Gaming Target - Xbox: MechAssault

Written by Leigh Culpin on December 02, 2002

Full Review: So, I says: Kiss My Assault..huh, huh?!

With the sudden flood of Mech games coming forth lately, it can be a bit frustrating trying to determine which game you want out of the bunch. There's Phantom Crash, a futuristic mech fighting game (review of that coming soon), Robotech: Battlecry, a linear mech adventure game, Steel Battalion, a mech sim that faces you off with other 10-story war machines, 30 inch, 40 button controller (not to mention a $200 price tag) and all, and then there's MechAssault, the latest in the long running MechWarrior series. Based on the BattleTech universe from Fasa, these games started off with great graphics (for the time) and huge tactical elements Ц you customized nearly everything about your Mech of choice, including heat sinks, armor allocation, weapons, ammo, and jump jets. As the series has progressed, we've come to find less and less of these sometimes overwhelming options Ц Mechwarrior 4, the most recent PC release of the series, had the fewest customizations available and emphasized a bit more action combined with the usual strategy than previously. Now, with the Xbox's first release of the series, MechAssault, the tactical side has practically been thrown out the window for one of the best action experiences this year. Period.

MechAssault is one of the Xbox Live release games that have gotten mixed amounts of attention, being overshadowed slightly by Unreal Championship (for action fans at least). However, after playing dozens of online games, lag has not yet shown its ugly head. The games have all been incredibly fun, and aside from the occasional drop out or the fact that there's no assist scoring, only kill scoring, this is certainly one of, if not the, best Live launch games available. Having said that, as with Unreal Championship, don't buy this game for the single player experience. While it is fun while it lasts, it's short and isn't going to offer a whole lot of replay when you might have games like Splinter Cell or even Halo lying around.

Graphically, MechAssault is superb, with undeniably the best graphics of any of the mech games mentioned above, and few games of any other genre come close to matching the amazing particle effects and extremely cool explosions you're going to see while playing this game. Accompanied with some extremely bassy sound, also easily some of the best to hit the СBox, the aesthetic package you get with this game is extraordinarily immersing on it's own. While the music isn't really amazing, it certainly fits the game and changes appropriately when you're in combat or pursuing a target without being to repetitive. The music is generally fast-paced to match the game play, and amazingly, despite the inspired graphics you're not going to find much (if any) frame rate drop while playing the game, even online.

The story is somewhat predictable and perhaps typical for a game of this type, though, it does a good job of advancing you in a logical fashion and gives you a decent amount of objectives to achieve, even if they tend to consist of destroying something after breaking through heavily armed areas. In some missions, though, you'll have to protect certain objectives and once even infiltrate an enemy base in a stolen mech. The level design is certainly well done and gives you an excellent (and consistent) sense of size, something not really found in Phantom Crash or Robotech: Battlecry. You can generally blow up everything, including buildings, bridges, gates, trees and the like. One of the cooler missions takes place in an icy part of the planet you're on, and you can shoot the snow or ice formations with lasers to see plumes of steam rise and hiss. You even get to shoot some bridges out from under enemy mechs to watch them fall in a mass of snow and ice to their cold death.

As for online gameplay variety, there are games modes such as Destruction (basic deathmatch), Team Destruction, Last Man Standing and Not It!, where one person is УitФ and the others have to kill that player to get points. There's also a co-op mode that doesn't support online play called УGrinderФ, which pits you and any other players on your local Xbox against increasingly hard waves of enemies. Originally planned were two other game modes dubbed УBuild a BaseФ and УDefend a BaseФ where the objective was to infiltrate and destroy the other team's base. The catch is that you only have so much firepower to a lot, so you can have weak defenses and a heavy mech or vice-versa, but not both. Those modes were scrapped before the game's release, but with the option for new downloadable content, we may yet see them.

MechAssault also features a very comfortable selection of mechs Ц while there are only 9 or so bases, there are numerous variations of each, and even a couple of unlockable, never-before seen mechs that you'll discover during the single player campaign. You can use any one of these for online play, and you'll undoubtedly find one that suits your playing style. The weapon and defensive device assortment is also impressive Ц each mech has one weapon type from each of three categories Ц energy, ballistic and missiles, plus some variants have jump jets or defensive mechanisms like anti-missile systems or radar jammers. So, for instance, the Mad Cat, my personal favorite, has two PPC's (one on each arm), a couple of machine guns and two racks of missiles, coupled with a radar jammer. The controls are all based around the weapons systems of your mech Ц each face button corresponds to one of the firing groups and the A button is used (along with the right trigger) for firing. The left trigger will cycle through these groups in order, whereas clicking down the thumbsticks will use your defensive weapons or jump jets, depending on which stick you press in and what you have equipped. The movement and looking controls are similar to Halo's Ц right thumbstick looks, left moves, so you can get into the action without having to worry too much about getting comfy with the controls.

The action-oriented design of the game makes it perfect for online play, and with a decent handful of arenas, including a fully destructible city; you'll be sure to have a lot of fast-paced fun with whoever you play online. Having a team of friends is ridiculously fun, and you can use the black button to talk on the team channel only to plan any strategic moves you want to make. The only complaint that is commonly heard with the game's online features is that after each game, you'll be kicked into your Live menu and have to either find another server or go down to your friends list and rejoin his game, rather than just staying in from map change to map change like in Unreal Championship.