Tag: Battlezone
Battlezone Review
by admin on Feb.01, 2010, under Review
April 16, 2008 –
They say gameplay is everything, but let’s not kid ourselves. This is a technology-driven medium and a flashy new look can go a long way. If you take a ride in the way-back machine to 1980, you’d find a game that took arcade visuals and presentation to new heights and became a classic in the process. The game put you inside a tank and pitted you against a series of wireframe, 3D opponents. By today’s standards the vector graphics and basic gameplay aren’t much, but this was a pretty big deal at one point in time. That time has passed.
The gameplay remains intact, for better or worse. The original game relied on a twin stick control with a single button for firing. Each stick controlled one tread on the tank which takes a little while to get used to. For those that can’t handle the twin sticks control, a new single analog stick configuration has been added. Once you’re moving, it’s just a matter of avoiding enemy tank fire and blasting back. The enemies include normal tanks, super tanks and fast moving missiles. For bonus points, there are non-aggressive hovering saucers that randomly appear nearby.
Battlezone has received more than the usual bare minimum in updates that we’re used to seeing in classic games on the Live Arcade, enough that it almost makes this an attractive package. There’s an evolved mode with more modern visuals (lens flare on the moon!) and also an entirely new mode called Throttle Monkey that ups the pacing and challenge significantly. There’s also online leaderboards and a four player deathmatch that can be played through Live.
The trouble is that it’s not all that fun anymore. The improved visuals aren’t bad, but they certainly won’t wow anybody the way the original arcade game did. Then there’s the issue of a game holding up over time. For older gamers with fond memories, Battlezone will do nicely. For 400 Microsoft Points ($5 US), you could do far worse chasing nostalgia. For your average gamer, this isn’t much more than a history lesson with only marginally more fun than all of the images that conjures.
Worse yet is that the online game is sorely limited and contains numerous questionable design decisions. The Throttle Monkey speed can’t be taken online and so the entire experience is sluggish. Each time you die you simply spawn back as either a fast, average or heavy tank