Attack on Titan is a popular anime and manga about a world in which humanity lives in walled cities to protect against gigantic carnivorous monsters called Titans. Koei Tecmo's Attack on Titan videogame is due out on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation this August. We've played it, and is surprisingly good!

Remember the Titans

Attack on Titan takes place in an alternate reality. 100 years in the past, gigantic creatures called Titans drove humanity to the brink of extinction. Titans want nothing more than to eat humans and are otherwise devoid of reasoning. Think of them like massive, monstrous zombies. Humanity has been forced to retreat behind three 50-meter walls that keep the Titans at bay. Erin Jaeger, one of the series protagonists, loses his mother at a young age when the Titans breach one of the walls. He grows up to join the military, along with a couple of childhood friends. The military consists of three branches: one dedicated to reclaiming the land outside the wall, one to guarding the wall and civilians, and one that guards the royal family. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more All of this will come into play as the Attack on Titan game retells the entirety of the TV show's first season. It's both a faithful adaptation of the source material and a perfect primer for gamers who haven't watched or read Attack on Titan before. Ten characters from the show will be playable: Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Connie, Sasha, Krista, Levi, Hange, and Erwin. Attacking the Titans

The Attack on Titan game begins during Eren's time as a trainee in the Scout Regimen. The young scouts of the 104th Cadet Corps head to the forest outside of the wall in order to practice battling Titans. The beasts come in many shapes and sizes, with these early training monsters reaching heights of 20 feet or so. Titans can take damage in each of their limbs, but they can only be killed by a blow to the back of the neck. Our heroes must get in close enough to stab them there, usually resulting in an instant kill. But how do they get all the way up there? That's where the fun comes in. Humans have developed a device called the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear (ODM) that allows them to move in any direction at great speed. The ODM consists of a harness that fires a pair of gas-powered grappling hooks. Using this gear, soldiers can quickly move around the forest or cities like Spider-Man. The grappling hooks need something to latch onto, but otherwise they provide an exhilarating freedom of movement. Once within range of a Titan, the Right Bumper will initiate Combat Mode. Pressing the X button will fire one of the ODM's anchors into the Titan's body. At this point, our heroes can use the Left Analog Stick to swing around the monster's body in order to reach a favorable angle for the attack. The Right Analog Stick will fire an anchor into a different body part. Swinging around too much puts pressure on the anchor and causes it to fall out though, so you'll need to aim quickly.

After latching on to the monster, releasing the stick will send you flying towards the targeted body part. Pressing and holding the A button provides a speed boost and increases the damage dealt by a successful attack. Just as you reach the target, hit the Y button and you'll damage or destroy the target in a spray of blood. Damaging a Titan's limbs before killing it will get you valuable crafting resources. After slicing a Titan's body up a bit, you can finally go in for the kill with a blow to the neck. You have to hit the attack button just as you reach the monster's neck in order to deliver the killing blow. Miss and you'll have to swing around and start a new attack. Attack on Titan's gameplay and combat basically combine the free-swinging fun of the best Spider-Man games with a satisfying slingshot mechanic. Swinging from place to place, finding an enemy, and then slingshotting yourself at the monster's weak points is not only exciting, it's like nothing else on the market. Fighting monsters isn't all Eren and friends will do, though. They also have to manage resources. The ODM runs on gas. The more you use it, the lower your fuel gets. Weapons work the same way. The more you use a sword, the less sharp its blade becomes. You'll need to maintain sharp swords if you want to exterminate those pesky Titans. Refilling these consumables is a cinch, luckily. NPC squadmates called Logisticians will replenish gas canisters and blades upon request. The refills they can provide are limited though, so you'll still have to manage your resources with care during longer missions. The ODM and other gear can also be upgraded with body parts scavenged from Titans, sort of like the Monster Hunter series. Solo and co-op missions