Mechwarrior 2
Developer - Activision
Publisher - Activision
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card
The bit on the box
"The year is 3057. A struggle for
power fuels a society of warring clans. Bitter infighting perpetuates a
universe of unrest. War is constant. Victory is temorary. Cease-fire is
nonexistant. A pause in a stream of salvos is only a signal to re-calibrate
crosshairs and redirect missiles. Time is scarce before the next unrelenting
mission begins. For a mechwarrior, war is life. And death is the only true
peace. Redesigned for the PlayStation. 48 Arcade-style missions. Ultra-fast
gameplay. Turbo-charged AI. Awesome power-ups."
Graphics
Having played the PC version of Mechwarrior 2 I
was expecting basic looking coloured vectors, but it appears Activision
has put alot into converting it, in fact redoing the graphics from scratch.
It is still a much more simple graphics engine than what we are used to
nowadays, but it keeps the action smooth and there is no need for distance
fogging techniques to hide popup. Surprisingly there is only one view of
your mech available (the cockpit view), which is strange considering these
types of games often have external views on offer. because of the simplistic
graphics the animation remains ultra-smooth and looks good when you get
up close to enemy mechs. The levels don't have much scenery but do have
hills opposed to just flat land, which is a welcome sight in a mech-type
game, and there are different colour schemes for each planet. One nice
effect during combat is you can shoot limbs and weapons off enemies, so
can disable them bit by bit or in one go depending where you aim.
Sounds
The mechs themselves have good mechanical sounds ranging
from whirring noises to grindng of metal. They also make an audible stomp
as they travel across land, giving an idea of their huge size. Combat noises
are done well also, also I thought the machine guns on the mechs sound
a little wimpy (G-Police shows how good a machine gun can sound).
The musical score appears to be in an almost rock vein, and while I didn't
think it fitted the game particularly well, I did like the tunes and enjoy
them pumping away while I was in combat. The only digitised speech that
appears in the game comes from the onboard mech computer, but all it mainly
does is give warnings when you are under attack.
Gameplay
While the PC version of Mechwarrior 2 had elements
of strategy as well as battle, the playstation version is much more action
oriented. There are many missions (including some training missions to
get used to controlling the mech) and 2 campaigns to choose, each having
differing instructions as what to do (one is very attacking while the other
is defence oriented). The controls are fairly easy to get to grips with,
using all the buttons on the controller for various uses such as switching
weapons on the fly (which is needed as some weapons overheat quite quickly).
The missions themselves show the game's main fault. No real story. The
mission briefings basically tell you what is to be done, and the debriefing
explains what happens in the war as a result of success. This gives the
same feeling of not truly being involved that I got from Colony Wars.
I feel a verdict coming on
Even though I did enjoy playing Mechwarrior 2,
I have played the boardgame version of Battletech in the past, and the
campaigns in that at least had a more cohesive storyline and concentrated
on the people involved as well as the big picture. This at least gave you
the feeling of taking part in something, which this game does not do a
good job conveying. Saying that, you cannot fault Mechwarrior 2
for it's ease of use or overall gameplay. Better graphics would have served
it well, even if it had caused popup needing fogging techniques (but isn't
there a certain amount of fog caused in battle anyway?). Showing it's age,
but a well rounded title nonetheless.
Review by D.R.T.Barrett
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