GV reports:
''Zoids Assault is the second Atlus-published Strategy RPG I've reviewed this month, and their similarities go beyond just sharing a publisher and genre. Like Spectral Force 3, Zoids Assault is an incredibly bland game that lacks personality. But, while Spectral Force 3 has a few redeeming factors, Zoids Assault underachieves across the board and is a little worse off.
Although the Zoids franchise has both an anime and manga to back it up, Zoids Assault takes a completely different approach. The story is told through a series of still images backed up by horribly stilted voice acting. Even looking at the stills, it is pretty clear that everything is being done to keep the game from having a face. This carries over into the gameplay; none of your pilots have names and their faces are hidden by masks at all times. I'm pretty sure this is by design and is meant to show the impersonal nature of modern war, but for a game, that really doesn't work well since it alienates the player.
It is hard to complain about the visuals once you get past the sleepy political story and ugly U.I. The Zoids look great up close, but the animation is very stilted and lacks the type of fluid motion depicted in the anime. Evasion is nothing more than a simple, half-hearted lean to the side and movement is marked by hard right angles. Even during daytime missions, everything has a grey tone and, when taken with the grainy filter that covers the screen, it can be really hard to tell what is going on. It got so bad at one point that I chose the brightest, gaudiest color scheme for my team just so I could tell them apart from the enemies.''
