Ever since Sony released the first HD collection for God of War, gamers have been begging for their favorite series to come back in glorious HD. Over time a number of these requests have been answered, but some like Shenmue seem like a hopeless fight. This was till Zone of the Enders HD Collection was announced, which was another title many gave up on seeing again. With both games in HD, updated controls, trophies / achievements for one affordable price, can Zone of the Enders live up to the hype or is it another disservice like the Silent Hill Collection.
Let’s check out what’s HOT and what’s NOT in our review of Zone of the Enders HD Collection.
HOT
Best in the Genre
Due to the popularity of series like Mobile Suit Gundam, we’ve seen a number of robot space battle games. While some of these games can be fun, they can also be quite hard to play or control the mech. However, Zone of the Enders has a very simple and easy to learn system, which makes the game a blast to play. Since you can control only the most basic of tasks, you shouldn’t have too many problems getting your suit to do what you want. For instance, you will switch between lasers and melee attacks based off your distance from an enemy, so it’s pretty easy to pick up. You can further expand your options with a number of sub weapons, though many of these are highly situational. Obviously you’re not going to use a machine gun at range, just like you wouldn’t use the sniper at close range, but you’re free to do so if that’s how you want to play.
Includes Demo for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
One of the jokes with Zone of the Enders was that many people bought it for the demo of Metal Gear Solid 2. This joke continues on with Zone of the Enders HD Collection, since it includes a demo for the upcoming Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The demo is about 30 minutes long, with a few fairly lengthy cutscenes. It also includes a pretty epic boss fight, so it’s a nice little bonus if you can’t wait to see what Rising has to offer.
NOT
Some Scenes Look Sub HD
Despite this being called Zone of the Enders HD Collection, many of the games cutscenes look fairly low quality. This was more of a problem with the original game, though there were some pixelated / poorly done scenes in the second too. Thankfully they’re limited to cutscenes, but these can be very annoying if you’re expecting the same quality seen in other HD Collections. With this being said, the in game looks fantastic. The environments are vivid and the designs are quite clean, though it makes the cutscenes more apparent.
