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Product Description
Amazon.com
Zone of the Enders HD Collection is an Action video game collection featuring two games from Hideo Kojima's, Zone of the Enders series. Originally developed for PlayStation 2 in 2001 and 2003 respectively, the included games - Zone of the Enders and Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner - are remastered in high-definition, and feature an engrossing story based in humanity's expansion into space and the conflicts that result. Features include: the full classic games, dramatic and action-oriented flying/floating mecha (robot anime) combat, new opening animations, Playstation trophy support, and a demo for the upcoming 2013 Konami release, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
Zone of Enders
Story
The population has exploded, pollution has grown steadily worse, and natural resources are drying up. Unable to continue life on such a small planet as Earth, mankind pushes out into space. The Moon and Mars are incapable of supporting the entire population, so man eventually extends its reach to Jupiter. A torus space colony called Antilia is built at the L5 Lagrangian point of Jupiter and Europa to support mining operations. Man's farthest outpost in its sphere of existence, Antilia houses approximately 100,000 residents involved in mining and transport. It also serves as a development outpost for BAHRAM, the military organization of the Martian anti-Earth state, Vascilia County.
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Antilia is mankind's farthest outpost, and allies itself neither with nor against Earth. Since Nereidum Universal Technology (NUT) and BAHRAM lost their development outpost during the Deimos Incident, they see Antilia as a perfect opportunity to establish an R&D facility for Orbital Frames, humanoid weapons surpassing LEV mecha. Their two most advanced Orbital Frames, Jehuty and Anubis, conceal incredible offensive capabilities plus a certain something of even greater importance.
Gameplay
What if there were an action game that let you dart through the air in any direction? This was the inspiration behind mecha anime simulator Zone of the Enders. The "Orbital Frame," as the game's primary mecha is known, does everything that might be expected of a humanoid machine - grabbing enemies, unleashing a whirlwind of blade strikes up close, and firing off guns from a distance, all while spiraling freely in the open air. With its seamless transitions between omnidirectional battles and story sequences, the game is like diving into a mecha anime where the fate of outer space lies in the player's hands.
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner
Story
Mankind expands into the depths of space in a search for new land. The terraformed Mars is home to colonies from various Earth countries, and mankind's push continues on to Jupiter. However, with new resources and new territory come new problems. Mars consists of 16 counties, which are equivalent to the "states" comprising many Earth nations. Martians and the colonists of the Jovian system are ruled by Earth with an iron fist. Such people living on the frontier of civilization are called "Enders". An irreparable rift forms between those bound by the chains of Earth's gravity and those floating free in space, and over time the hostility between the governors and the governed grows.
In the course of exploring space, man discovers a new ore called Metatron. It gains attention not only for its use as an energy source but also for a multitude of other purposes. However, the incredible energy it provides also comes to be used for military designs, as anti-Earth forces on Mars employ it to secretly develop the giant humanoid weapons known as Orbital Frames. The Orbital Frames possess overwhelming mobility compared to Earth's LEVs, similar humanoid weapons. Once unable to compete against Earth's sheer numbers, Martian anti-Earth forces finally have a weapon with which they can fight back.
Gameplay
Released two years after the first Zone of the Enders, The 2nd Runner upgrades the mechanics of the original in every way. Its intuitive controls make each action even more exhilarating than before. Anime and CG come together to create a visual style like no other, and the stage layouts and story offer a nonstop entertainment experience. The game also boasts incredible sound effects, a pumping soundtrack, memorable voice performances, and topnotch production values in every detail. This is the next level of high speed robot action.
Key Game Features
- Two Classic Games In One Release - The two classic PS2 games Zone of the Enders, and its sequel Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner are included
- Dramatic Japanese Mecha Action and Storytelling - Lose yourself in dramatic Japanese mecha robot action combat, set against an enthralling sci-fi off-world storyline
- Diverse Weapons - In addition to mecha units' hand-to-hand abilities, players will utilize both swords and projectile weapons during combat
- New Game Opening Animations - In addition to the animations found within the original games, The Zone of the Enders HD Collection includes new opening animations for both games
- An Advanced Look at Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Players enjoy an advanced look at Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance through the demo included
Additional Screenshots
 Mecha and human characters. View larger |  Diverse weapons and attacks. View larger |  Soar freely around battlefields. View larger |  Graphics remastered in HD. View larger |
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Customer Reviews
However, despite 2 being on this collection, this is probably the most disappointing game-related purchase I've made since Metroid: Other M (big Metroid fan here). I know that I'm not changing much by writing this review, but I hope that it can shed more light onto why many people are complaining about this collection and that, in the very slim chance that a Konami rep is reading this, a patch will be made to alleviate the problems with the collection.
Let me make this simple:
3 Pros:
-The Metal Gear Rising Demo is fun, despite being short (especially if you skip the cutscenes).
-Zone of the Enders 1 looks and runs as it should.
-The animated opening cutscene is masterfully done and, arguably, the most interesting part of this collection. Check it out on Youtube if you haven't!
3 Cons:
-If I had to take a guess, Zone of the Enders 2 runs about roughly half the speed or so of the original PS2 version. The whole point of the ZoE series is to be a fast-paced robot action game. When the game plays as if I'm playing heavily drunk, something is wrong. I mean seriously, it's barely playable in this state and it's definitely not as fun to play as the PS2 version was (which had very minimal slowdowns). I understand that the game was not made for the PS3/360, but come on, Konami: there's, more or less, no excuse why the game can't run properly. The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection runs almost flawlessly.
-Zone of the Enders 1 isn't nearly as fun as it used to be back in the day. It's also incredibly short at only a few hours long. Somewhat of a weak argument, I admit. However, it is easily the weakest part of this collection.
-You're essentially paying $40/$60 (depending on what collection you purchased) for a demo, a really short (2-4 hours or so on your first playthrough), mediocre game (in my opinion), and a decent-length (6-8 hours or so), incredibly fun game (also in my opinion) that's been absolutely butchered by incompetent programmers. This package is, in its current state (as of November 1st, 2012), worth no more than $20, in my opinion.
Anyway, hopefully Konami will learn from from this mistake and make some sort of attempt to patch the 2nd Runner as soon as possible.
Next to the dire Silent Hill HD, this is one of the sloppiest HD collections yet released. The porting work was farmed out to High Voltage Software, an American studio notorious for putting out licensed junk like White Men Can't Jump, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, and Dora the Explorer. They have very little experience with HD consoles, zero experience with porting other developers' code, and clearly had no idea what they were doing. Compared to the PS2 originals, the framerate of these ports is a complete joke.
Make no mistake, the games will stutter, lag, slow to a crawl, and possibly even crash across the course of a mission. In the scenes that tax the hardware the most, like certain boss battles, the game is practically unplayable. A huge amount of my enjoyment of the original versions came from how fluid the "high speed robot action" was, where you truly felt you were in control of these gorgeous floating monstrosities. That's all but gone here. The unacceptably low framerate also has the unfortunate side effect of rendering the difficulty of some previously challenging battles inconsequential, since you are given so much more time to react to your enemies.
If you are playing the PS3 version, the framerate will be even worse. Konami has claimed that the games play at a smooth 60 frames per second, which is an outright lie. They have also claimed that these ports preserve all the subtle graphical touches and effects of the original versions, which is also untrue. They are mostly intact in the 360 version, but if you are playing on PS3, motion blur is downgraded to be barely noticeable and certain particle effects are entirely removed. There are also strange glitches in background and facial graphics that make it look like you are playing poorly emulated versions of the games.
There are other major problems that could have been solved by a longer development cycle and more competent programmers. For example, getting a trophy in the PS3 version will often freeze the game for minutes at a time. But they are beyond the scope of this review. Suffice to say, Konami needs to release a major patch for this game to fix its numerous issues. It took them a very long time to do this for Silent Hill HD, and it was hardly a panacea. If the ZOE collection is patched and the hardcore fans determine it to be an adequate fix, by all means buy it. Until then, stay the heck away. These amazing games deserved far better treatment.
I own PS2 copies of Zone of the Enders 1 and 2. Both of those versions run at higher and smoother framerates on a consistent basis, with slowdown and frame drops occurring usually where you'd expect the PS2 to have had serious slowdown. The model of PS3 tested while playing the PS3 version was a CECHExx, originally purchased as part of the MGS4 pack released in June 2008. To confirm whether or not the console was the source of the slowdown, I played Tekken Tag 2, Killzone 2, Killzone 3, Dead or Alive 5, MGS HD Collection, and Uncharted 1-3 after upgrading to the latest firmware (4.31). All of those games run just fine. PS3 owners should avoid this collection at all costs, as their version runs at a lower framerate than the 360 version, and suffers from more severe slowdown even when there is no action. Demonstrably, the game suffers from slowdown just staying still in the training mode chamber, while only ONE enemy is present during the basic movement tutorial.
This isn't to say the 360 version is dramatically better. While it does maintain a higher and more stable framerate than the PS3 version, it still suffers from slowdown and frame-drops at all the same points that the PS3 version is. This version of the game was tested on a Xbox 360 250GB edition system. To see if the Xbox was responsible for any of the issues, I also tried out Halo: CE Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo Reach, Dead or Alive 4, and Ace Combat 6. Those games also ran fine on the hardware.
The bottom line is that the Zone of Enders HD Collection is a low effort port of two PS2 games that does not run well on modern gaming consoles capable of playing far more visually complex games. If Konami is hoping this will drum up interest from newer fans who were not fortunate enough to experience these games when they first released on the PS2, they have shot themselves in the foot. If for some reason we do not get Zone of Enders 3 (despite it being announced fairly recently that the game is being worked on), all of the blame should rest firmly on the poor sales of an poorly made compilation made by High Voltage Software.
As an aside, until Konami, Sony, or High Voltage Software acknowledge and address the issues with a patch on both consoles fixing the framerate and overall performance, I would not only avoid purchasing the product, but I would not trust any reviewer claiming the game runs well. At worst, they are paid advertisement shills. At best, they are just fanboys attempting to defend either their console of choice of the franchise they love.
I used to love this games back in the PS2, the games look a bit better now and they play the exact same. Read more
the graphics update is noticable, when comparing it to the original, I was actually about to buy the ps2 version when I discovered... Read more
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