Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage: Lots to look at, not much to actually do

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SHOULD I PLAY MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM U.C. ENGAGE?

Only consider this if you’re a die-hard fan of the many Gundam anime series, and specifically the Universal Century timeline. Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage is a gacha autobattler whose main connective tissue is key episodes and events from Gundam’s U.C. timeline. It features lots of clips lifted straight from classic anime series, cool-looking mobile suit models and fights, and plenty to collect and upgrade. Unfortunately, there’s very little in the way of actual gameplay, and even the setup for the auto-play battles is disappointingly limited and shallow.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve played several hours of Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage. I increased my player (or overall account) level to 12 and upgraded the seven mobile suits I’ve assembled beyond level 10, along with their pilots. I played through several episodes of the first stage, which covers the years UC 0078-0082 and the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM U.C. ENGAGE?

• Classic mobile suits. If there’s one thing I really liked about Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage, it’s the cool-looking mobile suit models. Each one is rendered in fantastic detail, and they looked great while pulling off their signature EX moves during the mostly hands-off battles, even when it was something pretty mundane like using a regular old beam rifle. Fights looked chaotic and intense, and I thought they did a great job of recapturing the feel of the original anime combat scenes in new, 3D visuals.

• Gundam history. My exposure to Mobile Suit Gundam is admittedly limited: I’ve watched most of the original series, but apart from that, I’ve just built a handful of Gundam model kits based entirely on which ones I think look cool. I enjoyed the crash course in Universal Century history that U.C. Engage provided in the story mode, as it gave me a sense of the connections between the series and movies, and what I already knew and what I had never seen before.

• Plenty of currency early on. U.C. Engage had me drowning in currency during my first few hours of play, enough that I could hardly imagine ever coming up short if I wanted to try pulling a new mobile suit or character. I picked up enough upgrade materials working through the story mode normally that I was able to keep my squad ahead of the power curve. I’m sure there’s a point at which spending money becomes more appealing, but the game is generous enough to make sure I wasn’t even thinking about opening my wallet in the first few hours.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM U.C. ENGAGE?

• Shallow, uninteresting gameplay. While the battles themselves were fun to watch, I never felt like I was participating much. Before each fight began, I could select my squad and arrange each unit to make sure I was using the game’s color-based rock-paper-scissors system for determining advantage and disadvantage. Beyond that and upgrading each character and mobile suit between missions, however, I didn’t really have much to do. It’s a game I felt I didn’t have to pay any real attention to, outside of the quick summaries of the anime episodes I hadn’t seen before.

• Lots of long load times. Everything I did in Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage seemed to require a load of some kind, whether that was loading the assets for a battle or simply establishing a connection with the game servers any time I clicked ‘back’ on a menu. It was laborious and time consuming just trying to navigate the squad selection interface, and going from there to the upgrade screens was always a chore. This was after downloading the massive six gigabyte asset pack when I installed the game, so I can only imagine the load times are even worse if you opt for the standard installation.

• A huge download. Right, about that asset pack! The game didn’t explain what it was for, and I had to assume it included the many clips of legacy animation shown during story mode. If that’s the case, though, it seems like a huge waste of space for most users: We’re not going to rewatch most of these clips after the first time. That massive install package is only useful for someone who can download six gigabytes of data right now, but will then not have access to Wi-Fi or cellular data again for the foreseeable future.

💬 Are you a Mobile Suit Gundam fan who plans on diving into Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage, or are gacha games not your style? What’s your favorite Gundam series? Let me know in the comments!