Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow E3 2005 Hands-On Impression

Ah, Mobile Suit Gundam. We confess to not being intricately familiar with the anime series that the game is based on, but we did get a chance to go hands-on with Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow at Bandai's booth today, and we came away with some impressions.

MSGS: NET, like the other MSG game on display at Bandai, is a space- and ground-based fighting action title, in which you mount up in your giant robots and attempt to beat up on other robots with lasers, guns, and big glowing swords. Our first thoughts after playing a mission of the game went along the lines of: "Well, that was confusing." This seems to be the kind of game that you can't get honest impressions of in a 10-minute demo. You really need some kind of manual or tutorial to really get a feel for the game, in other words. Jumping into the game headlong isn't wise unless you've played a previous Gundam game.

Part of this is due to the rather busy interface. We couldn't even count all of the HUD elements that are part of the screen. You've got a life bar, a phase-shift bar, a multilock meter, a combo meter with some blue arrows beneath it, a shield readout for the enemy you're attacking, a timer, a thruster readout, a radar, a 3D rotating display of where enemies are in relation to you, a meter for something called TS or BS, and a display for your partner, which shows their face along with a bunch of Roman-numeral icons, which apparently do...something. All of this information probably means something, but it is a bit overwhelming when you attempt to just jump into the game.

Even when you have a good grasp of the gameplay, though, actually going after enemies can be somewhat difficult. We played a couple of space missions, and found the mechanics to be a bit unwieldy. You automatically lock on to enemies when you get a view of them and when they're in range, but actually hitting them with weapons and sword attacks is another matter. Even while we were in range for melee combat, we found ourselves aimlessly orbiting our foe rather than really going toe-to-toe. It seemed really easy to just fly away and then fly back to the target, even when you were theoretically locked on. Hopefully some of these controls can be tightened up before the game ships.

Mobile Suit Gundam fans will be pleased to learn, though, that there's going to be plenty of content in the game. Although some of the menu screens were blanked out, we saw at least two storyline modes, one each for Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala (with room for a third), and each mode will apparently include 15 individual missions. In addition, it looks like you'll be able to select versus, mission, and survival game types, enter an item shop and gallery, and more.

Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news on Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow as it becomes available.