Attack on Titan 2 (PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4) Review

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Two years ago the arrival of Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom to our gaming platforms. Koei Tecmo and Omega Force joined forces to bring the action and epicity of the anime to the videogame. In the heat of the second season of the animated series both companies are back on track with Attack on Titan 2 that begins to suffer from the problems of Omega Force. The second installment released March 20 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The first installment of Attack on Titan title managed to win a good part of the audience for its gameplay and another good part for its proximity to the first season of the anime. The boom for the animated series, and manga, made the Omega Force title a success that also meant a certain variation in the company's well-known dynamics. The titles of the Japanese study seem all cut by a similar pattern and although recently it has tried to remove that image with Dynasty Warriors 9 the certain thing is that they continue cutting their games by the same patterns.

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Mechanics

At the mechanical level we are faced with a game that can not afford too many innovations in its approach since, for obvious reasons, it is due to the fidelity with respect to the original series. This means that we will continue to move around the stage with our Three-dimensional Maneuver Team . This device is the central axis of everything we do in Attack on Titan 2 and is, without a doubt, the most satisfactory title. Its handling has been slightly improved with respect to its previous delivery and moving around the stage manages to correctly convey the sense of urgency, action and speed of the anime.

Despite having fine-tuned the control and having added a series of additional options when moving and fighting (such as the possibility of asking for help from colleagues who will perform different actions) the title ends up falling into that valley of monotony proper to the titles of Omega Force. The playable proposal, although adorned with new options of social cut and rolero, burns to the few hours of game since the structures of the missions are repeated until the satiety: salt to the open field, or in a city, and kill titans while Socorros requests for help from your colleagues and, eventually, triggers the ultimate goal that is rarely another beyond killing a certain titan or protecting a character (obviously killing all the titans that come close). The initial sensation of spectacularity and strategy of confronting titans ends up becoming a tedious process that we will try to carry out as quickly as possible to advance.

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Missions

Our tasks in these dead times between missions have also expanded. In addition to interacting with our colleagues we can also expand our arsenal and objects both by buying new pieces in the store and through a crafting system that, again, does not quite take off. Again we will recover materials by eliminating titans (which will never cease to amaze us) and again we can use those resources to improve our leaves, our movement system or our gas reserves.

Attack on Titan 2 fills the times between missions in a somewhat coarse way and to which Omega Force already seems to have us used. We will also have the possibility to do secondary missions to gain more resources or strengthen our links with the rest of the troop. However, as we have said in the end all this content ends up being superficial and so anodyne that only those players less emotionally linked to the original work will devote time and effort in completing it.

Related to this rhythm so typical of Omega Force we find the main stick of this second installment of the franchise; it does not seem. We have not only seen it before but we have played it; the loss of the first wall, the death of Eren's parents, his oath in the river, the first days in 104, the transformation of Eren ... We have already seen it in the first season of the anime and, what is worse, we played it in the first Attack on Titan.

On this occasion Omega Force, as if to justify this crude reuse, puts us in the skin, as said before, of an anonymous soldier . We are witnesses of all the events of the series that we have already seen and played. But we are not witnesses from another point of view in the manner of Rashomon but we see, exactly, the same as we already know. We observe from the barrier the most important events of the series and we participate in them hand in hand with their protagonists.

This generates strong narrative discrepancies that Omega Force neither interests, nor tries to hide. We are an anonymous character that participates in all the important events of the series and that, obviously, does not exist in the original work. This means that, due to the demands of the videogame itself, we participate intensively in all the missions with the heroes and that we stand out even above characters like Mikasa. However, Omega Force does not seem to have been able to spin this with the idiosyncrasy of its title and we will have strange conversations with colleagues about "the possibility of facing a titan and defeating it" after having killed more than a hundred titans. alone without confusing us.

Omega Force has managed to fit, and improve, its particularities of the musou within a relatively different type of game but, again, they do not manage to fit the playable part of their titles with the narrative development. As if this were not enough for a good part of the title, approximately two thirds, we are playing, again, everything we already played in Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom which will end up burning for many the playable proposal of the title before reaching the new content.

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Improvements

Omega Force has focused more on decorating the moments of game between mission and mission than on expanding the playable or narrative possibilities of their missions. This is where we can find many of the improvements of this second installment compared to the original. Our relationship with the other members of the 104 recruits and, later, the explorers will progress with the passage of time. This is related to the fact that this time we put ourselves in the shoes of a cadet more than 104 and not in Eren's skin. We will be a silent witness of the events of the series and we will accompany the protagonists at all times while we interact with them.

This means that as we fight together with our partners or interact with them in our free time, we will strengthen our bond with them. The better we get along with someone else, we will have combat and they will contribute part of their talent to ourselves. This means, speaking in gamer language, that we will achieve our skills through their friendship. In Attack on Titan 2 the role-playing touches so typical of Omega Force have been added ; rise of level, choice of skills and a light friendship system ... Omega Force in many of their other games, in the end they matter little and hardly influence the future of the title becoming an option dedicated to the most staunch followers of the series.

From the narrative aspects of Omega Force that reduces everything to a handful of lines of dialogue and elections to gain their trust. No more, if we fight enough with them we can have a small dialogue scene and that's it. And, although we have all the staff of the television series the truth is that these talks end up being bland exchanges of information to respond and gain more or less affinity depending on our response. To this must be added small narrative incongruities in the way in which these scenes do not fit with the tone or situation that is experienced at that moment.

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Game Details

Developer---------------------Omega Force

Publisher-------------------------Koei Tecmo

Director-------------------------Hideo Suzuki

Producer-------------------Hisashi Koinuma

Designer------------------------Kotaro Hirata

Programmer---------Tomohisa Yoshikawa

Series-------------------------Attack on Titan

Platform-----------------Microsoft Windows,
Nintendo Switch,
Xbox One,
PlayStation 4

Release Date---------------March 20, 2018

Genre----------------------------------Action, hack and slash

Mode--------------------------Single-player, multiplayer

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Conclusion

With all these been said that do not mean that the missions are exactly the same as we already played in Wings of Freedom but they tell us exactly the same thing. However, and that no one is deceived, we do not stop talking about a title created by Omega Force, so that, in the end, the vast majority of missions are clones. We will have to spend time killing titans and going to the calls for help from our friends while we jump new goals that will almost always kill more titans or protect someone killing titans or reach a certain point and, surprise, kill titans there.

A player who does not mind consuming, again, the same story that he has already played. It works almost like a revision in the manner if you have already played the previous one, it may not offer you enough news and if you have not played any better you skip the first one and here you will have the same and a little more.

Attack on Titan 2 relies too much on attracting fans of the series. Omega Force signs a title that practically reuses much of what we saw in Wings of Freedom. The small additions in terms of playability do not support the constant repetition of the facts that we have already played and the clone missions.

Happy Gaming!!!!!