Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 Review - PlayDevil.com v2.0

It’s hard to believe that Koei’s Dynasty Warriors franchise is now 12 years old and there is no doubting it’s popularity with almost ten million units sold since it’s conception in 1997. Admittedly it has always been far more popular in the Far East thanks to it’s feudal samurai characters and Japanese history.

In a bold move the developers have recently taken the series in a different direction with the 'Dynasty Warriors: Gundam' series based on the Japanese anime also entitled Gundam. For those whom are unfamiliar with these cartoons they started way back in 1979 as a TV series called Mobile Suit Gundam which soon gained such popularity that the name became a franchise and branched out into movies, novels, toys and video games.

Taking this into account surely the Gundam name would perfectly translate into a highly playable and enjoyable next gen video game…or would it?

As stated earlier in the review the game is set either with the player flying through space or battling on the ground on a variety of different planets. The main objective appears to be as simple as utilising the in game maps to gain control of a variety of different zones in each level and this is done either by destroying the huge amount of enemies, boss characters or by saving fellow heroes.

The most impressive thing with any Dynasty Warriors game is the staggering amount of enemies which are on screen at any one time and I am not joking when I say that there can be literally hundreds to battle during each mission. Gundam 2 is no different and ensures that the game will require full concentration of the player in fact such was the amount of enemy characters that by the end of mission one I had achieved well over five hundred kills which is certainly impressive. It is worth saying however that whilst there are a staggering amount of enemy characters they are almost all identical with pretty poor artificial intelligence which does take away a massive amount of enjoyment from the game.

Sadly that is about as impressive as it gets really as the action is way too repetitive with almost constant bashing of the x button needed to progress. Admittedly the characters do have additional weapons but it is safe to say that these are not essential and seem to be included just to give the game that slight amount of variety.

Throughout the game characters can be levelled up the more you use each one and whilst this does not give you any further special abilities it does make the missions easier and the boss characters much simpler to defeat which is very welcome and does take away a little of the tediousness from the gameplay experience.

A further criticism is that at times the game does suffer from the occasional graphical glitch and instances of slowdown which really should not be happening on a next gen console. Perhaps in future releases the developers should concentrate on eliminating this and perhaps the way to go about this would be to take away some of the massive amount of enemies on screen at any particular time. I feel that by doing this it would not take away too much from the gameplay and give the game a more polished feel.

The one thing which has always struck me as being pretty good with the previous Dynasty Warriors and the spin off Warriors Orochi games is the settings of each game which certainly gives a good impression of what historical Japan was actually like with nice scenery, temples, castles and other similar buildings scattered around the various landscapes which have always been easy on the eye.

In Gundam 2 this where the first major direction change is instantly noticeable as the game is understandably set either flying through space or on a variety of planets. At this point I have to say that I was slightly unimpressed by the baron landscapes with are very minimal in content to say the least and this was instantly obvious from a very early point in the game. However I was still optimistic about the game due to the promise of mech robots which have almost always come across well in video games.

The most noticeable thing regarding graphics in Gundam 2 is the lack of variety amongst the main characters and the endless wave of repetitive enemies. Whilst there is nothing particularly wrong with the character design I feel that there has been some laziness in the overall presentation and this leads to lengthy bouts of boredom after a mere one or two missions and the player will soon get a major sense of déjà vu due to the lack of any particular difference in the layout of each level and enemies.

Admittedly there are a few boss characters scattered around each level which do bear an uncanny resemblance to transformers but again offer nothing that particularly impresses regarding how they are presented.

Overall the graphics in Gundam 2 have hugely disappointed and really have not progressed too much since the games which were released on last gen consoles which is a major let down if I am honest.

Game modes:

The game is split into a variety of game modes which consists of an ‘Official Mode’ which sees you controlling one of four characters in a quest to complete one of the official stories from the Gundam anime series. This is a nice touch, however for those unfamiliar with the series this will seem a little lost and despite adding variety may seem to be a tad confusing.

Next up we have ‘Mission Mode’ which is almost identical in it’s presentation except this one is more extensive in terms of the new and original storylines which is the mode I would most recommend to newcomers to the series.

In both these modes they are backed by some nicely presented anime cut scenes which show the characters interacting well and certainly give a greater insight to the stories. The only negative with this is that during each mission the stories continue in the form of spoken word with on screen subtitles. Whilst this helps to maintain interest, the subtitles are strangely placed on screen and often get in the way of the action taking place.

Multiplayer modes supports up to two players which is a tad disappointing however the saving grace is the three different game modes including ‘War Mode’ which puts the players against each other in one mission to compete set objectives. Next is ‘Sudden Death’ which is a simple death match which you will find in most games and finally ‘Hunting’ which is more a game of cat and mouse which sees one player hunting the other and players scoring points either by the amount of kills of length of time they can evade being shot.

Undoubtedly the most enjoyable of these modes is ‘War’ which does add more variety to the game although all modes are welcome and add longevity to the game.

The only downside to the multiplayer experience is that official of mission modes cannot be played co-operatively over Xbox Live and can only be played locally. This is a shame really as I am sure that these modes would be undoubtedly more enjoyable when played with others.

As you have probably gathered so far I have not come across as being a massive fan of what Gundam 2 offers in terms of graphics and gameplay however I cannot praise the downloadable content highly enough.

As this review is being written additional missions have become available to download via the Xbox marketplace and unlike many other games the additional missions are free. This is immensely refreshing to see as so often many games have further content available as micro transactions which soon amounts to a high cost in order to have the complete game at your disposal.

I have to say that whilst the game may not appeal to all players, one cannot fail to be impressed by this aspect and I sincerely hope that other developers follow suit and that Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 sets a precedent for things to come.

"Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2" is certainly a game that will appeal to a more niche market who are familiar with the Gundam anime cartoons. Other casual players may find the game to offer a very shallow and repetitive experience which soon becomes a tedious affair despite the pretty enjoyable multi-player modes.

The saving grace undoubtedly is the impressive downloadable content however in my opinion most players probably will be fed up of the actual missions in the game long before they have completed them and therefore will not wish to download these.

It is an interesting move to try and expand the Dynasty Warriors franchise in a different direction however I feel that the gameplay is very similar and the games are not making enough significant strides forward to consider this a worthy purchase.

Overall there are far better games currently available and whilst Gundam 2 has it’s enjoyable moments these are just too few and far between.