- Title: Guilty Gear 2: Overture
- Publisher: Aksys Games
- Developer: Arc System Works
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Action/RTS
- Pros: Online mode; hack n’ slash gameplay is fun
- Cons: Awful story; overly complicated gameplay
Guilty Gear has never really been known for its story, so having a game like Overture that could flesh out the universe a bit better was promising. It is a bit too complicated for its own good, however, and instead of drawing you into the world it just makes you confused. It is cool to see series regulars Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske take center stage in all of their new 3D glory, but the game also introduces a bunch of new characters that are kind of hard to really care about if you aren’t already deeply engrossed into the story (which most people outside of the super hardcore GG fans aren’t). You would think that if you are going to take a series in a new gameplay direction, you should at least keep most of the old cast intact to keep people interested.
Modes include the story mode, exhibition and free play, and training. The first several levels of the campaign also do a pretty good job of teaching you how to play the game before setting you loose on real missions. There is also an online mode, which is easily the best part of the package. It dumps the confusing story and unfair advantage that the CPU has in battle and just focuses on the gameplay. The players online are mostly from Japan and are crazy good since they have had the game for much longer, however, so watch out.
Gameplay
There are issues, however. The maps are very large, your troop A.I. is pretty poor, and the enemy A.I. is very aggressive, which makes managing everything very difficult. It also has to be noted that neither aspect of the game – the hack n’ slash or the RTS elements – are done all that well. On their own, they are kind of shallow, but when you try to do them both at once it is too complicated, if that makes any sense. The game would have been better off if it focused on just one part of it and made that great rather than trying to make a mash-up of genres. Honestly, a Guilty Gear hack n’ slash game with the speed of the 2D fighters and all of the characters and special moves would have been awesome, but instead we have this mess. It isn’t necessarily bad, it just could have been so much better.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, Guilty Gear 2: Overture is a letdown. The main characters are fairly detailed and it is especially nice to see Sol and Ky in 3D, but the rest of the game is only so-so. The biggest problem is that the battlefield gets very crowded with tons of enemies with health bars over each one and special attacks going off all over and it is just plain hard to actually see anything.The sound is similarly mediocre. The voice acting isn’t too bad, and I have always been a fan of Guilty Gear’s rock music soundtracks, but there isn’t really anything in Overture that stands out either good or bad.
Bottom Line
