To assault or not assault,that is the question.
Assault Gunners HD edition is a third person mech action shooter developed by Honey Pride Games and published by Marvelous!. This version is a re-release of the same game that was on PS Vita in 2012,but this time upscaled to HD and some added on dlc content.
Story:
The year is 208x and mars is in the process of a terraformation that will take an estimated 300 years to complete. However back on Earth a great war has erupted and the inhabitants flee in the hopes of making Mars their new home. But one day all communication stops from the colonies of Deimos and Phobos. It is now up to the peace keeping force called DAT to go and investigate for themselves.
Game play:
I had the benefit of never playing this game back on the Vita,as I never owned one to begin with(plus this was japan exclusive),so this allowed me to get a fresh look at the game for the first time and really give a good impression on what it has to offer in the game play department. I have to say the game play is a fairly mixed bag. A bag you might not want to hold onto.
The structure of the game play is very straight forward and can often get pretty tedious depending on the type of player you are. Most missions require you to do a lot of the same things,such as,collect data from data nodes,defeat hordes of AI in mission based stages where thats your only objective to accomplish and the occasional boss fight. That in a nutshell is Assault Gunners at its core.
The controls for the game are easy to learn and it is pretty good for a quick pick up and play scenario. The left side of your controller controls actions such as defensive moves like Jumping and boosting yourself for a quick get away out of a mob of enemies line of fire. You will have to use your boost sparingly though as it does drain. However, if you move around long enough it will regenerate back by itself. Keep your eyes out!
The right side of the controller will obviously be your attack side,this is where you'll control your mech's various attacks as well as being able to switch off to any weapon you choose to with a click of a button. This includes things such as Main,Sub,Shoulder,Fist. Try to switch up your attacks to make situations you get yourself into a lot more interesting and engaging.
The main story campaign offers you around 35 missions for you to push on through,but some of them can go by pretty dang quick. I'm taking about literally a one minute mission here,but then next mission could be anywhere near five minutes long. The balance is completely off and it can leave you feeling annoyed that there isn't much consistency in that department. It really pulls you out of the game.
But all is not lost, there is actually some really redeeming qualities about some of the games main campaign mode. During the course of the game you will be allowed to beef up and customize not only yourself but a fleet of mechs at your aid. You can customize certain parts of the body with Tetrapods and bipods which can really give you a nice upgrade, but it doesn't just stop there.
You will also be able to upgrade and get new weapons at your disposal to use the further you get into the game,such as,laser rifles,assault rifles,machine guns,cannons,missile launchers and many more. I suggest picking a wide range of weapons to switch to on the fly in order to completely overwhelm your enemy and destroy the living hell out of them.
The game in the difficulty department isn't something to brag about it,but it can also feel very cheap at times too. For the most part you will be able to scoot your way through the game at a steady pace without really breaking a sweat,however,there are part's in the game where it starts to become a little on the grind heavy side and require you to grind just to get certain parts of gear in order to make a level easier. This gets annoying and very tedious REALLY fast and it is not an enjoyable experience.
Graphics/Visuals:
To me you can't harp on the graphics too much or talk down about it in length because its just a remaster of a Vita game,no one should expect high level detail. For what the game tries to do and attempts to do, I have to say it looks ''ok'' and I mean that's it, just ok. It looks like a smoother version of a Playstation 2 era game and that's the best you can ask for. I'm satisfied because while it looks like this, on the flip side it runs VERY well and no stutter or lag was ever experienced. Huge plus!
Replayability:
If you feel you got through the main story campaign quickly and want more to do,then well I guess there's some hope for you after all because there does some exist a tad bit amount of replaybility to be had in the game. Its not much,but hey its something and that's all we could possibly ask for! More bang for our buck!
First batch of replayabiltiy comes in the form of a mode called Inferno Mode. This mode acts like a survival mode that you typically see in other games. Your main objective in this mode is to,you guessed it,survive. Just survive and survive and survive to your hearts content,but even that can get a little tedious. However, we still have a little bit more replayability that makes up for this shortcoming.
In this version of the game it includes 15 extra bonus missions to play that takes place directly after the main story campaign. These campaigns are roughly the same type of missions that you'd find in the main game,but at least they give you a chance to continue playing the game a little while longer if you've really been enjoying it up to this point in time. More missions in games is always welcome!
Final thoughts:
Overall my thoughts come away a bit negative. I know at the core of the game,there exists elements of a good game hidden somewhere deep within, but its just not executed and balanced very well. From tedious missions,short campaign and unimaginative survival mode,it comes off like a game that was either rushed or just was a mess to begin with.
For what its worth, the game at times can be fun to shoot around mechs for short burst of waves and the addition of 15 bonus missions is also a plus and feather in the cap to the game.. however that's not enough for me to be able to recommend this game to people.
I can see what Honey Pride Games was attempting to do here and they had the right idea in mind, but just couldn't execute it properly and this is why I will have to say to people reading this, I recommend you pass on this game,at least for now.
Assault Gunners HD is out now on Playstation 4
*Review code provided by Marvelous Inc
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