Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow
Whether you’re a fan of the Gundam anime or not there really is nothing here that will appeal to you, unless you enjoy subjecting yourself to bad experiences. I’ve been a long time viewer of the many Gundam shows and movies that have been released over the years, but speaking as someone who is relatively adept in Gundam lore, Never Ending Tomorrow had me completely lost. There’s almost no coherent story and the plot is loosely threaded together by a string of nonsensical animated clips with lots of screaming and explosions. If you like loud things that go bang you may find something about this game to tickle your fancy, but if you prefer to know what the heck is going on, you’ll be left out in the dark.
Gameplay:
When you begin the game you have to pick between one of two characters. It doesn’t really matter who you pick since both Kira and Athrun essentially offer the same type of experience. Both characters offer a dinky selection of missions that all essentially boil down to you flying around and destroying things. Missions end when there’s nothing left to destroy and what’s worse is that the control scheme isn’t all too intuitive, so this simple task gets frustrating very quickly.
If you’ve ever played Zone of Enders then you may get a first impression that this game is trying to come across as some kind of clone of that one. Unfortunately the control is nowhere near as fluid or thought out as that game was, so what’s left is a clunky mess that leaves you feeling like you’re piloting a junk pile. The lock-on system doesn’t work half of the time and your attacks are pretty limited, so you can expect a fair amount of button mashing in order to get the job done. To make matters worse, the camera system is completely out of whack and unresponsive to no end. This leads to many cheap hits and since you have no way to defend yourself, you’re going to be on the receiving end of a good bludgeoning.
There is a support character system where you have another pilot that aides you every now and then. You can increase their usefulness as you progress in the game, but the effectiveness of this helper is really only surface deep. Not that you’re really going to need much assistance because the AI in the game is shoddier more than it is difficult. Combat essentially boils down into an all out barrage where your enemy attacks you head on, or if you are using a melee Gundam suit, then your opponent will stay away from you to the point that the game becomes an irritating game of cat and mouse.
You have to be very selective about what type of suit you bring to the battlefield because they each have their limitations. I particularly liked the melee weaponry, but once I realized it was useless against enemies that stay away from you I shied away from them. There’s no fine in between model with the best of both worlds though, so you’ll have to experiment and see what works best for you. Personally I found the most effective of all strategies was to just to turn the system off and walk away with a bad taste in my mouth.
I may sound like I’m being harsh, and in all fairness there are a couple of things that give this game some level of playability. There are a few other modes to dabble with, though they all offer the same control issues and frustration levels. What’s worse is playing with a friend splits the screen in half, so what was once an already unfriendly game becomes even more so. This all leaves you wishing that Never Ending Tomorrow would actually end today, but it shouldn’t come as a shock to many Gundam fans who have suffered through several bad games based on the franchise before.
Graphics:
Proving to be as equally as ugly as the control set up; the graphics in this game leave a lot to be desired. There is some shoddy animation, choppy resolution, framerate issues, and an overall sense that this game is years behind the times. The unfriendly camera doesn’t exactly add a lot to the visual impact of the game either, so when it comes right down to it, the game doesn’t look all that hot. The anime style is very rich though and faithful to the Gundam series, but only diehard fans will really be able to appreciate what’s going on here.
Audio:
The soundstage for Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow is useful only for drowning out every sound effect and voiceover. Everything comes across at the same frequency and volume so whole conversations can be completely lost on you if there’re a lot of things exploding. Unless you enjoy relentless screaming and a lot of gibberish that is recycled from the series and past games, you’re going to be like me and turning the volume down.
Conclusion:
I tried to accept this game, I really did. I have a love for just about all things anime and I always try to give material their fair shake, but wow, this game is bad. It is borderline unplayable at times and so frustrating that I wouldn’t recommend it for gamers with high blood pressure. Everything from the controls and AI to camera, graphics and sound are sub-par beyond belief. This game is strictly reserved for rabid Gundam fans and even they have had better games to play based off of the franchise. Skip It