Activision should have felt bad about Heavy Gear. Whether or
not they did, they took the steps to ensure that the sequel would
be a completely different game, “Rebuilt from the Engine
Up” as they said in their prerelease ads. A lot of talent
was poured into HG2. So was a lot of time. Too much time, in fact
– by the time HG2 was polished to a high sheen and ready
for release, it was obvious that Activision management had lost
interest in the project. HG2 was supposed to compete directly
with MW3, but the latter had stolen much of HG2’s thunder.
As such, on its release in 1999, it had very little support from
the company, and faded quickly.
This was a shame. While this writer did not prefer the scale
of Gear combat, it was obvious that HG2 was a superior simulation.
The graphics engine in HG2 was worlds better than the kludged
dreck used in HG1 , the game play was quite different from the
usual “circle of death” ‘Mech fights, the A.I.
was quite capable, and the scenarios interesting and varied. Gear
combat itself became the fast and deadly, the way it was supposed
to be – one good smack from a heavy cannon could knock a
Gear out fast; therefore, problems like “legging” did
not arise. Terrain use was paramount in HG2, something not found
in any MechWarrior game (beyond hiding behind a large building).
For ‘Mech enthusiasts, this is definitely a sim worth buying.
It can be found in the bargain-bin in two versions – either
the discounted box version, or a shovelware version containing
other, older eye-candy. HG2, while different, is worth the effort.
As a side note – the “Dark Engine” used for HG2
was also the engine for the disastrous Interstate ’82, but,
unlike the MW2 engine, was used no further.
StarSiege: Retooling the Dark Horse
Sierra wasn’t finished with its own lengthy rebuilding of
its EarthSiege universe. A professional writer was hired by the
company to tie in the turn-based in-the-distant future MissionForce
games with the EarthSiege struggle. The result was StarSiege –
not only were our distant ancestors fighting a newly resurgent
Cybrid threat, but there was a nasty civil between the humans,
as well.
In terms of gameplay, StarSiege was not very different from the
earlier EarthSiege games; the story background, however, was infinitely
richer, and multiplayer was introduced. The controls were made
different, as well: HERCs did not have torso twists this time
around; players controlled weapon aiming from a fixed torso, instead.
This made the controls somewhat similar to Heavy Gear 2, and made
the action somewhat more like a first-person shooter. StarSiege
did reasonably well, but much of the air had gone out of the big
robot genre at the time of its release. It was also eclipsed by
its sister game, Tribes, a solid team-based multiplayer shooter.
In any event, StarSiege is still available in the bargain bins,
and is well worth playing.
