Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 Xbox 360 Review

Even though their settings are centuries apart, a game with hallmarks of both Dynasty Warriors and Gundam still has the potential to be an enjoyable way to spend some time and a certain way to get the money rolling in for Koei, at least in Japan where both franchises are huge.

Much like the first game, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is essentially another variation on the very much refined, but never close to overhauled, Dynasty Warriors formula. In place of Chinese or Japanese warriors, you get to stomp around in huge mechs and take on a whole armies worth of other big robots. The series, as a whole, has got a small but passionate fan base here in the west, whilst just about everyone else has a strong disliking for its repetitive nature.

For the fans, though, much of the appeal comes from the feeling of empowerment and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 remains true to fan expectations as a game that makes you feel all godly and special. The AI of your regular enemies is short on brains, but I quite honesty wouldn’t want it any other way for a Warriors game: sometimes I just want to tear through entire armies without having to make use of my own brain. On the other hand, the characters from the Gundam series are brighter in the intellect department, which calls for a change in strategy, making sure your brain wakes up, at least for a moment.

There’s little radically new, but that’s only to be expected from a series that previously has had ladder climbing and swimming as big new features. Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2’s biggest new feature to its battles, both literally and figuratively, are colossal mobile armours, which act as bosses and are fittingly some of the hardest enemies to take down. Another almost as crucial addition, is the fact that your boosters last longer, allowing for the possibility of even bigger combinations of attacks.

Elsewhere it’s much the same as the original game and obviously Dynasty Warriors in general. The combat system is free of complexities, with the usual regular and more powerful attacks that can be chained together to damaging effect and, of course, there’s the deadly and visually spectacular musou attack, which is particularly satisfying to unleash when you’re surrounded by enemies.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is generous with its options. There’s an official mode, which focuses on the events from the anime, and the more substantial original mode, which consists of more than 100 missions for each character, broken up into categories consisting of collection (to collect robot parts) story, friendship missions (to improve your standing with other characters) and licence missions (these allow you to obtain licences for other robots). The 19 robots from the first game have been massively expanded to 62. Also notable is the all new online multiplayer options, or not as the case may be, as next to nobody plays the damn thing.

It might very well be weighted down with enough options that, if they weren’t virtual, they could possibly make the game as heavy as one of those robots (or two, it‘s really that generous) but there’s no getting away from the fact that it still all largely involves slashing other robots to bits, which means that those who can’t stomach the Warriors games and repetition in general will find little to their liking here.

But for Warriors fans (don’t worry you’re not alone, I’m with you), who aren’t opposed to taking charge of massive robots in place of Eastern Warriors, there‘s an impressive volume of content that should have them button bashing for days and possibly months to come. For those particular people, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 Will likely be amongst the best the series has to offer, and for those who are partial to both licences it will be even more of a treat.

8/10

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