User Rating: 7.3 | MechAssault XBOX
I couldn't get into this game at all. There are really no academics involved here, because it looks good and controls reasonably well. Mechassault attempts to be a simple game, where you can hop right in with a very powerful weapons platform and wreak havoc on opposing forces. In the first mission, you are tasked to mow through some pathetic infantry units in your way. However, as you will soon realize, these are not your normal battlefield opponents, and your mech -oversized as it may be to infantry- is not so strong when pitted against other mechs and machinery. You might think that with a 30 story mech you might be able to open up a couple cans of whoop-a-worm on your opponents, but from the early going, you will find yourself pitted against bigger and better mechs who outnumber you and who are accompanied by numerous smaller forces as well. The resulting battles usually involve one trying to stay out of harms way - running for your life is prolly a better term - while whittling down the opposing forces. I say whittling because you would think that a mech would be a dangerous weapon, but due to the 'strategic' element of overheating, and the fact that most enemy mechs take tons of punishment as well, battles seem more like marathons, rather then an adrenaline rushes. Speaking of strategy, I didn't seem to stumble across any, as most areas you walk into will trigger a scripted generation of enemies, from which you must retreat and return fire until the marathon is over. In most levels, you must simply learn where the powerups are, and when to use them, because there is almost certainly no way of avoiding damage when facing a more powerful mech (not to mention 3 or 4 of them). This can lead to an all out tail between legs retreat as you run around a level trying to locate any health you can (because it takes so long to destroy other vehicles that its not worth the risk to take on a mech when you are low on health). There are a variety of mechs to choose from as the game goes on, and there are significant differences in the final mechs to the ones you started with, but it seems hardly worth while to fight through a stage to be rewarded with a mech that simply fires an extra missle or two. The overall statement here is that the game makes you feel like a watered down pea shooter, not the driver of an advanced mech with a taste for vengence.
