Mech Warrior fans rejoice! Best mech simulation ever!

User Rating: 8.6 | Steel Battalion XBOX
While I was skeptical at first, I bit at the $150 price tag. If you are a sim head at heart, this game is for you! Halo run-and-gunners need not apply. It really makes you feel as if you are sitting inside a Mech or as they call it a "VT" or "Vertical Tank". While challenging, it is still fun, and forces you to learn how to control these behemoths quickly throwing you into battle. And most importantly, don't forget about the "eject" button otherwise your character is dead for real, and so is your entire account related to the character. Time to start over. As the campaign progresses, gain money for future upgrades and bigger mechs which you will need to take on the opposition. It also forces you to think about executing your plan and not just charging into action. There's usually mutliple ways to make one's way to meet the mission objective too. Each VT drives differently and has its own "peronality". Get everything from fast, lightly armed and armored, to huge slow, heavily armored and armed VT's. The view is somewhat grainy and restricted, but the intent is to emulate looking at a computer screen inside the tank. All this contributes to the awesome realism and atmosphere of piloting a giant mechanical vertical tank. There are a few downsides however. As mentioned earlier, if your mech is destroyed and you don't eject prior to it exploding, your actual character is dead and there is no way to recover your campaign game. While this adds to the realism and simulation atmosphere, it can be annoying if you make it 20 missions in and are a little bit asleep at the switch. Also, the menu interfaces are a little quirky. Once you're committed to a mission, the only way to get back to the main menu is to power down the XBOX and start it back up. Highly recommend Steel Battalion if you have the patience and enjoy simulations. If you're an action gamer through and through recommend staying away. Then move on to the expansion "Line of Contact" which adds additional campaigns and allows for XBOX Live! play.