Visually, the game looks decent for a Playstation 2 game but pales in comparison to other Gundam games on the system (particularly Mobile Suit Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam,) as the suits look particularly tiny and the sparse environments do a poor job of providing a sense of scale. Additionally, many of the textures look muddy and the variety in environment design leave a lot to be desired.
Gameplay and combat is exactly what you’d expect from a Dynasty Warriors game – you pick a pilot, a mobile suit (you can mix and match, btw), and run around a map killing random enemy mobile suits along with the occasional boss suit. There’s a lot of stuff added to give the gameplay more depth - like the ability to boost dash and block, the ability to launch different types of attacks depending on button combinations and sequences, the gundam’s equivalent of a musou super attack, and for some suits – a transformation. However, the sum is less than its parts as they all result in combat that is clunky and imprecise.
The main trouble has to be with targeting. Pressing one of the shoulder buttons allows you to keep the camera steady so that it doesn’t rotate all over the place while you’re running around and wading through hundreds of enemies, but there’s no way to lock-on to a target. When you’re blasting and slashing your way through a ton of enemies, it shouldn’t be a problem, but when you’re trying to hit a specific mobile suit (particularly a boss), you’ll find yourself hitting thin air a lot of times as your enemy is thrown away from the path of your attack. The auto-combo feature further compounds this problem.
The lack of a lock-on ability is understandable, though. Many Dynasty Warriors-type games around the time don’t have any to begin with, but one thing that makes it more noticeable in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is the way the mobile suits move – they’re pretty fast yet very stiff for mobile suits, making it feel like you’re playing a toy with a limited amount of articulation points. It would have worked better if the Mobile suits moved a little bit slower but smoother, similar to how the suits move in the VS games (e.g. Rengou vs. Zaft 2 Plus.) The poor animation is definitely not a limitation of the hardware, because later installments of the Dynasty Warriors series on the PS2 have characters that move more articulately. I’m chalking it up to developers who don’t understand or care how a Gundam moves.
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The only good thing I have to say about Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is that it’s the only Gundam game on the Playstation 2 so far that perfectly encapsulates the concept of a single powerful mecha (or an average mecha manned by an exceptionally gifted pilot) laying waste to hundreds of other mechas, which is one of the staples of the Gundam franchise and one that is absent from many 4 vs. 4 arena type Gundam games. It’s just too bad that the combat isn’t enjoyable.
On the whole, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is a poor use of the license regardless of how many game modes and extra content they throw into the mix. If you’re a fan of crowd-brawling games and a very big fan of the Gundam franchise, you’re probably going to get this no matter what I say, but if you’re just a fan of the Gundam franchise and want a fun game that makes you feel like you’re controlling a mobile suit in third person, go for either Mobile Suit Gundam vs. Z Gundam or Gundam Seed Destiny Rengou vs. Zaft 2 Plus.
