Zone of the Enders

"Armored Core on steriods...a winning combo!"

When Zone of the Enders was released, its true that it was mostly purchased for the Metal Gear 2: Sons of Liberty demo, but it is also true that once played thoroughly, many believed that it is the first game that truly uses the PS2s capabilities. Myself is one of those people. With its blazing fast speed, adrenaline pumping battles, and addictive soundtrack, Zone of the Enders seemed almost perfect. Almost. It did have some major flaws (the ending being the most annoying) yet it's positive factors thankfully beat out it's negatives. Thankfully.

Gameplay - 10/10
I found the gameplay to be very exceptional. It is played at a very high and intense pace, yet that is where the fun is derived from. It is extremely addictive when you are trying to kill 4 Raptors (enemies) while piloting your mech and trying to switch to the right destructive weapon. Which leads to another point. There are quite a few unique attacking weapons that you will add to your arsonal through the coarse of the game. A few of these include: decoy, which will make a copy of your mech and distract your enemies to attack it; mummy, which literally wraps your enemies into ''mummies''; javelin, which is a big throwable photon javelin. One of the best portions of the gameplay is the controls. The controls play like a dream and you hardly have to remember and button combinations.

Story - 4/10
To be frank with you, the story starts off moderate, and finishes horrible. The ending of this game is terrible (but a great marketing strategy by Konami, I want ZOE 2 so bad) and it will leave you mad, shocked (in a bad way), and mostly confused. There are also aspects of the game that never seem to be explained and seem to disappear through the coarse of the very short game.

Audio - 10/10
The music of this game is probably my favorite part. It is in almost complete Japanese (which the exception of 1 translated line) yet it can easily direct your mood from feeling nice and relaxed to feeling angry and then suddenly sad. I do believe that if Konami were to release the soundtrack of this game more to the public, it would gain popularity fast and very soon become an underground cult classic.

Video - 9/10
The graphics are amazing. From nice detailed in-game graphics to the anime style cut scenes, the graphics hold their ground nice and strong. A rare new addition is the ''blured camera'' effect. This happens when your mech is strongly or critically attacked, and it will make your mech blur and swerve, and suddenly generate other mechs into following it. *Note, if you suffer from epilepsy or common viruses, please consult your physician before playing this game.* This effect will eventually hurt your eyes and make you sick however.

Replayability - 8/10
With the revolutionary effect of unlocking versus mode only after you have beaten the game, many difficulty levels, and versus mode itself will make you want to play this game and beat it more than once. Versus mode is also very fun because it is a lot of fun trying to beat your friend, to to beat a level 8 Neith with a level 1 Jehuty.

To Buy or to Rent - Tie
Both of these are good items. First off, if you rent it, you will most likely beat it. Secondly, if you were to buy it, it would end up costing a short lived $50. The disadvantage to rent it is also that you might not finish it.

*My Final Thoughts*
A great game that finally gives us a taste (just a taste) of the potential of the PS2. Also, I feel that the only armor mech game that could match this game is going to be Zone of the Enders 2.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/01, Updated 05/12/01