Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire review

Without question, Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire is one of the PS3's best-looking launch games. Featuring meticulously detailed giant robots that look like weathered, imposing monsters covered in thick slabs of metal, it's possibly the closest any console game has ever come to photorealism. Unfortunately, all those big, beautiful steel titans just make it even sadder that Crossfire somehow manages to make giant robots with big guns and mammoth lightsabers dull.

Adapting the events of the first Mobile Suit Gundam anime series, Crossfire tosses players into a war between the Earth and a rogue nation of space colonists, the Principality of Zeon. Players can choose to play on either side of the conflict, advancing through the ranks as a nameless officer and gradually amassing a vast stable of mecha and pilots.

That's a pretty cool idea, and Crossfire puts players behind the controls of around 30 giant robots over the course of its two campaigns. The action is pretty awesome at first, with most of the mecha able to snipe enemies from a distance; strafe them with mammoth machineguns, rocket launchers and laser cannons; and even get in close for some lightsaber/laser-axe duels.

Those last fights are the most visually arresting (and damaging), as you'll be able to explosively slice body parts off your foes' mecha or lose them yourself. Dismemberment is actually a key gameplay hook, as losing a hand, head or leg can restrict you from using weapons, destroy your vital radar or make you even slower than before. Still, there's a certain pride in having your arms and head blown off and still winning the mission by kicking everything to death.