner, a pervert, or just a complete dick. These choices are frequent, and do more than just personalizing the experience. They can range from having virtually no impact on the story to major changes in the plot structure. My favorite choice had to be when the chef was hanging off a ledge, ready to fall to his death. You could help him up, just smile down at him, or swipe his chef's hat. These registered with me emotionally, with the choices providing me that much more an investment in the character.
When it comes to choices for localization, Agetec took a fairly odd route. Raw Danger has been Americanized nearly as far as it could be taken. The name change, the new cover, the English dub are all familiar alterations. They took this further by giving all the characters American names, and changed something like eighty percent of the characters to blond. This creates a mildly hilarious situation where the mayor of Geo City is a man with a clearly Japanese face, blond hair, and a Jewish name. Then you hop into your taxi and slam right into traffic heading the other way, since the Japanese drive on the other side of the road. Some items also still bear translated Japanese names. I would have liked things much closer to the original, but for a budget release it's a minor point. If I had to niggle, the visuals are below what the PS2 is capable of, but it feels like a fitting trade-off with all the things that happen at once with virtually no slowdown.
Extras return in the form of collectable compasses...compasi? Whatever. Some are neat, like the fisherman and dangling pickle, while others are impossible to tell which direction its actually pointing. Not that it matters since the compass is almost useless in this game. There's also unlockable hard mode, free mode, and free costume mode (where you can dress your characters however you want). A straight run through the game clocks in about ten two twelve hours, so these options add to the replay value, providing a pretty solid running time for $15.
If you're sick of all the blood fests and tired of developers who think all puzzle games need to involve moving around colored blocks, Raw Danger is a welcome relief. It's six clever scenarios with interesting characters, set in a mix of puzzles and action, that's more than worth its asking price. |
