The world is a strange place in God Eater 2. Deadly red rain is falling from the skies, killing humans across the globe. A few seem unaffected and form a group called the God Eaters. These groups are trained to find a solution and fight off the deadly monsters that are hunting our grounds at the same time. You’re part of the Blood God Eaters, an elite group that’s created to bring down those monsters once and for all.
The long wait is finally over
It took some time for God Eater 2 to finally see a release outside of Japan. Since it’s been years since we’ve played the first God Eater game, it might be interesting to tell you a bit more about this sequel. This is a sequel of God Eater: Resurrection, a remaster of the first God Eater game and based on the already improved God Eater version. This PlayStation 4 version of God Eater 2 is a port of the Japanese PlayStation Vita game that released in February last year. After months of waiting, God Eater 2 finally landed on the Western market. If you’re new to the franchise, we advise you to start with God Eater: Resurrection first, since the story of the franchise is a rather complex one. It’s clear that the game expects that you know something about the background, it throws a lot of information at you the moment you start playing and without any background information, you’ll miss out for sure.
Different stories, interesting characters
As said in the introduction, the goal of the God Eaters is to find a solution for that deadly red rain. Soon you’ll learn there are bigger powers involved and you’ll notice that the red rain is only a small part of the problems. You’ll be chasing down monsters in order to kill them and cleanse the world from their influence. New in God Eater 2 are the character episodes, which offer some great variation and insights of your characters.
Hunt those monsters down
During a character episode, you’ll learn more about your partners, the more personal details you discover by completing those missions, the better your connection to your partner is. Getting to know your partners better also results in extra benefits. Clearing character episodes will gain you new gear and exclusive missions. It’s a welcome change to the first God Eater Rage Burst and it makes the story very interesting to follow.
Bring down those monsters
Character missions aren’t your main focus however, God Eater is a Monster Hunter-like game where you’ll face a lot of demons called Aragami. These Aragami are a pleasure to look at and some are even more impressive than the Monster Hunter creatures. There are around 80 of those demons to take down and especially the bigger ones result in great gameplay. There’s nothing better than fighting a giant Aragami for over fifteen minutes to see it fall down on the ground. It’s a very addictive game but your partners might screw things up for you.
Since this is an older game, we noticed the AI of your team isn’t always that good. It will happen multiple times that your companions are just running around, without attacking the Aragami when they need to. It’s a shame really since it takes away the immersion multiple times. It’s a problem that can be solved thanks to the online multiplayer (where you can play the entire campaign with other online players) but better AI would definitely be a plus for the solo experience.
Create your own gear
In order to bring down the Aragami, you’ll need a lot of weapons and this part of God Eater 2 is perhaps the most impressive part of the entire game. Unlike other games, the amount of loadouts and customization is just insane. You’ll be able to craft your own weapons and gear if you find the right resources in the world. Every weapon you create has its own strengths and weaknesses and all change the gameplay in one way or another. Heavier weapons will inflict more damage for example but will slow you down drastically.
It all starts with the creation of your own character where you can pick from hundreds of options. Designing your character as you like is great but the weapons need some adjustments as well. You can select six possible melee weapons and four distant weapons to shoot down the monsters. Every piece of weapon is different and has its own powers. Before you’ll find your perfect weapon, you’ll be experimenting with a lot of other ones first. It’s a very deep weapon creator but a game like this really benefits from this.
Special powers
In order to make those fancy weapons really pop; you’re able to perform several special attacks. The one you’ll use most is the Blood Art, a technique that’s different for every weapon and can be leveled the more you use it. The better your Blood Art level, the more damage it will inflict. Besides that you can also activate the Rage Burst, this can be activated when your meter is full. A Rage Burst looks very impressive and deals a lot of damage to your enemies.
Also returning is the so-called God Arc transformation. The God Arc is your huge weapon that you’ll need to bring down the enemies. Besides slashing them down, you can also transform your God Arc into a monster that will bite a chunk out of your enemies. If you do this correctly, you’ll gain special powers linked to the monster, these powers can be used in combat or used to enhance your companions using the Link Burst.
The combat has a lot of deep options but the actual gameplay feels rather shallow. During combat you’ll be pushing the same button over and over again in order for your enemy to fall down. There’s a lot of preparation before you’ll survive the tougher monsters but once you start the actual fight, all depth gets lost in a rather generic combat mechanism. A shame since the game really has a lot more potential than this.
Weak presentation
The biggest problem I had with God Eater 2 was its presentation. Since this is a PlayStation Vita port, it doesn’t look that good on PlayStation 4. The characters don’t look that bad but the environments and cities are too plain and too open. The world doesn’t feel alive aside from the monsters and even those could have used some better pixels. It’s not the best port we’ve seen and the PlayStation 4 is capable of a lot more. Right from the start, it feels like you’re playing a game of the previous generation, something not everybody will take lightly.
Same goes for the soundtrack. The soundtrack has some great moments with some truly amazing scores but the voice-acting is off and the environmental music is just boring to listen to. A game like this needs a soundtrack that’s good and stays good the entire time, which isn’t the case here.
Conclusion:
God Eater 2: Rage Burst is a very lengthy game that will keep you hooked for over 100 hours of gameplay. The setting and monsters are both unique but lack some polish to really be great. The customization of your weapons, gear and character is very deep and offers tons of different ways of playing the game. It’s a shame the combat itself feels a little shallow compared to these options but all in all, God Eater 2 is a very enjoyable game if you’re into the genre. Don’t expect a Monster Hunter but expect something different, yet fun.
