Battlezone Developer: Activision Publisher: Activision Category: Battletech System Req: P166, 16Mb Ram, 160Mb HD, D3D/3dfx card, Win95/98 Might look like: Mechwarrior Date posted: 21 april '99 Written By: Bjorn - This game was tested on P166, 32mb Ram, Voodoo Graphics, Win95 - A little Introduction You are the high-level Commander making decisions from your own war-ravaged tank. Lead your U.S. troops on a mission to gain control of a superior Alien Technology in the true 'space race' against the Soviets ... or cross enemy lines to the Soviet side. It's all under your command. The Manual Battlezone's manual is big. Very big. It is all filled with almost to my knowledge, crap informationabout a 'story' on how it all began. Still, it would take you a hour or so for completing this one and I guess that is not Activisions point of making a good manual. Otherwise, the information about the several Planets that you will visit is very put in detail. U.S and Soviets Units are described nicely. Buildings and weapons are also included. After all, everything you need to know about Battlezone is in here. You won't miss a thing. But, I would suggest that they do a major cut in manual-sizes. There is a lot of information that you won't read anyway. There is also a good reference card included which gives you a clearer look on the several keyboard-commands. The old Atari game is BACK! Battlezone. Everyone who ever played Arcade games back in the 80's still remembers this title. It was one of those games (from Atari) that you couldn't miss to play. It combines a First Person 3D Shooter with Strategy and it was so addictive that I'm sure that some of those gamers couldn't sleep at night because they haven't played their round of Battlezone. If you are one of those, you will be extremely delighted because Activision, one of the largest game-companies, renewed this excellent game. Lets hope it has kept the fun of that oh-so old but fantastic game. On its first view, Battlezone from Activision looks great. The developers have done a fine job in keeping that arcade feeling and certainly more importantly, keeping the quality of a decent old Arcade-Game intact. Like I already mentioned, Battlezone is a first person 3D shooter combined with real time strategy. And it does that job very well I must say. Installation is again very smooth and I liked the different text and audio clips that were displayed on the screen as the installation did its job. A feature also used for example in Hexen II and other great titles.    When you run the game, there are several play-modes that you can choose from. You have a Tutorial where you will learn the most basic things. This includes missions on how to control your tank efficiently or how to set up a camp with other objects like turrets. Most of those missions are 5-minute work missions. Still, if you aren't familiar with any Mechwarrior series, this could be pretty usefull. Battlezone offers 30 missions, training missions included. You will also have to choose with who you want to play. Either choose the U.S. or the Soviets. The Soviet campaign is harder then the U.S. and the game also puts a warning out that only advanced gamers should play this campaign. So, for the beginners, like myself, U.S. campaign shall be chosen. Setting up a Camp After that, you are placed basically on a moon or a planet and from there on, you start with the most common things that you do when you play a real time strategy game and that is setting up a camp. Like in every other RTS-game you must have something that recycles material so that you can make more units and buildings. For making any units, you'll have to put your machinery over a Geyser which powers up the thing. Your camp needs to have turrets and while turrets can't exactly move from one place to another you can set them at one point and move them later to a new location. There are also different defense/offense-commands so that the turret can guard several objects. It all depends on the location of where the turret is placed. Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. All contributions are welcome. Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on webmaster@playdevil.com Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil. Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners. All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9 "rip your own stuff"