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Good sequel, plenty of action

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 39 / 40
Date: March 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The original Mech Assault was one of the first big hits for the XBox system. Borrowing from the old Battle Tech franchise, the original game was an excellent shoot-em-up that boasted destructable environments (ever take down a city one building at a time?) and first-rate action. Though repetitive, it was never boring, and I still play it from time to time. This sequel offers much of what made the original so much fun, and adds some nice new features that make this a slight cut above its predecessor.

For one, the designers borrowed an idea from the GTA series (or maybe from Metal Arms): Hijack an enemy's mech (or other vehicle) and use it against the opposition. Unfortunately, one can't pick just any enemy to hijack; the game's plot requires you to jack specific mechs or vehicles at certain points of the game. Granted, it's still fun to be able to sneak up on an enemy and steal his mech, but it would have been more fun to be able to do it at random (a la Metal Arms). That would have added a twist to the gameplay. Still, it's a welcome addition.

Like the original, the sequel requires you to follow a certain path: defend the Icarus, destroy enemy bases and equipment, and defend innocents from the marauding Mechs of the Word of Blake (yes, they're back). The unusual technology captured from the Word at the end of the original plays a key role in the plot, and the enemies you face are more difficult to kill as a result. Even low-level mechs are a little more challenging than before. And, there are the bosses. Mech Assault featured just one major boss, whereas Mech Assault 2 features multiple powerful bosses that are reasonably tough. I won't give away too much, but the first boss you face--a gargantuan spider-like mech--is easily one of the coolest things to grace any XBox game in a while. (To give you an idea of what it's like, think of the Scarab in Halo 2). Many of the original mechs are back, and one thing I like about the new mechs in this game is the greater combination of speed and power than before. For example: in the original, Thor mechs offered sheer destructive power, but moved so slowly that I sometimes found my thumbs aching after a showdown with multiple enemies. The new mechs offer both greater firepower and ease of movement--a definite (and welcome) plus.

While Mech Assault featured excellent graphics, with an emphasis on graphically realistic building destruction, this game offers sharper environmental design, more detailed mechs, and some genuinely awesome effects: When a mech explodes, the detonation now causes a ripple-like warp effect in the immediate area. The greater emphasis on these type of effects comes at the expense of some others: You can still destroy buildings and other structures, but the ensuing collapse is less satisfactory. Like the original, the destructable environments offer a tactical advantage--you can still drop a building on top of an unsuspecting enemy. Cutscenes and other graphical extras are well-designed and animated. It definitely showcases how much better console graphics have become in just a few short years.

Overall, this a solid sequel to the original, and is recommended.

I hope this review was helpful
--Christian Wheeler, gamer and games retailer

New Perspective on an Old Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: March 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Mechassault Lone Wolf cashes in on player's need for large scale destruction. Although the genre of giant robots is pretty overcrowded with mediocre titles as it is, Lone Wolf ushers in a worthy sequel to a good title.

The first thing I'd like to address is this whole alternative rock in video games fad. I think the musical score is fine as it is without Korn. Other titles such as Prince of Persia: Warrior Within are going along with this whole fad. I'm sure lots of people love Korn but I don't need to hear them everytime I fight a boss. Besides that, the music and sound effects as well as voice acting were well executed and presented nicely in surround sound.

Visuals in the Mechassault universe are even better this time than the original XBOX release. Mechs feature an excellent level of detail and battle damage. The terrain sells the scale of how large the mechs are and particle effects are down right amazing.
Much more dramatic this time around are the mech explosion sequences, which are far more dynamic and imaginative. Much more elaborate this time around is also the destruction of buildings. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Players will no doubt find the damage detail and collapse animations more intricate and believable this time around.

Lone Wolf's gameplay has received a fun new innovation-love it or hate it, mech jacking. This time around players have access to "battle armor" a small mechanized suit which allows several new features. Battle armor allows players to grab onto walls, fly and of course, hack a enemy mech and eject the pilot allowing the player to take over the mech. Besides these few new features to gameplay, Lone Wolf is still the same circular running and zig zag strafing shoot 'em up that fans fell in love with the first time around. Battles get intense and players must make decisions on whether to continue firing weapons or jump jets at the sake of overheating the mech, or to withdraw and allow the enemy to funnel to you. Boss battles are never really hard until the very last boss-not only do you have to put up with the alt rock again but the battle is far tougher than any other since you will be fighting one gigantic mech with nothing but your frail little battle armor.

For fans of the series, Mechassault Lone Wolf offers plot closure to the original and a few new features with a totally revamped and improved graphics engine.

Worth the Cash

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have only played the game for an hour or so, but my first impression was a good one. It's definitely worth the money, and the sooner you buy it, the more likely you are to get the limited edition. It costs the same, but it comes with extra levels. I figure they did that to get people to buy it right after Christmas (when brand new games aren't sold as well).
I'm not a huge mech-fan; I don't usually play mech games, but this game does a really great job at mixing in a few different elements. There are quite a few different types of mechs, and you can switch between them during the mission. You can even hijack an enemy's mech! Also, the entire environment is destructible. A building in your way? Knock it down.
Overall, this game is a great game. I research my games thoroughly before buying them, and this one was a no-brainer.

Not as good as I had hoped.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: January 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge fan of MechAssault 1 and have been playing it ever since it came out. I've played the second one for 4 days now and am pretty disappointed. After 1 hour of game play I was so mad I was ready to take it back but I gave it a while to be fair. This review reflects online play only. The offline game you can complete in 3 hours. Ok storyline.

Graphics:

The graphics are up to date as I expected since it has been a couple years since the last release. The graphics for the maps are ok. It seemed like the put the power into special effects. Special effects for weapons and when mechs blow up are amazing. The lighting effects when missiles travel a crossed the terrain is really good. You'll see the lighting against the walls and trees and what not. When mechs blow up the screen kind of warps and debris is sucked into the explosion. REALLY nice effect. If a mechs blows up in water a bubble forms like in the last Matrix movie when Neo is fighting Anderson.. Neat water effects. When walking through water the waves are realistic. These neat effects are on some maps only. Some of the maps are amazing looking while other just plain out suck. See New River City. It looks like PS1 graphics. Maybe even Kelico vision.

Sound:

The sound is much better. Depending on what you are walking on, the sound will change accordingly. Trees, brush, cement, whatever. Level 3 weapons don't sound as striking as they did in the last game though. I miss the Level 3 gauze rifle sound. You KNOW when someone is leveled up in the first MA and you better run. The second one I don't know if the person is level 1 or 3. I just know I'm standing there dieing.

The Game:

Four more mechs to play with which is nice. They aren't that great but it is more "choices". You now have a VTOL that you can carry items with to assist your teams mates. The VTOL is a great addition to Team Destruction. This adds a great dynamic to the game. Be prepared to have people nag you for powers ups the entire game if you decide to play VTOL. You have a new tank which at first I thought was useless but in Team you can knock a Prometheus or an Atlas on the ground and keep them there for your team to blast away.

In Destruction (which I think they ruined) you start out in power armor and most likely you will spend most of the game in the power armor. You have to find a mech on the map or jack one. You cannot pick the mech that you want. I feel like they should have called this game "Mech Jack II". For mech assault you sure spend a lot of time outside of a mech.

In Destruction most likely the person that wins the game would note have even been in a mech the entire game. You can score big points for jacking a mech so the incentive is to jack mechs for the entire game. I spend more time doing the mini game (see Simon) to keep my mech from being jacked more than anything. Y-X-Y-A-B-R-L-L. Basically you're forced to play Giant Killers the entire time. If you remember right that was not a really popular game type in MA1. Beats me, I only play it once and thought it was stupid.

It took me 3 hours to find the right map and get into even a promi. Then 4 kids came up and eventually jacked it. I haven't seen a Ragnarok or have even heard of it's where abouts though I see a picture of it in the manual. The fact that I don't have a choice in what mech I play pisses me off the most. This goes for Team Destruction as well. You have to beat your own team members to mechs.

Gameplay:

The mechs are excruciatingly slow and targeting is sluggish. Mechs are so slow it takes away from the aggressiveness of the game. The maps are much bigger too which is great but try to get a crossed the map in an Atlas. Once you get into a mech it's boring compared to the feel of MA1. The MA1 got my blood pumping at times and I remember sitting at the edge of my chair when a room full of good players were in the room. This one comparably is a walk in the park.

Teamplay in this game is much better than the first despite all my gripes. You will have to play with people who know what they are doing though otherwise it's frustrating. I love having someone fly the VTOL around without giving you powerups. Or some dork that doesn't know how to drive a heavy mech takes it and gets it kill continuesly.

XBOX Live options:

You cannot join games already in progress like most new games. They are still using the original lobby. You have to try to time when you go into a game with a friend. Good luck trying to get your friends into 1 room. And yes it's still the same old if you're playing a game and get an invite you have to leave the current game and ditch your current players and TRY to make it fast enough to your invite. They had 2 years to think about this so I don't know why this wasn't fixed. It's nice in Halo 2 when you start a room with 1 or 2 friends then eventually more people on your friends list join.

No biggy but finding your friends list in the menu is screwed up. When you get a friends game invite and you're struggling to see who it is you have to do like 3 or 4 steps to get to the invite (while you're being shot at or being jacked).

My gripes:

Slow mechs
Can't choose my mech.
I don't like the power armor idea. I never played elemental.
No choice to turn off mech jacking. I hate stupid mini games. I don't want to get good at it either.
The lobby is ancient technology.
Game still freezes and people still drop when starting games.

I wanted to say that I hate the game but I keep playing it just because it's new. The last MA had a huge following and very long duration. But I think this title will be played a lot then just fade away. I actually played MA1 almost as much as MA2 this past weekend. I had more fun in MA1 though the graphics were a little older.

If you were a heavy destruction player you will not like this game.

If you were a team destruction player you may like it better than I do.

If you didn't own or were a fan of MA1 maybe this one will be great for you since it is the newest game and is "ok".

**************

Update - after 2 months I found myself not playing the game. I took it in for store credit.

A step backwards/downwards from the first game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: January 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Many are drawn to mech/giant robot games for options, customization, etc. The first Mechassault didn't have this, but managed to save itself by allowing each person to pick their own machine, to suit their own style of play. There were some balance issues, which the developers of this NEW game decided to handle in the worst way possible - removing ALL choice.
When a battle starts, you are not in a mech at all, and have to find a vehicle and hope it suits your style. If it doesn't, you'll likely be killed, and respawn in the little micro-suit again, and again try desperately to find a mech.
Even if you ignore this horrible design choice, the game just isn't all that much fun...sad, as the first was a good straightforward pick-up-and-play game, and this game is just...disappointing.

Heck Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First of all I would like to point out that this is only my personal opinion and would only like to clarify that.

This game is definately in my top five favorite games of all time. If you have played a mech game before (even battle tech) you will absolutely LOVE this game. You can now get OUT of the Mech. You are no longer restricted to one mech per level.

Even if you have never played a mechwarrior game before you should definately give this a chance because it is something other than the same ol' Halo that you keep playing over and over for no other reason than to drool over it's so-so graphics and Non Existant STORYLINE.

I am here to tell you that the graphics in this game gretly exceed that of Halo 2 and rival that of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and even The Chronicles of Riddick.

Also the trick to defeating the Skeletal Mech at the end of the game is to always move left and use your jumpjets nonstop. Do not get caught in its laser beam eyes or its giant flamethrower. You also have to dodge its missiles and plasma bomb. You first have to blow his head open to reveal the power core, Nuerohack the shield and put about 10 Level 3 mortars into his head. I have beat this game numerous times on every difficulty and know for a fact that it is beatable especially on Green difficulty. If you beat the game you unlock Nemesis, as a multiplayer character.

Also, Get the Limited Edition because you get Two Extra FREE maps.

Ratings

Graphics: 9.8
Sound: 9.5 (could use a few more songs)
Gameplay: 9
Replayability: 7.5
Controls: 9.5
Atmosphere: 10
Fun: 10
Multiplayer: 9.5 Online: 10
Overall: 9.6

Possibly better than halo 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: January 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I loved the first Mech Assault. This one is basicly the same game, lit on fire, and shot at a nitro glycerine plant out of a high velocity Rail Gun thats strapped on a 3 story tall titanium alloy walking machine of death doing 90 mph thru a hospital zone. The new mechs are pretty cool, and one might ask "Hey zeek, why would I willingly jump out of one?" the awnser: to use the new battle armor. This little destruction dealer gives its bigger brothers a run for their money. With the ability to jump jet and hang on walls, and neuro-hack enemy mechs to jack'em you can't go wrong. Even on foot you can take on the enemy by planting bombs that go boom, really freaking big! And all that is just in the single player mode. I won't get into the Xbox live stuff, you'll just have to buy the game and see for yourself. The only drawback to this game? You have to stop playing it to eat, and go to the bath room, or you will die of starvation in a pool of your own filth.

Excellent Game, though a little short

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: August 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Excellent graphics and great gameplay. The story was a little cheesed but it's an action game so who cares. The only thing that bugged me was the end character, he was totally unbeatable. Other than that, definitely worth the money.

HECK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 17
Date: March 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is awsome and it is worth the money. THe graphics are great and there is more than 25 levels unlike those cheap games
that have only 15 to 20 levels. the story line is great and every thing is great. DO NOT HAVE ANY DOUBT ON BUYING THIS GAME!!!!!!!

P.S THIS GAME IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HECK YES!!!!!!!

Fun but Different

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Mech series, has been one where customisation has been a key to getting your mech to the best of its potential, many people may not like this because it is a very big difference to what you are used to... things have been greatly improved. the new sounds and video graphics are a big improvement to what was used in the original.

The major difference which some will enjoy the challenge for and some wont is that you do not start off in a mech, you are in a mobile armour suit, and must steal a mech, this however is to add to the story, and to give you a new sense for the need of strategy, you no longer start off in a 50 tonn armoured death machine you must get one... this makes it more challenging staying alive. if you dont mind a change to the style its still a great game, and you can change mechs when you want, that is something good about it... i hate being stuck in some mechs. some will love others will not like the change from the original structure but the original style has been used for a long time, i think at least once in a while a game for this universe (mechs) should be different, i cant wait till a new one is made for the pc

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