Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future
| Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future | |
|---|---|
European Dreamcast cover art
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| Developer(s) | Appaloosa Interactive |
| Publisher(s) |
Sega (Dreamcast) Acclaim (PS2 NTSC) Sony (PS2 PAL) |
| Designer(s) | Gergely Csaszar Maurice Molyneaux Keith Higashihara Kadocsa Tassonyi Jozsef Szentesi Csaba Soltesz |
| Composer(s) |
Tim Follin (in-game music) Attila Heger (Cinematic Music) |
| Series | Ecco the Dolphin |
| Engine | Game World Builder |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast PlayStation 2 |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Review scores | ||
|---|---|---|
| Publication | Score | |
| Dreamcast | PS2 | |
| CVG | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Edge | 7/10 | N/A |
| EGM | 8.17/10 | 7.5/10 |
| GameFan | 98% | N/A |
| Game Informer | N/A | 5.5/10 |
| GamePro |  |
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| Game Revolution | B+ | N/A |
| GameSpot | 8.2/10 | 7.4/10 |
| GameSpy | 8/10 | N/A |
| IGN | 7.6/10 | 7.8/10 |
| OPM (US) | N/A |  |
| Maxim | 6/10 | N/A |
| Aggregate scores | ||
| GameRankings | 81.04% | 68.50% |
| Metacritic | 84/100 | 71/100 |
Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future is the fourth title in the Ecco the Dolphin series. It was released in 2000 for the Dreamcast. Defender of the Future is an entirely new game universe with a story that has no ties to the original Mega Drive/Genesis titles, hence a reboot. Despite being developed by Appaloosa Interactive (the company formerly known as Novotrade International), the team working on Defender of the Future was not the same team that worked on the Ecco games. After the Dreamcast was discontinued in the USA, the game was re-released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2.
The gameplay is fairly similar to the old games, except in three dimensions. Ecco's sonar was kept as a means of interaction with other cetaceans (no longer called Singers in the game) and certain environmental objects, and a sonar map could be brought up but were often regarded as inferior to the old 2-D version. The same style of movement is kept with slight alterations for the 3-D environment. The control stick now only changed the direction Ecco is facing; pressing left and right changed the direction he faced horizontally, and pressing up and down changed the vertical direction. To actually move forward, the player has to tap a button to gain speed and hold the same button down to maintain it. Out of the water, Ecco can perform the purely aesthetic flips in the air just like the original games. Charging foes is kept as Ecco's standard attack, though the designers added a homing feature. The health and air meters were also kept, though the health meter can be increased by collecting power-ups called Vitalits, and the meters have a slightly different look compared to the Mega Drive games.
Some new moves are introduced in Defender of the Future. One is a quick 180° turn, useful for battles. Another is a means of stopping quickly; when Ecco has already stopped, the same buttons can make him swim backwards. A third new move is the tailwalk; Ecco can raise his upper body out of the water, able to look at things above the surface; this had limited use in gameplay but is a good way to see small graphical details.
The graphics of the game are generally regarded as one of the most realistic ever seen in a Dreamcast game. Many reviewers have commented that Ecco looks like a real dolphin. There were still a few criticisms however. One of the most major complaints against the graphics is the high level of fog; other reviewers have pointed out that visibility in the ocean is often much reduced from what it is above the surface. There were also some pop-up problems with distant objects. This was apparently caused by the engine not being that efficient overall, and not being able to render as much on-screen as was desirable without the generation of too much slowdown. The fog was used to obscure the distance and decrease the number of polygons that had to be drawn. The few cut-scenes uses the in-game graphical engine, and featured voice-over narration by Tom Baker.
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