I’d rather play Solitaire! Review

I’d rather play Solitaire!

“Seize enemy bases, engage ground and air targets, call in artillery and air strikes,

defend and capture territories.” Sounds exciting right? Unfortunately Novalogic’s

bold description of its new release isn’t half as entertaining as they would like

to admit. Armored Fist 2 was a big disappointment in most aspects, including

graphics, and even if you’re an Army nut looking for that great tank game, keep

searching, because Armored Fist 2 is definitely not on the recall roster!

To start out with, the game was really

no fun. As Duke Nukem has so valiantly taught

us, crushing, killing and interactivity with physical objects that may or may

not have anything to do with the actual mission make the game more fun, more exploratory

and more realistic! Novalogic included nothing of the sort, except a few trees,

or in the desert, a cactus. I’m supposed to be rolling around in this mammoth

of a vehicle and I can’t even move over the edge of some rubble that I just destroyed.

What’s the point? And speaking of destroying, it sucks. No satisfying explosions,

not even if you shoot an oil tank. To sum it all up, the game seriously lacks

consistency in its realism, which harms the overall value of this so called “simulation,”

of a military vehicle.

Getting back to more technical aspects, graphics in the game were detailed,

but VERY choppy. I didn’t understand why Comanche

3 or F-22 Raptor, which were both really

good sims could get excellent frame rates with good graphics and yet Armored

Fist 2 hacked its way through the game on the lowest detail setting. The

game was so choppy, it was almost unplayable on my P133. I had to take it to

my friend’s house to really get a taste of how the game played. However, if

you’re running on a monster system, hopefully with a 3D accelerator, you’ll

find the game to be graphically pleasing. I never doubted Novalogic’s capabilities

in making excellent landscapes, but unfortunately the system requirements that

are REALLY required of this game are outrageously high, so ignore the box in

the upper right hand corner of this review.

There’s not much to hear inside

a tank except the engine and whatever you fire out the gun, so I wasn’t really

looking at sound effects to judge the game. The sounds were fine, and just to

put you “acoustically sensitive” people to rest, there weren’t any annoying

sounds or music that make the game unbearable.

The gameplay is split into two parts. There is the unrealistic mode and then the realistic mode. Personally I’m a big fan of the highest amount of realism in my simulations, but in this game, I preferred the unrealistic mode. This way, you can control your tank, turret, and what you fire pretty much all at once. Your tank is more maneuverable, thus making it easier for you to get out of the line of fire, fast. Once you change to the realistic setting, Novalogic takes over most of the jobs and instead of being the one-man-band, the computer will handle the driving while you shoot. From what you’ve heard so far, you’re probably thinking, “Well that’s great, now someone is doing half of my job, and I just have to look around and shoot everything, how convenient!”

Unfortunately, no such luck. One of the biggest problems with this game is the AI. Your driver is incredibly stupid and drives in a straight line to your next waypoint regardless of a possible ambush, enemy fire or any other situation. And speaking of stupid AI’s, your teammates are so incredibly pointless, I’d rather go solo. All they do is stick out, die, and make you more noticeable! Novalogic’s lack of intelligence (insert joke here) on your side makes the game disappointing and frustrating.

To sum it all up, don’t buy Armored Fist 2 unless you have a really good system, a lot of money to throw away on mediocre games, and you love tanks. This game was disappointing and just be thankful I wasted MY time playing it, instead of you!