Carrier: The Next Mutation Preview

Too often in the realm of video games, it's easy to trace the inspiration of certain titles. Video game enthusiasts' long-standing moan is that inventiveness and originality are too often shelved in favor of shadowing a proven success. Enter Jaleco's Carrier: The Next Mutation: a survival-horror game for the PlayStation 2 with clear designs to follow in the path of a certain Capcom franchise's (read: Resident Evil) success. Carrier (well known to Dreamcast owners as that Resident Evil rip-off with frustrating camera angles) is heading to PS2 country with the moniker of "The Next Mutation" added to the title. Carrier: TNM hopes to take what made the DC's Carrier compelling and to improve upon the tried-and-true formula by offering a deeper story line, enhanced control, intuitive cameras, and better graphics than those of the DC original - all to create a more refined gameplay experience than before.

More than a subtitle, The Next Mutation can be taken as a literal reference to Jaleco's approach to the PS2 Carrier: TNM's plot. The story casts you as one of two government agents sent to investigate the loss of communications on an aircraft carrier. The carrier has been taken over by a destructive alien organism that's intent on perverting natural life to serve its own ends. Quickly, the two agents find themselves forced into a do-or-die struggle against the thousands of crewmembers that the organism has mutated to evil. Things get a bit fuzzy here, though; in The Next Mutation, the game spans beyond the original Carrier's aircraft carrier setting into an abandoned outpost in the middle of the ocean. Also, the characters from the original DC version are gone - they've been redesigned, renamed, and replaced. The back story is getting an overhaul, which is reflective of the new settings. Also, dialogue and plot pacing should represent a sizable improvement upon the original since Jaleco's development teams are revising them.

Carrier: TNM's gameplay will feature some significant enhancements. Control should mark a slight departure from the survival-horror norm. Rather than follow Resident Evil's awkward, perspective-based control, Carrier: TNM makes walking and maneuvering a much less cumbersome affair: Pressing a direction on the control pad makes the character move in that direction - which is a small but significant change. Also new for the PS2 version is the ability to move while you shoot, as well as an improvement in the targeting system that was implemented by the original. Weapons themselves will see graphical upgrades, and there's a definite possibility of new firearms in addition to the plenty of pistols, machine guns, and other powerful guns available.

Carrier: TNM, like the original, focuses on a close-quarter slaughtering of hundreds of mutated crewmen. Like any good survival-horror game, though, the action doesn't stop there. In your adventures, you'll encounter all kinds of mutated baddies that aren't your stereotypical survival-horror zombie. In addition to having a sizable hand in some copious bloodletting, Carrier tasks you with some intermediate puzzle-solving. If the DC's Carrier is any indication, key cards and detonating explosives are the rule, and puzzles require more backtracking and memorization than brainpower.

Jaleco's primary focus with Carrier: TNM is to deliver significantly improved next-generation graphics that tap the power of the PlayStation 2's hardware. Many areas of the game were plagued by slowdown on the DC, and this will be corrected in The Next Mutation. Also, explosions and weaponry effects that looked weak and halfhearted are being completely redone for the PS2. So far, it appears that the polygon count is being upped and that textures are being improved too; you can expect a marked difference in the quality of character models and their environments. Of course, it's fair to note that Carrier wasn't exactly a visual stunner on the Dreamcast, and Jaleco has its work cut out if it intends to make the PlayStation 2 version the system-detailed standout that it wants to be.All the graphical enhancements and gameplay additions may not be enough to separate Carrier: The Next Mutation from the likes of the very slick Onimushas and Shadow of Destinys on the PS2 horizon out there, but addressing the problems that plagued the original is an excellent start. Most critics agreed that Carrier was an involving immersive experience with a solid plot, marred only by its poor camera angles and quirky controls. Since these points of contention will be addressed by Carrier: The Next Mutation, there's a lot to look forward to when it arrives on store shelves sometime in the early second quarter of 2001.