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[CarlosX360]

I just find the whole gameplay to be utterly lacking. There is no satisfaction from destroying enemies; whatever impact you do feels like it barely registers and most fights feel like a blur of way too much stuff happening at once (mostly due to the [purposefully excellent, I'll give it that] auto lock-on and all the fancy explosions and effects going on).

ONCE again, FINISH the game.

THEN, come back.

You haven't seen shit yet, get all the upgrades, and decide for yourself.

that's the problem with gamers nowadays. Devs give them easy games, they bitch, they moan about easy, repetitive gameplays. Devs give them harder games, they bitch, they moan about them being too hard

You got that right.

 

[mr_nothin]

no satisfaction? try again with harder difficulty....*sighs*

that's the problem with gamers nowadays. Devs give them easy games, they bitch, they moan about easy, repetitive gameplays. Devs give them harder games, they bitch, they moan about them being too hard

Now that's a bingo, and is also why I put games on HARD or Very hard from the beginning, I dont bother with normal modes.

Growing up on 16-32 bit games has made today's games on "normal" seem like very easy.
Megaman anybody?
Contra
Metroid

I miss difficulty

ONCE again, FINISH the game.

THEN, come back.

You haven't seen shit yet, get all the upgrades, and decide for yourself.

Did he just get the game or something?
With all of those diff types of weapons, how can he say its not satisfying?
LOL, i kno he's not talking about the lasers and pee shooters that you have by default:lol :lol

 

[mr_nothin]

DP

 

[CarlosX360]

Did he just get the game or something?
With all of those diff types of weapons, how can he say its not satisfying?
LOL, i kno he's not talking about the lasers and pee shooters that you have by default:lol :lol

I dunno. He said he replayed the game only recently after ages, I think.

I bought mine when it came out, I played through the game, and walked away satisfied.

I love mech games like this, and top it off with the fact that I'm a action fan, wether its a movie, or a game.

That's why I love Devil May Cry 3, and 2nd Runner.

 

[Roarer]

I don't mind difficult games; I have played Viewtiful Joe, Gradius 5, Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry and I love them all.

I guess I'm struggling to convey what bothers me about ZOE 2. Like I said, controls are one thing, but the main factor is that it just isn't much fun. You see, In DMC I really feel like a bad-ass half-demon beating shit up, but in ZOE 2, I just feel like a guy pressing random buttons on a controller.

Anyway, I'll be giving it at least one more go and see if it picks up.

 

[Dahbomb]

The feel of bad assery is just as high in ZOE2 if you know what you are doing. Watch the videos a while back, there is nothing more bad ass than grabbing a flying enemy, using it as a shield, filling it up with your energy, spin it around in a vortex and then toss it at the enemies to make it explode + energy that you stored in it. Then there is stuff like releasing a swarm of Homing Missiles in a group of enemies and just destroying them with little effort.

I never understood what exactly people had problem in with ZOE2 control wise. The auto-lock on works great, you have near full control over your mech in every direction and the Lasers-Swords work great in combination. The only real draw back is having to continuously tap R2 to move around quickly between enemies and places, dash is a bit TOO essential to ZOE2 game play.

 

[pj]

I'm about 5 hours in now and I have to say I agree with Darunia and Roarer. It starts out REALLY slow (walking forward in an empty canyon for 2 minutes wtf), has a terrible translation and terrible camera. The biggest problem, though, is the lack of attack buttons. You get all these awesome powers, but you can only use one at a time, and having to stop the action to switch them really takes me out of the experience. I think they should have replaced up and down dash with two more assignable slots that could only be set in the pause menu, and leave the circle move dynamically assignable.

I've gotten into that sweet spot where I'm really kicking ass and loving the game, but it's only happened a few times, and for every one of those, there's two instances where I feel the game is being cheap or the camera is making the game harder than it should be.

 

[Guy LeDouche]

I got it when it came out but never played more than 5 minutes.

I spent about 45 minutes on it today and it's pretty good, but I've already died a half dozen times on Normal difficulty. I need to get smoother in combat. Any tips? Should I be defensive minded until I upgrade alot? I tend to run into a fray, energy-sword swinging and that hasn't worked out too well.

 

[BocoDragon]

The feel of bad assery is just as high in ZOE2 if you know what you are doing. Watch the videos a while back, there is nothing more bad ass than grabbing a flying enemy, using it as a shield, filling it up with your energy, spin it around in a vortex and then toss it at the enemies to make it explode + energy that you stored in it. Then there is stuff like releasing a swarm of Homing Missiles in a group of enemies and just destroying them with little effort.

I never understood what exactly people had problem in with ZOE2 control wise. The auto-lock on works great, you have near full control over your mech in every direction and the Lasers-Swords work great in combination. The only real draw back is having to continuously tap R2 to move around quickly between enemies and places, dash is a bit TOO essential to ZOE2 game play.

I hear you brother. From the sound of things you are just as clueless about these reactions as I am.

 

[pj]

Just beat it. I like how many extra missions there are, but I think you should have been able to access those before you beat the game..

 

[Dahbomb]

I got it when it came out but never played more than 5 minutes.

I spent about 45 minutes on it today and it's pretty good, but I've already died a half dozen times on Normal difficulty. I need to get smoother in combat. Any tips? Should I be defensive minded until I upgrade alot? I tend to run into a fray, energy-sword swinging and that hasn't worked out too well.

Use Dashes a lot and use Burst finisher on every combo (unblockable and very powerful). You shouldn't hold down R2 but rather tap in quick successions. Unleash Lasers at long range always, in fact whore them out (free/unlimited). After doing homing lasers, wait for the enemies to block it then quick dash in and start slashing. They will block those too but finish the last hit with a Burst slash (for the last [] hit, hold R2 for a brief time and then press []). You will do a powerful 360 slash. Practice this combo set up and you will be able to take down even tough bosses with this. For general evasion in close proximity, quick tap back + R2 + Triangle or X which will cause you to do a Roll up or Down.

Oh and Grab a lot and start mashing away at O. You are fairly invincible during the spinning animation and anything that connects with the spins gets damaged so use it often in a time spot.

 

[Fady K]

Reading this thread reminds me that, sometimes, no matter how awesome a game is, there will always be people who bash it, or people who dont like it at all. Thats the way life is i guess.

I mean the Halo series were praised so well yet I thought it was good, and not excellent.

 

[BocoDragon]

Reading this thread reminds me that, sometimes, no matter how awesome a game is, there will always be people who bash it, or people who dont like it at all. Thats the way life is i guess.

Quite true.

I'm shocked that anyone could consider ZOE2 less than one of the most unique and visceral games available, but to each his own, I guess.

 

[Fady K]

Quite true.

I'm shocked that anyone could consider ZOE2 less than one of the most unique and visceral games available, but to each his own, I guess.

Seriously.

 

[Jcgamer60]

Still haven't restocked?..

 

[brandonh83]

ZOE2 is a blast to play, it's pretty, very intense, has a great soundtrack, and a cool narrative. Really I mean I'm not sure what's not to like.

 

[MickeyKnox]

UPS just gave me my copy.

 

[Dahbomb]

WTF they removed ZOE2 from the site completely!

 

[Zaptruder]

Grabbing enemies in this game is the I WIN button.

Much more effective then swiping at them anyway.

 

[Buffy4ever]

I never knew Konami's site sold games. I have had Zoe 2 ever since I bought it form ToyrUS for $10.00. I did get Metal gear Solid: Twin snakes from the site. a new shrinkwrapped goes for $30.00 on E-bay, and $50.00 at amazon. Even the Player's choice version is hard to find. I thought the shipping was high, but I got the game quickly with UPS. good job Konami

 

[Tsubaki]

Anubis Zone of Enders Special Edition
Action - PS2
Backup memory - 5 save slots
1-2 player

I've never played the first ZOE. But maybe that's a good thing, because no one really talked about it aside from the MGS2 demo bundled with it. That all changed with ZOE2. I'm not sure what Kojima changed in the sequel, but people began to take notice. I had the chance to finally play through Anubis ZOE Special Edition. Anubis ZOE is the Japanese name of the title (ZOE the 2nd Runner is the US title), and the Special Edition refers to the bonus content, extra difficulty levels, extra missions, versus mode, etc that was added to the budget rerelease. This is one cool game! But being a cool game and being a good game are totally different things.

Anubis has some of the slickest visuals I've seen in a game. The CG mecha cut scenes are action-packed and meticulously directed. The actual game visuals are no less impressive, with explosions, laser showers and enemies surrounding you. The craziest weapon in the game forms in real-time around your mecha as you charge it for 20 or so seconds. Everything oozes style.

The actual game ain't too shabby either. It's advertised as high speed mecha action, and that's exactly what it is. You have full freedom to fly in any direction - left analog to position, R2 to dash/fly, and ascend/descend buttons. The controls are fluid and very intuitive. There is a lock-on cursor that directs your attacks to specific enemies, so that your camera is directed toward where the enemies are. This is extremely helpful because fast moving enemies will fly all over the place and you need to be able to locate them quickly if you're taking them down. Boss battles are also very clever. Most of them require deciphering their pattern and figuring out weaknesses. This is just the way I love my boss battles.

With all these things going for it, what went wrong?

It all comes down to the core of the gameplay. It really isn't particularly interesting. Maybe it's because I haven't played too many 3D action games, but I can't help comparing ZOE2 to Ninja Gaiden Black. I get a similar vibe from both of them. Problem is, ZOE2 is vastly inferior. The action in Anubis is limited mostly to a single attack button. There is a sub-weapon button too, but those aren't usually used in conjunction with your main attack. For ranged combat, your choices are a homing laser or a energy shot. For melee combat, you have a sword that's good for a combo consisting of button mashing the attack button 4x. The gameplay is too simple for its own good. In fact, there's not a whole lot to do in the game aside from button-mash the attack & dash buttons all the way through.

Some other irritations come with the camera. Because of the lock-on system, your camera is always centered on an enemy. It's helpful when you're actively unleashing an offensive attack to kill an enemy. But there were instances where I wished to have my free camera back so I could avoid flying into traps. There are some parts of game where you could get killed by the environment. But if your camera is locked in on an enemy, you're not able to fly correctly. That is, your controller motions only navigate your mech with respect to your enemy. Not with respect to your physical coordinates, so while taking down an enemy, you could end up being crushed by enclosing walls and not see it coming. Another annoyance is when you first start playing the game, there are cut scenes every 10 seconds. I like cut scenes and all but come on! Let me play the game! These little issues aren't game-breakers. Just annoyances.

Still, Anubis Zone of Enders is a well-executed game overall. My main concern is the gameplay isn't all that great. With the lack of depth in the action, there isn't much to do but push the same two buttons over and over again. The bosses are definitely the highlight of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed those battles, and am curious to see how things change on higher difficulties. But even fun boss fights and nice visuals can't save Anubis from being a (well-executed) mediocre experience.

 

[KTallguy]

The action in Anubis is limited mostly to a single attack button. There is a sub-weapon button too, but those aren't usually used in conjunction with your main attack. For ranged combat, your choices are a homing laser or a energy shot. For melee combat, you have a sword that's good for a combo consisting of button mashing the attack button 4x. The gameplay is too simple for its own good. In fact, there's not a whole lot to do in the game aside from button-mash the attack & dash buttons all the way through.

There are a lot more attack options than you mentioned. Throwing is very important when enemies start to block. Knocking enemies into walls is equally important, or ripping off pieces of the environment to deflect or block shots.

There are many subweapons that you can use in conjunction with your main attacks. The most obvious being 0-Shift, but then there's mines (That you can pick up and throw), phanalax, gauntlet (probably the most useful and overpowered), homing missiles, etc. The game doesn't force you to use all of these weapons, but when the game starts to get harder (and it does get really tough if you play it on hard), stringing together attacks using subweapons is very important, as well as proper movement.

 

[Tsubaki]

There are a lot more attack options than you mentioned. Throwing is very important when enemies start to block. Knocking enemies into walls is equally important, or ripping off pieces of the environment to deflect or block shots.

There are many subweapons that you can use in conjunction with your main attacks. The most obvious being 0-Shift, but then there's mines (That you can pick up and throw), phanalax, gauntlet (probably the most useful and overpowered), homing missiles, etc. The game doesn't force you to use all of these weapons, but when the game starts to get harder (and it does get really tough if you play it on hard), stringing together attacks using subweapons is very important, as well as proper movement.

Oh actually you're right about that. I can't believe I forgot about those things when I wrote it. But it still doesn't change how I feel about the game overall. Too simplistic for my tastes.

I will probably try playing through it on harder difficulties at a later point (especially since the Special Edition has 5!) to see if I enjoy it more.