Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner Review

The sequel is the version of this idea that works. Combat opens up with sub weapons, a dash attack that closes distance instantly, and the ability to pick up buildings and hurl them, and the encounter design finally gives you enemies worth all that vocabulary. Dingo is an adult with a history rather than a reluctant child, which changes the register entirely, and the animated cutscenes are among the best produced for a game of its era.

The set pieces are the real draw. There is a sequence where you fight an entire orbital fleet, another where the game hands you a wall of incoming ordnance and expects you to cut straight through it, and a final duel that escalates past what the hardware seemed able to draw. It is still short, running around seven hours, and the camera can lose the fight when three enemies converge from different axes. The high definition rerelease cleaned up the frame rate and is the version to seek out. Twenty years on, very little in the genre moves this well.