| Heavy Gear | Target Games / Activision | 1997 | |
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After losing the Battletech license for Mechwarrior games, Activision continued with this game based on Dream Pod 9's rival anime-inspired giant robot pen-and-paper RPG. Gears are much smaller than Mechs, standing a mere four meters in height on the average. They're supposed to be fast and agile, limited only by the flexibility and speed of their human pilots but feel as slow as the MechWarrior giant robots. The terrain is much more detailed than in MechWarrior 2, with rolling hills and plenty of boulders, cacti, and other such obstacles that can be used as cover in the heat of battle. The game engine enables special effects including flowing clouds, lighting, and transparent shadows. The unobtrusive green heads-up display, which readily displays your status and weapons loadout while outlining your target in color-coded wire frame to show how much damage he's sustained, and where. Still the weapon effects, explosions and enemy animations all are a bit dull. The sound and music are nice though. It offers two well-designed solo play modes, the first being a linear story composed of nearly three dozen missions. The story unfolds through beautifully rendered cutscenes in between missions and over radio communication during the missions themselves. The less structured but equally enjoyable tour-of-duty game also allows you to handpick your missions as you rise through the ranks on either side of a civil war. The AI is not too good but the many enemies compensate by their number. | ||
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