Steel Battalion

"Steel or Plastic?"

If your buddies are constantly yappin about this game, do not interupt. They have one good reason. For one thing, the controller they are still awestruck over, yeah its just as great as they say it is, and most likely better. Well, read on.

Sound:
When people brag about how great their games sound, and how nothing sounds better, make them stop their ranting by saying ''Does It Top Steel Battalion?'' And if they say ''Oh yeah any game!'' stop listening. In Steel Battalion you take a step and you can hear your foot hit the floor. If you were to fall over, you could feel the metal against the floor, screeching in your ears. And yeah when you fire this bad boy up you'll see screens come up and the beeps and boops to match the screens every movement. Then when you are in a stand still, you will hear the engine whizzing. But fire that Cannon and you'll hear the perfect ''boom'' to go with it.

Graphics:
I really don't want to over do it, but when you say ''washed out cockpit main monitor'' Konami gives you a washed out monitor. You see your fellow mech's every movement, if they get knocked down due to a huge shell hitting them with the force of god, then you'll see in all detail the shell's explosion. Oh don't forget when you hit the ''Ignition'' button you'll see you monitors flicker and come to life. Your sound and graphics, yeah they are going hand in hand very well, every sound has a reason, so if you hear gunshots, yeah theres gotta be something out there shooting. And that is a real help, if you have ever played a game where you hear an enemy shooting but you really notice, its in there for the effect. Yeah this game is all about simulation, and thats what it is.

Control:
Now this is really hard to rate, we are talking about a 40 button- two joystick- three pedals- and one little analog.
I must admit, the learning curve is very steep. It took me about three days to finally get coordinated, and I play the drums. It took my friend five days to finally get the basics down. The controller goes well with the monitors on your screen. Almost every button has its own cause on the screen. Not to mention that you use every button in one level. There are many things to learn and many things to study in the manual they give you which is also rated in this review. All in all this controller almost defines Steel Battalion.

Gameplay:
Now when I opened the box of Steel Battalion I almost had a heart attack. Imagine when I firing my VT up for the first time, oh yeah, I was in the hospital over night for seizures, convulsions, cardiac arrest, and restlessness. In my dreams, I was coming up with strategies for the different levels, and for different VTs on different levels. But nothing could beat the strategy and the leads the Briefing Officer gave me. So after a week of constant play, I was stuck on a certain level, I got bored and turned the console off, thinking that a little more pondering on the mission would prove effective, it didn't. Then at 3:00am, when I finally finished playing for the night I found the manual. Yes the handbook that came with the game. I picked it up, and didn't put it donw until 7:00am, when I got back to gaming. The manual is kinda like a textbook, you can refer back to it for answers. Going to mission briefings not only proved effective, it also added to the intensity. Reading the manual not only proved effective, it also added depth. **spoiler** Completing the Tanker mission was like taking a Algebra lvl 4 final.**end spoiler** Every mission had its twist, had its change nothing could prepare you for. The only thing that dissapointed me about this game, was the fact that I thought it would be online, and its not. Yes the rumors were untrue. Just view Steel Battalion as a major tutorial for Steel Battalion 2, which will have everything that Steel Battalion is missing, and thats not much

Overall: Overall...... this game rocks! Go order one buy it and play it until Steel Battalion 2 comes out!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/05/03, Updated 02/05/03