Shogo: Mobile Armor Division- Less Than Mechcellent

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
5,449
0
0
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division- Less Than Mechcellent

As we meet the middle of first person shooter month we take time to look at the anime-inspired Shogo: Mobile Armor Division.

Read Full Article
 

JaredXE

New member
Apr 1, 2009
1,378
0
0
Really? I loved Shogo. The cheesy sci-fi anime story, voice acting and music were great. I really didn't hate the combat, it was standard for late 90's fare 3D shooters.

Whatever happened to Monolith, I wonder. I liked a lot of their early 2000 games like Shogo and Septerra Core.
 

Kenjitsuka

New member
Sep 10, 2009
3,051
0
0
I really loved Shogo as well!
The knife and the nuke launcher are sweet and most weapons (in my recollection) kicked ass!

Plus the split between Mech and human was a great idea :)
 

Blitsie

New member
Jul 2, 2012
532
0
0
JaredXE said:
Whatever happened to Monolith, I wonder. I liked a lot of their early 2000 games like Shogo and Septerra Core.
They're actually developing that new cool looking Lord of the Rings game, Shadow of Mordor, so there's that. They definitely fell off the radar after FEAR 2 though, guess we'll see how things go for them after this new game.

I really enjoyed Shogo though, its hella dated now, especially annoying how enemies immediately blast you with pinpoint accuracy the moment you stick a limb out of cover (that was a 90's thing though, if I remember correctly), but back then it was pretty darn epic fighting about in a giant mech only to climb out in the next level and fight further on foot, gave a great sense of scale.
 

NQJ

New member
Apr 5, 2013
14
0
0
I remember this game, it was very fun in my teen years.

You should review Oni as well at some point, I found that to be a very compelling anime-inspired game.
 

Baralak

New member
Dec 9, 2009
1,244
0
0
NQJ said:
I remember this game, it was very fun in my teen years.

You should review Oni as well at some point, I found that to be a very compelling anime-inspired game.
It was also a game developed by both Bungie AND Rockstar.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

New member
May 22, 2010
7,370
0
0
Edit: A double post that for once was definitely /not/ my connection having problems. Captcha threw up on me and made me re-do it twice with that "oops, you must have posted since you last filled this out" message that is never actually caused by that. First time posted this comment, second time posted the one below.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

New member
May 22, 2010
7,370
0
0
I'm biased because it was the first FPS I ever took online, but man did I love Shogo. The multiplayer was deathmatch only, but I've never played a deathmatch quite like it.

It was insanely fast and manuverable, both on foot and in mech, but instead of Quake or Unreal style bunny hopping, where you have to keep hopping in one general direction to keep your speed up, there was a top speed you hit almost instantly, making crazy dodging possible, where you and your opponents were rapidly jumping, crouching, changing speed and direction[footnote]especially in the mechs, which had a vehicle mode that made you faster, lower to the ground, but slightly harder to change directions, that could be switched in and out of instantly with a button press[/footnote]. On servers that allowed it, there was also the tractor beam, which allowed you to basically fly slowly in a straight line (which made you an easy target and added another layer of strategy), and get to really crazy positions -- it was an FPS that you actually needed to worry not just about opponents around you, but also above and below you.

The tractor beam could actually connect to the skybox, which made things even crazier. On some of the bigger maps, two players might wind up shooting at each other and dodging for a solid two minutes before either of them actually went down, and more often than not there'd be other players in there that would try to pick off both of the two who were dueling, that they'd have to deal with. It's the single FPS I've played that was the most skill based. A new player stood no chance of getting a single kill against even a moderately skilled player. The best players were untouchable dodgers and impeccable aimers, who knew how to use all of the weapons to the greatest effect. It also had one of the best shotguns ever. Heck, pretty much all of the weapons were great, especially once you get past the pistols/pulse rifle on the list.

The single player was cool too, although I'll admit I cheated to finish the story. But then I was 12 and didn't realize that there was a point in using anything but the keyboard with an FPS until after I started taking Shogo online. And yeah, I did it specifically to finish the story. This game did so much of what Half Life did, but came out just a couple of months before it, and people ignored it in favor of the much more heavily hyped Half Life. The biggest thing it lacked was the whole "stuck in one facility and one camera location for most of the game" thing, trading those for locations that change in ways that make sense for the story while still being realistic[footnote]for example, the first few levels have you shooting up an enemy base, going back to your mother ship for some information on the situation, taking a train inside that massive ship to get to where your commander is waiting to give you your orders, and then going back to the surface of the planet, where the story /really/ starts[/footnote] and cutscenes that admitted they were cutscenes, and worked better as a result. Not that it totally lacked story events that played out without breaking first person, it's just if there was a scene where the main character was talking to someone, the camera pulled back, let you see both people, and your character actually talked, instead of being a mute that nobody acknowledged was a mute. If I could switch places with a me from a universe where Monolith came out on top there instead of Valve (especially if it was one where Epic kept the niche it carved out with Unreal, which came out around the same time as the other two), I'd probably do it.
 

weirdee

Swamp Weather Balloon Gas
Apr 11, 2011
2,634
0
0
NQJ said:
I remember this game, it was very fun in my teen years.

You should review Oni as well at some point, I found that to be a very compelling anime-inspired game.
Oni played like crap when I tried it as a kid, but hopefully when I go back to it, it'll be marginally less annoying to my jaded ass.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

New member
May 22, 2010
7,370
0
0
weirdguy said:
NQJ said:
I remember this game, it was very fun in my teen years.

You should review Oni as well at some point, I found that to be a very compelling anime-inspired game.
Oni played like crap when I tried it as a kid, but hopefully when I go back to it, it'll be marginally less annoying to my jaded ass.
Depends on what version you played. The PS2 version sucked. There weren't enough buttons and the control system didn't translate well. I've heard the PC version plays well instead of just looking good.
 

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
5,449
0
0
cursedseishi said:
A great game that's also full of mecha and first person action that's old? Gundam Side Story: 0079 Rise from the Ashes.



It might just be my blatant love for all titles Dreamcast, it might just be my blatant love for all games Gundam, but this game was awesome. A fair number of suits to choose from, blended some light tactical squad-based gameplay with locational damage affecting enemy units as well as (at least to me) pretty good controls. It's only shame is that its Dreamcast only, as I'd kill to have a PC version of the game.


And like a few others, I enjoyed Shogo as well. I got it cheap to be fair, 5 bucks combo deal that had it packaged with Septerra Core (another fave of mine), but even then I still found it fun well after the multiplayer component was dead for the game. I took it as it was though, and if I'm being honest I never noticed any "criticals" while playing.
Rise From the Ashes is a Gundam game I've actually really wanted to play but fear I'll never get too! Cursed old school platform exclusivity.
 

Itsthefuzz

New member
Apr 1, 2010
221
0
0
Shogo was the TITS! I remember that game so fondly. I haven't played it in a while but I might pick it up again.
 

Tanis

The Last Albino
Aug 30, 2010
5,264
0
0
I WISH the MP still worked.

Sure, the main game is nothing special NOW, but back in the day....

Well, beyond MechWarrior, there wasn't a lot of mecha games out there.

Shogo:MAD was a fun, middle of the road, FPS that wowed me when it came to the MP.
The community was about anti-XBL crowd as you could get.

I remember whole matches ending in a standstill, because we were all talking about which Gundam would kick more ass and other stuff.
-Even found out about several anime series I'd never heard of because of the MP talking.
 

Flunk

New member
Feb 17, 2008
915
0
0
I bought this game back when it came out and it was great. Smooth, pretty FPS with Anime themes. That was totally unheard of at the time. I beat the single player more than 30 times (this is not an exaggeration) and you're right, there is little reason not to just pick the most heavily armored mecha every time. I remember the music as being particularly memorable but I only seem to remember the theme.

It's hard to fathom that it came out 16 years ago. I tried to replay it a few years ago but it didn't really hold up. I don't think that FPS games age particularly well and back then the technology was very primitive. 3D acceleration was new and not particularly well understood. If I remember properly this game ran very well on the ATi Rage Pro I had at the time which was a terrible GPU even back then.

P.S. The Multiplayer was ok, but not Quake 3/Unreal Tournment good.
 

Wereduck

New member
Jun 17, 2010
383
0
0
I can't believe nobody's mentioned the two best things about Shogo, the best things in any game EVER:
1) on foot, when you nutshot an enemy you instantly gain health.
2) you can nutshot mechs too ...and it instantly repairs your mech.

After 15 years I still can't wrap my mind around the awesomeness: shooting a mech in it's non-existent junk instantly fixes damage to your mech! If I could do that in Hawken I would never leave my apartment!
 

Stryc9

Elite Member
Nov 12, 2008
1,294
0
41
NQJ said:
I remember this game, it was very fun in my teen years.

You should review Oni as well at some point, I found that to be a very compelling anime-inspired game.
Oni is fucking awesome in spite of all the shit that happened to it during development leading to it being rushed out the door for some reason. The hand to hand combat was fantastic in particular.
 

NQJ

New member
Apr 5, 2013
14
0
0
Owyn_Merrilin said:
weirdguy said:
NQJ said:
I remember this game, it was very fun in my teen years.

You should review Oni as well at some point, I found that to be a very compelling anime-inspired game.
Oni played like crap when I tried it as a kid, but hopefully when I go back to it, it'll be marginally less annoying to my jaded ass.
Depends on what version you played. The PS2 version sucked. There weren't enough buttons and the control system didn't translate well. I've heard the PC version plays well instead of just looking good.
I only played it on the PC and it was awesome!
 

Saulkar

Regular Member
Legacy
Aug 25, 2010
3,142
2
13
Country
Canuckistan
I personally preferred Slave Zero on the PC.

Awesome aesthetics combined with a kickass soundtrack, a genuine sense of scale, and a 30 meter tall mecha that feels both incredibly heavy through use of sound, environmental, graphical, and camera effects while remaining superbly maneuverable but not floaty.

Maybe you could give it a try if Shogo left you feeling a little bummed. The story is craptacular but thankfully non-obtrusive while the voice acting is merely competent.
 

Kekkonen1

New member
Nov 8, 2010
192
0
0
I have actually never played this game in single-player but I remember spending an ungodly ammount playing it in multiplayer over LAN with my friends at the time and I also remember we absolutely loved it.