MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf

Written by Nick Doukas  on January 10, 2005

Review: The return of 40-foot tall walking tanks with massive artillery...

Tweet

Comments

Mist rolls out over the swamps of Bogged Down Ц at least, that's what the Mech Warriors call it. A stinking piece of quagmire on yet another Sphere world, the pliant ground is just waiting to soak up shattered bone and splintered metal Ц this place is no picnic.

You hear them at first - the low, bass sound of their plodding weight bearing down on you inexorably. Then comes the visual contact Ц an Atlas, TimberWolf, Uziel and Catapult Ц all moving in perfect combat formation, their VTOL flying tight and low behind them, a cloaked Rommel MK II Tank nestled snugly in its underbelly. Suddenly, the air is pierced by the booming roar of half a dozen 10 foot metal slugs tipped in depleted Uranium screaming towards you, and the battle is finally joinedЕ.

MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf is at last upon us. The follow up to what is perhaps THE game to define the Xbox Live service; it has big shoes to fill. How does it stack up? Extremely well actually, with a solid retelling of the first game, coupled with some fairly drastic changes that manage to take the team based gameplay to whole new levels of dramatic online warfare. MA2 throws a lot of new things at you, while firmly retaining the Уfun with giant exploding robotsФ factor that kept gamers playing the first title for a long, long time.

Like the first game MA2 is all about online play, but the single player campaign Ц while lacking in the story department Ц manages to put some pretty cool and fun mission objectives together for you to take your MechWarrior through. Since much of the focus in Lone Wolf is on the ability to pilot various mechs, as well as support vehicles, you do have the opportunity to actually get out of your ride and run around the battlefield Ц both in multiplayer and solo. This affords a real feeling of scale, and is a welcome addition to the series. The biggest new embellishments to MA2 are the VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing Craft), and the BattleArmor, with which you can steal enemy mechs (just jumpjet up, grab Сem, and you'll be prompted into a mini-game of button presses to determine the victor). There's also a MK II Tank that can be piloted, and powered up it can knock an assault class mech off its feet (quite fun in multiplayer).

As the single player campaign opens, you're on some much needed leave after defeating the Word of Blake in the last game. Of course, that peace lasts about 5 seconds as an attack ensues and you're forced into action once again. From that point on, you're basically embroiled in a conflict over powerful data cores that can be used to devastating effect by the wrong people Ц most notably the Word of Blake, who turn up like a bad penny yet again. While linear and fairly short, the campaign does a decent job of throwing some pretty fun missions at you (such as making your way into a raging battle to support The House of Kurita, or attacking an enemy encampment in a BattleArmor and stealing one mech after another, then bringing them back to your dropship) and immersing you into the BattleTech universe. Of course, MechAssault has never been about the single player so much as it is about the multiplayer, and the online component of Lone Wolf is sweet indeed.

As in the first game, the main draw of MechAssault is Ц well Ц piloting mechs. Of course, much has changed since MA1, and the addition of the VTOL in particular seriously turns the dynamics of team-based combat around. The ability to re-supply your team's mechs with health and power-ups, as well as carrying tanks or BattleArmor to strategic positions on the map means there's a whole new bag of strats waiting for you to delve into. Some maps have one VTOL landing pad, and conquering and controlling this is key to victory. There are also pre-determined mechs for each map now, and while the idea of not picking the mech of your choice may seem odd at first, once you see how the new game mechanics work, you'll likely be thrilled with it. (I was hesitant at first, being a huge fan of the first game, but once I played a few matches I was hooked.) The new maps are sweet and feature plenty of urban combat (buildings collapse even more spectacularly now. It's destruction on a whole new level) as well as swampy forests and more rural terrain. All of the gametypes from the original are back including Team Destruction, Last Man Standing, Not It, Capture the Flag and others. The mechs from the original are back too, and there are a few new ones as well, such as the Nova Cat and Star Adder.

The cool weapons and defenses return, and some additions have been made to those also. Vets of the game will find subtle tweaks to their favorite rides, with new weapons combos and defensive measures like Reactive Armor (which dampens ballistic damage) and Active AMS (anti missile system). PPCs, Gauss Rifles, Auto-Cannons and Machine Guns Ц all the firepower you'll need is at your fingertips. In addition, the devastating Alpha Strike can be deployed by certain assault class mechs when all of their weapons are fully powered up. It's the team that has an elite VTOL pilot, and killer mech-jockeys with dead-eye aim, excellent dodging reflexes and good situational awareness that comes out on top. Communication is more important than ever in MechAssault 2, and all of these changes add up to new and more complex strategies.

You can host your own custom games and simply jump in and play, scroll through optimatch, or get involved with the Conquest mode where you can choose from 5 warring houses. Once you do, you'll be able to launch attacks, as well as defend planets under the control of your house. MechAssault 2 supports XBL 3.0, so you can set up your clan and go at it trying to take over the universe. There are some issues with Conquest at the time of this writing, but the developers are aware of the problems and are looking to address them in an upcoming patch. Other than that the online performance of the game is solid, with little lag or slowdown to speak of Ц provided you have a decent broadband connection of course.

Graphically Lone Wolf looks amazing. Even at this late stage of the Xbox's life cycle, it clearly remains a powerhouse. Despite some simplistic textures, MA2 is chock full of incredible detail. The machines all look top notch and are nicely modeled. The weapons effects and explosions are second to none (core breaches now include a very cool warping effect and streaks of blue lighting shooting out from the center) and everything from smoke trails on missiles to the splash of Auto-Cannon slugs as they rain down on an enemy mech's cockpit is lovingly rendered. The sound is just as sweet, and all of the weapons, jumpjets and booming mech footsteps will truly put your surround sound system to the ultimate test. Overall, it just doesn't get much better than this.