Panzer Dragoon Orta

"The most visually impressive shooter of all time!"

Preamble

Why does Sega continually do it? Repeatedly, they publish titles that challenge popular gaming convention in a way that no other publisher does. Repeatedly they are punished by the consumer for daring not to produce a tick-the-box sequel. Is it that Sega don't need the cash? Or is it that Sega believe so strongly in their products and the typical Sega game that they are prepared to wait for the gamer to mature, because it is maturity. Sega's games are like Mark's and Spencer food, like Kung-Fu movies, like Automatic cars. If you are into Sega games, you are always into Sega games. If, however, you weren't the kid who spent his entire holiday money on Out-Run. And you weren't the adult who rushed to buy the first batch of over-priced Dreamcast consoles then you probably aren't into Sega. And unfortunately for you, you never will be.

What's it all about?

Panzer Dragoon Orta is a rail-shooter, developed by Smilebit (formerly Sega's internal R&D department AM6). To clarify the game's genre, a rail shooter is one where the player's course is predefined by the game. Although rail-shooters are very rare, there has been one notable recent example, namely Rez by United Game Artists.

Orta is the fourth game in the Panzer Dragoon franchise. A franchise that began life in 1995 on the Sega Saturn with the original Panzer Dragoon. Developed by a now defunct Sega team; Team Andromeda, the game was a true 3-D rail-shooter that utilised a revolutionary 360 degree battlefield system. A sequel was released one year later, again on the Saturn and again a rail-shooter in much the same vein as the first game but with a host of added features including the Beserk Attack and route selection.

The Panzer Dragoon universe was expanded again in 1998 with the addition of the third game in the series, Panzer Dragoon Saga (Azel Panzer Dragoon RPG in Japan). Moving away from the all-action shooter, Team Andromeda released Saga as an RPG with shooting sections limited to key battle sequences. Launched at the end of the Saturn's life, Saga received a very limited publication outside of Japan and because of this, regularly fetches surreal auction prices on Ebay.

So here we are, a break of four years and with the development torch passed to Smilebit under the guidance of Jin Shizikama (Rez and others) the Panzer Dragoon series has returned to the pure action shooter with an all-out laser blazing RSI-inducing blast-fest. Utilising the improved graphical power of the Xbox console and the current trend towards all things retro (the franchise, after all can be considered retro-ish) Smilebit's game is released in a climate of Japanese nonchalance towards Microsoft's console. Can the team responsible for Jet Set Radio win over a cold Japanese public?

What about the game?

Orta has a story and is all about an evil Empire using powerful ruins from which to build armies of Dragonmares, Assault Carriers and all other manner of oer nastiness. As this is a shooter, your job as player is simply to kill as much as possible without getting killed. While this is happening a story plays out in the background that this review won't compromise but involves a lot of subtitles, family feuds and a tribe of people that class insects as transport.

But how does it handle?

Orta has the most complete tutorial this gamer has ever experienced, after which your trigger finger will be itching like a boy with a cap full of maggots. Instantly, the game will throw at you the necessary movements to achieve success throughout the game. Gene-base acquisition (or power-ups to the rest of us), Gliding, Glide Attacks, Bezerk Attacks, 360 degree fighting, Morphing, Defensive firing, Power firing. Within literally two screens, the player will be able to practice virtually every top drawer movement, the game is that instantly gratifying.

The gameplay is deceptively deep. Deeper than a rail-shooter ought to be really. From the basic premise that your task is to shoot everything, the player can adapt their role based upon their choice of dragon. By changing the dragon type depending on the situation, the game will be either conquerable or impossible. A classic example of this is at the boss section of Episode 1 where the Assault Carrier Vermana launches remote detonating mines. Ignore the ability to morph and the game will kill you, repeatedly, on any difficulty setting. Change to glide form, where fire automatically locks on to an opponent and the mines can be destroyed with ease.

Will it impress your mates?

Graphically, Orta is outstanding. Pushing the power of the Xbox must have been high on Smilebit's list of design goals. Yet to do this and never compromise a single frame-flicker, slow down or glitchy graphic is quite simply outstanding. Throughout all nine initial episodes, the player is treated to a visual orgy with every minute aspect of the game's environment rendered as if it were the opening sequence. Not since Rez has a game urged the player to succeed so much just to see what the game's artists can come up with next.

Although this reviewer is guilty of pretty much ignoring the sound quality of most games, it is obvious from the quality of the tracks on Orta's soundtrack and from the non-stop Hollywood style sound effects that the team at Smilebit desperately wanted all aspects of this game to be as near to perfect as possible. Not only are the sound effects and music impressive, however, as the game also uses its own language for the entire dialogue. Panzerese is used throughout and sounds something like a mixture of Japanese and Welsh.

How long will you be playing this for?

The challenge offered is possibly the only complaint. The game offers three modes of difficulty (as is the norm). On the easy difficulty setting, most gamers will finish the entire game in under five hours. Return back to the game on normal difficulty and, whilst it takes a little longer to achieve through replaying levels, the game still only offers the same challenge length.

Uncannily, for such an excellently produced game, the ordering of the episodes is questionable. After fighting through the first few and gaining confidence episodes four, five and six are incredibly difficult but with relatively easy to beat bosses. Episodes seven, eight and nine are fairly simple to negotiate but have intensely difficult to beat bosses. You get the feeling towards the end that you are "flying through" the end of the game, which is disappointing when considering the quality of the game itself.

Smilebit do attempt to make the game sustain interest. A massive bonus section is available that contains an immense amount of additional material. Not only are there twelve other playable (albeit short) missions where the player can taken on alternative identities, but there is also a copy of the PC version of the original Panzer Dragoon to play through and a myriad of artwork and background information to trawl through. You can't help but think that this level of effort in extras could have been used to try and balance the length of the game.

The bottom line

The requirement to purchase a game or not really depends upon the kind of gamer you are. This reviewer knows equal amounts of people who would either enjoy or despise every second of Orta. If you are into shooters, into Sega or into something a little bit different then Smilebit's game will be more than worth £20 that is currently being asked for it. There is an issue with the length of the game and players who don't always squeeze every last drop out of games may feel a little short changed. But an issue with the game's length shouldn't take away from what is an incredibly beautiful five hours of blasting that almost certainly holds the title of most visually impressive shooter of all time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/04