Few games have the presentation thing down like Nightmare Creatures 2.  The box art looks great, there is an exciting intro movie, a great menu featuring the main hero's room, and Rob Zombie provides music for the awesome cut-scenes in between levels.  Fans of the original Nightmare Creatures might see all of this and find themselves salivating.  However, once you play the game, it becomes all too clear that most of the effort put into this game went into the presentation.   

Starring a bandaged, axe-wielding maniac in a blood soaked trench coat, Nightmare Creatures 2 takes off 100 years after the events of the first game.  The axe-wielding maniac's name is Herbert Wallace and, for the last year or so, he's been experimented on and used as a lab-rat by the demonic scientist, Adam Crowley.  After busting out of the lab, Herbert must make his way to Paris to find Crowley and extract his revenge.  It won't be easy though.  Herbert must fight tons of horrible monsters along the way, all of which crave his blood.  Its up to Herbert to annihilate them and make it to Crowley so he can deliver justice once and for all. 

The real meat of the game is the hacking and slashing.  Sure, there's lots of running around, climbing, swimming, and jumping, but most of the game is spent hacking and slashing at everything.  Doors, barrels, enemies, it doesn't really matter if it's moving or not, it must be hacked, kicked, or slashed.  Now while that's not a lot of depth to begin with, things get worse since the fighting engine is terrible.  Once Herbert encounters an enemy, the game switches to a battle mode where the control layout changes to favor fighting rather than exploring.  It's not executed very well at all though.  Herbert usually targets the first enemy he sees and then locks onto them until they've been defeated.  While he's locked on, he can strafe around them, or use a couple of different attacks to get the job done.  The problem with this is that when you are facing multiple enemies, you can't change which one you want to lock on to.  So while you're swinging at one enemy in front of you, there's another one next to you who clobbers you and there's nothing you can do about it.  And, if that doesn't happen, the second enemy sometimes takes a few of the blows meant for the enemy you're locked onto.  That becomes a problem since as soon as you give the enemy a break in between hits, they'll usually strike instantly, so you are almost guaranteed to get hit when taking on two enemies at once.   

Now, you don't face multiple enemies that often, but even the one-on-one battles are an exercise in frustration.  Every time you face an enemy, you have two ways of fighting them.  You can either assault them with one of two combos until either they're dead or you're dead, or you can hold block and try to get one hit in now and then and hope to kill the enemy within two or three minutes.  And neither of those are foolproof.  Sometimes an enemy will counter every attack you make and you'll find yourself losing half your life in just one battle.  Even worse, you'll face five or six of those in a row with no health replenishments in between and you'll keep dying and have to sit and play through the section until you finally get lucky enough to make it through.  It should also be noted that fighting in close quarters is almost impossible.  Unless you're fighting a standard zombie, the enemy always has the upper hand in a tight hallway or a small room because the enemies are so close to you that neither of you have anywhere to go and they just keep beating on you relentlessly after they knock you down and you can't get up. 

Though most of the game is spent mashing buttons in hopes of clawing your way through one more horde of enemies before dying and having to start over from your last save point again, there is an element of exploration in there.  Finding keys and the occasional pack of dynamite are crucial to advancing through each level.  Although this may sound like a welcome break from all the fighting, chances are you'll find yourself getting bored with it very quickly.  Herbert doesn't control very well during these parts either.  There's no "look" button to help you view your surroundings, so when you need to make a crucial jump now and then, it's easy to accidentally plummet to your death.  Also, there are times when Herbert just doesn't respond or if he does, he doesn't do what you want him to.  For example, say there's a locked door and you hit the button to open it and nothing happens.  You may think it’s not the right door, but it could just be that you're not lined up with it perfectly.  This is just a typical example of what you can expect to see in Nightmare Creatures 2. 

With the exception of the last few levels, most of the game's nine levels look the same: very bland and gritty looking.  In fact, its very evident that this game's roots are from the PlayStation.  It's as if the Dreamcast port was made with a quick buck in mind and no enhancements were made to it at all.  They didn't even take the time to fix the bugs in the game.  Now and then the game will lock up, forcing you to reboot, but the real obvious flaw is in the animation.  One minute, Herbert can be standing in a doorway waiting for an enemy to be lured in, and the next second, the enemy has Herbert by the neck and they're standing ten feet from the doorway Herbert was just in.  The fatalities all have this problem too.  Herbert can be wailing on an enemy in one spot, but the instant the fatality maneuver is executed, Herbert and the enemy are moved or have even switched places.  Now, this might be more acceptable in the PlayStation version, but there's no excuse for it on a system as powerful as the Dreamcast.  

The sound effects are very limited.  Every battle with an enemy sounds the same except that each type of monster has its own distinct growl.  Throw in some ambient background noise and that's all there is to it.  There is music by Rob Zombie during the cut-scenes, which actually works very well.  The cut-scenes are fun to watch and get you all excited about playing the game until you are thrust back into it and you realize how boring it is. 

Plagued with problems, it’s a wonder why Nightmare Creatures 2 was released for sale in its current condition.  It is playable despite all its problems, but only the most forgiving players will put up with it long enough to play all the way through it which, by the way, can be done in a couple of days.  It definitely gets an A for effort in the presentation department, but great cut-scenes and menus aren't the only requirements for a fun game.