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Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 (Xbox 360)
I’ll be honest in saying the announcement and release of this sequel surprised me. While I really enjoyed the first game I didn’t think it would be popular enough to get a sequel much less for it to come out in North America. Still, the new characters and units caught my eye and I decided to buy it a week after release. Was it worth it? Let’s find out
The Game
I can try to explain Dynasty Warriors and how the system works but Mwulf did a much better job than I could in his review of the first game so feel free to head over to his review (here) to read up about it. Don’t worry I’ll wait for you. You done? Good.
For those who didn’t read it I’ll cut to the basics – it’s you taking on an army and the map (which can be rather large) is broken into sections/fields that you have to take over. Fairly simple and you’ll be doing lots of hacking and slashing and getting a good workout with your x button. One slight change from the first game is that when name characters “lock sabers” instead of both getting raised attack power for a few seconds you’re taking to a quicktime event where you have to punch in the correct buttons in the time provided. The number of buttons range from 3 to 7 depending on the mission, the character etc. When you do it correctly you get the advantage and knock your foe down and then get to attack then in a powered down state. You make a mistake or not hit all the buttons in time and you’re the one in trouble.
We’ll focus on the single player experience for this review since I haven’t found many people on xbox live to give the multiplayer a go. Once I do find folks, I’ll edit/update this.
The single player is broken into two modes – Official and Mission. Official is pretty much exactly the same as it was in the first game even down to the missions themselves through the UC timeline. Two big changes are the addition of Char’s Counter attack missions for both Amuro and Char and the addition of Mobile Armors (Big Zam, Psycho Gundam 1 and 2, Alpha Azieru, and the Quin Mantha) into the missions. The armors look amazing and the game really does give you a feel of how massive and gigantic these machines really are. As you go through the Official mode you’ll unlock the same characters you play is into the mission mode section.
Mission mode is where the bulk of the content (and your time playing it) of the games lies. The story this time around isn’t about the various pilots banning together to stop the Musha Gundam but that each pilot has their own story arc they follow. Character wise not only do you get all the characters from the previous game but they give you the additional characters in the form of Kira, Athrun and Shin from SEED Destiny, Uso and his V2 from Victory Gundam, the Turn X with Gym Ghingnham and Seabrook with his F91 as well as the addition Mobile Armor Dark/Devil Gundam. Along with that there are so many unlockable characters that it will just take too long to list. Pretty much if they’re a named character in the game chances are you can unlock them.
Getting the various units and mobile suits is also different this time around. Instead of just beating them to unlock them you slowly collect parts as you do missions. Once you get all the parts you get the suit. The sheer amount of mobile suits you can be is amazing. Pretty much anything grunt wise from MSG to ZZ Gundam is attainable and one can pilot not to mention the actual Gundam themselves. The trick that was added is that some units require specific licenses to pilot then that are a whole set of missions in themselves. Finally, the game has a whole relationship system where certain pilots need to have a certain level of trust with you in order to do certain missions. You can help your status by doing friendship missions and you’ll find that you actually have to do these more often than you expect. As well with these missions you'll get the chance to let said pilot join a facton if you choose. A good example is that with Kamille I was not only a part of the AEUG but I got invited into Zeon then the titans then the AEUG again and finally the Federation.
In other words, the game certainly gives you much to do
The Graphics
I’ve played this on both a Standard and HD Tv and it looks amazing on both. The mobile suits look great and the blasts and explosions look like something right out of each of the shows where the respective Gundam comes from.
Along with those effects come the backgrounds and they are massive and high detailed. When it space it looks like a space battle from the likes of Zeta Gundam when flying around the colonies.
The in-game cut scenes and unit entrances and movies are quite well done as well especially in the official mode and the end movies in the mission mode.
Now while I’m fairly high on all this stuff don’t let it make you think it’ll blow your socks off. It may look nice and such but we’re not talking movies on the lines of Mass effect or Halo here.
The Audio
The music is pretty much the exact same tracks from the first game so if you liked the music in the first game then you’ll be happy here. The sound effects are very well done and the units, guns and beam slashes and explosions sound like they’re directly from each respective units show.
The voices are where I have a bit of an issue. The dubbing work was done by ocean and they did an amazing job especially with characters that haven’t been dubbed before. Judau’s voice suits him as does the likes of Roux and Elle and Uso. My bone here is that you only get the English voices – no option to switch to the original Japanese track. Now while I know many don’t care, I myself would have like the choice to pick which track. Hopefully this will be addressed by an option download via xbox live in the near future.
Replay and Fun Factor
So the question is how often will you replay this? Well, given the amount of content as laid out previously if you get into this game you’ll find yourself taking lots of time to get through it all and unlock everything as well as hunting for all those achievements. That said, you’ll be doing the same missions or type of missions more than once so to some it might get dull fighting on the same map for the 7th or 8th time.
Is it fun? I think if you liked the first one you’ll definitely enjoy this. It can be tedious especially with some of the friendship/extra missions but there is a thrill about flying around in the ZZ and taking out an entire army of Zakus and Gms before facing down and shooting down Kira and then facing the Big Zam to complete the mission. The mobile armors are a bit tricky at first but the official mode gives you a quick tutorial on how to deal with them so if you’re like me and jumped into mission mode before the official mode then you may have a bit of trouble.
If you’re new to the game and are unsure you might want to rent it or wait for the demo to pop up on xbox live before investing in it just in case it’s not your cup of tea.
Final thoughts
This game is mostly for Gundam/anime fans and/or fans of the Dynasty Warriors series. If you’re not a fan of either you may or may not like it depending on the type of game like. That said, as a fan of Gundam I really enjoyed being able to jump in and fight through massive armies not to mention all the content that can be unlocked and done within the game.
An easy 7 out 10 and as well if I were to tell people how much they should pay for it I’d say anything $35-$40 or under would be good value for this one.
Plus, let's face it - there is a certain thrill about putting Kira in his place with the Turn-X or taking down the Big Zam with the Nu Gundam.
