Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 Review

We've had a bit of a Warriors gluttony period as of late with four games from the franchise coming in quick succession. It started out with Warriors: Legends of Troy, then came Dynasty Warriors 7, Samurai Warriors: Chronicles and as the pièce de résistance, we now have Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3. Despite each game having the same basic premise, they are all very different in their own way and with Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, Omega Force has shown once again just how different a Dynasty Warriors experience can be.

Attempting to unravel the story of the Mobile Suit Gundam series would probably need its own thesis. And bearing that in mind, you may well pump hours and hours into Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 without having any clue what's going on. To cut a long story short though, everyone gets trapped in a world that they deem is "warped" somehow. Things aren't happening how they should and nobody knows what's going on - it's rather apt.

As you progress your small squad will expand and you'll end up with a team of characters who can all undertake the same basic missions. You have, Those Who Understand (Earth Federation Special Force Heroes), Those Who Doubt (Neo Zeon's Red Comets), Those Who Disagree (Axis Rebellion) and Those Who Fight. Although as you go through the story, the sides get a little bit jumbled up.

What's interesting about this concept is that, while you will have a main character, you can go back out and select another character from the same group and then continue where you left off with the other one. It gives you a nice array of choices, so you're bound to find at least one character in each team you enjoy. The bad thing, is that the game sometimes enforces selection upon you - certain characters can only be used for certain missions. Why is this bad? Well, if you've spent your entire time using one character and you've managed to get quite far, the game then forces you to use a character you've never used before, in a very weak Gundam - you go from kicking ass, to getting your ass kicked.

There's nothing wrong with doing a bit of grinding here and there, but the way it's done forces you to disconnect from the story so you can go and power up your character. And it's not just the odd mission here and there, sometimes they come in clumps. So you'll need to grind up 3-4 characters just so you can do a mission that would normally take you a few minutes with your normal character.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3's core gameplay isn't too dissimilar from other Warriors games of the same ilk. You have your basic melee moves, your powered up moves which change depending on the depth of your combo and your charge move. However, due to the nature of what's fighting in the battles, a few extra mechanics are thrown in too.

First of all, you have the ability to call in a partner. You can select this person before you go into battle, but when the bar is full, they will come down from the sky and rain hell on a chosen target, or just anyone they feel like. You also have the ability to perform a manoeuvre called the Emergency Dash. Whenever you get hit or anticipate a strike, you are able to dodge to a more advantageous position. What this means, is that the action is much more fast paced - no longer do you get dumped to the floor when you're hit, you can go on the offensive in an instant.