ATTACK ON TITAN 2 Video Game Review
In Attack on Titans 2, you play through season one and two of the anime. However, instead of playing as any of the pre-existing characters you play as a self-created Avatar.
Using an Avatar in a game that wants to re-tell an already told story is always a red flag for me, and this game was no exception. Granted, I get the appeal of being able to be “you”, interacting with your favorite character no matter the franchise.
The outcome can only end up in two ways.
A) The game is treating your Avatar as a side character, interacting with the other characters. While you get praise and accomplish things, you are never the driving force of the plot nor take away the spotlight from the main characters. This option creates a limited type of gameplay.
B) The second alternative is the complete opposite. The gameplay is great, mixing it up with a different type of stuff that happens, but with that, you create a nonfaithful adaptation of a story.
When it comes to video games, I prefer alternative B (most of the time), but I guess we’ll see.
This game, is Alternative A. Due to this, the quests you complete outside of killing titans (which I will talk about later) feels close to unnecessary filler. You have conversations between the cast of characters and yourself, and you would think that you have an “option” on what to say when they give you several options “Mass Effect” style.
But since only one of the three options makes any difference, each conversation is more of a guessing game than an actual interactive conversation. If that wasn’t enough, getting the right option during these conversations is close to an obligation.
You see, the game has you level up a “friendship” with every character. For each level, that particular character becomes stronger and a better support unit. Unless you feel the need to be punished by the game later on, choosing the wrong answer forces you to soft reset your console.
Why bother to add the options then and just let the conversations automatically level it up? The false notion of “choice” is something that annoys me no matter the game.
The game is worth playing however, and that is thanks to the main attraction of the game. They execute the fights against titans rather well. It is fast-paced, and thrilling while having a sense of strategy to it. You can either choose to try and take down a titan immediately or choose to cut it down by pieces, giving you material, or access to capture it (which gives you access to more options down the line). It also is worth thinking through on how you want to approach them. Do you want to go and eliminate the Titans on a certain area first, who do you help first and so forth.
There are some problems, however, but they aren’t game breakers.
A) Sometimes, it occurs that one or several titans can get stuck in either a wall or mountains making it impossible to kill it. Stuff like that can kill the momentum you have in a game that is all about tempo.
B) There are chances that sometimes the amount of titans that attacks you make it impossible to find where you are if you fail to grab on to one of them.
The game does have a multiplayer option. The multiplayer contains co-operative mode and Annihilation mode. The first is quite obvious what it means. Annihilation is a competitive mode where you compete for the highest score during your titan killing. I have not tried these modes out myself, as I don’t know anyone else that has this game.
Attack on Titans 2 also contains a lot of downloadable content, most of them are just cosmetics.
Even if I find this as an overall disappointment, I’m still happy that I got it. It’s definitely not worth full price. But if you see it on sale or a used copy for a good price I do recommend it if you are interested.
I give this 6/10 slayed titans.
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