Mobile Ops E3 Booth Display

I love giant robot games. This should be stupidly apparent from the sad fact that I own not one, but two copies of Steel Battalion, but suffice it to say, any time a game that even offers the slightest hint of Mech-sim action appears on the horizon, my ears are guaranteed to perk up. In the case of Mobile Ops: The One Year War, Namco Bandai are promising a wide selection of fascinating gameplay opportunities that have me jumping with enthused interest. Mobile Ops will actually allow players to run around on foot, jump in vehicles, and even jump in a mobile suit to fight on the battlefield from a variety of different perspectives.

At E3 I actually had the chance to give the game a brief spin at the Namco Bandai booth, and while it’s clear the game still has a long development cycle ahead of it, I was more than intrigued at the possibilities this game presented. The demo mission was focused on the objective of re-capturing a prototype Gundam that had been downed in combat, which was lying in the middle of a fierce warzone. The start of the demo actually took place on foot, and I was given a squad of soldiers to aid me in moving forth (sadly they’re completely automatic and I had no control over them) through hostile lines in an attempt to reach the Gundam. Explosions occurred all over the landscape as part of the incoming artillery fire, and I effectively had to run through multiple squads of enemy soldiers to attain the objective. Combat on foot is done in the third-person perspective and is fairly simple - you can zoom in on a target for a better shot, as well as crouch to take cover or dodge incoming projectiles.

Once I had reached the downed Gundam (the sense of scale compared to my puny, vulnerable soldier was impressive), I was them prompted to push the Y button to mount up. The perspective then changed from an over-the-shoulder view of my walking war machine (I could also change to a cockpit mode, but the cockpit art doesn’t seem to actually be in the game yet, so I just got a skewed perspective from my Gundam’s “head” – judging by screenshots however, it looks like some cool cockpit displays are planned for the final), where I was able to set forth and proceed to utterly annihilate the enemy infantry teams with glee. Of course, this then prompted a number of enemy mobile suits (any fan will instantly recognize them as the “Zaku” variations from the series) to enter the area, of which I proceeded to then pepper with rifle fire with extreme prejudice. Providing I didn’t miss a button somewhere, the demo only seemed to feature a basic rifle for the Gundam (so no crazy laser sword action could be had yet), but it proved more than effective in knocking down the enemy mobile suits one after another and watching the ragdoll physics come into play. I will admit that ragdolls tend to look a little weird when it comes to gigantic walking tin cans, but with the correct tweaking they may be found to be a much better alternative to the pre-canned animations seen in many other mech games in the past.

The demo ended shortly thereafter – mainly it consisted of navigating from one waypoint to the next until I could escape the battle area, but with further development and promises of a decent storyline, this game could be quite an awesome addition to the Xbox 360 lineup. Include with this a promised package deal of some versatile online multiplayer options (Which could turn out fantastic depending on the level of teamplay involved) and you’ve basically got a game that any self-respecting mech game fan will want to pick up – especially if they’re looking for the option to use other vehicles too aside from Mech Assault 2. Mobile Ops: The One Year War is expected to ship during the holidays of 2006, so it’ll be very interesting to see how it competes with Chrome Hounds for supremacy.