Parasite Eve is a single-player, horror-themed action/adventure game developed and published by Square in 1998. The game is actually the sequel to the novel Parasite Eve, written by Hideaki Sena.

In the game you play A New York City police officer – Aya Brea – who must stop Eve, a woman who wants to destroy the human race through spontaneous combustion. The story takes place over six days and throughout many different locations in New York.

Combat is realtime, but is pause-able, with a thing called the ATB (Active Time Bar) that sets the time until the player must move. Gameplay is action-oriented, but with RPG-style elements (like levelling). When not in combat you can tweak weapons and armour with tools that are limited in number. You can also use BP (Bonus Points) to raise attributes for the ATB (giving you more time to ponder your moves in combat), item capacity (giving you a bigger inventory), or attributes of a weapon or some armour.

Parasite Eve is an excellent game overall. All the 3D models and cut scenes and dialogue and menus are top notch. The low res backdrops are a little fuzzy in places, and the FMV cutscenes are low res too, but they don’t detract from the game too much. The game even has a ‘New Game Plus’ mode (called “EX Game”) for those who have completed it but want more. This NG+ mode features more powerful weapons and enemies, and also an extra location – The Chrysler Building – with 77 floors of mostly randomised content and a (final, true) boss fight at the end.

More: Parasite Eve on Wikipedia