Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space

"A nice dish of Gundam, take away the ground, but now with added Zaku!"

Gundam has had a long and varied history on the PlayStation 2, some games have been fairly poor, while others were great. Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space falls into the latter category. I was originally struck with the sheer amount of things you can do in this game, there are several modes: White Base, Thoroughbred, Ace Pilot, Mission, and Versus. Each one of them contains something different, and will keep you coming back for more.

Gameplay (9/10): Simply put, the gameplay is fantastic in this game. There are two modes of combat, Route Tube and Battle Sphere. In Route Tube mode you pilot your mobile suit along a predetermined course, you have freedom to move around the screen, but you have to stay on track. Battle Sphere is well… battle in a sphere. You can move in all directions along the X,Y,Z axis, and enemies will attack you from all directions. Now, about the enemies, they’re quite varied, there are over 70 Mobile Suits/Armors/Fighters in this game, and with few exceptions, you meet them all in combat. From blasting apart Musai’s while being chased by MS-09R-2 Rick Dom’s to using the RB-79 Ball to clear rubble out of the path of oncoming ships, the amount of things you can do is quite large, which means you’ll always find something to do.

The combat is fast paced, and will keep you moving. Most battles are quite intense, forcing you to stay on your toes and dodge constantly while destroying enemy suits. But, the most important thing about the combat in this game is that it’s fun.

Story (8/10): The story for this game takes place over four years, the story is taking from the original animations. Most of it evolves around the One Year War, but Operation Stardust is represented as well, through the perspectives of Gato, Cima, and Kou.

White Base mode gives you a quick overview of the events that happened on Earth, and that sends you straight into the first battle the White Base crew has in space. While the animation in between missions is great, the overview at the beginning isn’t really enough for people who aren’t familiar with the series. During this mode, you pilot the RX-78-2 Gundam as Amuro Ray.

Thoroughbred mode puts you in the G04 and G05, it tells you the story of the One Year War from a different perspective, plus…you get to fight some of Zeon’s most advanced mobile suits, like the Käempfer, which is always a good thing. Ace Pilot puts you in the perspectives of different pilots throughout the Gundam timeline, there are several pilots, so this mode will occupy quite a bit of your time.

All in all, the story for this game is quite good, and remains faithful to the original anime.

Graphics/Sound (8/10): The graphics in this game are great; the mobile suits are nicely detailed and are easily distinguishable from one another. The environments look nice, and give a good space atmosphere. The effects of the weapons look nice, explosions are well done, and even the little sparks that come from your suit when you’re damaged look right. The amount of work put into the graphics was well worth it. The only real problem that I had them was that the weapons seem to appear from nowhere. (Almost like they come from thin air when you’re changing from your melee weapon to your gun.)

The sound is great, the sound effects were taken from the anime, as well as most of the background music. Characters actually speak, and the dubbing is fairly good. The only problem I had with the music is that the voices were to soft, and it’s hard to hear them sometimes.

Playtime/Replay Value (10/10): The replay value in this game is great, in order to unlock everything you’ll need to play some of the mission several times, as well as going through Mission Mode at least 10 times. With over 60 suits to unlock it will keep you busy, and fortunately it’s easy to replay the game. It takes between 7-12 hours to finish all modes, but quite a bit more to unlock everything, I’ve already logged about 60 hours into this, the replay value is just that good. Not to mention, you can always grab a friend and play Versus.

Final Recommendation: Buy this game if you’re a fan of the series, you won’t be disappointed, if you aren’t a fan of the series I would recommend a rental first, since you don’t really know what you’re getting in to. This game will keep you playing for a long while to come.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/04