E3 2002Robot Alchemic Drive impressions

Enix displayed a playable version of Robot Alchemic Drive, its mech action game for the PlayStation 2, at its company booth at the E3 show floor. Players take control of a mech called Meganites to battle against Volgara, a creation that resulted from a scientific experiment. You can choose among three characters to pilot one of three Meganites. The story of the game starts off differently, depending on which characters you have chosen. While all Meganites have a human robot form, some of them can also transform into giant vehicles, like tanks.

You can switch between the pilot and the mech by pressing the select button. It's important that the pilot is nearby the mech--that way, you are able to see the mech upon its operation. To have the mech walk, you have to alternately press the L1 and R1 shoulder buttons. To turn the mech to the left or right, you press the L1/L2 or R1/R2 shoulder buttons together on the controller. You have several sets of weapons, such as laser cannons and missiles, at your disposal, but you can also use the two analog sticks for close combat. How you move these analog sticks reflects how the mech will swing its arms. If all else fails, you can turn on the genesis mode to power up your mech, but it lasts for only three minutes.

The game's environment is quite vast and interactive (mechs can destroy objects like buildings on the field map), but there's currently some frame rate lag. There are some issues with the controller response when moving human characters on the field map, and the animation at this point is lackluster. With the game currently 50 percent complete, we hope to see these issues tweaked out. Once they are, it should be looking like an interesting action title for mech fans.

Robot Alchemic Drive for the PlayStation 2 is expected for a November release.