Zone of the Enders (PS2, 2001)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-6.5 Control-7 Challenge-6.5 Story-4
Level Design-6 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6 Originality-5
Overall Score-6
+
Good art direction in-game
RPG elements (basic level up system – health and damage?, mostly non-random and non-set encounters with enemies (they also show up on the mission map except when you’ve engaged with them) which can be escaped from, weapon inventory)
Some interesting missions (avoiding radar detection, bomb defusing)
Some good bosses
Checkpoints before bosses
Fast paced overall
Difficulty options
Context sensitive actions (melee is similar to Shinobi, charge or dash move on R2 depending on if you’re moving or standing still) Block/shield move
Decent arsenal of secondary weapons (some interesting ones like Decoy or Mummy)
Target lock on (as well as target switching), control an enemy mech at one point, missions with multiple steps, some optional missions (saving civilians in-between the other missions – pretty basic and repetitive unfortunately), throw enemies into each other (not that effective later on), fairly detailed ranking system (only shows the overall results at the end of the game though), skippable cutscenes (can cause problems though; see below)
+/-
Save anywhere on the hub map (with some exceptions later on where you’re instead asked if you want to save in-between missions, multiple save slots)
Play as a child soldier in an unlikely recruitment scenario
No ''outside the mech''-missions or segments (Blaster Master, Front Mission: Gun Hazard)
Killing the leader of a group of enemies lowers the level of the rest of the group
There might be a point to keeping your own level low since the enemy levels with you and its AI gets annoying at higher levels
Trying not to get buildings destroyed or civilians killed can get tedious when things get hectic
The game ends kind of abruptly (Normal) without any real resolution to the story
Can’t carry health power ups with you or use them during an enemy encounter (there’s a ‘weapon’ later on (Mummy) that lets you regenerate health during battle though but the ammo is pretty limited (?) and you’ll probably take some damage while using it there)
Some actions taken in cutscenes could’ve been made interactive
No huge bosses
-
Slow camera controls (right stick, used for turning and targeting when you can’t lock onto a target)
Can’t review briefings or other text (information overload at times, easy to accidentally skip an important cutscene by pressing Start since you need to do it to bring up the mission map, voice messages from the AI assistant are cut off if you pause the game)
Close combat is overpowered compared to nearly all ranged attacks in most cases
Mostly redundant secondary weapons
Poor voice acting and translation (grammar errors, nonsensical statements, odd emphasis on some words, unintentional (?) humour)
Poor story overall (some melodramatic scenes, stupid and cheesy scenes between the boy and the AI where the latter turns more and more human (complete with dramatic pauses in emotional scenes)
Some minor interface problems (slow zoom on the map, doesn’t remember the previous zoom level when closing and re-opening the map, slow scrolling through the menus (can’t hold the button to speed it up), can’t reconfigure the controls)
Some tedious parts (unnecessarily slow hub map (need to fly between locations)
Annoying delay after getting a game over (the game even insults you at times)
Delay on boot up (logo screens)
Backtracking and having to guess in which area certain objects (Raptor mech, Decoy ammo) are located - can’t view a visited area’s map without entering it and the pods unlocking the Decoy ammo aren’t shown despite having the stealth detection program installed, pointless extra step where you need to backtrack to the enemy mech that you controlled for a bit to fetch its stealth revealing program, finding and destroying the pods that unlock certain items – they can’t be locked on to but despite that there’s no real challenge in destroying them), uneven difficulty (fairly easy final battle, some easy missions, drawn out valley/river mission though there’s a checkpoint before the boss), somewhat short length given the impression of scope one gets in the beginning (~5h30m), repetitive (few enemy types, several areas look the same, no escort- or fully stealth-themed mission), no secondary melee weapon, weird how you get a game over and it sounds like the boy died if the enemy mech you’ve taken over is destroyed, some pointless voice messages are repeated over and over and can’t be turned off (enemy shot down, building damaged, escape recommendation during boss fights), unavoidable damage from the side or behind (there’s a wasted opportunity of sorts during the octopus mech boss fight where it looks like you’re supposed to use the scenery as cover but the projectiles just move through it), can’t strafe, can’t just hold the R2 button after doing a dash/dash attack towards an enemy to start charging a powered up sword slash (there’s half a second of cooldown after the dash is used so you’ll want to mash the button to attack as quickly as possible before the enemy can escape or attack back), no mission map in some boss areas (so you can’t orientate yourself and avoid moving into the edge of an area (invisible force field walls)), occasional framerate drops when things get hectic (played on PS3), slow and boring tutorial that doesn’t even explain everything properly, so-so cutscene graphics (human character models look like PS1 cutscenes), some trial & error (boss and later enemy patterns, learning which attacks can be blocked and what counts towards the final ranking, some set trap encounters, some of the health dropped by killed enemies (usually it’s shown before battle if they will)), doing the optional SOS missions would’ve been more stimulating if you got to see the results of your effort via a cutscene or voice message (there’s nothing but a rank screen at the end of them)
Notes:
Bug where the saves appear to be damaged, then start working again (played on PS3)
Level Design-6 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6 Originality-5
Overall Score-6
+
Good art direction in-game
RPG elements (basic level up system – health and damage?, mostly non-random and non-set encounters with enemies (they also show up on the mission map except when you’ve engaged with them) which can be escaped from, weapon inventory)
Some interesting missions (avoiding radar detection, bomb defusing)
Some good bosses
Checkpoints before bosses
Fast paced overall
Difficulty options
Context sensitive actions (melee is similar to Shinobi, charge or dash move on R2 depending on if you’re moving or standing still) Block/shield move
Decent arsenal of secondary weapons (some interesting ones like Decoy or Mummy)
Target lock on (as well as target switching), control an enemy mech at one point, missions with multiple steps, some optional missions (saving civilians in-between the other missions – pretty basic and repetitive unfortunately), throw enemies into each other (not that effective later on), fairly detailed ranking system (only shows the overall results at the end of the game though), skippable cutscenes (can cause problems though; see below)
+/-
Save anywhere on the hub map (with some exceptions later on where you’re instead asked if you want to save in-between missions, multiple save slots)
Play as a child soldier in an unlikely recruitment scenario
No ''outside the mech''-missions or segments (Blaster Master, Front Mission: Gun Hazard)
Killing the leader of a group of enemies lowers the level of the rest of the group
There might be a point to keeping your own level low since the enemy levels with you and its AI gets annoying at higher levels
Trying not to get buildings destroyed or civilians killed can get tedious when things get hectic
The game ends kind of abruptly (Normal) without any real resolution to the story
Can’t carry health power ups with you or use them during an enemy encounter (there’s a ‘weapon’ later on (Mummy) that lets you regenerate health during battle though but the ammo is pretty limited (?) and you’ll probably take some damage while using it there)
Some actions taken in cutscenes could’ve been made interactive
No huge bosses
-
Slow camera controls (right stick, used for turning and targeting when you can’t lock onto a target)
Can’t review briefings or other text (information overload at times, easy to accidentally skip an important cutscene by pressing Start since you need to do it to bring up the mission map, voice messages from the AI assistant are cut off if you pause the game)
Close combat is overpowered compared to nearly all ranged attacks in most cases
Mostly redundant secondary weapons
Poor voice acting and translation (grammar errors, nonsensical statements, odd emphasis on some words, unintentional (?) humour)
Poor story overall (some melodramatic scenes, stupid and cheesy scenes between the boy and the AI where the latter turns more and more human (complete with dramatic pauses in emotional scenes)
Some minor interface problems (slow zoom on the map, doesn’t remember the previous zoom level when closing and re-opening the map, slow scrolling through the menus (can’t hold the button to speed it up), can’t reconfigure the controls)
Some tedious parts (unnecessarily slow hub map (need to fly between locations)
Annoying delay after getting a game over (the game even insults you at times)
Delay on boot up (logo screens)
Backtracking and having to guess in which area certain objects (Raptor mech, Decoy ammo) are located - can’t view a visited area’s map without entering it and the pods unlocking the Decoy ammo aren’t shown despite having the stealth detection program installed, pointless extra step where you need to backtrack to the enemy mech that you controlled for a bit to fetch its stealth revealing program, finding and destroying the pods that unlock certain items – they can’t be locked on to but despite that there’s no real challenge in destroying them), uneven difficulty (fairly easy final battle, some easy missions, drawn out valley/river mission though there’s a checkpoint before the boss), somewhat short length given the impression of scope one gets in the beginning (~5h30m), repetitive (few enemy types, several areas look the same, no escort- or fully stealth-themed mission), no secondary melee weapon, weird how you get a game over and it sounds like the boy died if the enemy mech you’ve taken over is destroyed, some pointless voice messages are repeated over and over and can’t be turned off (enemy shot down, building damaged, escape recommendation during boss fights), unavoidable damage from the side or behind (there’s a wasted opportunity of sorts during the octopus mech boss fight where it looks like you’re supposed to use the scenery as cover but the projectiles just move through it), can’t strafe, can’t just hold the R2 button after doing a dash/dash attack towards an enemy to start charging a powered up sword slash (there’s half a second of cooldown after the dash is used so you’ll want to mash the button to attack as quickly as possible before the enemy can escape or attack back), no mission map in some boss areas (so you can’t orientate yourself and avoid moving into the edge of an area (invisible force field walls)), occasional framerate drops when things get hectic (played on PS3), slow and boring tutorial that doesn’t even explain everything properly, so-so cutscene graphics (human character models look like PS1 cutscenes), some trial & error (boss and later enemy patterns, learning which attacks can be blocked and what counts towards the final ranking, some set trap encounters, some of the health dropped by killed enemies (usually it’s shown before battle if they will)), doing the optional SOS missions would’ve been more stimulating if you got to see the results of your effort via a cutscene or voice message (there’s nothing but a rank screen at the end of them)
Notes:
Bug where the saves appear to be damaged, then start working again (played on PS3)