Attack On Titan Review (PS4)

Attack on Titan is the first console game based on the extremely popular anime of the same name, that was released in Japan in 2013. The anime in itself was based on the popular manga series created by Hajime Isayama and so far has sold more than 50 million copies in Japan.

Attack on Titan story is based on the concept of a world which is ravaged by giant hulking Humans, also called Titans. These Titans put humanity on the brink of extinction forcing the rest of the surviving humans to resort to a single location. To survive, they build three huge walls around the last remaining city in the world. The outermost wall is called Wall Maria, the middle one is called Wall Rose and the innermost wall is called Wall Sina.

The story of the game is based on the first season of the anime and begins with the appearance of a mysterious Colossus Titan. This Titan is more than 60 meters tall, making it larger than the wall constructed by the humans to keep the other small Titans out of the city. The game begins when the Colossus Titan uses he strength to create a hole in the wall that results in all the other Titans entering the city thus forcing the survivors to fall back to the city behind Wall Rose.

To combat the giant Titans, the humans have created a new type of maneuver gear called omni-directional maneuver gear. This allows them to swing around the Titans and target their weak points, which is usually at the back of their neck. Along with the neck, we can also target their hands or feet, but these can regrow over time making them only useful in a situation which requires forcing the Titan to drop on ground.

You can target their body parts individually and then roam around the Titans in a circle by firing the maneuver gear. The Titans can only be killed if their neck is slashed which requires the player to carefully position themselves behind the Titan. If we fail to avoid the attacks or unable to do the attack in time, the gear retracts and we will have to fire it again. We can also fall on the ground potentially exposing ourselves to the attacks by Titan, which can grab the player or stomp them on the ground.

Considering the fact that majority of the gameplay is possible only with the omni-direction maneuver gear, developer Omega Force appears to have nailed this aspect. The look and feel of the maneuver gear will certainly please the fans. It is handled well and controlled in a great way, and when we can pull it successfully, we get a sense of satisfaction that is unmatched.

Graphically, Attack on Titan has nailed the look of the anime. The characters are all well animated and the cutscenes closely follow the sequences seen in the anime, but the background and the environment does look a little flat compared to the main characters. The Titans in itself are simply clone of each other and they usually lack the unique traits and personality that we saw in the anime. Nevertheless, since there is a huge sample size of Titans in the game, there were bound to be multiple clones. It is slightly distracting at times but not a deal breaker.

Speaking of Titans, they come in all shapes and size. There are some small Titans that are barely a few feet taller than Humans and then there are some giant ones, which stand several feet tall and can be menacing from the ground up. They attack the player by grabbing them and this results in a quick-time event that requires button mashing the attack button to get out of their hand.

Attack on Titan is not much of a difficult game. It is really easy to play through the main story and get top ranking in each of the chapters. This requires the player to simply complete all the sidequests and slay every Titan visible on the map while completing the mission in the fastest way possible. It might sound hard at first but once we start upgrading our default equipment, it is much easier to kill the Titans, which makes it easier to do the sidequests during the mission, majority of which require rescuing other team members.

As fun as the gameplay is in Attack of Titan, it can get repetitive after a while. The basic fun of using a maneuver gear only lasts till the first couple of missions. Once we master it, the only thing that usually needs to be done is to simply target the nape of the Titan and use a timed button press to kill it. The environment in general lacks in variety and a lot of the missions are set in a location that doesn’t offer much diversity. As a result, it can often become a chore to navigate them.

The first half of the game closely follows the story presented in Season 1. All of the major events are covered in the game making for some memorable set pieces. Players will be able to control a variety of fan favorite characters throughout the main campaign including Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Levi and more. The second half is the epilogue and it is an interesting take from the developer on the world of Attack on Titan. Unlike the action packed first half, this epilogue is rather dull and it is also full of survey missions, which are rather boring in nature and don’t have much action going in them.

Characters can also be unlocked for the expedition mode which has more missions to be completed by the players, either in single player or through the online multiplayer. The multiplayer aspect of the game is rather fun and it is a nice change of pace from the story missions. We can pick any character from the main story in expedition mode once we unlock them in the game.

Attack on Titan is the best video game adaption of the popular anime and manga series, developed by Omega Force. It gives the player a chance to experience the craziness of the omni-directional maneuver gear and see the threat of the titans through the eyes of the main characters. It is an entertaining ride till the end, but albeit one with a few noticeable flaws.

Attack on Titan was developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo. The game is available for the PS4, PS3, PS Vita and PC. This review covers the PS4 version of the game.