Review: God Eater 2: Rage Burst

Title: God Eater 2: Rage Burst
Platform: PC|PS VITA|PS4 (reviewed)
Developer: Shift
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Release date: August 26th
tl;dr: Hack ‘n’ Slash your way through the Aragami onslaught!
Price: Â£40 / $50 / â‚¬50
Family Focus: Click here for more information.

I have wanted to get into the God Eater series for a long time. Unfortunately this particular gameÂ didn’t make it to our shores until an expanded and remastered version was announced on PlayStation 4, Vita, andÂ Steam, so I saw my chance and ran with it.

God Eater 2: Rage Burst is a game that never made it to the West until now and it’s very confusing as to why. The game is spectacular and enthralling,Â with flashy combat and fleshed out characters spanning from your cool commander who learns to be more than your superior officer, the silent and sheltered type who finds friends within her unit, or the fun, free spirited character who learns to take things seriously every now and then.

Upon clicking New Game,Â you get to create your character and it gives you a various amount of options Â Â although not as in depth as other character creators, it’s enough to give your character aÂ unique flair. As soon as you’ve spent over ten hours creating your character (if you’re anything like myself)Â you will be greeted with a beautifully animated opening from ufotable and the music by Akihiro Namba and Takeshi Ueda, which perfectly gets you pumped and ready for the action you’re about to experience.

The game set in an apocalyptic world where the human race has been forced into hiding under threat of being killed by the Aragami (the monsters). It’s up to the God Eaters of Friar to help the other existing branches of God Eaters to reclaim the world from the Aragami. The story starts with you joining the ranks of Julius Visconti’s unit and learning about the enemyÂ as you fight through their hoard alongside your new friends to regain humanity’s right to exist on Earth.

God Eater 2: Rage Burst consists of a mission based system to progress your game, and missions are acquired from the hub base called Friar. The game feels similar to that of a Monster Hunter game but with an anime face lift and a much faster paced combat system. There are various weapons called God Arcs in the game includingÂ swords, spears, scythes, blasters, shotguns and sniper rifles,Â plus they come in all shapes and sizes, giving various ways to customise your character’s combat style. To top it off,Â you can customise even further through dismantling abandoned God Arcs which allows you to staple on abilities like Scan or HP boosting.

So, God Eater isn’t just about mashing buttons to perform combos; you have moves such as Devour, for example, that lets you either devour abilities from the enemy whilst it’s alive and use themÂ or pass it over to your team mate via link support. On the other hand,Â you can devour items from the corpse of a defeated enemy. Your team mates can also devour abilities and give you the ability and the level will depend on the power of the link burst. There are Blood Arts too, which you can use to strengthen your characters attributes or abilities, whether it’s increased melee damage or extended attack range. Rage Burst is also a thing; it gives you a thirty second boost of your stats.

Online multiplayer is included to allow you and three other friends to go out slay some Aragami as a team. You build your own strategies and aren’tÂ reliant on anÂ AI that may or may not heal you at critical moments. The online aspect is stable although takes a fair time to connect for the first time when forming your team,Â but once you’re all in the hub world, it’s as seamless as the single player.

Overall, God Eater 2: Rage Burst will have playing for hours just on basic story content alone.Â The game includes a diverse ranking system for multiplayer, single player with AI companions and solo single player, giving a variety of ways to play and helping you craft and create all of the various weapons to attain that hundred percent completion rating if you so desire.