Topic: Zone of the Enders HD Collection

Hello all. Just picked this up earlier today.

I'm rebuilding my 7th gen library, and I heard these games were pretty good, so I took a shot on them. Won't be able to try it out until later this week, though.

Anyone else play it?

@RR529: Never played it but actually saw this for $10 at Walmart but only on PS3 I was contemplating getting it as a Kojima joint you never know when these games may just vanish. Let me know how it goes for you.

@flameboy84, yeah, that's the price I picked it up for at GameStop.

I've only started the first game so far, but it's been a blast. The action is smooth, and a lot of abilities have opened up quick. It features a more vibrant look that creates a good looking sci-fi world that upscales well to HD.

There are a few signs of it's age, like some minor camera issues I had in a small corridor area, and the fact that the pre-rendered cutscenes haven't been touched up, but those are small gripes.

Beat game 1!

The Good:

• The combat is an absolute blast, and it makes you feel like a total bad*** in your mech. The fast paced action never got old.
• While not as creative as his MGS creations, the bosses were all fun & a real highlight. Out of the 5 or 6 of them, 4 of them are backended in an end of game gauntlet (you can save inbetween them), which creates an epic finale.
• The gameplay & in-engine cutscenes cleaned up real nice in HD. As it all takes place in the same city, there's not much variety environment wise, but I liked the aesthetic.

The Neutral:

• The special abilities you regularly obtain are hit & miss. Mummy (restores health) and the self explanatory Sniper & Decoy abilities were helpful, but I found that everything else didn't really seem to give me an edge that my basic attacks didn't (and your basic attacks are versatile).
• Story is typical, "S*** happens, so it's up to a teenager to pilot mech & save the city". Whether or not that's good depends on your preferences (I didn't mind it).

The Bad:

• As most of the bosses are backended, you'll spend most of your time fighting progressively stronger versions of the same 3 basic enemy types.
• There are only 10 Areas to travel between in the city (not counting the locations you go to in the linear end of game boss gauntlet), so there's lots of backtracking. A common tactic involves an obstacle you can't bypass in a new area, so you have to beat a new wave of enemies in one previous area to get a passcode, which allows you to activate an ability module you couldn't activate before in another previous area, which allows you to complete the new area.
• It's surprisingly short. I beat it in 5 hours, 20 minutes. This includes beating the 5 S.O.S. missions, which I think were optional.
• The pre-rendered cutscenes show their age, and are inconsistent with their remastering. Some look decent, while others don't look touched up at all.

Overall, I think it was a very fun game that just shows it's age in a few spots, and was maybe held back by it's lower budget "pet project" status.

I should note that I don't count the negatives very harshly. The basic combat was so fun, I really didn't mind the backtracking & few enemy types. As for the short length, it should be noted that it does feature a Versus Mode (unlocked after beating the game once), and after completing the game more than once/at different difficulties, you unlock boss characters to use in it, encouraging replays (that, and the original release included a MGS2 demo on the disc, I believe).

Nice posts @RR529. Convinced me to rent this soon.

@tylertreese, no problem.

Also, from what little I've played of it so far, the second game improves on everything.

• The already great combat has been improved & re-tweaked.
• Backtracking is non existent, as it opts for a completely linear, more action focused, level progression (each level looks set to end with a boss).
• The first two levels featured more basic enemy types than the entirety of the first game (they feature the three basic mech types seen in the first game, as well as swarms of small aircraft, and jumping frog-like mechs).
• Uses a more detailed, cel-shaded art style (with more varied environments) that looks gorgeous in HD.
• Any cut-scenes not done in-engine are anime, which cleaned up nicer than the pre-rendered ones in the first game.

That's just from the first two levels of the second game.

Finished up game 2! I'll be comparing it to the first (which you can read my impressions of above).

The Good:

• The already great combat system has been refined & rebalanced (I found melee attacks more useful in the first game, while ranged was much more useful here).
• Unlike the first game, I found use for every sub-weapon (even if it was just for one mission, or was later made redundant by a better sub-weapon). Heck, even the basic grab function (which I didn't even use in game 1) was required regularly here.
• There were more boss fights, which were more evenly spaced through the game, more interesting, and a bit more creative.
• Though I forgot to look at the final time, it lasted longer than the first game (I want to say my playtime was about double, but I also died more here).
• The Versus mode is open from the beginning, and after beating the game you unlock other extras, such as a Survival mode, Boss fight mode (can fight individually, or consecutively as a boss rush), & the ability to replay any mission in the game whenever you want (there are some modes I didn't unlock, and all these are dependent on what "EX Mission" chips you find during the main game).
• Has a deeper story.
• Has better graphics, with more location variety, and more appealing art style (all of which looks great in HD).
• Cut-scenes not done in-engine are anime, which cleaned up nicer than the first game's early CGI cut-scenes.

The Neutral:

• There are more varied mission types than the first game, and while most of them are cool (one where you singlehandedly take on a warship armada is awesome, as well as one where you face off against hundreds of foes on a battlefield), they also throw in a couple of escort missions.
• It has a completely linear progression. While I didn't mind it, I personally kind of missed the more open progression of the first game.
• I found it to be more difficult than the first game, so take that as you want (could also just be rebalanced, as the first game has 4 difficulty settings, while this only has 3. I played Normal in both).

The Bad:

• I found the lock on system to be a bit more akward here. Only a big issue in one particular boss fight, where you have to throw normal enemies at the boss to stun it. Since the boss "isn't a threat" while stunned, it always targets the nearest normal enemy after you stun the boss, so when you attack, you go boosting off in the direction of said enemy instead of attacking the vulnerable boss right in front of you (be sure to retarget the boss as soon as you stun it, to avoid this).

Overall I found it to be much improved over the first game, and the whole package for $10 is more than a fair price, IMO.