Heavy Gear 2 is the sequel to the original Heavy Gear which was
released November ’97 by Activision. This game has been greatly
anticipated by most people who enjoyed the first, and with the
likes of Mechwarrior 3 released at about the same time, it is
obvious that Activision is positive about this game, and they feel
that it has what it takes to be even better. I think that Activision’s
gamble to release it now may well have paid off.
Taking a good look at the story line, I was quite satisfied. No gaps
or holes in the story made it crisp clean and easy to follow. The
setting is a distant planet where war is raging on. You are the
leader of an elite strike force known as the Stealth Squad, and are
given various missions to carry out with examples being: Search
and Destroy; Covert Missions etc. You and your team fight in
high-tech mechanized units equipped with the most lethal
weapons on the planet. The story line is a basic
war-tactics-and-combat-situations type which is all you should
expect for a game like this.
When I first entered into the game, I was greeted by a graphic and
beautiful interface which I find always puts me in the mood for
getting stuck into the game. Easy to handle and quick. The basic
configuration options were supplied as well as a single and
multiplayer section. The single player section was split up into a
variety of sub-sections which I thought was a nice added extra to
draw me even further into the game. I had no trouble making my
way through it and after creating a pilot and reading the briefing
information, I was into my first mission of which there are a great
amount of. I knew my over clocked Celeron 450 with Voodoo 2 and
64 megs of RAM should handle the game well, and it did. (That
was shameless. -ed.) (One thing that people should take note of is
that the game requires 3D hardware and does not support software
mode.) The game was smooth and enjoyable. I had no trouble
with lag or fluency which reflected the low system requirements.
The fluency of the interface and the great game speed was a sign
of large amounts of effort put into it.
The game is a mix between your normal first person shoot-em-up,
and Mechwarrior. However, it is less complicated. There are a
range of missions which have to be completed, as well as training
missions to teach you the basics before you head off into battle.
Thudding around in my large mechanized battle machine gave me
a real thrill. The idea of being able to run in one direction, but
swivel your torso and shoot things at your side was well put
together. The in-game effects are also something which I liked. In
the first mission, you arrive at a dark, rainy swamp with claps of
thunder and lightning flashing in your face for a split second every
now and then. You are given certain targets to search out and
destroy which turned out to be great fun. Being five times the size
of normal human enemies helped out a great deal. One shot from
my multiple-fire rocket launcher, and the poor, courageous human
burst open and splattered all over the ground. Something which
many action addicts, like myself take pleasure in. I must also add
that the shadow effects on the mech are done very well. This is
something which I find many companies neglect. The game is also
packed with features for all types of people. For the lovers of
action, you will not be disappointed. Explosions, gun-firing and
mayhem are definitely not one of the game’s weaknesses. For all
those lovers of strategy and strategic play, there are a range of
commands and controls for crouching, jet-packs, radar, NAV
computer and few of the commands being: ordering your group to
rendevous at a certain point, or to attack your target or even
defend your target. It seems that they didn’t leave out anything in
this well thought out game.
When considering the sound of the game, I was certainly
impressed. The heavy thudding of the mech’s steps and the cracks
of thunder made the game seem much more real. The explosions
and screams of pain from dying victims were also the result of
achievement in high quality sound effects. Although the game
does not support surround sound, it did not make the game less
enjoyable at all. With speech, music and great sound effects, I just
locked into the game and relished the ground shaking sounds
produced at all times.
The controls for Heavy Gear 2 are quite complicated in the
beginning and it takes a while before you get used to the large
amount of command keys which have to be utilized. You have
your regular movement controls, and your mouse for aiming and
firing. In addition, you also have to assign a couple more to
accomodate for throttle speeds, weapon cycling, Radar, NAV
commands, a large range of orders for the other team members
and other arbitrary commands which sometimes prove quite useful
to have. After you have assigned the keys to your liking and after a
few missions, you’ll have no trouble controlling your unit. In fact,
most people will find that it is much better to have a wide range of
control options and commands. This is why I feel that Activision
did a good job in making the controls not too complicated yet not
having too little.
Heavy Gear 2 definitely supports multiplay. You can choose from
Internet play or IPX/TCP network play. The multiplayer section
offers a good range of ways to play such as Deathmatch, Capture
the Flag, Teamplay and Duels are among the possible modes of
play. This is basically all you should expect from a game such as
this, and more. Multiplayer games are fun and action packed
leaving you blown away. It may seem a little slower than the
average chaotic Quake game, but that is not what the game is
designed to be like. Here, it offers you the enjoyment of harnessing
the power of destructive technology well beyond our future.
Heavy Gear 2 is one of Activision’s finest games. It never let me
down in any departments and often surprised me with new,
exciting ways of play as well as introducing me to the action and
fun-filled enjoyment of this great combat simulation. If you are the
type of person who enjoys devastatingly powerful machines and
first person action, then this is a game you will enjoy. Activision
should feel proud that they have released an awesome sequel,
which is not often achieved by other computer game
manufacturers.
The last of the big three mech sims has finally made it’s
way into the ring to battle for the Clash of the Titans 1999 title.
This, of course, is Activision’s Heavy Gear 2. Activision was
infamous as the home of the big mech for much of the 90’s. In
1997, that was to completely change, as FASA pulled their license,
and Mechwarrior would move to Microprose.
With that said, Activision already had the designers, all
they needed was a new idea. Moving away from the big mech and
into something a little smaller, Heavy Gear arose from the remains
of Mechwarrior 2, in fact, even using the same, somewhat
enhanced engine as MW2. I, unfortunately, never had a chance to
play the original, so with Heavy Gear 2, I’m a virgin Gear jockey.
The first thing you’ll notice when you get in the game is
the graphics. Out of the big three mech games (Starsiege,
Mechwarrior 3, and Heavy Gear2), Heavy Gear barely beats out
MW3 for top honor. The environments are rich and nowhere near
the flat, sparse, lands in SS and MW3. You are surrounded by
rolling hills and even trees on some planets, or the vast emptiness
as you battle through zero-g in space, or through mining colonies
and cities. The atmosphere seems much less desolate and
non-distinctive. Modeling is very well done, although it does look a
little cartoonish. Heavy Gear draws heavily from the anime style
mechs and therefore has a small resemblance to Shogo. While it
may have the richest environments, I was somewhat disappointed
by explosions and textures. Explosions could sometimes be very
unconvincing, although the fire effects were good. Buildings also
have that crappy “break into a bunch of misshapen polygons”
syndrome that looks really horrible, with the buildings appearing
more like they’re sinking into the ground then exploding. The
ground texturing isn’t the best I’ve seen and ends up looking pretty
fuzzy. You don’t get the cool footprints in the sand effect like you
get in MW3 and SS, but dust clouds and water are both very well
done.
The audio quality is also well done, although it’s not
overly exciting. Sure, there’s plenty of metallic thunder, but there’s
not a huge variety in sound effects. What it does have are crisp
and sound great though. It also has plenty of in-game speech,
including the beginning cutscene for each mission and various
cutscenes within some of the missions. Your squadmates each
have a distinct personality, which is rather nice, although it doesn’t
really affect the gameplay.
The biggest issue with any mech game is the control.
Even though HG2 looks like Shogo, it handles more like MW3,
even beyond the complex controls in some respects. The main
control addition is the zero-g thrusters. Early on, a lot of buttons
had to be pressed just to get where you need to go, not even
thinking about fighting someone. Now I’m not sure what kind of
joystick might fit well into HG2 since I played with the keyboard,
but a flightstick with a throttle and rudders might be able to scale
down the complexity of the controls (although that adds a whole
new level of configuring the controller). HG2 does come with some
preset joystick layouts for quite a few of the more popular sticks, so
if you got em, use em. Controls back on earth are a little more
easy to master, although it does combine aspects of both a FPS,
like sidestepping, crouching, and jumping, with the more
traditional mech movements like torso twists on top of left and
right movement. It does add a level of superiority just in the design
by allowing you to do a lot more than the usual mech game. While
MW3 had its little zoom feature, HG2 has a full out sniper mode
which can be quite handy at times. I didn’t find particularly the
radar system in HG2 all that impressive, but it’s enough to get the
job done.
One big difference you’ll find in HG2 as opposed to MW3
and SS, is that your Gear is a lot smaller than a mech. This will
make veterans of those series a little distraught at first since you
just can’t run into combat guns ablazing. A few hits at close range
and you’re a pile of smoking metal. There’s a little more dancing
and strafing involved, taking a little more FPS skill to dispatch your
enemies.
The core of HG2 is well thought-out, although the
storyline just isn’t engrossing enough. When Activision lost the
FASA license, they came up with their own background storyline.
This brings advantages and disadvantages of all sorts. The primary
advantage is that it allows for a more open plot base where
different ideas can be played out without offending players of
other things on a certain license. The downsides however also
have the tendency to drag the game down by not having a huge
following and the more knowledgeable backing of a company that
spends time dedicating to a gaming universe. This makes
creativity come down heavily on the designers of the game and
that can lead to an environment more created for the game itself
rather than the world around it. Don’t get me wrong, HG2’s
storyline has good ideas, but it just doesn’t inspire me like MW3
and SS did.
Heavy Gear also features a decent assortment of
multiplayer options, although nothing real unique here when it
comes to gameplay. My only major discontent with it is that with a
high threat level setting, everyone gets a big gun, and like I
mentioned earlier, it doesn’t take much to get killed. One shot,
One Kill multiplayer games just aren’t all that entertaining for
deathmatching. Of course, you can set your own limits, but if
you’re not the server than you won’t have much choice. It works
well across the LAN and decently across a modem connection, so
no real complaints in the performance department. Multiplayer
rounds out the game as a quality title.
Activision has continued the HG saga very well. It’s a
beautiful game to look at and with it’s unique controls, it can be
interesting to play. I’d recommend HG2 to anyone who’s into mech
sims and for FPS gamers who want a little more complicated
game of Shogo. While it may not take top score in the metal robot
category, it can definitely hold its own. The design is just slick and
although the controls aren’t the easiest to master, practice does
smooth out the rough edges. I’ll be playing HG2 for awhile (well at
least until the addon for MW3 comes out).
By: 