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In the distant future, warfare has taken a new form: tha of 40’ tall Mechs that dominate the battlefield with PPC Guns, AutoCannons and missile batteries. Play through over two-dozen single player missions of intense Mech combat. After you’ve mastered the game, take your skills online over Xbox Live and tear it up with up to 8 players. MechAssault is going to be a classic Xbox game and is definitely one of the best Xbox titles released in 2002. Mech Assault is Microsoft's flagship title for the release of Xbox live and no doubt has helped Xbox live surpass expectations of the fans and of Microsoft.

It was just another contract for the battle hardened Wolf’s Dragoons of the 7th Kommando, Merc Co. Time to claim a new planet - the use of excessive force is encouraged. You play the part of… a Mech pilot, along with your flirtatious Commander and the witless comic relief of ‘Briefing Boy’: you’re an Elite squad of Mech warrior Mercenaries. You’ve been hired to land on planet Helios ahead of an invasion force and disrupt the planetary defenses. The mission gets off to a bad start as your drop ship takes heavy damage upon initial decent. You soon discover your enemies are a fanatical, but techno-savvy cult known as The Word of Blake. You’ll fight through over two-dozen missions that range from Mech to Mech Combat, search and destroy, defend your dropship, taking out strategic targets, etc. The landscapes and settings range from forests and snowy mountains to urban city streets.

MechAssault isn’t your ordinary Mech Warrior game. Same genre, but it’s far different from any Mech Warrior game you may have played. It’s been simplified for a console system. The controls are similar to Halo, with your movement through the left analog stick, aiming with the right and weapon controls with the triggers. It plays exactly as designed – like a well thought out console shooter. I did have problems keeping my thumbs on the analog sticks at some points, which was my only (minor) complaint about the controls. I also found myself activating the jumpjets on accident, quite often (by pressing IN on the analog stick). The camera view is “over the shoulder” of your mech, while a visual targeting box is the indicator of where you are aiming. It would definitely be more immersive if they had gone first person. Then again, how would you see all those groovy effects of your mech’s damage level, or the amazing explosion when you go down from enemy fire? It works; I only warn traditional Mech Warrior fans that it definitely plays different than any Mech Warrior you’ve played in the past.

There are two game types in MechAssault: the single player Campaign, and Multiplayer. In the single player campaign, you start out by picking your mech and going over the briefing screen. Once the game starts, your comrades’ll verbally brief you again. Each missions varies on the objectives. Sometimes you’ll just romp around the map destroying shit, other times it will be a salvage mission, or destroying a convoy, or defending your dropship. Subtle music plays through each missions, and then intensifies when something real nasty is about to happen… usually when enemy Mech’s show up on the scene. When you hear the music change, sometimes you think “ahh shit.. here it comes…”. You’ll have to make it through an entire mission in order to save your progress. Mission difficulty gets slightly harder as you progress. You can usually win any given mission with one or two tries. A few missions (such as the last one) may take you several times to complete, but for the most part the single player campaign is short and easy. In fact, the single player campaign is a bit too short. I am going to talk about Multiplayer further down, but I would like to mention the "local" (non XBL) multiplayer modes right now. You have a few local multiplayer options. The most popular is the "Grinder". You and a buddy can play against AI controlled Mechs in a quasi round-robin style match. At first you'll be put up against one light mech. It gets progressively harder as heavier mechs come at you... then TWO mechs... then THREE mechs, etc.. There are also head to head options and System Link capabilities.

The graphics are pretty spot-on. The Mech’s all show visible signs of damage, especially when they’re about to blow up. There are some nice touches like Mech tracks in the snow and things of that nature that really add to the game. Some of the terrain isn’t exactly logically traversable at times (ever play Ghost Recon, where you couldn’t’ jump 6 inches over a lip in the terrain??) but you manage to find ways around it. When a Mech goes down, the explosion is awesome. They burst into a huge plume of flame, smoke and sparks. The frame rate never seemed to take much of a hit either.

There isn’t a lot of customization to do with the Mechs. Each Mech is set with an unchangeable load-out. Typically three weapons and possibly a defensive countermeasure. We have all the typical Battletech weapons like PPG’s, Gauss Rifles, all sorts of missiles, machine guns, lasers, etc. There are variants of certain mechs with different configurations, but still no way to configure your own. While multiplayer balance would have definitely been an issue if there were customization, I still sort of miss building my own Mech like I could in other Mech games. MechAssault isn’t about that though… it’s about simplicity and fast paced action.

One thing I think you’ll see all the reviewers agree upon, is Online play over Xbox Live. It’s F’in sweet. There’s no shortage of games to be found and latency is excellent. Up to 8 players can play over XBL. There are several different modes. These range from Deathmatch, to team Deathmatch, Not-It (Smear the queer) and Last man/team standing. The coolest thing about XBL is the feature of downloadable content. The developers have promised more Mechs, Maps and Game Types. I REALLY want to see a Capture the Flag game type. I was horrendously disappointed when I found out it wasn’t included with the game, but planned as an “add-on later”. Bah! But if you want a great game to play over XBL, I say MechAssault has no equal (currently)! You can even have a friend (‘Guest’) play locally with you over XBL. Although they won’t be able to talk through the communicator unless they bring their own and have their own XBL account, still the fact you and your buddy can sit together and play against others over XBL is badass! I have seen a few problems with disconnects when launching games, which does get rather annoying. This appears to be something within Mech Assault as Ghost Recon and Unreal have no problems like this (that I've seen). Hopefully Day 1 Studio's and Microsoft will address this issue soon. Also, you get dumped back to the main game search screen after a match, instead of back to the game launch/lobby screen. It'd be nice to be able to stick with a certain group that you've found and enjoyed playing with, instead of having to wait for a new game to be created and finding them again in the damn listing.

You should buy this game if you plan on getting, or already have Xbox Live. It’s one of the best mutliplayer games that I’ve played for the Xbox to date. If you are a die hard traditional Mech Warrior fan, you may be turned off by some of the simplicities incorporated into MechAssault versus previous Mech Warrior games, so don’t say I didn’t warn you first! Overall, MechAssault is very well done and I highly recommend it! Things are really starting to look up for the Xbox. So many great games have/are coming out, Xbox live is a smashing success. I hate to say this in a review but… look out Sony!