Resembling a beat-em-up more than a traditional fighting game, GG Judgment lets you take control of the entire cast as you battle through hordes of monsters that are on a secluded island. Each playable character is equipped with all of their old tools that were found in previous Guilty Gear titles, with the exception of Instant Kill and Dust moves. This is what makes Judgment such a fun title; previous installments were very combo-centric and allowed you to continue combos for long periods of times, and it's the same here. In fact, it's probably much easier to chain together attacks because your special moves can hit multiple enemies at the same time. If you wanted a good comparison to how the combo system works, think of something along the lines of Devil May Cry, where you can easily pick up enemies off the ground using your various attacks. Making combos was never easier with the addition Roman Cancels, which allows you to cancel your special moves into other special moves. This technique has been a mainstay of the series since Guilty Gear X, and it's one of the coolest innovations to come along in a 2D fighter, or a beat-em-up. Just imagine tearing through a horde of monsters with Sol's Grand Viper, only to cancel into his Volcanic Viper to deliver the coup de grace. Due to the nature of the game, some things had to be changed around to make things more intuitive. The R trigger acts as a back attack to protect your behind from enemies sneaking up on you, and the L trigger activates your Burst Attack, which allows you to escape from enemy attacks. Gone from the game are air dashes and most low attacks, although they do make an appearance in some chain attack combos.
While the idea of having your favorite Guilty Gear characters laying down carnage and mayhem in a beat-em-up is nice, the whole experience is really mediocre for two reasons. The first and most important is the level design, which is average at best. Most of the levels consist of you walking from left to right, killing anything that comes across your path. Occasionally there are some pits that you have to - wait for it - jump over! Oh, and I can't forget the staircase stages, where you run from left to right (again), but this time, up a flight of stairs! Things get somewhat interesting when you're given various vehicles/gears to hop in, but I can't imagine someone playing through the same game five times just to unlock all of the characters given how boring some of the levels are. Secondly, the enemy designs are really, really boring. They consist of your typical drooling, mindless monsters (with equally inadequate AI) that come in various colors so you can tell which ones are stronger than the others. The lack of variety within the enemies would've been forgiven had they been a challenge, but come on, when they're neither fast nor smart, the game becomes a real chore.
As expected from a Sammy game, the graphics are really nice, and despite the weak level design, all of the areas that you'll traverse have a lot of character and for the most part are well put together. However, it's easy to see where most of the effort went, because some of the enemies are weak design-wise and in quality compared to the leading characters. Some of the bosses do look really cool though, but for the most part they're not up to snuff with the rest of the awesome designs that the series is known for.
Luckily, at the GG Accent Core test, there were a lot of players with the game, so finding players to team up with wasn't a problem. The multiplayer mode is an extension of the single player mode, basically. You have to go through the same levels together, although enemies have more health. It would've been cool to implement some sort of competitive versus mode, such as who can kill the most enemies in a stage, but what's present is done well.
To be honest, had Guilty Gear XX #Reload not been included in the package with Guilty Gear Judgment, then it would've been a much weaker product overall. The fact that you're getting two games for the price of one (although the "extra" was already released on the PSP) makes this title much more attractive. Look for a complete review of this game in the near future!