Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (PlayStation 2) review "You’ve just been shot...repeatedly...by the man you hate most in the universe, a bastard named Nohman. Blood’s everywhere. You can’t move, you can’t breathe, you can barely even think, and every thought you have is devoted to wishing Nohman burns in the deepest, darkest, demon-dominated corner of Hell. Right next to where you’ll soon be. "

You’ve just been shot...repeatedly...by the man you hate most in the universe, a bastard named Nohman. Blood’s everywhere. You can’t move, you can’t breathe, you can barely even think, and every thought you have is devoted to wishing Nohman burns in the deepest, darkest, demon-dominated corner of Hell. Right next to where you’ll soon be.

But you’ve got a guardian angel. Before you die, a subordinate of Nohman makes a pact with you: She’ll help you, but only if you help her in return.

You agree. Fade to black.

You’ve just been saved by a woman you know next to nothing about, a beauty named Ken Marinaris. She’s not content with just being your savior, though; she wants to be your master. By hooking your body up to a war-weapon called an Orbital Frame, she has effectively put you on a leash, one that she could turn into a noose at any time. A simple word from her and all the systems go down. You die…unless you cooperate.

Your name is Dingo Egret. You’ve tried to live the peaceful life, stay away from the sound and fury of the warring worlds, but it’s all come back to you. You’re a warrior, and warriors fight wars.

Your Orbital Frame is Jehuty. A sleek machine with vast potential, a humanoid weapon of mass destruction. Sought by most and feared by all, it is an unstoppable force; no army formed against it can prosper.

Your enemy is Nohman. He’s used you, played you, tricked you. Sacrificed your friends for crazed ideals. Spared you, and had the audacity, the nerve, the gall to think you would still fight for his cause.

It is time Nohman paid.

Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner isn’t about lofty morals. It’s not trying to make some deep statement. There aren’t any hidden meanings to find and it’s not a trussed up commentary on the political situation. While most games are content to give you some wussy motivation, like longing for love or praying for peace, all the Second Runner asks you to do is tap into your most primal instinct. The story may talk about ‘the Will of Metatron’ and other standard anime-fare, but at the core it’s all about one thing: Vengeance.

And what sweet revenge it is, too.

Nohman sends endless waves your way; enemies come by the hundreds, filling the sky with metal menace. Your enemy truly is legion; sometimes you’ll fight them by the tens, mostly you’ll fight them by the hundreds. Targeting, attacking, switching, moving, dodging, blocking, throwing, you’ll take them out in hordes, explosions all around you. Jehuty’s power is incredible and you’ll have access to all it…eventually.

You see, the Jehuty you start out with is the barebones version; powerful, yes, but nowhere near as powerful as it can be, as it will be. There are weapons to acquire, new abilities to use, each one giving you a new kind of edge against the enemy. Mainstays like the ever-popular laser blast, so strong and so quick and so accurate that you can almost write your name in the enemy swarm. Rapid-fire weaponry for large-scale destruction. And a beam cannon with enough power to rip apart an entire ship with a single blast.

But you’ve got to fight for them. Nohman’s no idiot; the pack of mindless robots he constantly sends your way are just to soften you up. The bosses are the real challenge.

Each one forces you to think in a way you haven’t thought before; use abilities you might’ve neglected. Brute strength isn’t enough for them, you’ve got to adapt, strategize, plan…because they do. They’ll beat you back and beat you down, and if you don’t take them out fast and hard…defeat. You won’t have an idle moment, there won’t be a second where you’re not slamming on the buttons, using every move to its fullest.

There’s never any trouble in doing so, either; the controls are tight. Every move does what you need it to do when you need to do it. Never any delay, never any missed attacks. And that vast arsenal at your disposal? Switching from attack to attack is simple; the one and only time the game stops is when you change. Bring up the menu, pick your poison, get right back. You’ll have a solid handle on every situation, always. If you lose, it’s your fault and your fault alone.

And it all looks so radiant, too; if there was ever a time the epilepsy warning was needed, this is that time. Every thing you do results in a light show, a shimmering array of flashes and flickers that fill the entire screen. Every shot you fire, every enemy that blows to pieces…it all looks real, it all looks magnificent. It’s pleasure enough just to watch things in motion; every battle shines in a different way, and each way is brilliant.

But you must remember: You are Jehuty’s second runner, the second one to push its limits. There’s a story before your story, but you needn’t think much on it; your quest is a standalone affair for the most part, and on the rare occasion that something happens that you can’t understand, a clarification is quick to follow, letting you get on with the matters at hand in short order. And if you’re still left in the dark, if you still can’t understand the previous runner’s story and apply it to the current, it’s a small matter: The game comes with a step-by-step recap of its predecessor, making sure everyone is enlightened.

The path to Nohman is a rough one, no mistake. Each battle is fiercer than the last, more vibrant, more kinetic, more demanding on your senses. A hard road, and you're going to earn every inch of it

But it’s worth it. If for nothing more than wiping that stupid smirk off Nohman’s face, it’s worth it. Whether it’s the story’s promise of fulfilled revenge or the game’s promise of relentless action, you’re going to be pulled, dragged from scene to scene until the final blow in the final battle. Once you start playing, you won’t want to finish. You’ll need to.

Community review by lasthero (October 06, 2005) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.