Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Right from the off, it is apparent that Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains is indeed one of the better-looking 3DS games out there, and although some textures look muddy close up, from above and at high speed (which is how most of the game is viewed), things look quite detailed. Areas are a little sparse, but some clutter-like boxes and plants can be found, although many pop-up at close proximity. Fans will be pleased to find that animations are recreated from the show, but unfortunately every character moves exactly the same, which has a surreal effect when standing still, yet is thankfully hardly noticeable in battle. Seeing the exact same swinging animation looped over and over, however, quickly gets stale. Overall, the team has pushed the 3DS to its limits and made a very nice-looking game.

Something also quite apparent is that Attack on Titan is only a rough localisation of the Japanese release, since while all the text has been translated into English, all of the audio remains in Japanese. In-battle speech is not translated, which is an odd choice, but otherwise character voices match their appearances and the lines are delivered well; even non-Japanese speakers should be able to pick up on tones and inflections. It is, though, another example of how this is aimed at a very specific market, and followers of the anime and manga probably won't mind reading the subtitles. That said, teammates speak often in battle, and these lines are not subtitled, so English-speaking players might feel left in the dark. Equally disappointingly, there is an over-reliance on only a few great musical tracks, and no matter how impressive they are, hearing the same one multiple times in a row gets old, fast.

Being aimed directly at anyone with previous knowledge of the franchise, rather than attempting to lure newcomers in, means that people unfamiliar with the series will probably be utterly lost as the story jumps around between several characters, and does so to the point where sometimes things actually happen slightly out of order, causing more confusion, and while there are certain scenes included from the anime, most of the story is told through paragraphs of text, making the entry level even tougher. It's more of a summary than a story, as well, which won't impress those who haven't already seen the show.

Gameplay involves several of the series' unique aspects, including the signature omni-directional gear that allows players to swing from place to place, and defeating titans requires shearing off a bit of skin from their neck. This is accomplished via a quick time-event (QTE), which is faithful to the source material but might come across as simple repetition to most, as nearly every enemy in the game must be approached the same way, with a few exceptions. A simple button press will initiate swinging from the character's ODM, and then another button press starts the QTE, which involves a small circle approaching a red ring of varying size. Players must press the attack button when the two align, and success results in working their way up the titan to the back of its neck, where a final QTE will subdue it for good. A missed press often means it's back to square one. A particular story event adds new gameplay elements to the mix, where some missions abandon the QTE-based combat in favour of a 3D brawler system, but on the whole there isn't much variation in gameplay; titans come in different sizes and postures, but the base mechanics for defeating them are the same.

During missions characters can run out of steam for their ODM and their swords will become dull, which is where items like razors and gas cylinders come into play, although whether they will be needed at all depends mostly on how accurate players are with the quick-time events, and spares can usually be found in boxes placed around the environment. While some missions find characters alone, most involve a team of AI-controlled squad-mates. In the earlier chapters of the game, team-mates don't help much, and mostly require rescuing. As the characters grow, they find themselves more capable, and team members begin to get more involved, lending a hand by taking down titans or rescuing the lead if a titan happens to snatch them out of the air and threaten to eat them.

The action is split across two modes: Story and World, the former featuring several characters from the show and follows the anime, while the latter allows for making a personalised character to take on a multitude of single- and multiplayer missions. Different objectives help keep things fresh, with some missions involve taking down all titans, others involve keeping them from a set point, and some simply requiring escape of them altogether.

It all takes a while to move on from the first town, but it does eventually branch out into other areas, and while the campaign is short, there are unlockables for World Mode, which is where the true meat and potatoes of this game lie. Players can create new characters or unlock face and hair sets to make customs look and sound like characters from Story Mode. World also offers the ability to play missions with friends, and the number of missions and varying objectives should offer a good bit of replay value. In terms of size and content, it does lean more toward feeling like a full-fledged 3DS game than a cheap mobile app, but only slightly.