I was late to the whole Monster Hunter craze, which means I also missed many of the well made games that modeled its gameplay after Capcom’s mega hit. Even then, the God Eater name didn’t escape me, as Bandai Namco’s take on the genre swept Japan by storm, becoming a massive seller on the PSP. Now that the game is getting the remake treatment ahead of the sequel’s release, we took the chance to get some hands-on time with the original at E3 to see how it compares to the rest of the pack.
The first thing a newcomer will notice when jumping on board is how much faster this game is. While it’s a deliberate design choice, one of the more frustrating aspects of Monster Hunter is how slow the attacks are. Your characters will oftentimes be locked into their attack animations with no way to stop, so if the enemy mounts a counter attack mid swing, there’s nothing you can do other than take the damage. God Eater felt much more like a traditional action game, giving us the ability to switch between melee and ranged attacks on the fly, while being able to speed through the battlefield as I zoned in on my target.
Even with the change of pace, I doubt the series would have become so popular if all it was was a faster version of an established franchise. With this in mind, God Eater took battles in a completely different direction thanks to your weapon’s ability to transform into a mouth and eat your fallen foes. Serving as a much cooler way to pick up parts off of the enemies you’ve killed, using this attack on larger enemies would result in the weapon absorbing a special ability that would deliver huge amounts of damage to whoever stands in your way. With multiple weapons to fit your play style, these abilities further add to the amount of options you’ll have on the battlefield.
And options seems to be the name of the game in Resurrection, with plenty of customizable parts to create your character. Once created, you’ll be able to take your new soldier into single player story missions, as well as cooperative quests that can be enjoyed either locally or online. With multiple weapons, looks and strategies to take up, taking down Aragami has never looked so good with the visual upgrade the PS4 and Vita versions have received. If you’re looking for the next big multiplayer action game to eat up your summer on PlayStation platforms, then this game sounds like a good way to go.
God Eater Resurrection will release for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita on June 28.