The PlayStation 3 launched with backwards compatibility for PlayStation 2 games, but that feature was removed from later models. This means that many classic PS2 exclusive games can only be played by loving hardware nerds who kept their old consoles running through the current console generation. Because of this, those old games have gotten a stream of High Definition remakes for current gen consoles. Konami has released HD collections of franchises like Silent Hill and Metal Gear, but now they’ve added the lesser-known series Zone of the Enders to the HD pack. Zone of the Enders HD Collection contains both games in the series. One of them has held up well over the years, while the other is just a curiosity for Hideo Kojima fans.
The first Zone of the Enders was released in the first year that the PlayStation 2 was on the market, and it drew much attention because it was the new game from Hideo Kojima, the brilliant designer behind Metal Gear Solid. Today there is a swarm of Metal Gear games, but back in 2001 when Zone of the Enders arrived, Metal Gear Solid 2 was still months away. In fact, one of the big selling points for Zone of the Enders was that it came with a demo for Metal Gear Solid 2.
Many gamers viewed it as a delivery device for the Metal Gear demo, and frankly, they were right. Because Zone of the Enders wasn’t a good game, and high definition graphics don’t fix its problems.
It had button-mashing combat, a short campaign, and an annoying protagonist. One might suspect that the entire project was just a test for the game engine that would later be used to make Metal Gear Solid 2…
It was about a boy named Leo who lives on a space colony in the 22nd Century. When his colony is attacked, he stumbles into the cockpit of a giant robot. Instead of rejoicing over his good fortune, Leo actually spends the entire game whining about the fact that he’s now the owner of a super cool robo-mech.
This is part of a relentless message that “Killing is wrong“. Yes, Kojima-San, we agree that killing is bad, but Metal Gear Solid 3 had a much better way of getting that point across. Leo’s endless moralizing about hurting innocent bystanders just sucks the fun out of flying around in a giant robot.
Players help Leo pilot the ship through a series of battles against other giant robots where they button-mash away with an energy sword, and various projectiles. The mech, “Jehuty” slowly levels up over the course of the game, and there are a bunch of secondary weapons that can be discovered on the way. These extra abilities add a pinch of variety, but most of them aren’t as good as Jehuty’s basic attacks, and players are likely to hammer their way through the game using only a few of the weapons at hand.
The first Zone of the Enders wasn’t a terrible game, but it wasn’t remarkable either. Eleven years later, it hasn’t held up well at all, especially in terms of the animation used for cutscenes. The HD collection definitely improves the visuals for the actual gameplay, but the cutscenes are more dated than ever.
The second game in this collection, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, overcame many of the problems the first game had. This time, the designers used anime for the cutscenes instead of the primitive 3D computer animation seen in the first game. In between cutscenes, the visual design has an anime look too, and these graphics fare much better in the HD collection.
In Z.O.E. 2, the same robot returns, but this time with a new pilot. The hero in Z.O.E. 2 is an adult who is badly injured and can’t survive without the life-support system built into Jehuty. He’s reluctantly pressed into service working for the bad guys, and he STILL doesn’t whine about it as much as Leo!
The robot has powerful attacks at the start of the game, plus a combo system, and more options for interacting with the environment. Here, players can get into intense action much earlier, and have a wider variety of ways to take on enemies.
The first game was plagued with a “Baby’s First Gundam” tutorial that took far too long to get through, and had way too much chatter from the unlikeable protagonist. In part two, the story and pacing are better, and it’s more challenging too. Players will have to use all of their abilities to survive.
Even when it was released, the second game had vastly superior graphics to the first game, and the same is true with the HD Collection. Players grabbing this collection might want to endure the first game, but the really fun starts with part 2.
Once again, Zone of Enders comes packaged with a demo of the next Metal Gear game. The HD collection has a demo disk of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance which lets players run around as a cyborg ninja for around an hour. Check out our preview of that game later this week.
Zone of the Enders HD Collection is available now for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
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