Within me are two wolves: the Gundam superfan and the yr one Overwatch enjoyer. Gundam Evolution (opens in new tab) has thrown these dormant forces into tragic battle, clashing beam sabers in a pitched battle for supremacy over my thoughts. There’s no getting round it—that is Gundam: Overwatch, with each mode, cell swimsuit, map, mechanic, and concept right here spinoff of Blizzard’s FPS.
After a couple of days of playtime, I can glibly report that Gundam Evolution doesn’t make you are feeling such as you’re piloting a Gundam (when you’re on the lookout for a nauseatingly trustworthy Gundam recreation, you’re higher holding out for Gundam: Battle Operation 2 dropping later this yr), however it nonetheless excels as a hero shooter, even when among the collection’ identification has been misplaced within the translation from anime to dwell service recreation.
My expertise with Gundam goes again a long time. I’ve seen virtually each Gundam present, learn a lot of the spin-off manga and novelizations, and when you confirmed me a random cell swimsuit, I’d most likely be capable of let you know what present it is from, if not the particular episode. In the event you’re unfamiliar with Gundam, assume Heinlein’s Starship Troopers novel with big robots and a few Freudian political drama. Gundam’s deeply interpersonal, anti-establishment tales have all the time translated awkwardly to motion video games. Gundam Evolution’s not the immersive, next-gen simulation followers have been holding out for for many years, however that it manages to channel even a little bit of that frenetic power by itself deserves is a major break from miserable custom.
There’s an actual toybox high quality to Gundam Evolution that may’t be understated right here. There are only a few hitscan weapons, the sound results are all lifted proper from the anime (the bassy “ka-chung” of the Zaku II’s monoeye zoom sounds chillingly good), and the swelling orchestral rating actually hits the Gundam Unicorn pleasure facilities in my mind.
The motion is clean and tight, usually requiring main your pictures with highly effective beam rifles and sputtery machine weapons. And goddamn, getting fifteen kills with the brutally oppressive Sazabi because the match goes into additional time feels simply nearly as good as these blitzkrieg payload runs from early Overwatch. On a superb run I do not really feel like I am within the cockpit, however I do really feel like I’ve possessed the physique of an ace pilot who’s, and that’s a robust excessive in its personal proper.
Gundam Evolution pulls from each Overwatch and Titanfall 2, with recharging dashes, skills on cooldown, and acquainted lane-based map design and goal recreation modes. A motley crew of big robots pulled from completely different Gundam exhibits comprise the “hero” lineup. There are no-brainer picks, like:
The enduring RX-78-2 from the 1979 Cellular Swimsuit Gundam (which you’ll have seen strolling round on the final olympics)Gundam Unicorn (sure, one other life-size statue in Japan. There are three.)Gundam Barbatos, a cat-like, demonically impressed glass-cannon from the latest Iron-Blooded Oprhans
There are additionally some actually deep cuts:
The Pale Rider (a Gundam possessed by a psychic ghost)Dozle Zabi’s Zaku II Praetorian Guard, who did as Praetorian Guard do by letting their boss die aloneThe weird, alien-looking Syd Mead-designed Mahiroo and Flip-A Gundam
My private favourite to date is the Asshimar, a unusual little cyclopian hamburger-shaped remodeling cell swimsuit that balances damage-over-time incendiary grenades with a punchy burst hearth rifle, in a position to successfully dive out and in of battle by briefly remodeling like a 40-ton McDonald’s toy.
The lineup broadly mirrors Overwatch archetypes of DPS, tank, healer, etcetera: The Pale Rider is a half-and-half mix of Tracer & Soldier 76, with a crunchy short-range SMG that mulches enemy fits and simply clears targets. The RX-78-2 performs like McCree, plinking targets at mid-range and doling out shut vary stun assaults with a really ’70’s mecha ball and chain. The Sazabi positively feels closest to its on-screen counterpart in Char’s Counterattack, a deceptively quick technical tank with monstrous protection that focuses on space denial and goal holding. The Sazabi can shut down an entire lane by itself, precisely as I might anticipate it to do.
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Unsurprisingly, there are a couple of cell fits don’t completely really feel like correct or soulful representations of their present counterparts (the TV collection cannon fodder GM is much more sturdy than I believe most followers would anticipate), and there’s an actual tonal disconnect from the usually somber supply materials. It’s somewhat odd to play a Gundam recreation the place you’re celebrating getting kills. Most jarringly, the Flip A Gundam’s godlike “ship human civilization again to the neolithic interval” Moonlight Butterfly potential from the present has been changed with a laughably weak injury over time aura. These are the unwieldy contradictions that Gundam video games have all the time tripped up on, and there’s no getting across the irony that comes from gleefully unloading Flip A’s unearthly weaponry for the noble reason behind “Seize Level B.”
Presentation is the true stumbling level for Gundam Evolution: it nails the capturing however there is not any actual sense of scale exterior of some ornamental building gear and navy automobiles inside spawn. The maps too lack distinction. “Protection Ministry” resembles a futuristic warehouse greater than any authorities constructing I’ve ever seen, with samey area industrial tilesets giving strategy to samey moon craters and touchdown pads.
This lack of distinctiveness is an actual drag, not simply when seen in distinction to Overwatch’s maps which might be bursting with persona, but additionally when contrasted towards among the unbelievable places seen all through the anime. Combating within the wreckage of, and even inside an area colony plunging by means of Earth’s environment looks like a no brainer, as does a bomb defusal within the confines of a secret underground base.
One other factor that Gundam Evolution actually leaves me wanting is that inside-the-cockpit immersion. In comparison with Titanfall 2’s titan fight, Gundam Evolution offers me an actual “guys in Gundam costumes” vibe. Titanfall 2’s presentation, with the detailed cockpit HUD, visible artifacting when a shell pings off your hull, the movement sway and variable roar of generators and the ear-splitting grinding of metal on asphalt as you skate between low rise buildings—these all massively amplify the sense of latent weight and energy in your machine, one thing sorely lacking from the ace pilot fantasy Gundam Evolution is peddling.
It’s a sorry state of affairs when a six-year-old recreation’s killstreaks are giving me a extra immersive first-person mecha expertise than a model new Gundam recreation.
Regardless of these presentation trip-ups, there’s a really particular feeling that Gundam Evolution finally ends up channeling. In Zeta Gundam’s last episode, there’s a climactic dogfight within the barrel of an area colony-sized laser weapon. Char Aznable will get caught in a excessive octane deathmatch with two different excessive efficiency cell fits, his mech picked aside till it’s simply barely holding collectively. Time is working out, the entire chamber begins radiating because the laser costs up, and Char readies himself for one more spherical, gritting his tooth and growling “Not but! I’m not achieved but!” These moments of white knuckle ability and sizzling blooded willpower within the face of overwhelming odds are, to me, the essence of Gundam.
For all of Gundam Evolution’s stylistic shortcomings, it does one thing no different Gundam recreation has efficiently achieved. For a quick, fleeting second, as soon as a match when the stakes are excessive, you are feeling like Char Aznable. If it had the arrogance to lean its supply materials extra, I believe Gundam Evolution may actually show to be a persistent needle in Overwatch 2’s aspect.
