Battlezone

The Good
Battlezone's unique abilty to involve the gamer in base building, scrap collecting and enemy hunting made this one of the most enjoyable 3D adventures I have ever played. The action is intense, the storyline engaging and the graphics are first-rate.

The Bad
The Artificial Intelligence of some of the vehicles under your command is decidedly weak, though acceptable throughout the majority of gameplay time.

The Bottom Line
You've likely never bought this game considering that it was a commercial flop, but it certainly didn't deserve to be one. It is by far one of the most impressive games made in the last five years. Blame its unpopularity on poor marketing --most people who haven't seen the game expect it to be like the dull vector graphic 80's version that is its namesake.

The Good
Easy to use strategic interface, even if it's only first person, plenty of action, decent graphics, good variety of units, good varietyof weapons, off-vehicle sniper mode, interesting premise.

The Bad
Action somewhat repetitive, still relies on a lot of jumping and circle-strafing, quite a few infinite respawn enemies in some scenarios (until you find the base), some hard scenarios really really hard (like the one you need to steal a Soviet flyer).

The Bottom Line
Battlezone is probably one of the few cases where the licensed name actually backfired. This Battlezone has NOTHING to do with the Atari classic coin-op at all. Instead, this game postulates a great cover-up about the true intentions of the space race... Man-kind have actually travelled all over the solar system, and found something we're not supposed to... It's the standard enemies unite to fight a common threat theme (just like Freespace). Instead of ordering units from the overhead view, you do everything in the first person view. Need that sentry gun to go over there? Point there and tell it to go there! You still harvest resources and you have limited pilots (which limits the number of units you can build), and depending on the objective you will have to organize a good defense instead of doing everything yourself. It's a great mixture of first-person shooter and strategy, as you have to consider resources, production, defense coverage, etc. There's even options to upgrade existing vehicles and defense structures! Definitely give this game a try. Just ignore the name, and you'll enjoy it.

The Good
Rather like Looking Glass' 'Terra Nova', this received lots of favourable reviews, but, whilst far from being a flop, was not as commercially successful as it should have been. Basically, it's one of the finest modern strategy / action games around, with an excellent user interface that successfully allows the player to control a tank, whilst simultaneously directing friendly units about and building a base. It's comparable to 'Urban Assault' or 'Wargasm', but done properly.

Other good things abound - the sensation of driving a hovertank swiftly over undulating terrain is entertaining enough to be a game in itself, the difficultly level is just about right, and the graphics, whilst being two years old, are still very effective. There are lots of clever things, too - you can hop out of your tank and capture enemy units, the plot is an amusing mixture of 'Alternative 3' and paranoid conspiracy theories, and there is a nice mixture of mission types. Top marks for an excellent ambient musical score, too. And best of all, radio transmissions have the famous NASA 'beep'.

Overall, Battlezone is the first and so far only game to combine action and strategy without messing up either element.

The Bad
On the other hand, it's frighteningly hard towards the latter stages of the game. Often, you find your base being obliterated whilst you are away, and both friendly and enemy AI is often suspect - enemy gliders tend to run straight into you, whilst your resource miners blunder into mines. And it doesn't have much to do with the original game, not that it matters.

The Bottom Line
A fascinating action / strategy game, owing almost nothing to the original Battlezone, but with an atmosphere and style of its own.