Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 Review

Customization
Past Dynasty Warriors game have let you choose from a massive roster of characters. While this is still true here, there are options to personalize your experience a little more. Pilots and mobile suits can be chosen independently once you have obtained the proper license for the suit. Furthermore, upgrades can be applied to each Mobile Suit’s stats depending on their number of upgrade slots. This means that you may only upgrade a certain amount of stats out of the total possible due to the limitations of your available slots. As we well know, this is normal for most RPG style games. Even better, you’ll constantly be unlocking new suits, or better variations of current ones, by collecting Plans for them. This allows you to try out more suits as well as seeing which combination of suit and upgrades works best for you.

Online Co-op
For those that wish to induct their friends into their ranks, there’s an online cooperative option. Online co-op is comprised of 15 missions that can be played by up to four players. So now you and your Gundamigos (yeah, I said it) can wipe entire armies out of existence as you plow through more aggressive waves of enemies. This is the route to take for those who are willing to trade in the glory of a one man army for a squad of ultimate death and destruction.

NOT

Repetitive
I bet you didn’t see this one coming. Seriously though. Why don’t they just call this game the Clone Wars? Variety is the spice of life and Gundam 3 is missing this key ingredient. This recipe is mild at best and I’m pretty sure everyone has had their fill of it by now. Do you want to know how to dispatch an entire army in under 10 minutes? Well, it’s quite easy I assure you. Spam that attack button until your thumb bleeds and then spam it some more. That, my friends, is the key to victory in this game (that and your enemies don’t feel like fighting back half of the time). Maybe I’m oversimplifying it, but it isn’t far from the truth. While there are different attack options, such as the ones listed above, the game slowly devolves into mindless button mashing for hours on end. Some sanity can be saved by playing in shorter bursts, but don’t expect to see less of the usual when you return to the game. Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 feel like nothing more than a robotic genocide that you’ll be partaking in directly on the front lines over the course of 300 missions. While there is some fun to be had by fans through the historic missions, it really only comes in the form of geeking out at playing different parts of the series. Otherwise, you’ll just be doing the same thing over and over. If that wasn’t enough, be prepared to hear the same bits of dialogue repeated countless times throughout the game. It’s enough to drive anyone mad.

Story
Unless you already have some knowledge of the Gundam universe or watch the show, the story is most likely to elude you and this is mainly because it is non-existent. Little pieces of narrative or thrown in here and there between characters to attempt to create the illusion of a cohesive story, but that’s not the case. Chances are, as previously mentioned, you are either in this game for the mindless killing or you’re dying to jump in a Mobile Suit AND THEN embark on your quest of mindless killing.

AI
When fighting an enemy, it is usually more entertaining when the enemy fights back. Sometimes you’ll come across groups of enemies who can’t muster up the enthusiasm to swing back at you. Instead, they’re ready to take that laser sword straight to the chest; it is their destiny. Maybe after 25 games, the enemies in Dynasty Warriors understand that they are little more than mobile scenery for you to chop through until you reach the real target, who will actually return the assault.

Verdict

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 adds some flair with its new art style and deeper customization options, but besides that adds little to define itself in this ever-expanding franchise. Killing the same enemies in the same way in a repetitive motion is what this game is about. If you’ve liked the series so far or love Gundam, then you’ll find very little to dislike this time around. The extensive customization and plethora of mobile suits will offer much to play around with for hours on end. Newcomers, however, won’t find much to entertain them after the initial feeling of power wears of from ripping through thousands of armored enemies, and this feeling fades fast. AI and story aside, repetition has been the strongest, consistent shortcoming of the Dynasty Warriors franchise. I could forgive the lack of story and possibly AI to some extent if the series stopped simply cashing out and added something new and innovative to show its growth over the years. The end result is average and what you’d expect. This game falls in line with the rest and that’s good or bad depending on which group listed above you fall into.

[Editor’s Note: Dynasty Warriors Gundam was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 hardware. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]