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PRE-GAME

“♪You dig giant robots! I dig giant robots! We dig giant robots! Chicks dig giant robots! ♪” Nice.

-Jamie- MEGAS XLR

EYE-SPY

THE HOOK: The thrill of piloting a giant robot and blowing stuff up is what interested me in MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf. Although getting the Limited Edition of the game was a nice surprise I hadn’t planed on. I’d also heard good things about the original MechAssault, so when I got an Xbox, this was one of the first titles I wanted to get. Besides, we can’t play Halo 2 all the time.

HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS: First and foremost are the mech’s themselves. The mech’s have a high level of detail and animation. They look and move like you’d expect a forty-foot tall robot to move. The weapons look good two when fired. Rockets leave a trail of some behind as they home in on a target. Charged shots give a great sense of power build up. Watching a mech explode is a site not to be missed. The mech’s even cast realistic shadows. Also, the various other vehicles you’ll use throughout the game look good too.

Aside from the mech’s though, the detail level drops drastically. The buildings and environment you encounter will range from good to utter crap. The textures are bland, and they repeat over and over again, depending on the level you’re in. However, a lot of the environments are destructible, which is pretty amusing.

Mech’s handle just as you’d expect them too. They move at a reasonable pace for something so big. The controls are easy to pick up. Most vehicles handle basically the same way. The only basic difference between a mech and Vtol, the games aircraft, is the Vtol moves faster and higher. My only gripe is that some basic actions, like thrust-jumping and changing weapons are executed awkwardly by pressing down on the left stick or pulling the left trigger, and all the while the A, B, and X buttons are sitting there unused while in almost all vehicles.

HOW IT SOUNDS: Sound in this game is good. The sound of a mech blowing up another mech sounds just like it would in real life. Thrust jumping gives the awesome sound of a rocket lifting off the launch pad. Aside from that a few of the more minor sound effects, such as the footsteps of the player character in the waiting room before a game sound a bit off, but it’s not a big issue.

As far as the music in the game goes, it’s all right. There are some songs from Korn and Papa Roach in the game, as well as a bunch of similar sounding music made just for the game. It fits the mood in of the game just fine, but I’m not really a big Korn or Papa Roach fan, so I could live without it.

The voice acting in the game is nothing to special. It’s more likely to get on your nerves than impress you. Still, there’s not much of it, so it can be excused.

EXTRAS: MechAssault 2 came with some nice extras. Included on the game disc is a demo of Forza Motor Sports. This game will be the Xbox’s answer too the PS2’s Gran Turismo when it’s released in May. There’s also a video of the PC game Dungeon Siege II due out sometime this spring. The Limited Edition comes with a 2^nd disc that included two extra multiplayer maps. There’s also a Making Of MechAssault 2 video feature that originally aired on G4/TechTV.   

CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE: Nothing to spectacular in this department. The cinema’s are about on average with most of today’s games. The human characters move a bit jerkily so that kind of detracts from the experience.

BEST PLAYER: MY favorite mech in the game was the Uziel mech. It offered a nice balance between firepower and maneuverability.

CHEAT CODE YOU NEED: Easy Way to Avoid Neurohacking on Xbox Live
When on Xbox Live and with any mech that has a shield, if someone attempts to neuro hack you just turn your shield on and it will throw them to the ground.

CHEAT CODE YOU WANT: A code for a faster rate of fire would be nice. Some of the weapons are painfully long to recharge/reload.

OH MAN! MOMENT: The first time your standing next to a downed mech when it explodes is truly a moment you’ll remember.

GLITCH ITCH: I guess it’s not really a glitch, but it’s kind of annoying that you’re not able to walk in between trees when on foot. Some of the groups can be rather large compared to a man on foot, and it can cost you time when your in a hurry. Thankfully, you won’t be on foot much during the game.

FAN SERVICE: Well, there’s not really any traditional fan service. Also, seeing as its my first mech game, I can’t point out any examples of references to the last game or other mech games, but I’m sure its in there.

END GAME:

After Halo 2, MechAssault 2 was one of the Xbox games I was most interested in getting. I had heard that the first MechAssault was quite the fun game, so I figured the sequel would be worth playing. In the end though, my opinions on the game are a bit mixed.

The games campaign mode is where I started out. It allowed me time to get a feel for the controls and the MechAssault world as a whole. The game play is pretty linear, and the computer opponents aren’t too bright, but overall it was an amusing game to play through. It never was too difficult, even during boss battles. Still, I had trouble in some areas that seemed as if they should have been a piece of cake. It sometimes might take a few tries, but once I figured out the proper method of attack my progression proceeded until the next tricky part.

Multiplayer is what I was looking forward to the most in this game, and it has all the usual options: Xbox Live, split screen and system link. So naturally I was disappointed with the rather bland multiplayer offering. I haven’t tried system link, and split screen is ok for two people, but I was hoping to jump into some online play with huge team battle and so on and so forth. Actually finding a game on Live though is often hit or miss. In 3/4 of the games I join the people are either waiting for someone to join, though they never do, or there arguing over some random thing, be it the game setting or something totally unrelated. When I do manage to get in a game though the teams are usually unbalanced, and there is no option to switch mid game.

There’s also a mode called Conquest mode. Played over Xbox Live, players join a certain faction, or house, and battle the other houses for control of the galaxy. While sounding good in theory, in execution it’s not very much different than regular multiplayer. The ability to change houses whenever you feel like it really removes any competitiveness there may have been. Finding a game is even harder to do in this mode. Still, with improvement this could be a very fun game type.

In the end, I’d say I’m left feeling neutral on this game. Meaning I’ll probably wind up trading it in for something else. Still, it was fun in parts. If you’re a fan of the first in you’ll probably want to get it, but for everyone else it’s still a solid rental.

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