Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner
The slickest mech combat in games returns deeper, prettier and more compelling, but can it rise above its mediocre forebearer?
Published: April 21, 2003
The original Zone of the Enders was a good game. Perhaps it wasn't such an amazing idea to attach Hideo Kojima's name to the title with all the hype of Metal Gear Solid 2 reaching such a fever pitch since expectations for anything with his name on it would be huge, but there's no doubt that bundling in a demo for MGS2 sold plenty of copies of the first ZOE game. In fact, there were plenty of people that bought the game at full price solely for the chance to play through the MGS2 demo. Of course, if they decided to actually pop in that other disc, they were treated to a decent, if rather shallow mech experience.
With ZOE2, however, things have changed. No longer the shallow, trite experience that the first game was, the sequel tries its damnedest to break from just about everything that the first game did wrong, and in most ways it accomplishes that task. However, it's still a brutally short experience and happens to carry the unwarranted burden of the single worst translation and voice acting work in the history of modern day consoles. No, really, it's that bad.
ZOE2 essentially picks up about where ZOE left off, flash forwarding about 10 years, but otherwise sticking right to the story of the conflict between Earth's military forces and the rising power of the BAHRAM military fleet that's seen fit to take over almost all of Mars and the outlying areas of the colonized Solar System. Which means that once again, Jupiter and its moons are the focus of the game. Luckily, whereas the first game concentrated everything into the yawn-inducing locale of the Antilia space colony, ZOE2 offers much, much more in terms of variety in setting and location.
The story focuses on Dingo, a man who in the past actually worked for BAHRAM, but since decided he was better used somewhere where he wasn't, well, used. He ditched military life and settled on becoming a simple miner. When he picks up on some strange shallow Metatron energy readings, he goes to investigate them, discovering the Jehuty Orbital Frame from the first game. His past quickly begins to catch up to him after the discovery, however, and he finds himself in the middle of a bitter civil war between Earth's attempted control of its outlying colonies and the desire by a madman to control everything.
It's a long and frankly complex story, and barring the obvious annoyances of a horrible translation (and the mismatched voice acting to go with it, but more on that later), it's one that's infinitely more engaging than the first game's wafer-thin plot. Plenty of twists and side-switching occur, as well as the re-introduction of characters from the first game, albeit in more aged or updated forms. In fact, ZOE2 does a wonderful job of incorporating all of the events of the first game into the second, and those that actually did play the original will get quite a bit out of the second.
Gameplay-wise, the games are nearly identical. The combat system and interface has has some minor cosmetic improvements, and the AI in enemies is a bit more advanced, but otherwise it's that same beautiful dance that never ceases to amaze when it's acted out every time you come into contact with an enemy. To describe it would really be doing a disservice to the whole experience, since you really do have to play the game to get a good idea of how it all works. Suffice it to say that the combat is deeper now, with more combos and a more complex way of handling sub-weapons, as well as a reshuffling of the way some of the weapons affect enemies this time around.
ZOE2 makes an effort to mix up the boss battles and often challenges you to use your recently acquired abilities to defeat them, which gives you that perfect sequence of a) gaining a new ability b) chance to play around with ability c) using that newfound (and hopefully learned) ability against a boss that would otherwise be impossible. It's a subtle way of advancing the character of a robot in an RPG-ish manner without having to resort to major character developments, and by and large it works.
Regardless of how many people bought the first game for the MGS2 demo disc, there were still plenty that were in it for the eye candy. Probably one of the best examples of the PlayStation 2's power, the first game really exemplified what could happen when a developer that knew the hardware pulled something off that really taxed every bit of it. Amazingly, ZOE2 one-ups the graphics in every possible way, heaping screenful after gorgeous screenful with rich, stylized visuals that at first appear to be too detailed to be pulled off on the PS2.
Some of the effects, like literally hundreds of enemies on the screen at one time, are subtle in the way they suggest power. Likewise, watching dozens of arcs of energy lancing out to kiss just as many different targets, and the resulting thick, sooty clouds of debris with an almost cartoon-like quality to them is just a marvel. On more than one occasion, I couldn't help but utter a soft "wow" as a full screen of enemies were reduced to smoky vapor with just a single, massive attack. The levels are replete with high-res, unique textures, and everything has an incredibly stylized anime look that helps meld the in-game visuals with the new anime cutscenes. It works wonderfully, though not without cost. At times, the game can drop to a choppy mess, particularly when in boss fights or when things are especially heated – probably the worst time it could do so, and the hit does affect gameplay, sadly. Fortunately, the occurrences are rare, and the rest of the game slides along with nary a hitch.
I've already mentioned the abhorrent voice work for the game, and it bears repeating; ZOE2 has disgustingly bad voice work, not so much because of the performances, though those are uneven and oddly mismatched at times (calm deliveries when there should be more emotion, and vice-versa), but mainly because the translation seems to have come out of the result of running the script through Babelfish. The voice acting makes it that much worse because the lines are read as if they were completely intelligible. Most of the cutscenes have the feel of a bad anime fansub, and when someone who can count the number of anime movies they've seen on both hands notices this, there's something wrong.
This is even weirder when paired up against the rest of the audio, since both the music and effects are absolutely stellar. Even the way the vibration in the controller works, though itself not really an audio factor, helps to seal in the immersive feeling that the voices try so hard to destroy. The music is an incredible mix of thumping techno loops and operetta-style falsetto notes. The mix works, and often the jump from a powerful cutscene to the action is carried off with a butter smooth transition from slower, more expressive movements to a more driven metronome. It's great stuff, and when coupled with the soft explosion and hit effects, it creates a fantastic organic feeling to the audio, as if it were itself a character. This is something that's regularly seen in a great movie, but usually even that's relegated to the score, not the effects too. Kudos to the audio team for such a great job.
Overall, ZOE does a fantastic job of telling a simple story of a man coming to terms with his past, and donning the mantle of responsibility and owning up to his mistakes. It does so with a risky animated approach, but the overall effect is just so polished that you can't help but accept it. As interesting as ZOE was to look at, it lacked any real depth, which ZOE2 seems to make up for and then some. It's still a rather short experience, clocking in at about 10 hours for the average player, but there are some extras in the form of VR-style missions and the option to revisit boss battles as different characters. You'll obviously have to like ZOE2's gameplay a whole lot to keep going, but with things as refined as they are, that's not difficult to do. It might be a little light on content for the full price, but if you're a fan of eye candy, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better source of pupil fodder on the PS2.
With ZOE2, however, things have changed. No longer the shallow, trite experience that the first game was, the sequel tries its damnedest to break from just about everything that the first game did wrong, and in most ways it accomplishes that task. However, it's still a brutally short experience and happens to carry the unwarranted burden of the single worst translation and voice acting work in the history of modern day consoles. No, really, it's that bad.
ZOE2 essentially picks up about where ZOE left off, flash forwarding about 10 years, but otherwise sticking right to the story of the conflict between Earth's military forces and the rising power of the BAHRAM military fleet that's seen fit to take over almost all of Mars and the outlying areas of the colonized Solar System. Which means that once again, Jupiter and its moons are the focus of the game. Luckily, whereas the first game concentrated everything into the yawn-inducing locale of the Antilia space colony, ZOE2 offers much, much more in terms of variety in setting and location.
The story focuses on Dingo, a man who in the past actually worked for BAHRAM, but since decided he was better used somewhere where he wasn't, well, used. He ditched military life and settled on becoming a simple miner. When he picks up on some strange shallow Metatron energy readings, he goes to investigate them, discovering the Jehuty Orbital Frame from the first game. His past quickly begins to catch up to him after the discovery, however, and he finds himself in the middle of a bitter civil war between Earth's attempted control of its outlying colonies and the desire by a madman to control everything.
It's a long and frankly complex story, and barring the obvious annoyances of a horrible translation (and the mismatched voice acting to go with it, but more on that later), it's one that's infinitely more engaging than the first game's wafer-thin plot. Plenty of twists and side-switching occur, as well as the re-introduction of characters from the first game, albeit in more aged or updated forms. In fact, ZOE2 does a wonderful job of incorporating all of the events of the first game into the second, and those that actually did play the original will get quite a bit out of the second.
Gameplay-wise, the games are nearly identical. The combat system and interface has has some minor cosmetic improvements, and the AI in enemies is a bit more advanced, but otherwise it's that same beautiful dance that never ceases to amaze when it's acted out every time you come into contact with an enemy. To describe it would really be doing a disservice to the whole experience, since you really do have to play the game to get a good idea of how it all works. Suffice it to say that the combat is deeper now, with more combos and a more complex way of handling sub-weapons, as well as a reshuffling of the way some of the weapons affect enemies this time around.
ZOE2 makes an effort to mix up the boss battles and often challenges you to use your recently acquired abilities to defeat them, which gives you that perfect sequence of a) gaining a new ability b) chance to play around with ability c) using that newfound (and hopefully learned) ability against a boss that would otherwise be impossible. It's a subtle way of advancing the character of a robot in an RPG-ish manner without having to resort to major character developments, and by and large it works.
Regardless of how many people bought the first game for the MGS2 demo disc, there were still plenty that were in it for the eye candy. Probably one of the best examples of the PlayStation 2's power, the first game really exemplified what could happen when a developer that knew the hardware pulled something off that really taxed every bit of it. Amazingly, ZOE2 one-ups the graphics in every possible way, heaping screenful after gorgeous screenful with rich, stylized visuals that at first appear to be too detailed to be pulled off on the PS2.
Some of the effects, like literally hundreds of enemies on the screen at one time, are subtle in the way they suggest power. Likewise, watching dozens of arcs of energy lancing out to kiss just as many different targets, and the resulting thick, sooty clouds of debris with an almost cartoon-like quality to them is just a marvel. On more than one occasion, I couldn't help but utter a soft "wow" as a full screen of enemies were reduced to smoky vapor with just a single, massive attack. The levels are replete with high-res, unique textures, and everything has an incredibly stylized anime look that helps meld the in-game visuals with the new anime cutscenes. It works wonderfully, though not without cost. At times, the game can drop to a choppy mess, particularly when in boss fights or when things are especially heated – probably the worst time it could do so, and the hit does affect gameplay, sadly. Fortunately, the occurrences are rare, and the rest of the game slides along with nary a hitch.
I've already mentioned the abhorrent voice work for the game, and it bears repeating; ZOE2 has disgustingly bad voice work, not so much because of the performances, though those are uneven and oddly mismatched at times (calm deliveries when there should be more emotion, and vice-versa), but mainly because the translation seems to have come out of the result of running the script through Babelfish. The voice acting makes it that much worse because the lines are read as if they were completely intelligible. Most of the cutscenes have the feel of a bad anime fansub, and when someone who can count the number of anime movies they've seen on both hands notices this, there's something wrong.
This is even weirder when paired up against the rest of the audio, since both the music and effects are absolutely stellar. Even the way the vibration in the controller works, though itself not really an audio factor, helps to seal in the immersive feeling that the voices try so hard to destroy. The music is an incredible mix of thumping techno loops and operetta-style falsetto notes. The mix works, and often the jump from a powerful cutscene to the action is carried off with a butter smooth transition from slower, more expressive movements to a more driven metronome. It's great stuff, and when coupled with the soft explosion and hit effects, it creates a fantastic organic feeling to the audio, as if it were itself a character. This is something that's regularly seen in a great movie, but usually even that's relegated to the score, not the effects too. Kudos to the audio team for such a great job.
Overall, ZOE does a fantastic job of telling a simple story of a man coming to terms with his past, and donning the mantle of responsibility and owning up to his mistakes. It does so with a risky animated approach, but the overall effect is just so polished that you can't help but accept it. As interesting as ZOE was to look at, it lacked any real depth, which ZOE2 seems to make up for and then some. It's still a rather short experience, clocking in at about 10 hours for the average player, but there are some extras in the form of VR-style missions and the option to revisit boss battles as different characters. You'll obviously have to like ZOE2's gameplay a whole lot to keep going, but with things as refined as they are, that's not difficult to do. It might be a little light on content for the full price, but if you're a fan of eye candy, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better source of pupil fodder on the PS2.
