Original Release: Illusion Soft, 2001, PC
The second entry of Illusion’s 3D stalking simulator tunes up the graphics, but the gameplay is a janky mess
Biko 2 (PC, Illusion, 2001)
Where to Buy: eBay
Review by: Master-B
The Biko series is something of a spiritual successor to 177, one of Japan’s first eroges and one that immediately got the industry in hot water with the government. Due to it centering on chasing ladies through the park and then getting very Unconsensual with them when you catch up.
Biko is rooted in the late 90s-early 2000s so it switches the formula up somewhat. First of all it’s in 3D, and now the focus is on stealthy creeping rather than running girls down like a greyhound. And I’m not sure if the original Biko did this (can’t find a working copy, didn’t try very hard admittedly) but the “reversible face” subtitle seems to denote that one is free to take two different paths in their stalking exploits: one that leads to happy dating and enjoyment of the commited relationship bed, and another that let’s just say is more of a direct homage to 177. To be fair to the game it does at least send mixed messages on encouraging this kind of activity though, the “bad ends” are packed with graphic sex scenes but also wind up with our mop-headed weirdo either dead or in jail for his sins.
You pick from one of five girls to make miserable in this way, and each of these chapters opens up with a lengthy “story segment” in which you’re occasionally presented with “choose your own adventure” choices. This segment is slow but important, as the endings to each chapter are only unlocked by finding the right items or info about the girl by making the right choices at these junctures. If you make it to the end of the stalking sequences without the right items, the girl just wanders off and all your work is wasted. Naturally, if you can’t read Japanese this is going to be pure guesswork … there’s a FAQ online in English but it’s only semi-reliable from my experience.
Make it through the story segment (choices do occasionally prematurely end the game) and you’re down to the stalking action, which I’d describe as “Metal Gear Solid, but with Resident Evil controls for some reason … also you have to use the mouse.” Not that it’s anywhere near as good as those games, in fact in all but the graphics it’s really a clunky amateurish POS.
Wrestling with walking the dude around actually isn’t nearly as bad as the game’s unspoken rules of staying near the girls, however. The system literally makes no sense whatsoever. You have a “lose” meter that decreases when you’re too far away, but you have to be like practically on top of them to stop it from depleting at a very rapid rate. If you try to play the game sensibly, using cover while keeping them within eyesight from a distance, you’ll quickly lose. What you have to actually do most of the time is stand right behind them awkwardly as much as possible, moving only when (discovered via pure trial and error) they are scripted to turn or move. The only thing that keeps the game manageable is that it’s divided into small self-contained segments of one screen that you can repeat endlessly (and get a “mercy skip” if you fail like 10 times in a row), and that the girl walks the exact same path every time. But even with that it gets incredibly finicky, nonsensical and annoying at times.
I guess the graphics are the high point, with OK character models for the time it came out … the animation in-game is not great, though your character’s T-1000 power walk as he follows the girls is amusing. Most of the budget and effort was saved for the “adult content,” and there is a slew. Each “good” and “bad” branch offers its own unique set of stuff, but each starts out with a bunch of still shots, then a semi-interactive sequence where dude goes through like seven or eight sex positions, then a couple of the same sort of short CG loops that Battle Raper used. They certainly put effort into the animation, but the game’s art style is in an odd place between early 3D realism and anime and the girls just kinda end up looking like dolls. I thought the Battle Raper video clips also looked better (though it also came out over a year later).
So there is a pretty hefty amount of porn content, but none of it is really all that erotic, and the gameplay is something to be grudgingly put up with rather than enjoyed. It’s a shame as there’s a lot of fun stuff you could do with this premise, like a Tenchu or MGS send-up, but Illusion either didn’t have any better ideas or didn’t have the budget for anything more than threadbare clumsy gameplay. There was a Biko 3 that might have done better, but based on everything I saw here I’d skip over both this and its prequel.
Links
- The game can be run on modern Windows, but if you use ISO files you need to mount the first CD and install normally, then switch the “Biko2.exe” it creates (in the ILLUSION directory) to Win 98/ME compatibility, then mount Disc 2 to play the game. No English translation but it has minimal menu interaction you can figure out as you go.
Videos