Released: 20010327 Publisher: Konami Developer: Konami Genre: Action

Review by: mountpanic

Zone of the Enders, aka ZOE, is like the pu-pu platter at a cheap Chinese restaurant. You get to sample a couple tasty appetizers, but you're going home hungry.



Before we get to ZOE, let's talk about what many gamers are going to buy the package for; the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo. MGS was, of course, one of the all-time great PSX games, and from the looks of things, MGS2 will be an even greater PS2 game. The graphics are as good or better than even the best PS2 releases so far. Everything is crisp and clean. It makes far better graphical use of the PS2 than MGS did with the PSX. It looks good, sounds good, and even feels good, making excellent use of the Dual Shock 2's vibration capabilities. Control, while much like the previous MGS, is slightly updated and improved, which makes for some welcome differences. Top to bottom, a great demo, but in the end, it's still just a demo, and you're going to be left wanting more.



While ZOE has been somewhat overshadowed by the MGS2 demo (I say this realizing that I'm not helping to change that by reviewing the MGS2 part of the package first), it is not without its own merits.



Zone of the Enders is the story of Leo, a boy living in a space station above Jupiter who is enlisted in an emergency to pilot the kind of robotic power suit that is so popular in Japanese comics and animation. Of all the power suit games that I have ever seen, ZOE delivers the most satisfying experience.



First off, it just LOOKS right. Leo's suit, named Jehuty, fights, flies and maneuvers with strength and grace. The settings are well-detailed, perfectly scaled environments, where Jehuty towers above houses, trucks and streetlights. Collateral damage from fights blasts holes in roofs, leaving exposed beams while flames pour out. Certain bosses are massive, not only dwarfing Jehuty, but office buildings as well.



The only visual drawback (and this might really be more of a game design thing) is the lack of variety of enemies. Leo and Jehuty must slog through fight after fight with the same 2 or 3 enemy robot types. They gain levels in strength and intelligence, but remain the SAME robots, differentiated only by markers to let you know their levels. One (and by "one" I mean "I") suspects that the number of enemy robot designs was reduced as a time saver in order to get the game shipped early in 2001 so it wouldn't have to compete with MGS2 later in the year. One also suspects that ZOE2 will have more robot types in it.



Now the limited variety of basic enemies might have been forgivable if there had been a variety of different and interesting bosses, but there wasn't, so it isn't. Bosses are few and far between, until close to the end, and of all the bosses, a full HALF of them are the same one, returning three times to talk more game than she can play. The final boss battle isn't really a battle even, but a challenge (and not much of one either) to stay alive long enough to escape an unbeatable foe.



These repetitive enemies and scarce boss battles are all wrapped around a mediocre, but solid as games go, morality tale that shares the same fascination with robots and personal identity that much Japanese animation shares. The voice acting is passable, though often overly melodramatic. Many of the actors seem uncertain what word to emphasize in a given sentence, and in one or two cases, even how to pronounce certain words. Your onboard computer can be annoying and redundant, although I found I was a lot less bothered by this than some people until later in the game.



Where ZOE really shines is in the control. Battles take place in a full 3 dimensions, as robots rotate and dodge around each other high above city streets. Your suit is responsive and handles smoothly. Fighting is handled with lock-on targeting, allowing your moves to be made relative to your enemy's position. You'll earn a wide variety of weapons, but only a few of them will seem necessary in the end. Powerful energy blasts often end up being too time consuming, so the majority of combat tends to center on dash attacks.



Game length is a little on the light side, even with all the hunting and collecting I ended up doing in the middle. The mechanics and visuals are so sweet, I kept wanting more, which ZOE just never really delivered in full. I'm pretty likely to buy a sequel though, just to see this mastery at work in a more evolved product.



When all is said and done, Zone of the Enders is definitely worth checking out, but you may want to rent it or play it at a friend's house to see if it's a purchase for you. The addition of the MGS2 demo makes the complete package just enough to feel like you've been served something tasty, but you're gonna want dessert.

- We have 1 review for Zone of the Enders (1 Staff, 0 Member)