Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 Review

Back in April, I posted up an older review of mine in which I gave my thoughts on the very drab Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2. Well, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 has been released and I'm happy to say it's nothing like the latter... it's heads-and-tails better than its predecessor.

As I'd mentioned in the previous games review, I'm a pretty big Gundam fan. That made this purchase hard to justify in the beginning because the last game was such a huge let-down. I'm happy I dared to grab it -- even though I did buy pre-owned -- because it's been an excellent experience.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 lends itself more to the older generation of "musuo" titles with proper objective based gameplay rather than the 'hack-and-slash until everything's dead' style. This new style of play, even though relatively simple opens a whole new style of play instead of dealing with the monotony of the previous iterations.

In Gundam 3, the premise is to fight for various segments of the map. Defeating a certain amount of enemies in each segment will place allied forces in control of that particular area and they will attempt to keep that area at all costs. Taking over each segment of the map will cause a boss to spawn against the player and their forces. Upon defeating the boss, control of the map become's the allied forces.

While the gameplay change is rather simple in premise, it makes for a much more interesting play-through, especially when the game spices it up a little more by adding mini-bosses, items to protect and other cool mini-objectives to take care off.

I love the fact that the game no longer feels like some hack-and-slash drivel that aimed to only have players mow down thousands of enemies at a time. Finally, there's proper strategic play where holding all bases can be a hard task considering the player's forces can be beaten back into submission by the computer controlled enemies.

Completing missions will yield experience points which empowers the character's in-game. There's also the possibility of modifying and upgrading Gundam parts to make the rig's either more powerful or playable in a particular style.

With 70 Mobile Suits (the name of Gundam's in the series), you're in no way starved for choice. Each Gundam is different with various strengths and weaknesses and it will be the task of the player to manage their shortcomings and make appropriate upgrades to take those issues.

I praised Gundam 2 for excellent Gundam graphics. This time, I praise Gundam 3 for excellent graphics all-round. Koei have switched to a cel-shaded engine which makes the graphics look more like they've been ripped directly from the Gundam anime. The maps are a hell of a lot better too as they're now fully fleshed out areas rather than huge blank canvases.

The character animations feel more fluid than the previous outing. Upon doing Gundam finishing blows, I felt the force and the intricate movements inherent to that Gundam's style. Koei have made huge strides to make the series shift towards what players have seen in the anime properties over the years and I'm truly loving this new feel.

Unfortunately, there are still some issues that Koei have failed to address. Simply put... the storyline in-game still makes little sense to anyone but die-hard Gundam fans. The one-liners and nonsensical dialogue is enough to make sure that no story is enjoyed there-in.

The camera is still rather jittery leading to some very unique situations where I couldn't see what the hell I was hitting. Even though it's not a huge imposition and doesn't break the gameplay entirely, it still needs addressed in future titles.

The English voice acting is still a complete drag and I don't understand why the voice actor's can't get themselves in-gear to make the game at least more compelling. Luckily, Koei included the Japanese voice track this time so it's a no-brainer to play it in Japanese with subtitles.

For the first time ever, Gundam series music has invaded this series of games. It was a real thrill to hear the old ballads cheering me on as I took down the hordes of enemies in the game.

If you happen to be a Gundam fan that was on the fence after the previous games shortcoming's, don't feel afraid to jump in head first here. This is a truly worthy addition to anyone's Gundam collection and shouldn't be missed for the world.

If you're still unsure, renting would probably be a good move. No matter what you choose, you'll find your Gundam fix in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3.

• musuo = All Dynasty Warrior and spin-off games.
• I didn't get a chance to try the multiplayer as when I looked for a game... no one was there!