The weapons are pretty righteous, too bad there are so few of them
Speaking of giant swords, the combat in the game is definitely satisfying even if they are trying to overcompensate... Each character is armed with a giant blade, a massive cannon, and a large shield to boot. There are three variants to each type of equipment, allowing the player to choose a loadout that suits their play style. I dabbled with each combination but I was drawn towards the largest sword I could find and an assault cannon that could shot as many bullets as possible. While in combat the game does a good job of forcing you to juggle between sword and gun, but they have thrown a twist in that you can only fire your projectile when you have filled the gauge by using melee attacks. It sounds annoying, but it is a smooth transition and a good design choice to ensure that the player gets up close and personal with the Aragami.
The controls are standard for this style of game and that means that you will be battling the camera for the most part. Luckily D3 has included a lock on button (L1) that allows you to easily track your prey. I have to say that I prefer the combat in God Eater Burst just because it was smooth and easy to get into. Once I conquered the camera issues with a veteran ‘claw grip’ on the PSP I was downing monsters and making baskets out of their insides in no time.
Where I think the game falls short is really on the crafting portion. Much of your time will be spent trying to make new and improved equipment, but God Eater Burst feels like they diluted the crafting system in favour of more streamlined action. There are only a handful of new items to create and it is really a shame when all of the other parts of the game come together quite well. Instead of having a huge repertoire of items to craft God Eater Burst has opted for a bullet-creation system that is overly complicated and not satisfying at all. The investment of time that players usually put into these types of games comes with amazing equipment rewards and these are just not there as they went with a more immediately accessible more action oriented experience. What the final result is, I quickly found how repetitive the game is and there was no real draw since I knew that there was no ultimate weapon that I was striving to create.
The bullet customization system is overly complicated, you need a math degree to use it.
Being a PSP game, and living in North America you are going to need to utilize Ad-Hoc party because our commuter culture is just not there to justify taking this on the train with you in hopes of grabbing a couple random party members. A nice addition was the computer controlled party members that were mostly competent. No matter what, I was able to play with a team and that goes a long way in my books. When I did manage to grab a couple buddies to play with the missions were much more fun, just like any other good coop game game – it is always better with friends. What I enjoyed the most was the roles that each of us could take. One would outfit themselves to be a sniper, while the rest of us filled in team slots with medic, soldier, and defender. While not entirely necessary, your success will depend on a balanced team and I like being able to choose my equipment for the job.
The team dynamics play a huge part in taking down the monsters and when you are downed your team mates can give up half of their current heath to bring you back to life. A really cool feature because it emphasizes camaraderie and sacrifice for the mission, something that I feel is lacking from many co-operative games in this day and age.
God Eater Burst is an accessible action RPG that does enough differently from Monster Hunter that I feel it carves out its own spot in the genre. It presents a streamlined, action focused perspective that is easily accessible to both seasoned veterans and rookies of beast stalking. If you can get past the shallow crafting system and repetitive mission structure there is a strong story driven co-op focused game for you.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: The game boasts a mission-based campaign mode consisting of more than 100 missions inclusive of co-operative play with up to three teammates over local adhoc wireless multiplayer or AI-controlled teammates.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.