Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operations 2 - First Impressions

Note: Due to the fact the PC open beta of Gundam Battle Operations 2 had some features restricted, this article will not cover all aspects, it will merely cover what was available during my experiences with the open beta period.


Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operations 2 is the second iteration of the MMORPG-styled third-person shooter set in the Universal Century franchise of the Gundam universe. Despite being a longtime fixture on consoles, it was oddly not playable on the PC platform. A failed launch of the open beta for the PC port on Steam further did not herald good fortune for those who wanted to play versus others on their computers in 2022. Thankfully, the second attempt at an open beta on January 16th, 2023 went better after an initial issue with logins, and most of the game, albeit in restricted form, was available for play.

The story is by necessity somewhat vague. You are a new member of a mercenary corporation that can pilot practically any unit in the UC Gundam canon, and aside from definitely being set after the original Gundam and its One-Year War, it's not exactly clear when it takes place otherwise. Further, units from both the Earth Federation and Zeon factions are available for piloting, which was certainly not unusual for both sides, especially later in the Universal Century. The exact reasons you are fighting are mostly an excuse to have giant player-versus-player battles where shooting down mobile suits, and their pilots, and destroying their base camps and sources of resupply will be your bread and butter. Combat will take place both in terrestrial (land) and space environments, much as it did in the Gundam TV series, manga, movies, and so on.

For PC players, it uses a Free-To-Play model, as the game itself can be downloaded for free from Steam provided they meet the system requirements. It uses a "gacha" model for providing enhancements to units and pilots. Gacha machines in real life are a form of Japanese capsule toy machine that can grant rewards randomly for payment of real-world currency, resulting in a chance to earn certain rare capsule toys and other prizes. In-game, both in-game currency earned through various events and real-world money can be spent for similar reasons to acquire new mobile suits, equipment, pilot outfit upgrades, and various other enhancements. While the game is perfectly accessible to newcomers and those who do not wish to spend real-world money, it is much easier to acquire certain high-end prizes for payment.

The game itself starts in the mercenary camp of your employer, which serves as the main player hub. Here is where players can start matches, upgrade units, do training missions for various game mechanics, join clans (not available during the beta period), and otherwise rest in between sessions of online combat. There are options for both auto-saving and manual saving of progress during this part of the game, allowing the player to resume progress at any time in case they shut the game down at any point or if they suffer a sudden loss in internet connection.

The combat modes are where the game gets a bit complex. There is a "rock-paper-scissors" style balance for mobile suits, revolving around General, Raid, and Support Machines. Each type is strong and weak against one of the other types, so proper knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of your equipment and the units piloted by others will be essential. Mobile suits can be further customized for different load-outs and mission profiles for different styles of play as well. Pilots may also dismount their machines or be forced to do so by the destruction of their current mobile suit. In this mode, they must either commandeer another unit or perform certain actions only accessible on foot, such as setting bombs on enemy base camps or calling in fire support.

Player versus player can get VERY chaotic as a rule. While some players wind up serving one side, some will fall on the other, and the goal is to score the most points before the timer for the mission sortie runs out. The overall goal is to make the player less a one-man army and more emphasize they are just one more soldier on the battlefield, so careful play with allies serving to support one another and prudence in taking on enemies lest the player be overwhelmed is strongly encouraged. While players and suits will respawn after a time, it's best to avoid blindly charging at enemy lines and preserve one's own combat health as much as possible. Respawn points can also be seized by enemies or attacked while the player is calling in another suit or fire support, further making this a game where wits are required to survive matches with the least casualties.

On a graphical level, this title derives heavily from the franchise models and designs for mobile suits and areas but renders it all in a fairly gritty, realistic style to fit the wartime aesthetic. Mobile suits are typically rendered as lumbering war machines vulnerable to the laws of physics to further hammer home these are pilotable machines with great power that requires great skill to handle effectively. The terrain and backdrops are generally gritty and slightly bleak looking to capture the wartime feel of the franchise, though even on higher graphical settings look a bit under-detailed at times.

The sound and music all crib heavily from the licensed series that comprise the franchise and for the most part are 1:1 accurate to their sources. There is full voice acting for several languages, all of which is clear and distinct, though players generally are restricted to certain limited dialogue selectable from lists for commenting towards another during play. Most of the voice acting is heard in the player hub from the NPC characters who handle various services and explain various game mechanics.

The controls are accessible via either keyboard and mouse or any Steam-compatible controller, there is full support for both. I found the keyboard and mouse to be just as well implemented as the controller for accessibility, but it is heavily advised to play the tutorials to get used to the mechanics before doing anything else. There is also the option to remap controls to player preference in case certain controls feel counterintuitive.

Stability is, given this is the first open beta to let people actually get as far as the lobby and beyond and still function, uneven. Despite having a PC that easily cleared the recommended requirements for high-end play, I had to turn down some graphics settings to maintain a reasonable framerate. Connections remain stable most of the time, though I had some server timeouts on occasion. Saving periods between certain events also can take a bit long to complete as well. This should hopefully improve as the official launch implements lessons learned from the open beta period.

Certain features were not available, either partially or fully, during the open beta period. Clan creation and joining clans of other players was not available, and while crossplay between PC and the console versions has been highly desired, there was no crossplay ability at this time, due to the fact the open beta for the PC version was a limited access event to PC only to evaluate technical issues and server load balancing.

This open beta event left me hopeful this will become just as popular and develop just as dedicated a player fanbase as the console versions when it launches officially. Regardless, it will still need a fair amount of technical polish if it wants to do this when it launches officially.