Zone of the Enders

"Solid Game . . . . . . Almost"

Graphics

The graphics in this game are simply sweet. The design for the Jehuty looks awesome, and also the other mechs you encounter throughout the game. The bosses look very good and are very detailed too. Tons of heat blurs and gorgeous lighting effects are everywhere you go. Also the frame rate is at a nice 60 FPS. Buildings crumble, explode and burn up as you battle around the battle area. Most of everything you see can be destroyed. Destroying buildings is a bad thing of course, so don't try to unless you want to have some fun.

The graphics in this game do have problems though. First of all, the levels are so plain and boring. Most of the cities and towns that are basically big squares filled with buildings, houses, bridges, etc. The cities and towns aren't really detailed either. The game, in my opinion does have some anti-aliasing problems. Also the FMV's aren't detailed either. The characters are all in the anime style. They aren't detailed at all. Their faces are so plain and boring. The FMV's all look like they would have been done much better in real time instead.

Battle

Battling is one of the greatest part in Z.O.E. It's action packed and fast paced. Controlling the Jehuty is extremely simple. In a matter of seconds, you will become an expert piloting it. When you fight, it's never boring, even though you fight the same frames (mechs) over and over again. There are only three mechs you fight throughout the game. In battle, you can perform a variety of attacks, such as dash attack, throw, burst attack and more. There are weapons that you will acquire as you progress through the game. These weapons, I my case were pretty much useless because they were unreliable. The simple means of destroying the frames are to do the attacks the Jehuty is capable of doing. Boss fights are very challenging. Even on normal mode, it took me ten tries to beat a boss. Each boss requires a different tactic from the previous. In one boss battle, you are required to get the decoy weapon to beat it. If you didn't, you would simply die in seconds.

Music

There were only a couple of tracks I liked in the whole game. The intro song, the ending song, and the piano pieces that are played during the sad and serious moments. During battle, it's mostly techno music that is played. Boring techno music. It's not really good and doesn't stay in you head like a good song does. The piano tracks are the good things to listen too.

Dubbing

The dubbing is okay. I just have one major complaint. Leo, the main character who talks the most has the worst voice actor. He sounds extremely retarded from start to finish. All the other characters such as Viola, ADA (Jehuty's computer), Celvice, have good voice actors. The dubbing completely ruined the whole story.

Story

As Leo, who somehow gets on the Jehuty will go on missions and learn about life. If you ever seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, the stories have similarities. I shouldn't really describe the story since it does have spoilers.

Gameplay

There is a great amount of back tracking in this game. To obtain new programs and drivers for weapons, you will have to go back to certain areas you have already been too. Yes, the frames will be return even though you killed them previously. As you defeat frames, you will gain experience points and will go up a level. Highest I got was eight on ''normal'' mode. If you play on another mode such as ''hard,'' the amount of experience points will be cut in half or two-thirds. I was sad to see that there were only two protect the people missions. Depending how you played the game and which level of difficulty you are playing, you will get a ranking at the end of the game and at the end of those protect the people missions. My ranking at the end of the game was ''D.'' I think that's a bad thing. The highest rank you can obtain is an ''S'' If get that, there will be a different song played at the end of the game.

Weapons

The weapons you obtain are useless if you ask me. Weapons such as the javelin are extremely stupid. Also, sometimes you have to use manual aiming for some of the weapons which is really hard to do. In order to get a weapon, you must first obtain a driver. Such as javelin.drvr. Once you have that, all you need is ammo. Okay, maybe not all the weapons are useless. Weapons such as decoy and sniper are necessary to pass through a certain spot in the game. Decoy is needed to defeat a boss and sniper is needed to destroy a generator.

Controls

The controls are very responsive. I had no problems with the controls at all. The game gives you instructions on the different controls to pilot Jehuty in the beginning.

Rent or Buy

I rented this game since I knew it would only take me five to eight hours to beat. Plus, it includes the ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' demo. The only thing that would make you want to buy it is because of the versus mode you get after you have beaten the game. Versus mode wasn't that great to me though.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/01/01, Updated 04/01/01