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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
High speed robot Manga action!, 20 Jan 2004
Zone Of The Enders was one of the first games ever to come out on the PS2. It needed it too, the PS2 had been hyped as a super machine but was launched with a series of substandard games, Zone Of The Enders finally gave you the opportunity to feel like you were in control of a real next gen game. There were downsides though, the entire game felt half finished, just as it got going, the game ended! On a nasty anticlimax against the ultimate Inubis, you get dreadfully outgunned but 'rescued' and the game finishes. When reviewed in magazines, the reviewers glossed over this fact and gave it a nice 90% score (incredibly) due to it containing a Metal Gear Solid 2 demo! So a few years down the line and we're delivered this, Konami's big hitter early 04. And tell you what, its cracking. EVERYTHING you wished that ZOE1 was, this is. Amazing graphics, high speed battles with hundreds of robots swarming around you like flies as you shoot, slash, grab scenery and smash it into them. Fantastic. The depth of graphics is so much better than the original, gorgeous snow effects, wonderful particle animation. Imagine fighting against and orbital frame in an arena made of ice, and as you two battle away the ice collapses and breaks around you as you fire lazers, missiles, dance around each other fencing. Its jaw dropping stuff. The plot has been ramped up a bit, cut scenes are done using the gorgeous in game engine or via lovely Manga sequences (which came about from the Anime spin off series which you can find on DVD here). In certain sequences of the original ZOE, you spent ages staring out of Jehuty's cockpit with ADA yattering away to you. This time you get nice little Manga projections (similar to Metal Gear's codec sequences) where characters interact and develope the story. Coming to the story, its light years ahead of the original, now having an entire Manga series to mine for ideas, the entire concept seems fuller, there are more characters, more drama, its all oozes the same class of story telling which Metal Gear has. The story is nicely complex, flinging the main character Dingo into the middle of a huge scale struggle for power between Earth forces and the remote outposts of the Mars resistance outfit BAHRAM. The fight has been swinging towards BAHRAM forces thanks to the developement of Orbital Frames, huge flying battle robots, which outgun the Earth forces somewhat. The gameplay can look a little daunting from glancing over the manual, but the game provides VR training which walks you through Jehuty's capabilites. Once you get into the game, it only takes a little time to get the hang of things. All in all, I think this is a fantastic improvement over the original, its exciting and adrenaline pumping. Concerns over gameplay length? Well Metal Gear 2 was over in about 8 hours, but it was such a rewarding game to play, same for this. Plus its always fun to replay the game, relive the set pieces and stories again. You also get a VS mode to battle 1 on 1 against the computer or a friend, and an Extra Missions set to find during gameplay, which gives you more oomph for your money. DO check this out!
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