My Favorite Gaming Hidden Gems, Part Nine: Disaster Report (2003, PlayStation 2)

I've been playing and collecting video games since the early 1980's, and while there's something to be said for enjoying the greats of the gaming world, there's no better feeling for me than picking out something I'd never heard of, throwing it into my system, and being unable to tear myself away from it because it was just too damn fun. With that in mind, I thought I'd start up a series about my own personal favorite hidden gems of the gaming world to let people know about the unsung, the overlooked, the ignored, and the downright weird niche titles that had no chance of achieving the heights of a Mario, Sonic, or Zelda.

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When it comes to hidden gems of gaming here in North America, the first name anyone should look for is 'Agetec'. Spun off from parent company ASCII Corporation in 1998, Agetec specialized in localizing and publishing games from the Japanese market for an English-speaking audience across a variety of systems from the original PlayStation through the Nintendo 3DS. They introduced several franchises that have acquired a cult following over the years, most notably From Software's King's Field which morphed into the hit Demon/Dark Souls series, and the mech-themed Armored Core. While it's true that not everything Agetec ported turned out to be amazing (Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within, I'm looking at you here), Agetec's roster more than speaks for itself. They're purveyors of the off-beat, the weird, the bargain-basement, and the unexplained, and that describes Disaster Report perfectly.

A survival horror title without the horror, Disaster Report focuses on Stiver Island, the first man-crafted island in the world, where reporter Keith Helm has just touched down. While he's ready to begin his first day of work, Mother Nature has other ideas. An apocalyptic-level earthquake rocks Stiver, cutting power, splitting roads, toppling buildings, and damaging the island's underlying infrastructure--slowly but surely, the rising seas will claim Stiver Island sooner rather than later. The only question is whether or not Keith will escape or become fish food.

Disaster Report is a flawed masterpiece, an adventure game with plenty of puzzle solving and resource management woven in to the story which sees Keith rescuing a variety of people and slowly uncovering a plot which is utterly terrifying in its implications, but with no way to communicate with the outside world, the only way the truth will out is if Keith makes it off the island with his discoveries and friends intact. It's a story that can change with each play-through, as the choices Keith makes, the places he explores, the survivors he allies himself with, and those he abandons, all open one of six possible endings. You're also graded like other survival games on how long it took you to complete it, how many times you saved, and other bits of play, and chances are you won't earn high marks your first time through.

This is one of those games where the sheer inventiveness of the idea, for me, was unique enough to overlook its flaws. The graphics are pedestrian, the soundtrack almost non-existent, and the voice acting purely functional. Despite all this, and with no zombies, dinosaurs, or Juggalos chasing you through the abandoned streets, Disaster Report actually manages to be stressful. Your backpack doesn't have an infinite amount of space, and in a game where almost anything you can pick up could be useful and fresh water isn't always available, decisions over what to take and what to leave can be agonizing. You'll also deal with periodic aftershocks, falling debris, fires, wrecked vehicles, fallen power cables, flooding structures, and other hazards. The game also loves to put you in awful positions where you have to cross narrow ledges while flaming buses hurl themselves past you with explosive results. You will be crushed by more buildings in Disaster Report than you can count, but finding a larger backpack will make you so happy you'll press on, heedless of the number of times you've had to continue in the past, because hoarding all of the water is awesome!

So no, Disaster Report is not perfect, but hot damn is it a good time with literally nothing else to compare it to except its own sequels. The English-speaking market got one, Raw Danger!, four years later. A third came out in Japan on the PSP in 2009, and a fourth was slated for release on the PS3 in 2011 but was cancelled in the aftermath of the massive Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan earlier in the year; management at Irem felt it would be insensitive to release a game about surviving a fictional earthquake so shortly after sixteen thousand people failed to survive a real one. Totally understandable, but what we saw of the game from the trailer looked incredible, and Granzella (who now owns the franchise) is apparently considering a remastered and updated release on the PS4 and I shit you not, that alone would get me to plunk down for the system.

If you're convinced you'd like to take on the challenge of Stiver Island yourself, you can acquire a copy for around $25 on the second-hand market. If that's too much but you still like the idea of a game where you survive by your reflexes and wits instead of how fast you can pull the trigger, Raw Danger! can be had for under $10, and I highly recommend them both.

If you aren't convinced just yet, and want a better idea of the play mechanics or just want to spoil some of the experience, you can also watch YouTuber otakuman23 zip through one of the game's storylines in five hours here:

That's all for this entry. Upvotes and Resteems are always welcome but never required, and if you have your own memories of this series or ideas for future hidden gem selections, by all means, leave a comment. Thanks for reading, and I'll catch up with you again soon for more of my favorite hidden gems of gaming!

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If you feel your gaming life is a never-ending series of disasters perpetuated upon you by the likes of EA and Activision, then it's a safe bet you could use more Hidden Gems in your life. If you've missed the previous entries in my series because you were trying to outrun a tsunami, take a breather and catch up at your next save point:

• Part One: Snoopy and the Red Baron
• Part Two: Dark Summit
• Part Three: Metal Marines
• Part Four: Theresia
• Part Five: Obscure
• Part Six: Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder
• Part Seven: Everblue 2
• Part Eight: Star Trek - Invasion

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