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| Zone of the Enders 2 full review by Mischief Zero-Shift 03/20/2006, 1:33pm PST | ||||
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| I've beaten normal mode 2 and a half times. I've unlocked every hidden extra. My other games sit forlorn and forgotten.
I can't stop playing this fucking game. Too many reviews I've read of ZOE2 take it down a notch because there's no customization. This is pure insanity. ZOE2 isn't a mech game sans customization, it's a Superman game with an incredibly kickass giant robot named Jehuty. For some reason they include a short movie that goes over the tres-emo plot of the first ZOE, the sniveling little child protagonist's adventures in a robot that is far too cool for him, and what I assume is the infuriating anticlimax of its cliffhanger ending. I think the reason they included it was to give new players an idea of how much cooler ZOE2 is in every way, as its plot, while the weakest part of the game, is a zillion times better than ZOE1's. This game is about furiously kicking ass and looking good while you do it. Here's a typical moment in this game: Five enemies attack you in formation. You target the leader and fire off a burst of homing lasers, which makes the group turn on their energy shields to block. Taking advantage of the quick distraction, you dash up to the leader, grab him by the throat and bash another enemy to death with him before spinning at incredible speeds and throwing the leader into another enemy and smashing them both. You switch on your shield as one of the remnants comes at you with a vicious flurry of slashes and dash away right before it hits you with a shield-breaker. You zoom back in, slash him with your underhanded electro-blade three times, then finish with an upward slash that shatters him against the ceiling. Finally, you tear a plate out of the wall, charge it with energy, and smash it over the head of the remaining survivor. None of the above moves are attack-button mashing auto combos, and that's just an early fight against the easiest enemies. There's a bit of a learning curve with the game's zero-gravity 360 degree fighting controls, but once you get the hang of them you'll appreciate how slick they work in practice. The camera automatically centers on whatever enemy you've got targeted and attacking switches seamlessly between ranged attacks and melee depending on your distance, meaning you never whiff unless the enemy just dodged. Simultaneous melee attacks clash and block each other, forcing you to constantly change your strategy to get the upper hand. Enemies attack in groups and if they catch you sleeping will fuck you up in short order. As you get into the later levels and higher difficulty settings, combat becomes a test of you using the terrain and every single move in Jehuty's aresnal to inflict the maximum amount of damage to an enemy in as little time as possible without leaving yourself open to the half dozen other giant robots attacking. And best of all, this combat is FAST. Good thing it all looks and sounds gorgeous. The graphics go for a cartoonish anime look and the results are pretty, pretty, pretty. Jehuty looks graceful and badass and every enemy is fluidly animated. No stinking cgi cutscenes here, all the hot robot action is in-engine and looks sweet. Add to that a soundtrack consisting of orchestral-chorus music that somehow gets more and more dramatic as the game goes on, it all makes you grin and say, "Bring it on, Motherfuckers!" Plus the guys who made this game are very aware of what kind of design makes a fun video game: "We should give the previous game's protagonist a cool robot to pilot, what should it be?" "A robot that changes into a jet?" "Good, but not good enough. We're working for Konami, aren't we? Let's have it change into the Vic Viper!" "Cool! What should we do to tone it down and make it more realistically fit in with this game's universe?" "Absolutely nothing." And so at one point you're fighting the Vic Viper, complete with missiles, lasers, ripple beams, shields, and a steadily increasing number of options. The big bad guy's robot is unstoppable at the beginning because it has the power of Zwee fighting. Now normally a video game would have you procuring some sort of device that would cancel out the bad guy's Zwee ability and force him to fight you on your ground. This game? They have you procuring a device at the end that gives you the power of Zwee fighting! Smacking an enemy up and sending them flying away, then Zweeing behind them and crunching them with a finishing move? Hell yes! The level design is also excellent. One level has you speeding after a train and blowing it up, another has you taking on an enemy fleet of battleships with beam-weapons and escort-giant-robots and blowing them up, another... well I guess they all revolve around blowing shit up against gorgeous backdrops. Like the aftergame is the meat of Disgaea for Kthor, the extras you unlock after finishing the game keep me coming back to ZOE2. Do you unlock pretty pictures? Short video clips? Long text descriptions of the game's backstory? Fuck that, you unlock more opportunities to kick ass! I've never touched time attack or survival modes in other games, but I play them relentlessly in ZOE, seeing just how much damage I can cause against endless waves of stronger and smarter enemies in gorgeous and dramatic battles. If breaking the game turns your crank, you can replay the game with later zwee-able versions of Jehuty and beat it in record time. And once you're done with all that, you can try the hard mode where the enemies get real smart all of a sudden. The enemy giant robots have taken on my habit of constantly zipping around like an amphetamene freak (protip: don't hold the dash button, bang it repeatedly to go at top speed,) they'll punish you for trying to grab them when they're not shielding or stunned, and even the goofy little spider tanks you used to send rolling across the room will fuck you up if you're not alert. Negatives? Well about half the boss fights are puzzle fights, meaning they'll kick your ass all over the place until you learn the trick, then they just become tests of your patience. While the camera is flawless in combat, it's pretty flakey when you're not locked on to anything. 2 of the levels suck, with level 2, a hunt to find a whiny fucker hiding in a box, then dragging his ass through some long, sparsely populated corridors to the exit, the most boring, and the mad scientist level, starting with you traversing a mine field with a stupid bitch verbally backseat driving and ending with a fight inside a chamber filled with slow-moving squish pipes that drive the camera batty, the most annoying. You pick up ammo-eating subweapons that mimick your enemies' attacks and all have an obvious function, but aside from gauntlet and homing missile, I never touched them. There is some slowdown, but it only occurs when something huge explodes and during the otherwise kickass level where you lead a suicide attack of technologically inferior LEVs (Squat, small, clumsy, land-based, and obviously based off Armored Core mechs) against a fucking ARMY of flying giant robots. I picked up my copy for $20 brand-spanking new. Remember how Halo made you feel like a total badass based off the dialouge of the soldiers? ZOE2 makes you fell like that based off EVERY THING YOU DO. If any game deserves the over-used description of "fast and furious action" it's this one. |
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