I can see the arguments for why people would prefer Going Commando. It's almost immediately jarring to see how much got left behind going into this one, and the levels have largely been replaced by more linear corridor shooting.

However, I felt this game really achieved what it set out to. Going Commando built and expanded on the first game, but the combat in UYA has been refined and perfected. It focuses far more on shooting through everything, so the expanded ranks and range of weapons gives a lot of incentive to use many different approaches. Unlike the previous two games, I didn't feel locked into using cheese weapons because of bad endgame scaling, and I was generally able to use the weapons i enjoyed throughout the game.

The goofier elements are also still present, with Qwark vid comics being more enjoyable to me than the clunky racing and ship combat of GC. It leaves a lot behind, but makes up for it with a stellar focus on combat and making sure everything got time in the oven here.

The story is more of the same, but i wasn't left expecting anything of it since it's just taking these characters we've grown attached to round another tour of the galaxy. Going in blind in 2022, this ended up being my favourite of the PS2 trilogy and I'm excited to try and play some of the other acclaimed games.

Reviewed on Sep 12, 2022


Comments