When the Sega Dreamcast was released in America on September,9,1999,it quickly became the fastest selling console in video-game history, with twenty or so games available at launch that covered all genres except for RPGs. Evolution is the first 128-bit rpg to hit American Dreamcast's. Is it a must have RPG or just a tide-me-over till Shen-mue?

Storyline 80%

Evolution's story is not as involving as some RPGs of late, or some RPGs of further back for that matter. Simplicity is not always a bad thing as Sting's Evolution proves. You are Mag Launcher the last of your family. For generations members of the Launcher family were known as the greatest adventurers, people who explore ruins in search of relics of ages past, and who worked for the betterment of society. They were also referred to as Cyframe-users, as they were the only ones who possessed the skill to wield these powerful machines. Mag, however, is having trouble filling his father's shoes. His father, Asroc Launcher was know as the GREATEST explorer in the family, and was close to finding Evolutia the Greatest Cyframe ever. Then, Asroc disappeared. One day a girl arrived at Mag's doorstep with a letter from Asroc telling Mag to protect her no matter what. The girl, Linear Cannon becomes Mag's partner in exploration. Unlike Mag, though, she uses no Cyframe. Her weapon of choice is, oddly enough, a frying pan. The other characters include Gre Nade, Mag's butler, who fights with a sniper rifle, Chain Gun, Mag's rival, a tomboy who is secretly in love with Mag, and Pepper Box, a fellow explorer who quickly becomes a powerful ally on your quest.

The game involves exploring HUGE dungeons and fighting an endboss. Along the way you fight monsters, pick up items, and try to earn the title of the greatest explorer. After each dungeon you get a break and get story sequences. Then it's on to the next dungeon. It can get old after the third dungeon but sticking with it will be worth your while, since the story gets better as you play the game.

Gameplay 75%

It plays like your basic RPG; explore dungeons, fight monsters, that sort of thing. Speaking of fights, what about the battle system? The Battle System is classic turn based combat in which your party attacks and then you are attacked. For more fun, Sting has made it so that you can see the monsters before they attack you, which also makes it easy to avoid unwanted fights. On top of that, you can attack enemies from behind and get the advantage, though the monsters can do the same to you.

In combat there is a bar on the right hand side of the screen showing you which order the monsters and your party will attack, letting you use strategy to defeat the monsters without them attacking you. Magic is learned by adding parts to you Cyframe and learning spells when enough TP is earned. Non-Cyframe users learn spells too, with the exception of not being able to add parts.

Sound/Music 85%

The sound effects are very good from growls and grunts to slashes and shots fired. Your party will often shout in Japanese when they get a critical attack, as will the bad guys. The only down fall in the sound effects is the fact that Ubi-soft chose not to translate the speech into English. The music is pretty good, but I wouldn't go out and buy the soundtrack.

Graphics 100%

The graphics are amazing if not flawless. Everything looks great, the characters, the monsters, FMVs. The graphics are truly light years ahead of anything you have ever seen. The character designs are excellent, the best I've seen since Phantasy Star IV. The graphics are so good that the FMVs aren't even needed. The FMVs are, however, good. They both look better and are integrated into the game better then any Final Fantasy game.

Overall 78%

Evoultion will only take about twenty hours to complete. It is a good RPG with a lot of fun to be had, and it will kill time until the release of Timestalkers, Shen-Mue, Phantasy Star Online, and, yes, Evolution 2.