Video games - Shogo: Mobile Armor Division

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	Video games - Shogo: Mobile Armor Division

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is a first person shooter computer game released by Monolith Productions on September 30, 1998. It was the first game to utilize Monolith's flagship Lithtech engine. It has heavy influences from Japanese anime, particularly the various Gundam series. The game allows you to pilot a large mecha, as well as missions on foot.

Gameplay

Shogo features a mix of both standard on-foot first person shooter action, and combat with anime-style bipedal mechs. Unlike mech simulator games such as the Mech Warrior series (where mechs are piloted in a manner similar to tanks), the mechs in Shogo control essentially the same as a human FPS character would.

The mech missions are of average difficulty, and feature a variety of energy-based or explosive projectile weapons. Much of the action takes place within city areas.

The on-foot missions feature a variety of mostly hitscan firearms, such as dual pistols, an Uzi-like machine gun, and an assault rifle (non-hitscan weapons include two types of grenade launchers and a TOW rocket launcher). These sections of the game are quite difficult; your character (Sanjuro) cannot survive much damage, enemies are equipped with rapid-fire hit-scan weapons and have great aim, health items are somewhat scarce, and armor is extremely rare.

Shogo also an interesting gameplay feature in the way of its critical hits system, where by attacking an enemy will occasionally bring about a health bonus for the player whilst the enemy in question loses more health then usual from the weapon used. However, enemy characters are also capable of scoring critical hits on the player as well. It should also be noted that each of the weapons in the game have different likelihoods of scoring critical hits on an enemy.

Story

Players took the role of Sanjuro, a commander in the UCA army, during a brutal war for the planet Cronus and its precious ore. Previous to the game's first level, Sanjuro had lost his brother, his friend and his girl during the war and now, it is revenge that drives him. That, and his dead girlfriend's sister, whom he is dating. In Sanjuro's words, "It's kinda complicated." The game's narrative is primarily what drove gamers to finish the game, as it featured a healthy dose of comic relief without becoming silly.

At two pivotal points in the game, the player also has the opportunity to make a crucial decision, which can alter the game's ending. While the first decision is almost purely a narrative decision, the second decision actually determines who you'll be facing the rest of the game and how the game will end. If nothing else, the ability to play the game twice with two different sets of final missions, truly added to the title's replay value.

The game begins with Sanjuro being extracted from a reconnaissance mission two years after the mission against Ivan Isarevich that resulted in Kura, Toshiro, and Baku's supposed deaths. He is brought to the Leviathan, a UCA command ship, and receives his mission from Admiral Akkaraju, who is Kura and Kathryn's father. Sanjuro then is dropped onto the planet to enter the city of Avernus and kill Gabriel, leader of the Fallen. Once Sanjuro reaches Avernus, a mysterious man called Hank Johnson, a "friend of a friend," warns him about reinforcements coming in. Sanjuro attempts to reach Gabriel's headquareters, but communications with the Leviathan are jammed by an interference array, and Uziel, Gabriel's right-hand man, blocks Sanjuro's way after claiming that he knows him. Sanjuro, assisted by Hank, reaches the base with the interference array, and assists a UCA unit, Strike Force Carnivore against the enemy. He deactivates the array and establishes contact, but hears Kura instead of Kathryn. It is revealed that Kura was not dead, and she asks to meet with Sanjuro in Maritropa, a nearby city on Cronus. Admiral Akkaraju, however, dodges the question of why he didn't tell Sanjuro about this, and orders Sanjuro to withdraw. Sanjuro then exits through the sewer to avoid the reinforcements; in the process of doing so, he learns that the soldiers have overwhelmed Strike force Carnivore, and have secured his MCA. Reaching a parking garage he passed through earlier, Sanjuro kills some soldiers and destroys a tank, allowing Hank to help him escape in the back of his truck.

Hank takes Sanjuro to a pumping station, and with his help, dispatches the guards and helps Sanjuro get another MCA. Despite Kathryn's insistence that Toshiro and Baku are dead, Sanjuro suspects that both are alive, and decides to meet Kathryn at a nightclub called "The Mecca." With two friends of Hank's, proceeds through the city and reaches a train station, but is too late to catch the train. Sanjuro then passes through the slums of Maritropa, but an electric gate bars his way, and only a woman whose cat is missing is able to deactivate it. The player can either kill the woman and her husband and open the gate, or do an optional level which depicts Sanjuro's attempts to rescue the cat from some "stragglers" who have been severely affected by working with kato, leading to a humorous exchange between Sanjuro and Kura, and Sanjuro receiving a health powerup. Sanjuro reaches the Mecca too late; Kura has been captured by the CMC, Cronus's relatively weak yet troublesome military authority, but not before she says that Toshiro is Gabriel, and vaguely mentions "Cothineal." Sanjuro reaches the club, and a businessman from Shogo named Ryo Ishikawa agrees to help Sanjuro save Kura in exchange for a favor. Sanjuro reluctantly agrees, and makes his way to the station, before moving crosstown in his MCA, and catching another train to the detention center. At the station, Hank tells him that Cothineal "is the reason the Fallen exist," but says that Kura can elaborate.

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