Little Big Man. Review

Little Big Man.

There was once an episode of the Twilight Zone in which passengers on a 1950’s

era jet were catapulted into prehistoric times when their plane broke the sound

barrier (Called "The

Odyssey of Flight 33" – Ed). Outside their windows were tiny little

dinosaurs on the ground far below.

It is with fond memories of such Saturday afternoon TV that you might find

Mech Commander 2. High above gigantic anthropomorphic tanks called Mechs,

you give orders to your troops and watch the enjoyable fireworks. The game is

sort of like setting off firecrackers in a model-train set…and don’t deny

it, you always wanted to do that.

While the original Mech Commander showed some

promise, it was hamstrung by a few critical design errors that made it far too

difficult and strategically deficient. The viewing distance was unrealistically

and unfairly constrained; this combined with difficult combat that required

prior planning made for a game that constantly cut off it’s own circulation.

Mech Commander 2 is in all ways the game that Mech Commander

should have been. It’s a seamless romp through a beautiful 3D world, with mayhem

and destruction befitting its series legacy. This time around, you not only

can look far off into the horizon, but that horizon is on the edges of what

looks remarkably like the latest entry in the MechWarrior franchise viewed

from high altitude. While the horizon spoken of is really a fog shroud, it’s

a very, very distant fog shroud that is absolutely necessary in maintaining

decent framerates.

But seeing isn’t the only difference. Scanning takes on a new importance in that often opponents are obscured by the landscape and you can only detect the presence of something. This creates a slick combination of the known and unknown, which is enough to let you plan out attacks, but still provides for battlefield surprises.

And speaking of planning attacks, Mech Commander 2 makes far more of

an effort than Mech Commander to be a real strategy game. In every mission,

you begin with resource points that can be used to call in airstrikes, repair

craft, artillery and so forth. Other resource points can be acquired by capturing

certain enemy facilities. Not only does this add a new dimension to assaults

themselves, but can provide for more gameplay than the core mission objectives.

The other important resources in Mech Commander 2 are pilots. While

Mechs may be individually tailored to your specifications, and new ones may

be bought (assuming you have enough reward money for accomplishing previous

missions), it is arguably the pilot you place in the Mech that makes most difference.

Unlike other strategy games in which a unit is just like any other, individual

pilots gain experience and grow more proficient in their skills over time. In

addition, if a pilot excels in a mission, you are able to train him in a specific

area, such as targeting ability. Since your long-lasting and well-trained pilots

are of far more value that your pool of replacement rookies, it is in your interest

to keep them alive. This can result in some interesting uses of forces, such

as sacrificing one pilot for another or using valuable resource points on a

repair that could have been used on an airstrike.

The point is that Mech Commander 2 gives you things of value and forces

you to make choices regarding them. More choices even than that, if you like

using the included mission editor.

Combat

itself is also far more reasonable this time through. While in the original

even smaller Mechs could take extraordinary punishment, Mech Commander 2

dials back enemy stamina so that a missile of yours is far more pleasingly

effective. Enemy A.I. is good enough so that combat is more enjoyable to watch

than simply two lumbering machines standing still and throwing ammo at one another.

Battles are between limber death-dealers that dance across the landscape, leaving

scorched earth and metal in their wake.

The audio keeps up its end of the bargain and no element of the production seems to have been short-changed. No, wait… there is one.

Ever since MechWarrior 2, Mech games haven’t had a decent plot to speak

of, so there isn’t any reason to dwell on this one’s. There is a civil war on

a planet, with sexy results. You are there to fight the rebels, with sexy results.

Many Mechs and assorted other things are blown up real good, with sexy results.

In order to communicate all of this there are dozens of short videos with live

actors who tell the player what’s at stake and what should be done.

While plenty of money seems to have been spent on this, not a penny went to finding decent actors, which brings an unwanted ham-factor into what otherwise is a serious game. My advice to future Mech-developers is to either come up with a plot so good we don’t care, or hire people who can present a lackluster story in such a way that we are not motivated to liberate our fingernails.

Asside from that, Mech Commander 2 is a very solid game. What it isn’t

is a very innovative game. It does everything it has to and does it well, but

it doesn’t do anything new. Mech Commander 2 satisfies your god complex

in wanting to control several behemoth killing machines at a time (and your

desire to blow up your dad’s model train set), but those are old desires from

an old paradigm. Feel free to have fun with this one, a lot of fun, but don’t

pressure yourself about remembering it.