By:
Monolith

Sanjuro Makabe is a hotshot UCASF mecha pilot whose life is about to come crashing down all around him. Sanjuro's no stranger to trouble though. Having previously been blamed for the loss of his two best friends, Baku and Toshiro, and lover Kura during a routine mission gone wrong, he's had to bear the responsibility and guilt of their demise. Life doesn't get any easier for our young friend, as he and the rest of the UCASF are embroiled in a bitter war against the Fallen, a group of renegades led by a man known only as "Gabriel". To make matters worse, Shogo, an elite corporation is playing both sides against each other to serve its own needs.

Sanjuro has sought shelter in the arms of Kathryn, a UCASF communications officer who coincidentally happens to be Kura's twin sister and the daughter Admiral Akkaraju, a high-ranking UCASF officer and Sanjuro's father figure. Sound complicated? It gets better. The story unfolds to reveal that Sanjuro's friends, Baku and Toshiro, are alive and well… and Fallen officers. Even Kura makes an encore entrance. Yes she's alive too. Sanjuro must choose who to fight, and who to love.

Sounds like the latest anime release to come out of Japan, right? Wrong. This is Monolith's Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, the first game to be powered by the LithTech 3D engine, and while the story might have Robotech written all over it, Shogo stands alone in the field of originality. Granted, the game does have more than its fair share of influences from the anime (Japanese cartoon) industry, with references to Akira, Venus Wars, Battle Angel Alita, Ghost in the Shell and more. However Monolith successfully takes the admittedly tired first person shooter genre and adds a new twist that can be appreciated by gamers alike, Robotech fans or not.