E3 2016: Attack on Titan Preview

June 28, 2016

I’m a massive fan of the early seasons of the Attack of Titan anime and the unique sense of brutality and hopelessness it brought with it. Fighting a seemingly unending horde of enemies that are immensely powerful while your population dwindles and you’re gradually pushed towards extinction is something that isn’t portrayed often. Ignoring Neon Genesis Evangelion of course. So when it was announced that Omega Force, the developers of the Dynasty Warriors franchise, was going to trying their hands at an Attack on Titan game, I was incredible excited. At E3 2016 we had the chance to go hands on in two different demo’s of Attack on Titan.

The first demo had me playing as Mikasa, the best friend of main character Eren Jaeger and prodigy of the Survey Corps (soldiers who are tasked with fighting Titans) as we protected th gate to the inner city. Traversing the world is true to the anime and manga, with you shooting out your two grappling hooks towards where you want to go and using jets to boost yourself quickly in that direction. It’s initially a bit tricky, similar to getting used to web swinging in Spiderman games, but is incredibly fun and satisfying once you’ve gotten used to it.

Attack on Titan 3

To enter into combat with a Titan, you first need to activate combat mode, which allows you to target the Titan’s various body parts. From here, you shoot your grappling hooks into the titan and use your jets to boost towards it. You need to ensure that you have enough distance to build up momentum to do maximum damage to the Titan, as well as making sure to correctly time your sword swing. Only a blow to the nape of the neck can kill a Titan, however blows to other limbs will decrease its mobility and help slow its progress towards the inner city.

The overall structure of a mission is similar to what you would find in a Dynasty Warriors game, with a code objective on a large map and various side missions that pop up. Eventually, this mission changed its focus to killing a particular Titan, while not letting three other key areas fall. While fighting this Titan wasn’t particularly challenging, it was difficult to kill it while also making sure that other Titans didn’t destroy the three objective areas.

After this demo was completed, I had the chance to try another mission type in Attack on Titan,, this time taking control of Eren Jaeger after he had transformed into his Titan form. This demo played significantly more like a Dynasty Warriors game, as we were now the same size as the other Titans, but with more of a focus on one-on-one combat. Combat included a variety of punches, kicks and grappling moves.

While I felt incredibly powerful and domineering as Titan Eren, which is how I should feel as a Titan, the excitement soon wore off as I took down enemy after enemy with little challenge and not enough variety in the combat.

Overall, Attack on Titan seems like a solar adaptation of the anime and manga, but I’m not convinced on how the ful breadth of content will pan out. Attack on Titan will release on October 26th for PS3, PS4, PS Vita, PC and Xbox One.