After New Gundam Breaker was released a few years back, most of us thought that the series was ruined. The series’ gameplay and customisation were nowhere to be found and the fan response was pretty dismal. Many folks were surprised when Gundam Breaker 4 was announced. The game very much puts the series back on track, plus adds a bunch of new models and a completely reworked combat system. In some ways it’s a step forward and in others it’s a step back. However, it’s still well worth playing for series fans and newcomers alike, especially considering this is the first true Gundam Breaker game to get released outside of Asia.
Gundam Breaker 4 is divided into seven story chapters, as well as a bunch of corresponding free quests for a total of over 60 missions. Granted, many of these missions are interchangeable. There are also five difficulties to pick from, but they really only increase enemy levels and nothing else. There’s still a solid chunk of gameplay here, although the game is very much only truly built to last for people who want to grind and build a bunch of different Gunpla models. Anyone who’s here for the action won’t stay invested as long, to be certain.
Stages this time are made up of three short waves. You get teleported into a small arena and enemies are piped in for a few minutes. Once you kill everything, you’ll then be beamed to another arena, and then another. Most missions tend to take under 10 minutes, especially if your part levels are higher. You can purchase kits from an in-game shop that’ll grant you all the pieces to build a specific Gunpla, but defeated enemies will also drop parts that you can equip. It’s up to you how you want to handle it. You don’t have to use the dropped parts if you really don’t want to, as you can use plastic to level up or increase the rarity of your stock.
However, parts dropped in the wild can have RNG-based skills and abilities on them that you can fuse into other parts to pass traits on. For anyone trying to build their perfect Gunpla, this can take some serious farming, depending on their goals. There’s a good amount more to the customisation this time, with poses and more specific builder’s parts and paint jobs. You can even buy diorama pieces and make your own dioramas with a very detailed editor, which is fun for anyone into that sort of things. Oddly, there’s no in-battle photo mode, which is a shame.
Combat-wise, each Gunpla has to either equip two single-handed melee weapons or a one-handed weapon, as well as two ranged weapons. This both enhances and lessens your options compared to Gundam Breaker 3, but weapons do have different moves depending on where attacks land in a combo in conjunction with your other weapon. I think it’s an interesting choice, plus I like having a quick weapon in one hand and a slower, more damaging one in the other. Plus, having two guns means you can shoot more often, if you so choose.
The combat in Gundam Breaker 4 is slower and considerably less flashy than Gundam Breaker 3‘s, which some fans are pretty unhappy about. However, it’s much, much easier to tell what’s going on in this game. The enemy AI is notably better as you now have to chase it more carefully, while making sure to position yourself in such a way that you can actually hit them, as opposed to the more automated DBZ-esque combat of GB3. Since this game is built out of bite-sized stages instead of the longer, connected levels of Gundam Breaker 3, the act of getting around the environment is now missing a fair amount too.
Much like the other changes, this has its pros and cons. Sure, the game is shorter and you don’t get to take your time flying around. On the other hand, Gundam Breaker 4 lets you get to the combat immediately without any padding. Plus the stages in GB3 were so few and overused that they got pretty boring after a while, so that does make this game less tedious in certain ways. As such, it’s hard to say if this game is “better,” so I’ll just say that it’s different. I still had a really good time with it, but I can easily see why someone wouldn’t prefer it.
At the very least, I can’t argue that it’s not a boon having an uncapped framerate here. This is a very simple game from a visual standpoint, so attaining high, rock-solid framerates is an easy task. GB3 can only be played at a fairly choppy 30 fps, so this game just feels better in that regard. Setting the resolution on first launch is far more difficult than need be, however. Initially, only 720p was available and I had to switch to windowed, pick my TV resolution, then switch back. I’m not sure how anyone messed that up, but they did.
Overall I’m very fond of Gundam Breaker 4. Building is still as intuitive and engrossing as ever, plus I enjoy the new combat and laser-focus the game supplies. It might not replace Gundam Breaker 3 and might not be as packed with content as some would prefer, but anyone who wants to build digital Gunpla on modern platforms doesn’t really have any other option and at least we have a good Gundam Breaker for the first time in years.
Gundam Breaker 4: Building Gunpla is as fun as ever, plus all the new suits and not having to replay the same tiny handful of stages over and over again is the perfect touch. – Andrew Farrell
Check out our previous review:
Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn PC review – Prettier but worse than the original in every other way |
