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Being able to take control of a massive, 10-storey tall machine of destruction and battling with other suitably meaty opponents is a great concept for a videogame, and yet until now it has rarely worked. Usually the mechs you control are so agile and quick that they play just like a fighting game with guns, or a forced third-person view loses the impression of piloting such a large vehicle so that the sense of scale disappears. However, Capcom's new Xbox game, Steel Battalion, hopes to succeed where others have failed by producing more of a mech simulation than an action game, and they certainly aren't doing things by halves. Firstly, the game has its own custom-made control pad, which is wider than the console itself and features not only two joysticks, but also an analogue thumbstick and loads of individually-lit buttons which each have a different function in the game. Continuing the sense of realism into the game, the entire HUD (heads-up display) is modelled as you imagine seeing it if you were inside the mech, with a wealth of screens and dials and counters all telling you different information.
Each level of the game starts off inside a mech hangar, and the first thing you have to do is go through a start-up sequence. This basically involves lowering your mech's canopy, starting the ignition and turning on various essential systems. Anyone who's played one of the modern flight-sims on PC will probably have nightmares about hard-to-remember button combinations for the start sequence of the planes, but this is where the reason for having a custom controller becomes apparent. Every button on the pad is labelled, telling you exactly what function it fulfils, and the main ones will even flash when you need to press them, so rather than it being a memory test you'll actually enjoy starting up your machine every time. Once you're mobile it's time to get to grips with the game's motion and aiming controls, which are almost entirely allocated to the twin joysticks on either side of the pad. The right-hand stick is used for moving your on-screen crosshair, which indicates the area on which your weapons are targeted, while the left-hand stick controls orientation and has a secondary thumb-stick for moving your view independently of the machine's current direction. This is initially kinda daunting, since you have to keep track of three things at once just to do the basics, but it does give you immense control over your mech and the learning process is a lot of fun.
In the version we played, the main aim for each of the levels seemed to be just to destroy any enemy vehicles in the area. Each stage is introduced by a cut-scene, and has a fairly comprehensive briefing which outlines where enemies are expected to be and where they might be, so that you can plan your attack accordingly. The opponent vehicles you encounter range from other mechs to tanks and even planes, plus there are loads of destructible objects in each level to have fun with. As for weapons, initially you are equipped with a machine gun and rockets with which you can eliminate your foes, and fortunately you can lock-on to enemies so you don't have to keep tracking them all the time. Every so often you'll have to reload your weapons, which is easily done by pressing the relevant flashing button on the control pad, however you must also remember that ammunition is limited, so taking out each enemy with as fewer shots as possible is almost essential.
Graphically, the game looked pretty awesome. The HUD is very detailed and well animated, with loads of different screens and counters sliding in from the sides and changing as you progress through the level. Since there are no windows on your mech, the outside view is displayed on a large cockpit screen, which the developers have used to great effect. Whenever you get hit, the screen will flicker will distortion, and as you sustain damage the picture interference will gradually increase. There are other damage effects as well, such as fires inside the mech which can be put out by pressing the 'extinguisher' button, and dirt which collects on your viewing camera, providing a great overall sense of realism and involvement.
Steel Battalion seems to be well on the way to being another triple-A Xbox game, but there's still one problem to be solved before the game's release. With the custom controller being required to play the game, it's likely to be bundled with the software and the entire package to retail at a much higher price than standard Xbox games. We've yet to get confirmation of the recommended retail price, but rumours of £100+ have been surrounding this game for some time, which could potentially put off a lot of gamers, especially since the controller is so specific it can only really be used for this game. We'll have to wait until the game's late Spring 2003 release date gets closer before we have any firm details, but in the meantime this is certainly a title to get excited about!
Marc Hull
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