GOD EATER PROJECT REVIEW

[| TG |]

 - God Eater 3 is one of those cases where, thankfully, stellar gameplay makes up for a generic and boring story with bad writing. You might have to dig a bit to figure out how to do some of the coolest moves and learn to live with some between-battles inconveniences, but once you get the hang of it there’s nothing else like it – even the otherwise comparable Monster Hunter series. Sure, you can just button mash and get through most battles okay, but understanding the intricacies and nuances of how to chain together your explosive Burst Arts, soaring Dives, special attacks, and various combos to defeat inventively designed monsters is where the real thrill is at.

- Structurally, God Eater 3 is a lot like Monster Hunter, and I mean that in the best way possible. You embark on missions to track down giant, dangerous beasts and kill them with oversized ridiculous weapons, then do that over and over again across a small variety of maps as you constantly seek to make better gear and incrementally increase your power. Plus, you can bring friends along if you want. But it’s also streamlined experience with faster combat, less focus on sometimes-tedious tracking, hunting, and trapping from its rival series, and the inclusion of NPC allies that can be customized to join you on every mission.

- God Eater 3 marks a big shift for the franchise as its the first game designed for home consoles and PC rather than the PSP or Vita. Not only do character models look great, but because it’s built for a full-sized gamepad you have more control over your character than ever before, which is good because you now have more weapons to choose from, more types of enemies to fight, and more abilities to give you an edge in battle. The gameplay remains mostly unchanged, but there’s more meat on its bones.

- Each mission is designated as either Story, which means it’s required to progress the plot and unlock higher ranks, or Optional, which means it’s purely for getting loot and blueprints. All of the loot drops are percentage-chance based, and the menu thoughtfully shows you exactly what potential rewards there are for every mission, including blueprints and items. That allows you to plan out which missions you’ll need to replay in order to farm the materials you need, without wasting time on things you don’t want. The real bulk of the content is after you finish the campaign, where you’ll be rewarded for spending time going through missions again with better loot.

- God Eater 3 also introduces mini-raid-type missions called Assaults that are multiplayer-only and can pack as many as eight players into a single map together. Most other missions give you about 40 minutes to complete them, but Assaults have to be finished in about five minutes or less, putting a ton of pressure on speed and efficiency. It’s delightfully chaotic and full of action, but doesn’t really add much to make it feel like it’s capitalizing on getting that many people together. I would have liked to have seen larger and longer levels, like true raids that require lots of coordination, rather than shorter and more cramped speed runs.

- Monster designs are fantastic across the board. There aren’t quite as many here as you might have hoped for, coming fresh off of Monster Hunter: World as many of us are, but designs are not bound by the constraints of trying to make things look like actual animals, increasing their diversity and creativity. In God Eater 3 you’ve got everything from lions to tank-bull hybrids to floating, godly cocoons that radiate energy and sound like a singing choir when they move. There are even giant bird creatures that can fly and zip across the battlefield like Falco, and their look and behaviors are all changed in later Ranks to create new versions that aren’t as repetitive to fight as up-leveled clones would be.

- What God Eater 3 lacks in its story and varied content it more than makes up for with excellent pulse-pounding action, great enemy designs, and some of the most exciting combat this entire genre has seen to date. In between those battles are a lot of dull and mandatory NPC interactions, load screens, menus, and the unambitious world design, and short, simple eight-player raids leave a lot of room for improvement, but it’s a relief to see this series make the mostly successful jump from handhelds to consoles and PCs where it has the opportunity to grow in those areas.

RELEASE DATE:
8 Feb, 2019