Shogo: Mobile Armor Division

This game has everything you could expect from a first-person shooter and something more. There are lots of guns, big guns and big robots. I mean, in which game you can get into a big transformer, shoot from plasma guns and in a moment go back to down, to your body? The graphics is excellent, story will drive you all the time and action will never stop. And the art stylization is also very interesting, combining japanese anime and manga style. It's a true orginal and a big surprise for me. Don't underestimate this game, it's worth every cent!

I played this little underdog gem years ago, when it first was realeased. The game is far from perfect, the levels on foot aren't that greatm the enemy AI is kinda dumb and the level diesign doesn't really shine. So why am I giving it 5 starts? Because of the robots. Level design is WAY better when you're driving the robot, the weapons are fantastic, the scale of destruction you can do is amazing and it's overall INCREDIBLY FUN. You will giggle a lot while piloting your giant robot, squishing human enemies and destroying everything you see. They should have put way less levels on foot and it would have been a masterpiece. Still, one of the most genuinely fun FPS I've ever played.

This game is an interesting hybrid of ideas. It's basically a first-person mech-based shooter, with a distinct anime-inspired art style and story. Don't worry, though, because it's by Monolith, the guys who made such great games as No One Lives Forever and F.E.A.R., which means it handles like any other PC fps, and wonderfully, at that. The graphics are pretty dated, but not nearly as badly as some other games from its era. Also, this game has a lot of blood and explosions, which you may or may not consider a plus, depending on taste. This is a great game that most will probably enjoy with the right perspective on exactly what they're playing. And, of course, $5.99 is a steal. I would definitely recommend this game to shooter fans and mech fans, alike.

It's seems like yesterday that I found myself enthralled by the demo of the original Mac OS 9 port of Shogo: MAD, on my old 400 MHz Power Mac G4. The demo had me hooked, but at the time there was no way that I could have found a copy at my small local game shop. There's not much else I can say about the game that's already been said elsewhere here, but having finally played through the game from start to finish, it's a delight to see that others are enjoying it too. Shogo: MAD is one of those games where you really can't help but look past its flaws - the unbalanced weapons, the jarringly different MCA and human play modes (where in the former you're nigh invincible with a fully-automatic precision sniper rifle and in the latter it just takes two hits before you die in a shower of blood and gibs), the disjointed and overly clichéd plot...all of that is immediately forgivable in the face of the over-the-top voice acting, and the refreshingly simple gunplay. It really feels like this is not only game made by shooter fans, for shooter fans, but a game made by animé buffs, for animé buffs.

The game starts off decently, and is a fun FPS, but as it gets along, the effects of the rushed development become more evident. The very end of the game is a confusing mess, with back tracking trying to figure out where you're supposed to go. The On Foot segments become tedious, which is an issue, since despite the whole Mecha thing being the games big selling point, you end up not piloting one very often. The critical hit system seems arbitrary, random, even, and with a little more polish could have been great. As it is, it's merely a minor annoyance. Humour is another issue. Sanjuro gives little quips in the cutscenes, but it rarely feels natural. Most of the time they come off as forced, and generally don't fit the tone of the scene at all. Tragic, as if given the proper tone and pacing, they could have been hilarious. However, the credits amused me, feeling like something straight out of an anime. The graphics are ok, but the ones in Blood 2, released the same year and running the same engine by the same company, are better. However, on a Vista32 system like I have, Shogo is significantly more stable. I got Client MFC Error crashes every 5-20 minutes with Blood 2, but had a single one in Shogo. In conclusion, I must state that it's a shame that the expansions never came out, as they would have certainly polished up the troublesome aspects of the game, and made a game well worth recommending. As is, I can recommend the first part only, as the latter half is a poorly developed mess.