Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf : Web Wombat : Games

Bringing FASA's highly-regarded Mechwarrior universe to the Xbox was never going to be easy, but as one of the Xbox Live's key launch titles a few years ago, the original Mech Assault title delivered the goods.

It allowed gamers to take control of a 50 tonne robot of extreme justice, brimming with enough weaponry to make the Pentagon blush, and the environments were fully destructible. Glee!

If that 30 storey office block was ruining your crater-top view, you could pump round after round of fiery hot plasma beams and homing missiles into it and (eventually) it would fall.

Fast forward a few years and we are greeted with the sequel, Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf (MA2:LW), which, like the original game, combines the frenetic shoot-em-up goodness of the arcade genre with the realism and Newtonian physics of a simulation to brilliant effect.

And more than anything else, the new game offers up an incredible multiplayer package that smells more like a dedicated PC game than something for a console, but to make the most of it you will need to have an Xbox Live account and a broadband connection.

Nevertheless, the single player campaign is a great place to start, and though the story and cut scenes are devoid of any semblance of originality or character, the missions are still big on fun. You'll be tasked with more than 20 missions spanning multiple worlds in the 31st century, and the vehicle count has been increased to 35 this time around.

Not only can you take control of a number of new 'mechs, each with three distinct weapons, running speeds, shields and countermeasures, but now you can take control of tanks, POV missiles, stationary turret defences and dropships (called VTOLs) as well, which makes both single and multiplayer games even more engaging.

Of course, I couldn't leave the battle armour out of this discussion either, as this small but useful piece of kit is integral to the game. "So what's this lame-o armour all about, Will? And why are my Google shares so rock solid?" I hear you echo into the physical expanse that is the known universe. Well, let me explain.

About 1/8 the size of a mech, this tiny suit of ferro fibrous armour packs a massive jump jet fuel tank, improving mobility greatly over a 'mech, and it also comes with a small laser and a wham-bam mortar, the latter of which can be tactically devastating in the right hands.

This is the VTOL, or dropship, and opens up new
strategies in both single and multiplayer modes

Anyway, this battle armour also allows you to hook onto the sides of buildings and get this - you can even latch onto enemy 'mechs and with a few precise combo button presses you can hack your way past their electronic defences and commandeer them. Very nice.

If you see an enemy 'mech you like and it just so happens that you started the mission/level with battle armour (or you're playing online), then it's time to go hump that 'mechs leg and rip its brain out. As for the Google shares, it's just a fad, like the iPod.

The gameplay itself is great and the controls help to deliver a straight-up, no-nonsense action shooter.

There's a shoot button, a change weapon button and a jump jet button and with these basic controls you can pretty much conquer the game.

Though it's played from the third-person perspective (over the shoulder), it plays just like a first-person shooter, so anyone familiar with the Halo series will be able to jump into the deep end. In the single player campaign, essentially training for the multiplayer modes, the difficulty level steadily increases and gets to the point where you must constantly take down enemy mechs in order to benefit from the health powerups they sometimes drop.

With VTOLs and to a lesser extent tanks, MA2:LW brings a new level of involvement to the series, and I should probably mention that you can even exit your vehicle (battle armour, mech, tank, etc.) and walk around in your groovy 31st century threads. Most of the time this is suicidal, but some missions require you place satchel charges and so forth, and this increased variety stops the game from becoming too repetitive.

Graphically this is one of the Xbox's better looking games, but with an increase in detail, methinks that the redraw (clipping) range has been reduced, meaning there's always an impenetrable fog that blocks vision beyond a kilometre or so. And if my memory fails and the clipping distance hasn't been fiddled with, it's still a little bit close for a game that involves long range particle projection cannons.

The environments you'll end up exploring (and potentially decimating) range from sparsely inhabited canyons to sprawling cities, the latter complete with working gates, neon signs and quite often laser turret defences.

The vehicles (mechs, tanks etc) are the real stars of the game, looking incredibly animated as they navigate the lovingly-crafted gameworld. It's very cool to watch a hundred tiny servos actuate when legs move and torsos twist in 'mechs, and I reckon the vehicle detail has been improved quite a bit since the original game blasted its merry way onto the Xbox.

"I said fire across his nose, not up it!"

The special effects that light up the screen when weapons are fired also deserve a mention, with cluster missiles and gauss cannons offering the kind of eye candy that'll make your eyes melt.

The explosions are pretty good in general, offering a nice mixture of polygons and particles, but it's when 'mechs die that the real fireworks happen.

When a 'mech's the death knell is sounded, the core is exposed and will momentarily warp everything around it (including terrain) due to the rapid release of energy before they explode, complete with expanding coronas and other assorted effects.

Day:1:Studios should be given a pay rise for their work on the fireworks alone. Everyone knows that if the explosions are wrong, the destruction just isn't the same...

The multiplayer side of Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf is massive. In addition to some ten game modes, all of which are playable online, there is the conquest mode, which is an ongoing, persistent game that two teams (or clans) undertake.

Multiple planets will be conquered and invaded and the game's can go for days. Let's just say if you have broadband and aren't afraid to use it, this is one fictional universe you won't want to come back from.

While most of the multiplayer modes are best played online, system link works well, and for those who cannot even gain access to broadband - very much a reality for many Australians - up to 12 consoles can be strung together with a Ethernet hub.

Though conquest is probably the best multiplayer mode, Base War (destroy the other teams power generator) and capture the flag also make for solid entertainment, and the addition of the flying VTOL means you can drop a tank on a strategic hill to snipe at enemies, or even fly salvage (health, weapons) to the front lines to keep the troops well armed and well fed.

When all things are considered, there's very little wrong with Mech Assault 2. It's not the best game to ever hit the Xbox, but it's got a ripping single player campaign that isn't hindered by its naff storyline, a massive multiplayer section, good controls, super-duper graphics and of course beautifully modelled robots that are armed to the teeth.

There are enough new features and novel ideas in there to justify the game's status as a sequel, and together with an ever-growing online community complete with clans, I have only one question: when's Mech Assault 3 coming out?

Game: Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf
System: Xbox
Players: 1-multi
Online: Yes
Developer: Day 1 Studios
Distributor: Microsoft

Rating: 85%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf is on the shelves now.

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