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By Contributing Writer Jimmy Payne Rating: Average At the risk of sounding like an English teacher, I think that Jaleco could have had a great game on their hands if they had put a little more time and effort into Carrier. As it is, Carrier is a decent game that can't quite compete with the Resident Evil series. Anyone who has played Resident Evil for more than five minutes will be able to see that Carrier a total rip-off. This is a good thing in some ways and a bad thing in other ways. It's a good thing because at least they did a pretty good job of copying Resident Evil's gameplay engine without screwing it up. On the down-side, Jaleco failed to expand their horizons beyond merely copying Resident Evil. Carrier is basically the same game with different settings and characters. One cool addition Jaleco made was a device that lets you look around a room in first-person mode to identify enemies (who often look like normal people). Items are discarded automatically instead of giving you the annoying message, "You no longer need this key. Would you like to discard it?" Items are also highlighted with an arrow above them so you don't forget to pick them up. This cuts down on the amount of time spent searching for items, but it also detracts from the game's realism. I don't walk into my room when I want to get a magazine and see a swirling arrow above my desk in real life, do I? It's very important for any survival horror game to be scary. Carrier can be mildly creepy at times, but there are no really big heart-pounding moments. Compared to Resident Evil, Carrier seems like "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" on Nickelodeon. Even when there are moments that have the potential to be scary, they are usually spoiled by bad camera angles that distort the view, or bad voice acting that makes the game seem more stupid than scary. The atmosphere and setting in a survival horror game are essential to heightening the all-important feeling of tension. Carrier's setting could have been scary (a giant ship that has been overtaken by zombies and plant monsters), but it's all ruined by the terrible lighting and identical- looking hallways. Not only does this make the game look dull, but it increases the chances of getting lost since almost every hallway looks exactly the same as the last, give or take a few puddles of blood. A story line is also a good part of the equation needed to create a classic survival horror game, and Carrier shows mediocrity yet again in this area. Basically, you're on a rescue mission to see what's wrong with a giant aircraft carrier. Your plane crashes on the carrier, and you have no way of getting off the carrier unless you go inside and figure out what's wrong. Couldn't Jaleco have come up with something a little bit more original? The voice acting in Carrier is downright horrible, to the point that it makes Sonic Adventure look good by comparison. It's not bad in a funny sort of way like the original Resident Evil; it's just stupid. The shipmates have lots of different accents, despite the fact that they all look exactly the same. And if you thought Sonic Adventure had a problem with lip-syncing, look out. Sometimes characters' lips move for a solid five seconds after they're done talking. Games that don't have have much to offer in the way of story line or setting usually rely on a huge arsenel of guns to at least offer some appeal (cough, Blue Stinger, cough). Once again, Jaleco didn't come through in this area. There are very few weapons in the game. Most of the time, all you have is a hand-gun or a machine gun. There's also plenty of ammo and health, so you can forget about getting that "Crap, I'm out of ammo and I could die at any moment!" feeling. This game is a passable attempt at breaking into the survival horror market. It makes for a decent rental, and you might be able to finish it during the rental period because it only lasts about eight hours. I enjoyed Carrier for a while, but this is probably just because I'm so starved for anything resembling Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Just keep telling yourself that Code Veronica is only a month away... only a month away... Send your thoughts on this review to jimmy@mastergamer.com
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