Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire
Whatever you do, don't get caught in the Crossfire.
Published: November 28, 2006
The PlayStation 3 launch lineup has shrunk considerably in the past couple months. What was supposed be a 20-something-strong collection of games that covered nearly every genre dropped by almost half. Part of this was because either Sony or the games' publishers/developers (or both) decided it would be in the best interest to both them and the consumers to give the games more time. Gundam: Crossfire needed more time. It needed a lot more time.
It's an unequivocal rule of console launches: there has to be a truly crappy game. For the PSP, it was either Dynasty Warriors or Rengoku depending on who you talked to, and for the PS3... oh, it's a shoe-in: Crossfire blows. It's funny, too, because there's some serious would-be competition: Untold Legends, Genji -- even Project 8 could be considered a bust given how gimped it is. But no, Gundam trounces them all, crapping all over the source material with a choppy, unplayable mess.
Tucked into the Gundam timeline just after the One Year War, the setup for the game is supposed to be the forces of the Earth Federation building themselves an experimental Gundam unit to battle the secessionist Zeonic forces' superior firepower (you'll play both sides, often in the same areas). Almost immediately, though, it's made rather obvious that the storyline is an afterthought, as missions are doled out with little in the way of references to the timeline or overarching storyline. Instead, they're piecemeal affairs that give you a half-assed reason for heading out save for the promise of plenty of sluggish controls.
And hooboy, they are sluggish, but it's the one-two punch of these same delayed reactions and a camera that's entirely disconnected from the rest of the controls that really mess things up. Part of it is just that your mobile suits are controlled entirely by the left analog stick, meaning you can effectively spin in place before heading out in a particular direction. This was no doubt meant to allow for quick changes in direction, but nothing about Crossfire is quick. In fact, it's quite the opposite in nearly every way.
Bungling your way through a string of ill-motivated missions is bad enough with the controls, but it must be said that whether because of the controls or just the odds themselves, the missions -- even early on -- can be quite hard. See, you're given the opportunity to stock up on new weapons like beams and rocket launchers, and the projectile attacks along with the R2 button for sniping shots, are the way you'll end up taking most enemies out. You'll also be slamming on the L1 button to hold a lock on enemies while you use the mobile suits' boost packs to get around in small bursts.
If you can get in range and feel like letting enemies plink away at your armor while you struggle with the controls, you can use the Triangle Button to unleash a close-range melee attack. These actually do the most damage and feel the most satisfying, but the collision detection means you'll either be slicing at air because the enemy took a step or two to the left or right, or you'll hit them when they seem well out of range of your hits.
If you feel really lucky, you can combine the boost and a slice of your melee weapon to see if you can connect with an enemy square on their head/torso. See, one of the big areas that Bandai was eager to pimp was location-specific damage, and it's true -- throw enough shots (or just one or two swings of your melee weapon) at a particular part of an enemy and you'll see that arm, leg or head blow off (pilots sit in the torso, and losing a head means no more radar). The idea is that you can train your fire on one enemy, cripple them and then, if need be, move onto other threats so you aren't getting a back full of lead.
It's an unequivocal rule of console launches: there has to be a truly crappy game. For the PSP, it was either Dynasty Warriors or Rengoku depending on who you talked to, and for the PS3... oh, it's a shoe-in: Crossfire blows. It's funny, too, because there's some serious would-be competition: Untold Legends, Genji -- even Project 8 could be considered a bust given how gimped it is. But no, Gundam trounces them all, crapping all over the source material with a choppy, unplayable mess.
Tucked into the Gundam timeline just after the One Year War, the setup for the game is supposed to be the forces of the Earth Federation building themselves an experimental Gundam unit to battle the secessionist Zeonic forces' superior firepower (you'll play both sides, often in the same areas). Almost immediately, though, it's made rather obvious that the storyline is an afterthought, as missions are doled out with little in the way of references to the timeline or overarching storyline. Instead, they're piecemeal affairs that give you a half-assed reason for heading out save for the promise of plenty of sluggish controls.
And hooboy, they are sluggish, but it's the one-two punch of these same delayed reactions and a camera that's entirely disconnected from the rest of the controls that really mess things up. Part of it is just that your mobile suits are controlled entirely by the left analog stick, meaning you can effectively spin in place before heading out in a particular direction. This was no doubt meant to allow for quick changes in direction, but nothing about Crossfire is quick. In fact, it's quite the opposite in nearly every way.
Bungling your way through a string of ill-motivated missions is bad enough with the controls, but it must be said that whether because of the controls or just the odds themselves, the missions -- even early on -- can be quite hard. See, you're given the opportunity to stock up on new weapons like beams and rocket launchers, and the projectile attacks along with the R2 button for sniping shots, are the way you'll end up taking most enemies out. You'll also be slamming on the L1 button to hold a lock on enemies while you use the mobile suits' boost packs to get around in small bursts.
If you can get in range and feel like letting enemies plink away at your armor while you struggle with the controls, you can use the Triangle Button to unleash a close-range melee attack. These actually do the most damage and feel the most satisfying, but the collision detection means you'll either be slicing at air because the enemy took a step or two to the left or right, or you'll hit them when they seem well out of range of your hits.
If you feel really lucky, you can combine the boost and a slice of your melee weapon to see if you can connect with an enemy square on their head/torso. See, one of the big areas that Bandai was eager to pimp was location-specific damage, and it's true -- throw enough shots (or just one or two swings of your melee weapon) at a particular part of an enemy and you'll see that arm, leg or head blow off (pilots sit in the torso, and losing a head means no more radar). The idea is that you can train your fire on one enemy, cripple them and then, if need be, move onto other threats so you aren't getting a back full of lead.
