ExZeus: The Complete Collection from Ziggurat brings the two classic mech combat games to PS4. Check our ExZeus: The Complete Collection review!
ExZeus: The Complete Collection from Ziggurat brings the two classic mech combat games to PlayStation 4. You get ExZeus, as well as its sequel ExZeus 2, in a budget collection for only $12.99. And before you ask, no, these aren’t remakes of the games. You’ll be experiencing the original versions of both games, which is not a bad thing! For ExZeus, in the year 2102 C.E., a massive previously unknown asteroid entered Earth’s orbit… and started to attack the planet! Thousands died every day, and the few who managed to survive ended up moving deep underground. They planned a counter-attack with three experimental robots – Calista, Sophia, and Dynamis – and thus, Operation ExZeus was born.
For ExZeus, you’ll move your mech around with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, using the L1 and R1 buttons to dodge left and right as needed – which can also be done by quickly double pressing left or right on the left analog stick or the D-Pad. The X button is for your attacks, so you can fire your weapon or launch missiles, and you can long press to use lasers. Since there are going to be lots of enemies to take care of on the screen, you can lock-on as needed with the Circle button, which will drain your lock energy. If you have any mega-bombs in stock, you can trigger them by pressing the Square button. Each of the three aforementioned mechs will have different stats for Power, Speed, Weapon, and Armor, so be sure to take them all for a spin so that you can find the right one for your playing style!
To stay alive, you need to not only shoot everything that moves but also make sure to collect the different bonus items that will spawn as you destroy enemies. These include a heart that can partially restore some of your life energy, a green lock symbol that partially restores your lock energy, a shield to boost your defenses, a power-up that will temporarily activate a multishot, as well as many gold pieces as possible so that you can have enough of them to upgrade your mech at the shop. Gold pieces will be very important since they allow you to buy extensions for your life energy, lock energy, and shield, buy mega-bombs, or refill some of said energy gauges.
For the aptly titled sequel ExZeus 2, after a century of peace, thanks to the success of Operation ExZeus and the defeat of Diadora, a new menace from space has set its sights on Earth. Five mysterious pods, each one a weapon of mass destruction, have landed in densely populated areas around the planet. It’s time to once again activate Operation ExZeus, bringing mechs Calista, Sophia, and Dynamis back into action, fusing them together to create the most powerful combat robot ever: Minos.
The sequel expands on what ExZeus did by having the aforementioned combined mech for you to control both in the air and on the ground. It also allows you to control the mech while riding a bike that can drift attack with the X button and jump with the Circle button, a buggy that can fire with the X button and jump with the Circle button, as well as a tubular board that fan attack and launch missiles as you use your lock-on energy bar to target as many enemies as possible by pressing the Circle button.
The trophies for this collection are split into 20 Bronze trophies, 18 Silver trophies, and a pair of Gold trophies. As you can tell from that, it means you can aim at adding a new Platinum trophy to your collection! The trophies will unlock as you play each game and boost your overall score to increase your rank, from Rookie all the way up to Immortal for each game. That does mean you’ll be replaying each of them several times, depending on how good you are at boosting your score multiplier and staying alive to complete each stage as fast as possible.
ExZeus: The Complete Collection is a fun one since it brings together two arcade-style games for some fun mech combat on PlayStation 4. There’s a full trophy list with a grindy Platinum trophy, but the fun on-rails gameplay still holds up, making this an easy one to recommend at its $12.99 asking price. You’ll get a lot of fun out of this one, as you learn the movement and attack patterns of each boss and enemy in the two games, trying to boost your overall score and to stay alive for as long as possible to get your name on the leaderboard.
Disclaimer
This ExZeus: The Complete Collection review is based on a Playstation 4 copy provided by Ziggurat.
