Official Score
Overall
Lastly I just want to mention that I didn't run into any technical problems outside of when I was playing online. No crashes and no frame drops. The game is dubbed, just not very well. I don't normally say this, but you might want to put the English subtitles on for this one.
God Eater 2: Rage Burst brings an anime-like Monster Hunter game to consoles. Does the game hold up, or should you pass? Check out our God Eater 2: Rage Burst review to help you make your choice.
God Eater 2 Rage Burst Review
Full disclosure: I have never seen the anime series.
The story of God Eater takes place in a world that has been taken over by creatures called Aragami. You come in as a new God Eater in the Blood Unit, a special force designed to take down these Aragami. After creating your character, you are equipped with your God Arc weapon and tossed right into training. A God Arc is the only weapon capable of bringing down Aragami, and only a select few can use it in battle. You are, of course, one of those select few. As a member of the Blood Unit, it is your job to go out and hunt Aragmi with other members. Your squad starts out small, but as you go through the game it grows and more options become available. As the story progresses, you learn more about the characters in your unit and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Forming the Blood Unit eventually becomes the back bone of the story.
Combat makes up the bulk of God Eater 2’s content, which has players taking on missions to slay Aragami. Fighting the Aragami involves both guns and blades for a God Eater and you can freely switch between them in battle. Melee involves basic combos of quick and heavy attacks while shooting offers elemental damage types. I started with a melee build, but quickly switched to both as the Aragami began to run off to heal more often. Choosing the right elemental bullets for an enemy can make a huge difference in combat.
Back at the base, you can use materials you earn from battles to upgrade equipment and forge new equipment as well. Most of the early crafting doesn’t take many materials so you can experiment with the various types of melee weapons and different gun types with ease. As the game goes on, you will need to do some grinding or play specific missions in order to find the materials you want for a new weapon. There are also tickets you can use to exchange for rarer materials and you can even craft materials from other materials as well. Switching up melee weapons based on what you are fighting can be a real game changer, if you bring the wrong weapon, you might actually end up healing the enemy you are trying to bring down. Thankfully, the game normally points out which weapon or element you should try using against an enemy. You can also change your clothes buy crafting new ones or purchasing them from the store in game.
Unfortunately, the game’s camera has trouble keeping up with the action. When you are fighting at range it works as it should. It’s when you get up close to face enemies with melee attacks or they rush that things get bad. There is a lock-on system that you can use to target enemies. With the bigger enemies, this can result in the camera going wonky. The camera tries to correct itself by putting the viewing angle behind you most of the time. The problem is, you are often fighting in tight corridors or near walls and it cuts into the wall and messes up with your viewing angle. Other times you are fighting multiple monsters and it will go right into one of them, completely blocking your view. It happens way more often than it should, even when not locked on to enemies.
The game does support multiplayer capabilities. There are a few training missions you cannot do online, but most options are available. This helps to make up for the messy camera and lackluster AI. There are also later missions that you can take on that require multiple players. I did run into a couple of problems online. I got a few time outs in different lobbies while I was playing. Also I had a hard time finding lobbies when I was looking. The game has been out a little less than a week and I was having a hard time finding a match online. This was done on the PlayStation 4 so the PC might be better.
Lastly I just want to mention that I didn’t run into any technical problems outside of when I was playing online. No crashes and no frame drops. The game is dubbed, just not very well. I don’t normally say this, but you might want to put the English subtitles on for this one.
Overall the game is okay but nothing really sets it apart from other games like it. If you are a fan of the series you might want to pick it up, if not you may just want to avoid this one.
