Rayman 2: The Great Escape (Sega Dreamcast, 2000)

Rayman 2: The Great Escape is likely the best single player 3D platforming game ever released for play on the Sega Dreamcast. The things Ubi Soft got right are "balance", "environment", "ambiance", "gameplay" and "desire". This pretty much covers everything from graphics to level design to sound. Ubi mastered EVERYTHING with this game. Also released for the PC and N64 and slightly modified for the PS2 release as Rayman 2: Revolution. Of all releases, the Dreamcast is the stand out version.

THE VERY BASIC STORY AND GAMEPLAY
You are Rayman. You need to rid The Great Forest, and the planet, of the Robo-Pirates. You release prisoners, collect "lums", defeat robo-pirates, and interact with a variety of characters and tools. Besides jumping and walking you have a helicopter move and you will ride various items or creatures along your puzzle solving platforming adventure.

THE GAME EXPERIENCE
The environments are vivid and colorful, even enchanting. Every new level is lushly detailed both graphically and with background sound. Add the incredible sounds, (music, speech, background noise and effects), and this game is downright soothing and transcends the player right into the game.

The voice acting is a clever concept. The characters speak in "Raymanian" which sounds like gibberish but in a non-childish and effective manner that does not sound too cute or forced but comes off as sounding natural. English captions give us the dialogue.

I found myself CARING for Rayman and his friends. How did the game do that? It's not just the incredible environments and amazing sound but the great story and characters and intuitive navigation that allows you to interact with the characters so effortlessly that really brings this art - I mean game - to life!

At the end of each level you find out how you did. Maybe you found 48 of 50 lums and freed 1 of 2 prisoners. It was a pleasure to go back, mid-game - to earlier levels to try and finish those level 100%, which I failed to do but loved it anyway. The game is so enchanting that I come back to this game all the time.

REPLAY VALUE
Once you beat/finish the game there is no reason to come back except for two things:
One - to improve your scores per level
Two - for the sheer delight of playing this enchanting perfectly balanced work of art.

THE BOTTOM LINE
No matter what system you have, if there is a version of this game for it, then get it! The Dreamcast version seems to be the best.

DETAILS
Rayman 2: The Great Escape for the Sega Dreamcast, released February 29, 2000 (US).
Created by Michel Ancel (Rayman series and Beyond Good & Evil)
Produced, developed and published by Ubi (Ubi Production, Ubi Studios, Ubi Soft - respectively).
One player game but special Dreamcast bonus area can play up to 4-players.
VMU compatible (4 blocks)
Standard controller
Jump Pack compatible
VGA cable okay
Modular cable okay
Rated "E" for Everyone for animated violence

From back of case:
"Fly rockets, ride whirlwinds and surf lava flows at a blazing 60 frames per second. Master Rayman's amazing moves and battle vicious enemies accross 54 massive levels in 21 lush worlds to save the universe from destruction."

Dreamcast exclusive features*:
*All new bonus levels
*Internet downloads
*multi-player mini game

Was this review helpful at all?

I like the funny characters. The game has a good story line. It reminds me of the "spyro the dragon" games. I played this for nintendo 64 and sega dreamcast, The dreamcast version is far better.

This is definitely one of the better games on the dreamcast. It is has a similar feel to Banjo-Kazooie/mario. One cool feature that I liked is the wide-screen option, which is included in only a few select dreamcast games. Looks great when hooked up on a VGA cable.

Well worth the investment.

I love the Rayman series games and Rayman 2 is great. Rayman 2: The Great Escape is a fun game and worth buying.

Just got a new system and this is the first game I've played on it. I love this game. It is even great for kids. Funny characters!!