➤ AOT 2: Final Battle, the review 🎮

AOT 2: Final Battle is the new edition of the tie-in de The attack of the Giants developed by Omega Force and produced by Koei Tecmo. Object of this review is the full version of the package, but also available as a simple update for those who already own the base game, although in this case at a frankly disproportionate price: 49,99 euros for extra missions inspired by the third season of Attack on Titan, some new weapons and the Recapture Territory mode seem a little too many. It is obviously a shame, because the choice of the publisher will penalize the most enthusiastic fans of the franchise, those who bought AOT 2 last year and who will have to wait at least for a discount before they can update the experience with the new content. All in anticipation of a new, inevitable episode that will make its debut in conjunction with the fourth and final season of the anime.

Original gameplay and structure

As reported in the AOT 2 review, the game uses the gimmick of protagonist unpublished (strictly silent, to the detriment of the narrative rendering of the cutscenes) to make us retrace the events of the first two seasons of The Attack of the Giants within a story mode composed of several missions, in which we will obviously have to deal with the real ones characters of the anime and will play a supporting role in their actions. The rendering of the three-dimensional maneuver is good, in some moments excellent: using the main buttons of the controller it is possible to shoot the harpoons and quickly project forward, like new Spider-Man, swinging between the buildings that are inside the walls and using the thrusters gas to obtain additional thrusts in mid-air.

The spectacular nature of these sequences is evident, and it is therefore a pity that in many situations these mechanics become chaotic and / or cumbersome: as long as the character manages to perfectly execute our inputs the action remains fluid and offers even galvanizing moments for those who knows the work of Hajime Isayama, but it happens all too often to get stuck against a wall or run into madness by the camera when moving close to a barrier or the targets are too numerous. However, where you are outdoors, in the absence of grips, the situation becomes really complicated but this at least faithfully reflects the history original and the prerogatives of the equipment that the soldiers use to face the titans.

In this regard, the combat system it works fairly well and offers great satisfaction when you manage to score an elimination, anchoring yourself to the scruff of the giant on duty and quickly projecting yourself against it to slash it with your own blades. Here too, however, frustrating and cumbersome situations arise when i enemies they remain on the ground or group together, causing the harpoons to disengage and forcing us to choose different trajectories in order to land a valid shot. If on the one hand the choice of an unpublished protagonist, to be created through a fairly complete editor, diminishes the narrative value of some sequences, on the other hand it allows to build an interesting progression in style RPG on the basis of the materials collected and the technologies unlocked so that our equipment becomes more and more effective, with the possibility of buying more cutting and / or resistant blades, more capacious cylinders or capable of launching us at higher speed, grapples with a range of action wider and so on.

Xbox One achievements

The AOT 2: Final Battle objectives include those of the original edition and a series of new achievements added for the occasion, which are obtained by completing the missions of the story mode based on the third season and above all by unlocking the contents related to the Reconquest Territory mode.

New missions and content

AOT 2: Final Battle was born with the aim of riding the wave of popularity of the third season of Attack on Titan, and for this it adds a second to the basic package story mode independent, which can be tackled even without having completed the original one, consisting of missions that retrace the latest episodes of theanime. In this case, both the RPG progression and the anonymous protagonist are missing, since you put yourself in the shoes of the various main characters of the series based on what actually happens. The approach is typical of a tie-in, in which we try to transform even events that do not lend themselves to that type of interpretation into action, and that is why we move a little between ups and downs, with even missions. identical to each other, an abundance of optional assignments and narrated interludes.

Some new weaponry introduced for the occasion, such as the set of guns and the Thunder Lances, offer an interesting variation on the theme and allow you to eliminate enemies in a different way, often with less effort: it's nice that the developers have thought to mix a little 'the papers of the gameplay, but the use of this equipment appears unbalanced on the challenge front and ends up trivializing clashes that with standard equipment would require much more time and effort. The same discourse obviously applies to the transformation into a giant, which returns from the first episode for some of the protagonists. The unlocking of missions sometimes follows a bizarre order, and so it happens to get to the last chapter of a storyline and then relive certain sequences in the next: an apparently senseless choice, especially where the intention was precisely to follow the story of the third season faithfully.

Getting to the end of the new campaign Unfortunately, it doesn't take a lot of time, especially if you focus on the main levels and ignore the optional battles, but luckily the Final Battle edition also includes another mode unpublished, Reconquest Territory, able to provide more substantial and lasting entertainment. Without following the plot of The Attack of the Giants in this case, you choose a character and manage a base with the aim of expanding the territories under the control of humans after the invasion narrated at the beginning of the anime. This means heading to certain places and clearing them of the presence of the titans, of course, but also returning to the starting point and using the materials collected in order to expand and enrich the structures, build new equipment and so on.

Finally, a few words for the technical realization: played on Xbox One S, AOT 2: Final Battle appears to suffer from fewer uncertainties in the frame rate and pop-up effects compared to the original edition, but i improvements brought to experience are unfortunately limited to the minimum wage and in fact the chaotic and cumbersome situations to which we referred during the review persist. Also on the cutscene front, the work done appears a bit tight, with an overwhelming majority of static sequences that are however embellished by the excellent dubbing in Japanese (subtitled in Spanish) and by truly inspired music.

Comment

Tested version Xbox One Price 68,90 € Resources4Gaming.com

7.0

Readers (9)

6.6

Your vote

AOT 2: Final Battle is presented as a simple update of the tie-in released last year and therefore does not in any way solve the limits of the experience that we had highlighted at the time of the first review, in particular the general lack of refinement as regards the mechanics of movement and combat. The new missions cover the events of the third season of the anime and will not fail to thrill fans of the series, but they complete quickly enough: luckily there is also the Reconquest Territory mode to provide a few extra hours of entertainment. Too bad for the too high price: from a re-release of this type we would have expected different choices, especially for those who already own the basic package and would like to buy only the expansion.