Warth to play
Though you can play as either side of the war, the fundamental gameplay is largely the same. In the game, you’ll control a huge mechanized suit that is armed with a number of weapons and you’ll be tasked with destroying an opposing force. Nearly all of the missions follow this scenario though sometimes you’ll have to destroy some bombs or shoot at enemy ships. The game includes a two-player cooperative mode as well. They control a pilot that gives your character a boost including increases in speed and attack power. They don’t really do much else though, but it is a somewhat neat feature that stacks the game in your favor. That said, it never becomes too easy since you’ll need to effectively use these boosts to make it through. Combat is made a bit annoying because you can’t easily target the enemy you want to hit. Though the game features an auto-lock feature, it becomes unwieldy when there are too many enemies onscreen. When they are only a few, it works pretty well though. The mechs have a number of moves at their disposal when you’re actually locked in to an enemy. You’ll have a melee attack that is nice in theory but barely useful in practice since the camera is a bit unfriendly, a ranged attack that is probably your best bet, and a special attack that is more powerful than the typical ranged attack. The game’s visuals are pretty authentic to the source material though they won’t win Bandai any technological excellence awards. The mechs look pretty good, with plenty of detail and solid animation. The environments, however, were not given the same care so there’s nothing to really look at since everything is so bland. In addition to the sparse environments, you’ll have to put up with a framerate that sometimes drops when there is too much going onscreen. Although it is nice to see so much effort put into the mechs, it would have been nicer if the game’s visuals produced a more cohesive package.
The game’s sounds are also pretty authentic though equally uninspiring. The background music flows into the background, never distracting but never really adding anything to the game. The voice acting is pretty repetitive, with some forced lines making the rounds pretty frequently. The sound effects are not anything special but they accurately portray the sounds you’d expect from fighting with these massive mechs.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Never Ending Tomorrow is a surprisingly mediocre game. It doesn’t try to go far from the typical Gundam formula. For fans of the series, this is probably enough to justify their purchase. For everyone else though, there are much better ways to spend your gaming dollars, including games that last longer than four hours.