I'm gonna be honest, i read an article with screens of this game about a year before
it's release and it was like love at first sight. It looked soooo good.
I loved the graphics, the concept, everything. It all looked so cool.
And a year later when it was released i wasn't disappointed. I didn't care at all about the MGS2 demo.
You play as Leo, a young boy who has involenterally been designated the
task of piloting the Orbital Frame Jehuty. Jehuty has an onboard
computer by the name of ADA who will give you tips on the way. Piloting
Jehuty is very easy and will not take long to get into, but mastering
it might take a little longer. The first thing you do is very "in medias
res" as you are thrown into a fight against an enemy orbital frame.
The game has great graphics, and held up nicely even towards the last days of the PS2. The scenery is destructible, there's fire everywhere and cities and towns are free for
you to roam around in, unfortunately the levels are too small. When you
enter a town it might look nice and peaceful, but when you leave you
will see all the havoc you have raised in the burning buildings. The
game discourages you to destroy buildings though, as some missions
require you to keep the number of survivors as high as possible, which
will make you have to draw enemies attention and gunfire away from
buildings. It's a conscious game where thinking twice and skill is a
factor. Often you will need to sneak past enemies to avoid sure death.
There's a varied assortment of enemies with different weapons and
skills, some a fast but weak, some a slow but very strong, some a
something in between. All of their special weapons you will also acquire
throughout the game.
One enemy has a type of "light sabre" as a weapon, when several of
these enemies team up against you with this weapon, they will create a
cage that will keep you trapped inside these lasers, i find it quite
genius.
The game has OK sound, mostly techno and electronica on the soundtrack, but the music
will change depending on what you're doing. It will change to a faster
up beat track when you fight enemies and will be more calm and steady
when you're just roaming around. Effect sounds could have been more
varied though.
The game has a fairly simple but fun 2player mode. The thing i love
about it, is the fact that it's NOT split screen. You see both orbital
frames (you can play as almost any frame you see in the game) on one
screen at the time at all times. One of them will be near the camera as
if you were playing one player, and the other one will be seen far
away, or wherever it is. You can switch places if you end up in close
combat. In close combat you can use a sword, and grab the enemy to
throw it. The 2player mode can also be used as somewhat of a practice
mode, as you can play against the CPU instead of another person.
The boss fights in the game are good, not great or excellent... but OK.
You'll mostly fight HUGE enemies much larger than you. There's is often
lots of dodging involved and efficient use of your special weapons.
But they are cool and the battle against Neith in the warehouse is one
of my favorite boss fights of all time, because of the destructible
scenery, and how leveled Jehuty and Neith are.
There are many aspects in the game that are much alike MGS, as it is
made by the same people (both are directed by Hideo Kojima). One of them
being that the game is too short, i beat it in 6 hours.
The story is good, nothing special really, some might even call it
cheesy. But the conversations between Leo and ADA are sometimes very
well written and compelling.
Sadly the short campaign leaves you feeling like you didn't get a chance to play the game properly, while playing you get a lot of weapons and gadgets, and you never really get to explore and play with the fully. This is a fundamental flaw, and I really think the whole game suffers from it.
Still, I would never hesitate to recommend this game to anyone.
