Good luck making heads or tails out of Guilty Gear 2: Overture. Given the way that the game sews scraps of different genres together to form a patchwork quilt of action and strategy, you have to wonder if even the developers were entirely sure what they were making. Both the revamp of the series' 2D beat-'em-up beatdowns and the introduction of a tactical feature are just skimmed over, leaving the action a jumbled mess of whirling punches and the strategy so shallow that you barely need to pay it any attention. This frenetic experiment in mixing and matching is so all over the place that it spins your head as more than it revs up your adrenaline.
Your head starts to rotate from the moment that the story begins in the single-player campaign. What's happening here might make sense to fans who have previous knowledge of the goings-on in the anime-flavored Guilty Gear universe, but anyone coming in fresh won't have a clue what's happening. You play a hero named Sol Badguy, who is adventuring around on a future Earth with his sidekick, Sin. Something bad apparently happens at the start of the game with mystical Gears that once caused a big war, and you're called on to save the Kingdom of Illyria from evil invaders out to do evil things.
Even when you do start to get a handle on the story, the game throws more curveballs to keep you reeling. Although much of the level scenery is laden with gorgeous fields, columned streets, colorful trees, and immense statues, it is all so surreal in such a distinctively Japanese anime way that you never feel like you belong in any of the surroundings. Strange audio adds to the hallucinatory effects. Much of the overly florid dialogue will have you questioning your sanity. One of your allies is insulted for having "sadistic ears." Magic is drawn from an alternate universe called "the Backyard." Sol curses a problem in combat due to an "invalid access chord" and cries "Shut up!" every time he delivers a basic sword swipe. The plot here is one great big "Huh?" due to either a terrible translation from the original Japanese or an intentional desire to try to break your mind.
On the flipside, the incredibly shallow gameplay greatly contrasts with the impenetrable story. But even though such simplicity may provide a way to get into Guilty Gear 2, it doesn't give you any reasons to stick around. Levels are something of a blend between standard 3D beat-'em-up stuff and a strategic layer that plays like a single-player take on a multiplayer shooter game style. You start from a master-control nodule called a masterghost, which is basically a headquarters. The objective is to create an army through a management screen hilariously called the organ, and then venture forth to conquer the enemy's masterghost on the other side of the map.
