Zone of the Enders

"Underrated, but not by much"

Zone of Enders takes place in the 22nd century, after Earth has colonized Mars and Jupiter.On the Jupiter colony called Antilia, Leo Stenbuck (the main character) accidently finds himself in control of an advanced mecha called Jehuty in the middle of a sudden outbreak of war.

This game was produced by Hideo Hojima (better known for the Metal Gear series) but beyond some minor similarities (the AI having a field of vision, and the Continue screen if you die), the games are very different. Despite the obvious differences between an Action/Adventure and a Mecha game, the strategies of the game are different. Metal Gear focuses on stealth and outwitting your enemy, though this theme has loosely tried to be put into practice here, it’s quite obvious that you are meant to combat most of the lackeys. For one thing some will have to be destroyed to get pass-codes or other important items, and the game has a level system that makes forced battles harder if you avoid the optional ones.

The AIs themselves aren’t as difficult either. Where as in Metal Gear Solid they may call for help, in this game the enemies are in Squads which don’t seem to enlist additional help, and aren’t all that difficult on their own. Seeing as they sometimes give Metatron when they’re defeated (Metatron is this games healing potion), you shouldn’t have too much trouble defeating multiple Squads within a short period of time.

The skill that required to defeat these Squads are also, for the most part, limited. You might want to target certain enemies before others but for the most part approaching the closest enemy and hacking at it with your sword will suffice (though you can attack it by other means if you want). The controls are pretty simplistic, though you do get a few good options, making the optional battles easier to execute. The one problem comes from having to consistently fight which sometimes takes it’s toll but other then that bosses are really the only time when you might have to put in much thought into your plan of attack.

Although the optional battles are for the most part mindless fun, proceeding from Point A to Point B isn’t that enjoyable. The problem with this game is it’s not always so clear where Point B is. Often you will have to find another way of doing something, or you will be required to find an item, without even being told what place that item is in or even that you need to find such an item. I had to look at the Walkthroughs on this site often to find out what I had to do. If you don’t have a Strategy Guide or frequently consult the Walkthroughs I imagine you could spend quite a while just going around aimlessly before you stumble on what you were suppose to do.

Once you do get on track though, you are sometimes rewarded with a cut-scene, though there are much fewer of these in ZoE then there are in Metal Gear Solid 2. Some people may consider this a good thing, Metal Gear Solid 2 has often been called a movie because of it’s long and frequent cut-scenes, but I personally think they add to the plot of the game. The Zone of Ender’s plot seemed sufficient to keep the game going but, without going into it so as not to provide spoilers, it could have been much more.

The graphics on the cut-scenes were nothing special either. Though in all fairness, this game was first released in 2001, much earlier in the Playstation 2’s life, so graphics on par with some of it’s more recent titles can’t be expected. Compared to some of the earlier PS2 titles I own Zone of Ender’s graphics are actually pretty good.

The voice acting is also pretty good. Though I sometimes wonder if the actors were told their situations before they recorded the lines as sometimes it seemed to me that they were under-dramatized, seemingly uncaring or unaffected by significant problems to them.

Beyond the main game, you can also there is also a versus mode where you and a friend can play against each other which is actually pretty fun. The game comes with a demo disk for Metal Gear Solid 2 as well, which was probably a good incentive to buy the game when it was first released, but now that MGS2 has been out for a while, it’s not much of a factor.

Zone of the Enders is a good and perhaps underrated game that provides a number of hours of enjoyment for it’s buck. I would probably rent it though, seeing as it’s possible to beat this game within a weeks time if you do intend to play it, however it’s rather cheap now, so if you’re a fan of mecha-styled action games, I’d recommend this one’s purchase.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/14/03, Updated 06/14/03