Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters In Space
It’s kind of baffling that there’s never been a truly great Gundam game. There are a ton of Gundam games that capture some aspect of that makes the series so engaging. Strategy sims, fighting games, arcade action titles, and a few games that could almost be considered action/simulation hybrids. The problem is, there’s always something lacking in each of those games that leaves them at best being titles for a very specific audience, at worst completely unapproachable, but most commonly games whose positive and negative traits result in such complete neutrality that they’re worth little more than a shrug from anyone who’s not already a fan. That’s why it’s kind of notable when a Gundam game manages to crack the barrier of mediocrity and ascend to entirely worth playing. That elusive B minus of a video game. Maybe as a title in one of the best console libraries of all time, Encounters in Space doesn’t stack up, but in the pantheon of Gundam titles, it’s easily thirty percent better than most of its peers.
Essentially, Encounters in Space plays like a less polished Star Fox title. That’s not necessarily a bad thing - Encounters falls squarely into the “if you’re going to copy a style, you may as well copy a good one” category. Missions play out with the same beats as Star Fox 64, with an on rails segment followed by a more free roaming one. Things are of course easier to control during the on rails segments, but after about ten minutes, you’ll have no problem with the controls in the free range portions as well. They may not be finely tuned, but at least the controls never feel like they’re actively working against you. Dare I say it, the controls begin to feel natural surprisingly fast. The lock on systems the game employs do most of the heavy lifting, but they manage to make the gameplay feel fluid without ever feeling like your actions don’t matter. In the game’s best moments, the action is fast and responsive enough to make you feel like you really are the reason the tide of the war itself is turning as you destroy enemy mobile suits and battleships alike.
Admittedly, the game does begin to feel a bit repetitive by the time you’re finished. It’s rare that missions provide any significant changes to the usual gameplay loop, and there’s no real strategy to develop beyond a few moments where you have to defend as well as attack. The main mode of the game, White Base, offers only one mobile suit to pilot, and you’ll only encounter suits that pilot or attack differently in the Ace Pilot side missions. Variety isn’t the word of the day, but remember, we’re grading on a curve here. The game accomplishes what it wants well enough, even if it isn’t great.
What the game is, however, is a real gift to Gundam fans, especially those who love the One Year War era. The game itself tells the story of the second half of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, and the side missions provide the rare ability to play through the stories of pilots who can usually only be found in strategy games and rarely translated manga. Combined, they’ve got about as much gameplay as the main White Base mode, and they do a great job of showcasing the more extended narrative of The One Year War. The missions also have some great animation made specifically for the game. It’s great to see Johnny Ridden get the recognition he deserves, and the more human aspects of the Zeon pilots do a good job of displaying the complexities of an individual in the middle of a larger conflict (still, anyone who tells you they admire Girhen Zabi should be avoided immediately).
The game also offers an original side story via Thoroughbred Mode. You play as Ford Romfello piloting the RX-78-5 Gundam, and while the mobile suit designs are solid and the story isn’t terrible, it’s one of the less essential side stories of The One Year War. While the plot of the original Mobile Suit Gundam touched on the way the RX-78-2 was significant in shifting the tide of the war, the OVAs and video games of the 90s added further experimental mobile suits that while interesting, made the Gundam itself seem a bit less significant. Thoroughbred Mode (official name Space, to the End of a Flash) is a prime example of a side story that features some cool designs, but adds little to the Gundam universe and if anything, diminishes the significance of the RX-78-2. Still, the new animation looks good, and it’s always nice to get some new obscure characters to look for in a future Super Robot Wars game.
What really keeps Encounters engaging is its presentation. Even if you’re not a fan of the english dub of the series, the usage of voice clips is perfectly timed, and keeps the action moving even when the gameplay begins to get repetitive. Even more well utilized is the series’ original score, which is either implemented dynamically or at minimum, timed very well to the action. Mid mission cutscenes are usually rendered with the in game engine, but there are occasional animated interludes in addition to the animated sequences seen before and after your missions. If the game wasn’t as well crafted as it was, these additions would seem like an effort to gloss over the game’s flaws. Fortunately, that’s not the case. Even if you’re not a Gundam fan, you’ll no doubt find the gameplay engrossing and worth mentioning alongside the platform’s more well known titles.
A game like Encounters in Space is why the PS2 catalog is held in such high regard. On a less stacked system, this would be a standout title, but on Sony’s second console outing, it’s easily lost in the shuffle. At the time of its release, the game was largely ignored, owing to the system really coming into its own both commercially and artistically. To this day, it’s not often mentioned in must play lists, nor is it brought up in discussions about overlooked games in the system’s library. This is a real shame, because Encounters in Space deserves recognition for pulling off the rare combination of accessibility and depth that allows it to appeal to both Gundam fans as well as people who just enjoy a good action game. It’s not as cheap as some PS2 games, but it hasn’t reached the sky high prices that some games for the system have either. Encounters in Space may not have been a must play for every PS2 fan when it was released, but years later it serves as an example of the many overlooked yet solidly enjoyable titles that populate the system’s library.