This is a masterpiece of 2d fighting games (just as much as Street Fighter III: 3rd strike was).

Gameplay is where this game excels. I'd say that game's mechanics are halfway from Street Fighter and BlazBlue: the game is linear just like SF, but there are nice additions like air-dashes, double jumps, faultless defence, (false) roman cancels. Also, a few characters use strange gameplay styles but none of them are screen invasive (like BlazBlue) and btw there still are common move combinations that will work on every char (with different outcomes of course) so also complete noobs may enjoy the game.
As for how much technical is the game, well, it IS technical, and you'll get to enjoy that a lot.

Now, about the graphic there's not much to say, it's awesome. Character design is the best out there IMHO, animations are fluid and backgrounds are nice. Also, effects are not invasive, and that's really important for me.

Sound part may be tricky. Game's music belongs to the power metal genre ('80s style) and it's really good. I personally don't like power metal (actually I don't like the whole metal genre) but I have to say that the songs pair with the game so perfectly that even if you hate metal you may still enjoy that kind of background music when fighting.

Now let's talk about flaws.
Game design flaws: the tier list counts S (or even more) ranked chars (only Eddie's air kick actually) and E (or at least almost E) chars. For a fighting game a tier list going S+ > D-(E) is quite bad.
Game port flaws: the game ported to steam is the same game that was ported to PC years ago, meaning there is no steam integration of any kind (and there never will be probably). While the game itself is a nice port, 2014 players may feel like something is missing.

Bonus time.
Even if this game has no netplay you can play it online thanks to a fan made patch that enables a perl based netplay (with the necessary skills everyone can host a server) which works really well and, btw, after like more than a decade there is still people playing this awesome game online.

Fighting games are always hard to review, especially if you’re not that familiar with the genre, with maybe some exceptions like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter maybe. I’ll try and do my best to give you a proper review anyway.

So, Guilty Gear X2 was first released on PS2, and later released as X2 #Reload for the Xbox. It improved some of the game’s mechanics, while also adding new fighters and stages.
We’re actually talking about a ten year old game here and it’s the first time we’re seeing X2 #Reload on Steam.
A 10 year old game… can you believe it ? Okay, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before; tons of old games have already been released on Steam but this GG is one of the few games to have actually aged very well. And that’s because it uses detailed 2D sprites that still look great to this day. Of course, games now use different and better techniques for 2D animation but it’s admirable to see how much effort and time was put into these graphics back then.
The gameplay obviously also remains the same. This isn’t the kind of game that gets you far with just button mashing, so you have to be able to pull off some decent moves in the later rounds. The controls are pretty much the same as any other fighter out there and plays like a dream with a controller, or a keyboard; your choice. Pressing Escape will exit the game so make sure you press Enter if you want to navigate through the menus. This was an issue for me the first time I started playing (I was hoping to pause the game) and it’s something that could have easily been implemented with a patch, but I doubt this will happen.
There are more than a few characters available to fight with and these are all weird and wacky characters with a lot of personality and each of them has their own fighting moves. They aren’t as memorable as some of the characters from the MK or SF series but still crazy enough to make them stand out in one way or another.
The game also has more than enough game modes available. These are as follows: Story (speaks for itself), Training (also speaks for itself), Versus (CPU or human opponent), M.O.M. (Medal Of Millionaires, where you can earn medals by performing combos), Survival (survive as long as you can) and Mission Mode (where you’re restricted or limited by set rules).
I’ve only played parts of the story and a little bit of the other modes but I’m not skilled enough to finish anything yet. The more advanced fighters among us will probably have less trouble with this, I’m sure.

I’ve talked a little about the graphics already, but these still looks gorgeous. Sure, nowadays the animations could use some extra frames in them but that’s about the only thing one could add or change in my opinion. Oh yeah, and maybe a widescreen option because this version is still shown in a 4:3 ratio, with black bars on the sides. The launcher does have some modern options in it, however, like pixel shaders, v-sync and the choice to play in 30 or 60fps.
The voice acting is all in Japanese, which is good for the hardcore fighting gamers, but a less obvious choice for the casual gamers that usually prefer English. But, let’s face it, it’s a fighting game so it’s not that there are very deep conversations to be found here and there’s still the text that is shown in English, of course. And the soundtrack has a lot of rock music in it which makes the whole package complete I guess.

The game can be played both off- and online and could be played for hundreds of hours if you really wanted too. Most people probably won’t get that far, but the extremists and completists might. There are quite a few unlockables like art and hidden characters that can be unlocked by just playing the single-player or any of the other modes. So there’s a lot of replay value here if you want to 100% everything.

Guilty Gear X2 #Reload remains one of the better, but lesser known, fighting games ever released. That naturally doesn’t have to mean anything. The game is made in such a way that a casual gamer can play a few rounds and still enjoy themselves but in reality it really is meant for the true fighting aficionados, no doubt about it. And even though I’m far from a fighting expert I still enjoyed my time with it. It's a game that has been faithfully ported.

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excellent fighting game, but i need more, please bring Guilty Gear Xrd to steam

EDIT : THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

If you buy it on a sale, the price is worth it for the soundtrack alone.

buy xx accent core instead, its the final update/definitive edition of this game + this game maxes out at about 10 people online with or without the netplay mod. i was stupid when i bought this because i didnt realise how this series worked originally

Really glad they finally added this on Steam! One of the best Guilty Gears. Had a little trouble with it at first but now it runs great and my Xbox 1 controller works great on it! Highly recommend if your looking for a new fighting game, it has a cool style and awesome soundtrack.
No online but I never really played online, theres a lot of content to keep you busy offline.
Has Story Mode, Mission Mode, Arcade mode, M.O.M. mode, VS. Mode (local multiplayer). As well as a gallery of some pretty good artwork and videos.
8/10 I really hope they bring the newest one, Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus, to steam one day. But this is a great game itself.

Game can offer 21 different fight-style playable characters and 2 special ones (Kliff and Justice) which unlocks after beating the Arcade mode. Pick your favourite and fight on one of 15 unique, beautifully designed maps, referring to events of the past (you can check out full, interesting and great considered story on Wiki fandom site). Also, every single character got individual theme made by awesome composer Daisuke Ishiwatari (music is fabulous, owners of the game receive OST in the MP3 format for free, along with other digital extras like gallery of fanarts). All characters got 6 color variants (excluding the simple color editor existence). There's a total of 8 game modes (includes Arcade, Story, Challenges, M.O.M., Survival, VS CPU, VS 2P and Training to improve your fighting skills) and it's great for every occasion f.e. to challange your friend (split screen PvP) or to relax after tough day at work.

Unfortunately, as in every product – there are some disadvantages like small resolution - maximum is 800x600, which stretch up to your current screen resolution. Another fact is dead network (mods are the only way to play online, but I can't confirm if they still work). Keep in mind that Arcade is really hard to beat, even on easy difficulty (especially final fight with I-No), so joystick is highly recommended, because playing on keyboard requires aknowledge of much more advanced combinations.

GRAPHICS - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The game aged very well. Really beautiful 2D-Sprites and fighting effects. All 20 characters and every stages has an unique and very clean/gorgeous style.

MUSIC - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Some Badass Rock Riffs!

STORY - ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Every of the 20 charakters got his own little Storyline. Nothing to deep but interessting enough to hook me.

GAMEPLAY - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Really addictive and deep combat. Every Character got his own Weapon, Fighting Style and Skills which all in all are very different from another. Some are way stronger than other. But all in all this is a very enjoyable Fighter!

WORTH BUYING - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Yes - you should buy this one if you're a fan of fighting games. Often it goes on sale for a few bucks. I only played it for Solo-Content and it feels like it was worth every €€€€€€€

LENGTH : 5 Hours for every Campaign (Only Solo-Content, you can have more out of it.)

BUGS : None

PRICE : 2€

DIFFICULTY : Medium - Hard


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Recommending every game over 60

Loved the game in the past, still love it.

It's got awesome music, awesome characters, and 1-hit-kill moves.


The only issue I have with it, is that F12 kills the game. -.- it's also the default screenshot button for Steam. LOL
Oh well, for some people a ragequit button might be healthy on these kinds of games...

HEAVEN OR HELL? DUEL 1, LET'S ROCK!
Guilty Gear XX #Reload (and all GG game series) is a 2D anime fighting game with metal soundtrack and it has interesting plot, good characters and also various references to metal and rock music what makes game pretty unique. There is a lot of singleplayer content such as "Gallery", "Arcade Mode", "M.O.M. (Medal of Millionaire)", "Survival Mode", "Mission Mode", Story Mode, "Training Mode" and, of course, "Vs CPU" and "Vs 2P".

Mostly important is that GG XX#Reload has pretty fast gameplay, nice graphics and animations, good balance, decent mechanic and interesting combat system about which I want to talk more. First, as you probably know, there is special attacks and "Overdrives". To perform overdrives and some attacks you need a "Tension" gauge. Also, player able to kill an enemy instantly by "Instant Kill", but if missed, player lose his tension guage. There is also "Psych Bursts" that can stop enemy's attack or give full tension by performing in a neutral state. Another special attack is "Roman Cancel" which can cancel enemy's move and require tension. All this allows to come up with a variety of strategies and tactics.

Furthermore, you can unlock not just gallery arts, but also 2 secret characters (Justice and Kliff) and EX, Shadow (infinite tension) and Gold (characters become overpowered) versions characters and there are various ways. For example, to unlock Justice and Kliff player can beat Story mode or Mission Mode.

In addition, there is multiplayer mod for Steam version (see guide) which works fine.

Why else would I recommend it? Because #Reload is one of the best versions of GGXX and because there is no AC+R version for PC yet.

Update: finally AC+R is available on Steam, along with Xrd -SIGN-! Now time to bring -Revelator- and wow, here is Steam store page for it.