| Battlezone by Neil Mouneimne |
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The missions are divided among two campaigns and a short series of training missions. The training missions do a pretty good job of getting players gradually up to speed. Likewise, the American campaign starts out fairly simple and gradually ramps up the level of challenge. The Soviet campaign is designed for advanced players who have probably already finished the American campaign. The missions themselves are a little odd. Sometimes the missions appear to be the RTS-style "gather resources, build up your base, and raid the enemy base" but most of the time the missions are more Mechwarrior-style, where you have to accomplish certain goals that may have little to do with destroying the enemy base. In some missions, you're also under a time constraint, but it isn't always obvious whether you're being timed or not. At least it is very easy to call up a summary of your mission objectives without interrupting gameplay. Unfortunately, the campaign of canned missions offers little replayability, especially for sim fans who are accustomed to dynamic campaigns or at least the availability of mission editors. This is really surprising when you consider that even Heavy Gear had at least a primitive attempt at creating a dynamic campaign - it would have been a real plus to see more effort in that direction. As it is, the player's only real outlet for playing different missions after finishing the existing campaigns would be to participate in the multiplayer games. I've mentioned the feel of the game before, but it really deserves further mention here because it's done so well. The maneuvering model feels very realistic. Naturally, we can't compare how realistic the driving model of a hovertank is against its real world counterpart, but it still follows a set of properties which we understand instinctively because they act on us every day. For example, inertia modeled in 6 degrees of motion helps create the feeling of a large flying mass. The antigravity effect feels a lot like the repulsion effect when you try to push two magnets of the same polarity together, making it difficult but possible to scrape the bottom of your hull. Likewise, it's very difficult to provide enough lift to jump much higher than the nominal hovering height unless you go ballistic. |
The graphics engine is built for Direct3D support and software rendering, and is considerably more efficient than Activision's previous attempts at graphics engines for their games. Out of the box, the accelerated graphics are very good, with many options to adjust graphics for taste and frame rate, but it falls short of being spectacular, with limited visible distance, texture detail, and resolution. However, there is an enhanced graphics patch that fixes some AI foibles and helps address all these issues (which should be available by the time you read this). By editing the render.cfg file, players can alter the viewable distance, go to higher resolutions, and activate access to large textures (meant for Voodoo2 or AGP 3d card owners) that improve the graphics with spectacular explosions, dust roostertails from the hover-vehicles, and a more sophisticated look overall. Overall, Battlezone is a truly remarkable game that has a wide potential to appeal to nearly every type of gamer. Action gamers, real-time strategy buffs, Mechwarrior fans, and yes, even simulation fans should find Battlezone to be an entertaining alternative to their normal gaming diet. The lack of a dynamic campaign or even so much as a mission editor is certainly a letdown for simulation fans, but for those who are not swayed by that, Battlezone remains a tremendously entertaining game that truly validates the concept of mixing strategy and first-person action.
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Last Updated June 4th, 1998 |
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