Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

Contrary to those games which you have to maneuver bulky slow robots on assorted `whatever' missions, Zone of the Enders -The Second Runner- is a high speed robot action game that will blow your mind away. For those Metal Gear Solid (MGS) fans and for those who enjoyed the first Zone of the Enders (ZOE), Zone of the Enders -The Second Runner- is a must in this saga. This is another true prodigy of Hideo Kojima's genius. The game starts out with the main character Dingo working for a mining company operating a basic mining mech. While mining one day he stumbles across a large box, which turns out to contain the Orbital Frame Jehuty. With an attack imminent, Dingo is forced to board Jehuty and fight back. What follows then is a journey to revisit the demons of his past, and an eventual showdown with Anubis, another Orbital Frame as powerful as Jehuty. The story is well told throughout and presented in a high quality anime style with cut-scenes interrupting the action at certain points. It's a story full of twists, as Kojima's stories normally are. One of the features of the game is the high pace that it runs at. The 2nd Runner does several things to achieve this speed and urgency throughout. Firstly the narrative needs to drive the speed at which the game is played. It does this through a series of tight levels that interchange well between cut scenes and gameplay, keeping the player on a mostly linear journey. There are very few quiet points in the game. The player is constantly pushed to new areas of conflict, and this fits in well with the urgency presented in the storyline. It's a welcome change from a lot of games in which there is an urgent mission where the player is allowed to meander or explore, or go fishing. The fast, linear story works very well here. The soundtrack in The 2nd Runner is absolutely fantastic, pulling you in from the opening theme song. A mix of dance and more classical stylings, the music always seems to evoke the right emotion, and fit perfectly with both the battles and the changing storyline. Voice acting is generally very good throughout, although an option to have the original Japanese dialogue instead of the English would have been superb. Overall, the graphics are astounding to a degree that you would think a next-generation play station could only handle. It is a keeper and I love it.