![]() The function keys at the top of your keyboard are used to group vehicles and the number keys are used to navigate command menus. Your mouse controls your ship’s aim and the keyboard moves you forward and back and strafes from side to side. Battlezone II features an intuitive interface just like the original game but it has been simplified a bit in an effort to make the game more accessible.īasically you control the game with the standard mouse and keyboard approach. A full color keyboard reference card is included which helps you get familiarized with the interface. The game’s controls are pretty simple once you get a feel for them. It tends to gloss over information and could stand to go into more detail here and there. I found it effective to bounce back and forth between playing the game and reading bits of the manual as I was initially learning the subtleties of the game. Staying alive in a game as deep and challenging as this is tough and you’ll want every bit of help you can get. Its 64 pages are filled with helpful descriptions of gameplay as well as descriptions and pictures of both ISDF and Scion buildings, vehicles, and weapons.Īnd, it’s something you’ll want to read. The Battlezone II manual is very nicely presented in the style of an ISDF Field Manual issued to new recruits. And, when you get back home (if you make it back home) the ISDF college fund should get your future back on track. I don’t want to give anything away but it’s pretty clear from the start that something fishy is afoot. But don’t expect things to be quite that easy. You’ll chase them from planet to planet, dive through wormholes in hot pursuit, and blow everything in your path to smithereens. You quickly shoo these rather bland aliens, the Scions, off of Pluto and thus begins an inter-galactic tale of cat and mouse. You are a lowly soldier in the ISDF but as you progress through the game, you will be given more and more responsibility. The International Space Defense Force has a secret military base on the distant planet but when an unknown alien force launches an attack on the base, you are called in for damage control. It all starts in a remote corner of Pluto. That’s my roundabout way of saying that the story is profoundly average. Well, I don’t think you’ll see Battlezone II winning any Oscars for Best Original Story this year (particularly since American Beauty was so good and Battlezone II isn’t a movie) but it’s far from atrocious. Unfortunately, things have been dumbed down in an effort to make the game more accessible but I for one am not convinced that there was anything in the original that needed fixing. And, for the most part, they did a fantastic job with this sequel. So along comes Pandemic Studios (a newcomer currently working on Dark Reign 2) and Battlezone II. It’s a wonder I’m even talking about it right now. Maybe the licensed name Battlezone turned out to be a hindrance to sales given the notoriously underwhelming gameplay of other revamped retro arcade hits. ![]() Maybe the game was advertised too little and too late. ![]() Maybe the cross-genre gameplay didn’t immediately appeal to buyers. It got rave reviews, including Computer Gaming World’s Action Game of the Year Award in 1998, and virtually everyone who played it had great things to say.īut nobody bought it. ![]() It was an exercise for the mind as well as the trigger finger. From the cockpit of your tank, and with the help of an extraordinarily well-done interface, you built up your base, set resource gatherers to work, set up base defenses, and scooted off to dish out some spank to the bad guys. The game had you piloting a healthy variety of futuristic hover tanks armed to the gills with lasers and missiles and whatnot. The original game, developed by Activision a few years back, was a thoroughly satisfying blend of first person action and real-time strategy. I don’t know what that means exactly, but let’s just get on with the review…įor those of you unfamiliar with the Battlezone series, here’s the scoop. Unfortunately, first impressions don’t always last and it turns out this show pony has a few crooked teeth. When I first got my hands on Battlezone II: Combat Commander, I thought it was truly great stuff. Here we have a good example of why Gone Gold’s reviewing policy (first a Quick Take then later a full Review) makes a lot of sense. The part about the printed manuals and reference cards made me nostalgic for physical media. Seems like as good a time as any to copy and paste this review of Battlezone 2 that I wrote for Gone Gold 18 years ago.
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