Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner Preview

Any game that has the name Hideo Kojima--who is perhaps best known for creating the Metal Gear Solid series--in its list of credits will have high expectations to meet. In a certain sense, the original Zone of the Enders became a victim of this particular problem, as the final game's relatively simplistic gameplay, overbearing story about death, and incredibly whiny protagonist kept it from living up to those expectations. Regardless, the game still sold well enough to warrant a sequel, and judging from the preview build that we've received, Konami has taken heed of the complaints leveled at the original Zone of the Enders and fashioned a game that, at this point, seems to be more worthy of the Hideo Kojima name.

But that's not to say that Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner completely ditches any sort of connection to the original game. In fact, the story in the 2nd Runner takes place just two years after the events that transpired in the original game, and it even features many of the same characters, including Anubis (the powerful orbital frame that appears at the end of the original game) and an older and less irritating Leo Stenbuck, the hero from the first game--though you won't be playing as Leo on this particular journey, since he now pilots the Vic Viper, the ship from the old-school Konami shooters Gradius and Life Force. Instead, you'll assume the role of Dingo Egret, an expert pilot who's currently working as a miner on the icy surface of Callisto, one of Jupiter's many moons.

While out on one of his mining expeditions, Dingo picks up metatron (a new source of energy, initially discovered in the 21st century) readings just below the surface, but when he goes in to investigate, a large force of aerial robots accompanied by a powerful orbital frame begins bombarding the surface. While caught in the middle of all this, Dingo discovers that the source of the metatron is the orbital frame Jehuty--the same orbital frame piloted by Leo Stenbuck in the original game. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner's story continues to unfold via Japanese-animation-style cutscenes and a cockpit view in which two small screens show two characters speaking with each other, somewhat similar to the codec in the Metal Gear Solid series. Needless to say, the story in this game is filled with the sorts of twists and turns that we've come to expect from a game associated with Hideo Kojima.

Like the story, the gameplay in Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is largely an extension of the mechanics introduced in the original game. It's still incredibly easy to soar at high altitudes or skim the surface of the environment, thanks to the game's straightforward control scheme, which lets you raise or lower the altitude of Jehuty by simply pressing the corresponding button on the PlayStation 2 controller. This control scheme also makes combat easy to learn. Jehuty has a variety of attacks at its disposal, some of which are designed to be more effective in certain types of situations.

High-Speed Robot Action

Jehuty's long-range attacks initially consist of a basic long-range shot that fires a small and very weak burst of energy at enemy. Generally, this attack is useful for picking off only the weakest of enemies, but Jehuty also has an incredibly powerful long-range weapon that takes the form of a huge ball of energy. You can use this weapon by charging Jehuty's energy, but doing so leaves him vulnerable to enemy attacks, making it useful only when attacking an enemy that's not able to fire so quickly. Most of the time, you'll find yourself relying on Jehuty's long-range energy missile system, which functions similarly to the missile system in the Panzer Dragoon series. By holding down the corresponding button, Jehuty can lock on to multiple targets and then fire a volley of missiles, and this comes in handy when fighting the enormous clouds of small jets encountered in the outdoor environments. These missiles can also be effective against some of the stronger enemy mechs, but most of them are smart enough to put their shields up before the missiles hit.

Of course, when long-range attacks aren't particularly useful, Jehuty can rely on his melee-combat abilities. Like in the original game, when you close in on an enemy, you can use your powerful energy blade to take swipes at it, knocking it back, up into the air, or down into the ground, depending on which button you press at the end of the combination. You can cause additional damage to an enemy by knocking it into a wall, which actually becomes quite important in some of the later boss battles. Some enemies will raise their shields or even parry Jehuty's attacks, and when this happens, you can back off, wait for the enemy to lower its defenses, and then resume your attack.

As you progress through the game, Jehuty receives power-ups in the form of secondary weapons that can be equipped at any time. Some of these secondary weapons can be quite useful--particularly the gauntlet, which can inflict enormous amounts of damage upon an enemy if it happens to knock that enemy into the wall. One of the other secondary weapons can briefly stun a group of enemies, leaving them open for any sort of attack, but you have to be careful, because these secondary weapons can drain Jehuty's secondary energy quickly.

Some battles have been purposely designed so that you have to use one of Jehuty's battle skills almost exclusively. In one such battle, you'll have to make effective use of Jehuty's ability to grab and throw enemies, while in another, you'll have to learn how to grab objects from the environment and either use them to attack an enemy or defend yourself. In any case, there seems to be much more variety to the battles in Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, forcing a little more strategy into the game (especially during boss battles) and making it a little less dependent on mindless button mashing than its predecessor.

In addition to the main single-player game, The 2nd Runner features a number of secondary options. There's a VR training area that allows you to familiarize yourself with some of Jehuty's abilities, and there's also a multiplayer versus mode that allows you to select from various orbital frames and go one-on-one with the computer or another person. For those who didn't play through the first game, there's an option to view some of the events from Zone of the Enders so you can catch up on the story line.

As far as the graphics are concerned, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner has adopted a cel-shaded look that makes everything, including the orbital frames, look much more vibrant. There's also a particularly cool smoke effect that you'll see when parts of the environment are damaged as a result of stray fire. However, there's still some noticeable slowdown in certain portions of the game, so we'll have to wait for the game's release on March 11 to pass final judgment.