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Control is also flawed. Monolith built a "snapping" feature into the mouse control to mimic true human movement and simulate realism. It simulates frustration. The feature causes rapid mouse movements from left to right and top to bottom to pause for an instance, and while this does reflect true movement in humans, it makes for a slight aiming handicap. Not that aiming is necessary in Shogo. The enemy (and wingman) Artificial Intelligence is deplorable at its worst, non-functional at its best. Enemy foot soldiers, MCA's and even tanks wouldn't know danger if it turned a corner in plain view and fired 10 rounds from an Aegis AT-S4 only inches from their face… and it does, and they don't. Most of the time, enemies won't react until they are actually hit, after which they won't give chase. Enemies sometimes won't even react to their fellow soldiers getting hit. To Monolith's credit, they are hastily working on a patch which will address several AI and multiplayer issues.
Shogo: MAD is a great game with a great, albeit fragmented, story which will appeal specifically to anime fans and to gamers in general. The graphics are on par with the best, the animations: fluid, the engine: solid, the sound: above average. Shogo would have been awarded slightly higher marks had the multiplayer and AI issues been addressed with the retail release and had the story not been so schizophrenic. After all is said and done however, we feel that Shogo is hard drive space well spent.
Amer "Mossad" Ajami
Senior Editor
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