Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 Review
- Posted April 30th, 2009 at 15:56 EDT by Steven Williamson
- 22 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 4.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 5.8
Summary
A game that will appeal to fans of the Gundam anime series and Dynasty Warriors franchise only. If you haven't played DW before, then steer well clear of this.
We like
- The wide range of mech suits, weapons and special moves
- Two player co-op mode - share the pain with a friend
We dislike
- Aching thumbs from too much button-mashing
- Some of the worst A.I. we've ever encountered
- The horrible looking environments
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
Japanese developer Omega Force must be doing something right. It has been dining out on the same hack ‘n slash formula since 1997, selling over 10 million copies of its 20-plus Dynasty Warriors games to date. This year, predictably, the franchise is back with the sequel to 2007’s Dynasty Warriors Gundam, the developer’s first attempt to re-invent the franchise by ditching its Chinese/Japanese historical roots for outer-space and swapping Emperors and swords for giant robots and an arsenal of high-tech weaponry.
With the setting and characters of Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 sourced from the Mobile Suit Gundam anime series there’s a predictable Earth-saving scenario to get stuck into. However, no amount of plasma swords, missiles, Gatling guns or jet-packs can make up for the fact that it’s still the same game from all those years ago. Beneath its new exterior Gundam 2 is indistinguishable from its predecessors. The same ideas have been regurgitated and even the same problems that have plagued the series throughout its illustrious history turn up once again to irritate us.
In Gundam 2 the main objective is to control zones on the map, dashing back and forth between areas to help out your allies while fighting waves of enemies in the process. Inevitably you'll end up facing the enemy commander, who in this case comes in the form of a gigantic robot that puts up much more of a challenge, but is equally as dull to fight as his minions; it’s mind-numbing stuff, it really is. The Dynasty Warriors series has always been an acquired taste, so unless you get a kick from slashing and shooting your way across some incredibly barren environments and knocking down dozens of brainless bots on your way to tackle the slightly more entertaining, but nonetheless extremely frustrating Mech commanders, then you might as well not read on any further.
The big problem we have, and this goes for every Dynasty Warriors game we’ve ever played, is that enemy A.I. is just so unresponsive that it all feels so meaningless and monotonous. You don’t ever really have to take advantage of what, admittedly, is a decent arsenal of weapons and some visually impressive moves. Instead you can quite simply bash the same two face buttons throughout the game and sit back and watch enemy bots fall over like dominoes. Seriously, they just stand around like friends at a funeral! Despite this serious flaw though, the gameplay can still be strangely addictive and the repetitive button mashing almost has a hypnotic effect. So much so that we actually fought through one long-winded battle for almost an hour, even though we hate the game. Perhaps this is why the Dynasty Warriors series has become so popular? We can't think of any other reason.
The increase to the roster now gives players access to no less than 62 different mech suits so there’s some entertainment to be had of testing out the range of weaponry and special skills on offer. There’s also plenty to do, ton of missions, mech customization and upgrades, plus the chance to play from the perspective of different characters. The two offline game modes offer identical hack ‘n slash/ beat ‘em up gameplay, but there’s the welcome addition of a two player co-op mode and an online component that boasts three game modes, including the obligatory Deathmatch. There’s enough here to keep fans interested for some time, even if the gameplay does inevitably involve hacking through legions of broken bots.
New to the series is the ability to execute aerial maneuvers, which does break up the monotony of constantly fighting on the 2D plane. There’s also some Quick-Time Events that appear during boss battles and require you to press a series of face buttons to correspond with those that flash up on-screen. We’re guessing it was probably added to give combat a new and exciting twist, but instead has the opposite effect, with the QTEs interrupting the flow of the game and its fast pace, which is arguably one of the reasons why people find the franchise so addictive in the first place. If anything, you could say that this addition takes the series a step backwards rather than improving on what it already had. If the developer really wanted to improve things, it should have sorted out the basics rather than add on new features.
There’s not much more to say about Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 - not without us getting irate, that is. If you watch the anime series you may get a kick out of the storyline, but it will be lost on anyone else. If you’ve ever enjoyed a Dynasty Warriors game then there’s no reason at all why you won’t enjoy Gundam 2; it’s essentially the same game. Everyone else though will be bored out of their minds and wonder just why this mundane series continues to be churned out at such an alarming rate.
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Comments
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CardinalSimons
- 12:13pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 5
I loved the first one.
I own the japanese version and it´s totally addictive. Reliving the most epic battle from the anime: Amuro Ray Vs "Red Comet" Char Aznable.
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solbaid
- 12:23pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 6
I loved the first ad love the 2nd one and it has an extremely large replay value if u even wanna try to get all the trophies and the only AI issue ive had is when my own team mates need to stay alive and they bum rush a giant gundam and get themselves killed thats the only issue ive had w/ bad AI cause even in the anime series regular mech barely touched the gundams so it doesnt bother me for the lack of AI for enemy mechs and i love the whole friendship system as well as the earning parts to help improve your gundams and allowing access to the weaker ones and i dont see nothing wrong w/ the environments what do expect from a series which is mainly based in space with a few select land regions to visit
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lordAlucard |
sympozium_666- 12:24pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 7
Kr@p review 1.0 honestly if you can't stand playing a game like DW:Gundam 2 then your thumbs are weak. DW: Gundam 2 7.5 for being decent and fun It may be a slight upgrade but it's needed
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kevinjoshualim
- 1:51pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 9
This review should get a 4/10. You can't give a game a 4 just because you're tired of their formula. The formula is what makes others like it...it's like giving street fighter 4 a low score because its essentially the same game as its predecessors with some new gameplay. Sort of like how this game takes from the old and brings in some new.
"New to the series is the ability to execute aerial maneuvers, which does break up the monotony of constantly fighting on the 2D plane. There’s also some Quick-Time Events that appear during boss battles and require you to press a series of face buttons to correspond with those that flash up on-screen. We’re guessing it was probably added to give combat a new and exciting twist, but instead has the opposite effect, with the QTEs interrupting the flow of the game and its fast pace, which is arguably one of the reasons why people find the franchise so addictive in the first place. If anything, you could say that this addition takes the series a step backwards"...wtf? you're hating on the flow of the game being constant hack n slash and then you talk about how they change the pace with these QTEs and you don't like it. Isn't this a step in the right direction? Dumbass.
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08CandyWhite
- 2:33pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 10
It's like the association with Car and Driver magazine always giving props to American cars and always giving bad reviews to Germans cars just because of past reliability issues. Like mentioned in some of the forum reviews, the game is very popular in Japan. I bought the game a couple days after it came out and I'm very pleased with it. Replay value is very high due to the mission mode, multiple arrays of pilots & mobile suits available and with the intro of trophies would help boost sales one would think. Everyone has their opinions. If your not into Gundam, you'll probably hate it. If you don't like Dynasty Warriors, you'll probably hate it. If your not into button masher's, you'll probably hate it. But otherwise I give this game a solid 7 if you do not fit the criteria as mentioned in the last statement.
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BenY0shir0
- 3:30pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 12
You know why you brainless keyboard jockey? BECAUSE IT WORKS! You don't fix something that isn't broken. I own every single Dynasty Warriors game made, from the Vs. style of the very first one one PS1 to the brand new Strikeforce, which is by far the best one in the series. It is an aquired taste, but maybe if you put the difficulty above easy they'd fight back. I know I had a good time blocking and evading the bots on hard on the first game. I don't understand why the series has always been given a bad rap because it's been around for so long with the same idea. Do you guys hate Final Fantasy? The Simpsons? America?
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Drak_Shadowreap
- 3:46pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 13
The first one sucked, why should the second turn out any different?...
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Aramil_Caelan
- 9:45pm EDT - April 30th, 2009
- 16
Dynasty Warriors has always been, and always will be, $hit
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