Gundam has never been short on video games, but Gundam Rogue Orbit is taking the franchise in a notably different direction. Rather than building on one of the series’ established timelines or focusing primarily on ranged Mobile Suit combat, Bandai Namco is creating an entirely new universe built around high-speed action. After getting hands-on with the PC version during Gamescom, there is already a solid foundation here, although the biggest question is whether its new take on the Gundam formula can be matched by a story with enough substance to justify stepping away from the franchise’s traditional themes.
What we know
Gundam Rogue Orbit is a high-mobility action game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and set in a completely original Gundam universe. Players take control of RE-X, pilot of the Gundam Helix, as humanity battles the mysterious Apocalypse threat across the solar system. RE-X is accompanied by the Haro Vii, while the story introduces a new cast and setting rather than requiring players to have extensive knowledge of the franchise’s decades of existing lore. The game is therefore positioned as a potential entry point for newcomers as much as a new chapter for established Gundam fans.
The combat focuses heavily on mobility, with the Gundam Helix able to dash, boost and move between ground and aerial combat while combining melee weapons, ranged attacks, abilities and Apocalypse Units. Different equipment configurations are intended to substantially change the way the Mobile Suit handles, while the full game will allow players to customize its parts, equipment, colors and AP-U loadout. The available combat options include different weapon types with their own strengths and weaknesses, putting considerable emphasis on finding a configuration that matches the player’s preferred approach.
The game’s enemies are also a departure from the more familiar Mobile Suit-versus-Mobile Suit conflicts of the franchise. The Apocalypse consists of enormous alien creatures, resulting in battles that can involve targeting individual body parts and exploiting openings in much larger opponents. Alongside the standard encounters, the game features sizeable boss battles intended to test the player’s understanding of movement, attacks and equipment. A multiplayer mode for up to three additional players is also planned, although that was not part of the Gamescom demo.
Gundam Rogue Orbit is scheduled to launch on March 7, 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
What we saw
This preview is based on a demo build of Gundam Rogue Orbit played during a hands-on session at Gamescom, where we met with Bandai Namco. The demo provided access to several pre-configured Gundam Helix builds and two different combat scenarios, allowing us to experience both more conventional encounters against groups of smaller enemies and larger-scale boss battles. Customizing the Gundam itself was not available during the session, so the game’s full equipment and build-crafting system remains one of the elements still to be properly evaluated.
What we thought
The first thing that stands out about Gundam Rogue Orbit is just how different it feels from the conventional Gundam game. This is much closer to a character-action game than a traditional Mobile Suit shooter, with the Helix moving rapidly across the battlefield, chaining attacks together and switching between ground and aerial movement. The Gundam still feels like a substantial machine rather than a weightless character, but the combination of boosting, dodging and attacking gives it considerably more agility than its size might suggest. The result is an appealing contrast between the visual weight of a giant robot and the responsiveness expected from a modern action game.
That speed is backed up by a surprisingly nuanced combat system. The three builds available in the demo – Assault Sword, Whip Sword and Sword Lance – did more than simply swap one weapon for another. They encouraged different approaches to positioning, range and resource management. The Assault Sword was the most immediately accessible option, while the Whip Sword allowed attacks from greater distances and across wider areas. The Sword Lance occupied a more deliberate middle ground, rewarding a different rhythm of attacks and movement. Managing the boost or stamina resource is particularly important, since constant movement and attacks can leave the Helix overheated or otherwise restrict its mobility at an unfortunate moment. That prevents the combat from becoming a straightforward exercise in button-mashing, although some builds were noticeably easier to get into than others.
The boss encounters are where the underlying ideas become considerably more interesting. Fighting the enormous creatures of the Apocalypse is not simply a matter of reducing one large health bar. Individual body parts can be targeted and destroyed, potentially removing attacks or changing how the enemy behaves. The Drake encounter in particular demonstrated how useful this can be, as attacking its wings, limbs or other vulnerable areas creates opportunities that reward paying attention to the enemy rather than simply unloading every available attack. Combined with AP Units, special abilities, healing and the Over-Rise system, there is already a good sense of tactical decision-making beneath the spectacle. The ability to enter the air and continue fighting large enemies there is also one of the demo’s stronger mechanical ideas, although aerial combat will need to remain as intuitive and responsive across the full game as it was in these controlled encounters.
Visually, Rogue Orbit makes a strong first impression. The photorealistic approach gives the Gundam Helix a more grounded physical presence, while the enormous Apocalypse creatures provide suitably dramatic opponents. The PC demo also performed smoothly, with the scale of the battles and speed of movement never appearing to compromise responsiveness. The presentation is backed by suitably energetic audio, particularly when a boss encounter escalates, although the demo offered relatively little opportunity to judge how well the audiovisual presentation will support the game’s narrative. That is arguably the biggest remaining uncertainty. The new universe removes the barrier of decades of Gundam continuity, which is potentially a major advantage, but the demo revealed very little about the actual story or whether its alien-war premise can deliver the political and human drama traditionally associated with the franchise. The combat already has enough personality to make Rogue Orbit interesting; now the narrative needs to give this new Gundam universe a reason to exist beyond providing an excuse for some spectacular fights.