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Attack on Titan 2 is out now and it will be known to most that I am a lover of anime. It will also be known to most that Attack on Titan was the best anime game that I have played so far. My hopes were therefore high for this sequel, even though I had lost a little bit of faith with the anime.
Attack on Titan is all about a normal world… a normal world where bloody big Titans (like a dumb human but 400x bigger) like to kill normal humans. Unfortunately, these massive titans are completely non-responsive to any sit-down talks (a bit like Kim Jong-Un), so therefore, your lifelong goal is to become a scout and ki -ll the titans by aiming carefully chosen blows onto the back of their heads. Of course, your character is a soldier, a scout and someone who is going to become the best.
My first, and biggest, problem with Attack on Titan 2 is that it’s exactly the same as the first game. I mean, I spent a good hour creating my character, then played through the similar training section. As soon as I finished that, I was expecting to kick straight into Season 2’s happenings… This wasn’t the case. Instead, the first 20 minutes pretty much replicated everything you did at the start of No1. I mean, what is the point of this? I understand a quick recap of the story, but not replaying the start of the game again?! The tutorial was unequivocally too hard and fidgety, and even when you *had* achieved what it was asking, you often didn’t have a clue how.
Unfortunately, this was also the case as I continued playing. The missions were the same missions, and even though they have introduced a few new moves – you still took down the titans the same way as before – it just all felt a little bit samey and that really frustrated me. You literally had to filter through around 80 percent of the same story to get to some new features!
Don’t get me wrong – in no way is Attack on Titan 2 a bad game. The gameplay is cool – you get to constantly swing around like Jumanji and use your equipment to move from place to place with high intensity. Saying this, you’ll find that the frame rate drops at key times of action and this can really affect things if your playing on the go. You get to fight a range of bad a -ss titans: aim at all their different body parts or just go straight in for the kill. The fights aren’t particularly hard and are more than manageable in normal mode. There are a range of different swords with which you can fight, and the master gamer will probably understand how they change your approach to each fight. Similar to the newly added sneak approach which, I am sure, would be great for some people but I really couldn’t find myself hyped about. I love the full-on attack to battle, not fan -nying around, flirting with the titan before I am going to slash his nape.
Graphically, Attack on Titan 2 is exactly how an anime game should look. Style and class oozes and the cel-shaded visuals make you forget that you’re playing, and trick you into thinking that you’re watching! This means that a number of times, instead of being completely focused in the game, I fell asleep like I would whilst watching most shows… The explosions and action scenes look fantastic and the titans are so accurate they scared the living daylights out of me. The grounds (city) looks exactly how you would expect, and even though they are the dull brown, this fits with the anime and adds to its authenticity. At no point did I see any glitch or saw an anomaly which looked out of place. Once again, my main annoyance was that everything I was seeing was something that I had already seen in the first game…
Apart from the occasional time my wife entered the room, wondering what I was watching, the sound has been put together carefully. You will find the music matches the action perfectly. Deep in chat, you will be greeted by uplifting elevator music. Then, in the heat of the action, heavy rock will blast through your speakers and make you nearly forget that there are probably people speaking at the same time. It is worth mentioning that the sturdy voice acting is in Japanese (how else you would expect) and the dialogue you will need to focus on are subtitles. Every now and then, the characters make some kind of random squeal or grunt which gained my attention, but other than that, most of what you hear won’t make much sense (unless you understand Japanese).
Overall, what we have here is a good game, which is even better if you haven’t played the first one. It has a smart co-operative mode as well as an online mode, but to get to it, you’ll have to filter through half of the things that you would have done before if you had played the first. It has decent depth, and if you ensure you work through the slightly monotonous side missions, it could take you up to 30 hours to complete. It offers what an anime game should, but doesn’t extend much beyond the first game.
Attack on Titan 2 is out now on Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One, and click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Important info:
- Developer: Omega Force
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
- Players: single-player, multiplayer
- HD options: up to 1080p
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GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
8 8 7 6 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
I have been a video game player since 1993 and a music fan since I can remember. I studied Film and Journalism at university and ended up becoming a Primary School teacher. Video games changed my life and sent me on the right track and have stayed with me ever since.