Review

MechAssault

By Atomic Dawg
November 14, 2002 16:29 PM PST
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MechAssault has landed, but the world of BattleTech on the Xbox is not the same as it is for the PC.

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MechAssault smashes its way onto the Xbox from the PC world of BattleTech. It?s sure to assault the sensibilities of sim-minded MechWarrior purists, but the game?s single-player campaign mode is a whole ton of fun for gamers just looking to wade into combat with a mean-ass metal rig.

Assault with a Deadly Weapon
Playing as a BattleMech mercenary in the Wolf Dragoon, you?re part of a covert team making an assault on the planetary stronghold of the Word of Blake fanatics. The 20 missions pit your machines against all sorts of W.O.B. aircraft, gun emplacements, and armor, including their own legion of nasty Mechs. There?s a he-whose-armor-is-stronger-wins type of personality to the game that everyone might not enjoy. But unlike the first-person, sim-style, lumbering of Steel Battalion, MechAssault is a fast, third-person, all-out steel slugfest. The early missions are a breeze, but later on you?re fighting for your Mech-life. The controls do a terrific job of mastering BattleMech movement and weapons systems, and their look and feel is very reminiscent of Halo?s. There?s also a lot of the old Strike series of chopper games present as your Mech can destroy almost every piece of architecture and terrain in the game.

Of course, during the game?s arcade-style firefights, the Mechs walk a fine line between moving like a man and a machine. They mostly feel mechanical as you would expect with a 100-ton warcraft, but sometimes they feel unrealistically like a 100-ton ostrich, too.

The armor-plated melee looks and sounds like a glorious battle. Every class of mechs sports excellent war-tech details. The animation rocks, too, as you try to outmaneuver big lumbering machines and squash tiny little soldiers. The deep sounds also have range, from the thunderous roar of a collapsing ice bridge to the weak yelps of soldiers when you singe their behinds.

Mean Machine
MechAssault is Xbox Live ready. It?s a great option, but multiplayer mech mayhem may not be your reason to buy this game. It requires the strategy of a heavyweight fistfight more than the faster-paced run-n-gun action of, say, Halo.

MechAssault is a blitzkrieg of metal-mauling combat and strategy, purely for stick jockeys. It?s no sim, but it?s not simple either.