Summary
Flawed attempt to shove Mechwarrior down your throat once again
The Good
The spiritual successor to Mechwarrior 2 continues Activision's lineup of giant-robot sims with a series of major additions. First of all there's Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear universe which is set on a distant future where combat is done over mechanized assault suits rather than hulking mechas so everything is significantly scaled down.
In this universe a pair of opposing factions wage an unending war over a distant world. You play as a the lead gear pilot and duelist (the one in charge of ritualistic duels a la MW arena matches) of one of the hover-carriers of one of the factions (don't really recall which one, does it matter anyway?). The storyline isn't another "filler" plot to hold the mech-mayhem togheter and actually gets pretty good and turns the game into more of a Wing Commander-style space opera. As the lead gear pilot it's you who takes the rookie pilots under your wing and keep them safe and sound in the heat of the battle. One of these rookie pilots is actually the son of the carrier's captain, so you know that you have to keep Jr. and Daddy dearest happy. Everything is just dandy until you and the kid get caught by the enemy. Junior turns out to be a total incompetent coward and surrenders to the enemy while you escape with a fellow squadmate....Result? Daddy blames you for the dissapearance of his beloved "courageous" son and starts sending you to a series of suicidal missions and even puts down contracts on your head with your fellow gear pilots!! Obviously things eventually come to the limit and as you garner the few loyal pilots you can muster you'll have to deal with both your psycho captain and the enemy forces. In all, an effective plot that is also novel and exciting, told via excellently acted FMV sequences and integrating the game nicely.
On the gameplay side, weapons are more ballistically oriented with your choices being mostly between different assault cannons/machineguns/mortars, etc. Instead of PBCs or laser cannons. The landscapes offer much more obstacles and debris, and combat is generally more close-quarters oriented.
There are also some newer gameplay additions such as being able to pick up discarded weapons on the battleground and use them right then and there.
Excellent hardware accelerated graphics mark another major difference between this and the Mechwarrior-era Activision games. More complex models, detailed textures and even some spiffy effects such as particle/smoke fx and atmospheric details such as visible fog make the game a visual standout.
The Bad
Looking back on Heavy Gear it becomes painfully obvious just how much in denial was Activision about losing the Battletech license. You'd think the developers would cut their loses and just developed a completely original product like on Interstate '76, unfortunately they decided to shell the cash for another tabletop game universe (???) and try to adjust said game to the Mechwarrior gameplay mechanics. And this is what really kills Heavy gear, the fact that it plays like Mechwarrior 2.... only.... it's all messed up!!
As mentioned the scale of everything has been reduced, as the gears are actually humanoid heavy duty power armors, unfortunately the gameplay keeps the mechanics of the MW series and you end up with sluggish controls that fit the hulking behemoths of Battletech's universe but are nowhere near what one would consider as appropiate for these vehicles. While the gameplay is considerable faster than on MW, the agile nature of the gears is completely dulled, and why did they keep controls like the torso tilt when it would be much more appropiate to include fps-like mouse aiming?? Picture trying to play tennis only someone shoved a basketball inside the tennis ball and you'll see what I mean. Activision thought they could just re-sale Mechwarrior under a new pait job and just failed. Either that or they just feared that fans would ignore the game if it deviated too much from what they were used to.
Also, while the mission design is way above average, didn't I escape POW camps like 10 times before in MW2 and Mercs??? And what about nav patrols and depot raids?? Enough with the recycling Activision!!
The Bottom Line
A substantial and interesting sci-fi sim that fails by incorporating the mechanics of a previous hit instead of following it's own rules and fulfilling it's potential. The result is a weird-ass mess that while far from being unplayable, is nowhere near the level of perfection Activision had us used to. I'm afraid that the giant robot torch has been passed and it's time to move on.
