Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner Preview
Take a closer look at Konami's upcoming mech battle sequel.
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.
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner Quick Links
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- Konami
- KCEJ
- Mech Sim
- Release: Mar 10, 2003 »
- ESRB: Mature
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