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In Space No One Can Hear You Sigh
- Title: Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf
- Developer: Day 1 Studios
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- System: Xbox
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 6/10
At kickoff, MechAssault 2 puts you in the role of a Mechwarrior as he and and his crew find themselves in a hostile situation. You're given the chance to run through a tutorial session while simultaneously repelling a hostile force. This puts you directly into the action, a nice choice. There's no need for plot or motivation before you start blowing things up. Players who have played through the previous title will start to glaze over during the tutorial, though, as the controls are almost exactly identical to those in the original game.
In fact, that statement is the basis of all of the issues with the MechAssault 2 experience. If you've played through the first MechAssault title, you've basically experienced everything that MechAssault 2 has to offer.
The big difference comes in the form of the the compact "Elemental" style power armor. The tiny mech handles just like the larger constructs, and has some impressive armament for its size, but the big draw of the tiny suit is the ability to "Neurohack" your way into full-sized mechs. Not only is this a potent combat ability, completely disabling a successfully targeted mech, but it allows you to enter and control the hacked mech if you choose. The game mechanic itself is easy to use, requiring you to hit a series of buttons on the controller within a certain period of time. Besides the new power armor, you're also given several opportunities to use more traditional vehicles such as tanks and a VTOL. And, of course, you still have access to the giant robotic walking tanks that typify the Mech genre.
The single-player campaign provides a decent framework both to develop piloting skills and to do some urban renewal with your mech. There's nothing spectacular in the background or composition of the plot, though, and only a few levels after the tutorial ends the gameplay will get repetitive. The Word of Blake opponents, the primary bad guys to the Mechassault 2 tale, eventually all blend into each other and every tank you stamp out of existence begins to look like the last. As in the first game, the backdrop to your rampages is entirely destructible, and even a single stray shot with the high-powered weaponry you utilize near the end of the game can take out a city block or two. The game's musical background consists of licensed songs from bands like Korn. Maybe it's the pen-and-paper purist in me, but I had a hard time associating Korn with Battletech. The rock soundtrack does add to the atmosphere, but recognizable bands seemed to detract from rather than enhance the experience. The story is simply Mechassault 1 with a new coat of paint, and singularly familiar gameplay ensures there are few new experiences to be had for the veteran Mech gamer.
As with Halo, the real reason to play the first MechAssault was the multiplayer capability. MechAssault 2 upholds the original game's tradition of Xbox Live enabled multiplayer carnage. There are several different modes available, with all the types you'd expect, like capture the flag, deathmatch, etc. The designers gave the online game a new twist, though, by incorporating a "conquest" mode: In conquest mode you hook up with one of the houses, the clans of the Inner Sphere, and go on the warpath for your chosen allies, attempting to gain as much territory as possible with the aid of other house members and opposed by other house factions. Unfortunately, the number of players online is rarely sufficient for this kind of play. Satisfied that they'd already played this before, many gamers have long since chewed through this game and resold it to Gamestop for another title.
Mechassault 2 is a competent, but overall unnecessary sequel to the original title. The first game was a completely valid expression of the shoot-em-up mech genre. While the urge to create a sequel to a successful franchise is a logical one, it's hard to see the real need for this game. The action mech genre is a fairly well-developed one, and while the neurohacking gimmick provides some differentiation from other titles, this straightforward license vehicle could have been so much more. I recommend this game to fans of the original title who are looking for more maps to play on, or an action gaming fan who's looking for familiar territory, but unless you go to sleep at night wearing a Mech King crown made of cardboard you can afford to pass on this sequel.
Screenshots are from Microsoft's official MechAssault 2 site, (c)2005 Microsoft Game Studios.
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a dramatic name for a game that manages to be a thorough disappointment. That's a real shame, too, because Nexus has a lot of elements that make you want the game to succeed. Visuals and voicework ingratiate the world to you, but the lackluster gameplay makes you wish you hadn't uninstalled Homeworld.
- Title: Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
- Developer: Mithis/HD Interactive
- Publisher: HD Interactive
- System: PC
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 4/10
The shooting at least, looks good. Majestic 3D expanses are your playgrounds, with really nice looking ship designs and a slick interface makes play ve. In particular, I appreciated the swept-back designs and utilitarian choices made by the ship designers. I'm getting pretty tired of Star Trek pretty and Star Wars uglytech. The problem comes when you consider the pace and method of the shooting. Nexus has you issuing orders to your forces, which can range from a single vessel to a large fleet. Like many RTS games, you don't control your units directly; You simply give them an instruction and let them go do their thing. Combat breaks down to two choices: Either you instruct your minions to attack the hull of an opposing ship, in the hopes that the crew will flee and the ship will eventually be destroyed, or you order them to attack specific subsystems of the ship. This provides an element of the strategy sometimes missing from so-called RTS titles. What I found most effective was to have ships target the weapon systems of opposing vessels, as they seemed to be some of the most vulnerable components.
At issue here is the pace of combat and the intelligence of your units. Despite ordering my flagship to target a subsystem of a specific enemy vessel, I would often return to my combat unit after handing out some additional orders to find it either hanging dead in space or chasing after another ship entirely. Reaffirming my target of choice seemed to be seemed to be the only way to ensure the battle would go how I intended. Additionally, combat in space, apparently, is deadly. Deadly dull. The weapon systems look nice, and seem to be firing at an acceptable rate, but the armor plating of even the most insignificant weapon system is apparently very tough. It will take over a minute of a concentrated barrage to take out even a single subsystem. Actually destroying a ship, causing its crew to abandon the vessel and the hull to crumple, can take upwards of three minutes. This turns what should be tense and quick encounters into adventures in frustration as you are forced to concentrate your fire on one ship as the only viable strategy. Despite combat appearing to be a situation with tactical possibilities, you are reduced to ganging up in order to have any chance of victory. Missions with large numbers of enemies are particularly annoying, as the AI and combat pace combine to ensure that -- unless you are very on top of things -- you'll do barely any damage to the opposing force. You can order your entire fleet to focus on one ship in a blizzard of twenty or more, but the wandering AI ensures that their focus will quickly be elsewhere. Fifteen minutes into a mission and you'll find yourself with a swarm of 10% damaged enemy ships crawling all over your very spread out fleet.
All of this is a real shame, because Nexus has some very charming aspects: There is a ship modification element to the game, mostly straightforward and nowhere near as well developed as a Pax Imperia or Galactic Civilizations, but there nonetheless. The voicework for the characters is fairly well done, despite some occasional poor dialogue and endless exposition. And did I mention the ship designs?
I spent most of my time playing Nexus: The Jupiter Incident leaning far back in my chair in a passive state. The style of the game seems to be aiming for a combat-rich deep-space adventure, but the pace is that of a more leisurely strategy simulation. This confusing mishmash turns what could have been a worthy addition to the genre that is almost defined by the Homeworld games into simply a poor substitute. I lament the game that's resulted from the ideas visible in this game, as there really seems to be something worthwhile here below the surface. As it stands, though, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a game that you can take a pass on unless you simply need an excuse to get back out into the big black.
Screenshots are from HD Interactive's official Nexus: The Jupiter Incident site, (c)2005 HD Interactive.
http://www.eve-online.com
great space game. had some bugs in beta, but has become really solid and fun. I've been active since late 2002 or something. Check out the features and the give it a try, free month trial.
Your mileage may very on my second reccomendation, Space Rangers. It's made by a Russian game company but I do hear this month a British based publisher will be released Space Rangers AND Space Rangers 2, to the rest of Europe and America. I played Space Rangers and it reminds me of a turn-based top style privateer. You buy and sell materials, can attack and raid ships, buy new ships..equipment, etc.
I reccomend you google up each respective game creators site and check em out. It's a shame there hasn't been that many really good space games out, as those are my favorites. Ever since Origin Systems was bought out by EA and decimated by them, things have sucked.
Technically brillant games and I haven't played their equal since they were released. I still have the original Star Flight game with its 2 5.25 disks. Amazing what they could do with two 360k disks.
Star Flight 2 while not as good as the first was just as much ahead of other games that I would love to find a machine I could play either on (they unfortunately are clock dependant for combat)
I don't think they lost any of their luster until the Wing Commander Series arrived. Originality has a lot to do with the games we all think are best. Hell I still think Empire is a better challenge than any RTS.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
The best thing about Star Control II is that you can download and play it for free right now. It's been open-sourced and is even available on Linux and Mac OS X as well as Windows.
Then play it again, Sam. :-)
:-)
It's interesting how tons of Wing Commander clones have come and gone, yet not a one has managed to capture that same "magic" as the true series. Starting with Jagged Alliance, then going to Allegience, Descent: Freespace, StarShock, all the way through X:2, they all manage to look nice but somehow lack gameplay. Even Chris Robert's Freelancer didn't manage to compete with his own series!
So, if you've got a craving for Wing Commander, go grab the original titles off of EBay. Then when you're done with those, go grab the free Wing Commander: Secret Ops starter kit. (Yes, it was official Wing Commander!) You may need to mess around with the XP Application Compatibility Toolkit to get it running. (Hint: Install ALL the shims for the Heap.) Once you've got that installed and played, you can try these great fan-made Secret Ops add ons:
Unknown Enemy
Standoff
Secret Ops Missions
And if you STILL can't get enough Wing Commander (*burp*), yell at EA that we need another title! See you at WCNews.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
While the Star Control series was (is) great, my pick for best space game (and probably one of the most influencial) is Starflight by Binary Systems.
It had great music (as far as 1986 PCs were concerned) a deep plotline, and a HUGE universe. It had worm holes, mining missions, new races, randomly generated weather environment, a crazy AI system, doomsday plot and time limit (you could continue to play even after the game was "unbeatable" due to the destruction of your "home" solar system).
Ship upgrades, weapons, had to pick your crew of different alien races (which had different strengths and weaknesses and affinities/dislikes for other races). I could rant about this game for a long time, it changed my life (I played it when I was six, when it came out, my grandfather was nuts about it and marveled at their fractal world generation and "3d" rendering when you landed on a planet).
Starflight is probably the best space game ever, you can find VGA fan-made ports of it around, you need to slow your frequency way down if playing on modern hardware.
A fan-made updated version Starflight III is in the works, with slow progress. Drop a line if you remember this game, they would (probably) love to get some support. I think they are taking applications for help (no, I am not affiliated/contributing).
I still have the original box (its like a three fold record (vinyl) album) with the galaxy map (which I traced so I could draw worm holes and hostile territories without hurting the original). The game also had a cool code wheel copy protection thing that was a hoot. The team from Binary Systems is awesome, browse around for some pictures from the box, wild stuff. They were truely dedicated to this game.
I can hear the theme music in my head now...da da da da da da da da daaa daaa daaaaaaa da da da da da da da daanaaaaaah!
|plastic....or gasoline?|
Oooh, almost forgot Flight Commander. A *from scratch* fan made engine. In some ways better than the Vega Strike engine, in some ways worse:
http://flightcommander.solsector.net/
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Like your typical RTS, to be honest. The controls are good, the missions are surprisingly (but pleasantly, IMO, it's nice to be challenged) difficult, the formation setup is good and the evasive/neutral/agressive options add a bit more strategic depth. But aside from the 3d aspect there's nothing in the gameplay itself that really sets it apart from *craft, age of empires and the C&C series.
I am trolling
Or you can download The Ur-Quan Masters which is based on the open sourced code of Star Control 2. They have binaries for Windows, OSX, Linux, as well as the source code available to download. It's the exact same game, only with a different name.
Isn't Jagged Alliance an isometric turn-based mercenary strategy game along the lines of X-Com? Not sure how that fits in the Wing Commander clone category.
"The tiny mech handles just like the larger constructs, and has some impressive armament for its size, but the big draw of the tiny suit is the ability to "Neurohack" your way into full-sized mechs."
First off, Elemental class battle armor are nothing new, even to the electronic games. I seem to recall being able to play as an Elemental in MW2:Mercs. This has always confused me because battle armor is not a 'mech; it's Starship Troopers rather than Gundam.
But Elementals are infantry and the ground-pounder doesn't know jack about using a battlemech's weapons, let alone keeping it on its feet! Even in the pen-and-paper RPG, Gunnery/Battle Armor and Gunnery/BattleMech are two very different skill sets (after all, the former involves moving your body, the latter involves moving a joystick). What they do know is how to disable 'mechs when given the opportunity, from knee-capping them to ripping open the hatch, but... come on! This screams "munchkin!"
And beyond that, Elementals may be battle-armored, but they're still infantry and still very soft and squishy in the world of BattleTech; there are reasons why they're deployed in squads of 4-5. Unless they're given the opportunity to behave like infantry (say, ducking into buildings and using them for cover), they will die in mean and nasty ways. With four whole missiles and a point-defense pea-shooter combined with a top speed of a little over 32.4 km/h (yes, I did that in my head, I'm a geek), they can't catch what they can kill and can't kill what they can catch.
From the sounds of things, everybody would have been better off if MSFT introduced ProtoMechs instead of battle armor.
In FASA's waning days, before WizKids/FanPro got the license, it was a very, very, very bad idea for FASA to sell all the electronic BattleTech rights to MSFT. FASA Interactive should have just stuck with using them solely as a publisher, but this... Imagine if Valve sold the Half-Life name to Vivendi. Thanks to foolishness like this, the makers of Heavy Metal Pro, a series of record-sheet generators not only endorsed but used by FanPro, had to get written permission from Microsoft before getting the rights to sell BattleTech-related software.
Arrrgggghhhh!!!
No review starts good when the reviewer gets a basic fact totally wrong. The cutscenes in Nexus are skippable. Even the talking during games to "advance" the story can be clicked away ending the speech and making it all happen a bit faster. So basically either the reviewer was to dumb to figure out how to skip cutscenes and break off conversations OR he is lying and never played the game. Don't believe me? Download the demo.
Now it must be said that the background story is incredibly dumb. Basically you just don't give a shit. It is all to generic. A bad captain Kirk as the captain, a sexy japanese computer, a spunky rebellious cloaky type girl, an obnoxious incompetent superiour, weak silly aliens. Jada jada jada. It is so mediocre and un-original it is unbelievable.
The missions briefings before the missions proper are indeed baffling. They seem more story devices then informing you of mission objectives. Wich can be troublesome as you then need to choice your weapon configuration. Would be nice if you learned you need to pack a squad of marines BEFORE you start the mission. Once inside the mission things however are pretty clear. So this is a negative point but lets face it, proper mission briefing has been missing in action in games for so long I am no longer bothered by it.
The combat. This is actually takes a while to get intresting as like every game they make the tutorial part of the game meaning the first few missions are wasted on teaching you the basics. I hate it as I can read and understand a manual and want my game to be challenging from the start but sadly most of the human race needs its hand hold.
Combat is simple enough. You got three kind of weapons, anti-shield, anti-hull and anti-system. You can't hit a hull when shields are up and anti-system damage is reduced with shields up. Simplest setup is to balance between shield busters and hull busters. Going anti-device is an option for the more tactical minded as knocking out say the anti-fighter defences gives you fighters/bombers free play and they can knock devices out even faster. Who cares about their hull and engines when they can't hit you? Knock out their anti-shield weapnons and as long as you don't power down yours their anti-hull weapons are useless.
Combat is okay but once you sussed it out it can be a bit simple. Even in big battles there is really only one strategy. Concentrate all your fire on the ship doing to most damage and then work your way down to the last vessel. It soon evolves into your ships circling one enemy vessel while blasting it to bits and you occasionally saving one of your vessel if it is taking to much damage. Basically it is nice until you figured it out.
Now the reviewer complains about ships not following order. This means that either he is dumb or simply didn't understand the interface. You can set your ships to various modes of behaviour and one of them they basically follow their own logic wich isn't bad but can be confusing if you are not expecting it. For instance if you have them on agressive then they will happily go after the ship you told them to but on the way they will fire at any ship that gets in their way. If you target a ship with shields up it will continue to fire its hull busters at a ship with down shields. If you want total control it is there. You just got to set the right mode. Another point of for this reviewer.
He then goes on to complain that it can take up to a full minute to take out a weapon system (with your anti-system weapons) and no less then three minutes to take out a ship completly. Read this part of his review carefully and then ask yourselve what on earth was this guy thinking when he picked up a strategy game? This is a strategy game of battleships. What does he want? Knock out your enemies weapons in 2-3 seconds? In the larger battles a minute to destroy a main armanent is nothing. This is not a scroll down shooter where you got hundreds of enemies. A dozen is a lot. Co
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.