On the graphics side of things I wasn’t sure what I’d get. Everything I had seen of the game was so stylized that it was really hard to tell what quality of the textures and the models. Well let me tell you with 100% certainty that the textures and the models are nowhere near next-generation quality. This is hideously obvious on a HDTV where in 720p the textures look almost PS2 quality, the buildings and world present themselves in true low poly fashion, and the jaggy-fest is never-ending. On the plus side of things, the Mechs are incredibly detailed and seem to be where all the visual processing power were put to use. Also, the effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen. From the explosions to the jets on the back of a Mech, to the tails of the missiles it all looks incredibly good. So there are some serious high points and some serious low points that when put together ultimately feel like a late-gen PS2 effort.


First steps.
What’s kind of funny is that the developers seem to have tried to hide all this behind some stylized rendering filters and by setting 99% of the missions at dusk or night. Things look great when there’s barely any light and shadows are casting on the Mechs but only until the lights come up a bit. Then there’s the whole issue of slowdown. At any single point in the game when you create a large amount of explosions or are fighting a large amount of enemies on screen things will start to slow. At first it was just a bit annoying but over time as the missions became more involved it actually started to effect gameplay. So much so that I would completely avoid some missions because I had such a hard time aiming through the horrible lag.


The mechs do look good.

Speaking of lag, the online gameplay actually turned out to be rather smooth. This is probably due to the fact that most multiplayer maps are devoid of all life and involve nothing more than the fighting Mechs and some terrain. You can play in ranked or unranked matches in games of deathmatch or team deathmatch. There’s no capture the flag or keep control of the flag or anything other than straight up deathmatch available. Most all matches are over extremely quick as you just bash your opponents on open ground until it’s over. Because of this my first 1v1 match lasted under a minute and subsequent team matches lasted no longer than three. I was only able to get into one 8 player match because of the serious lack of people playing the game and it had minor lag and lasted about four minutes. There’s offline spit-screen play and system link play also available.


A look at online play.
The high point of this mess of game actually comes in the form of customizing your Mech. Using cash you earn in missions you can buy parts from plans you’ve acquired. Mix and match these parts on your Mech to give it the firepower and mobility you want. You can also unlock and create your own decals that can be placed onto any of the Mech’s parts. Along with changing the color of many sub-parts of a single part, you can apply up to 8 decals a piece. It’s an amazing level of customization that I hope carries over to the next version.

Overall the mission design is boring and repetitive, the graphics are so-so, the online is blah, the customization is awesome, and the overall experience isn’t worth the price of admission. Pass.


Playstation 3 is region free! It will play on your Playstation 3! That being said, most all the menus including the customization section are in Japanese. Also the horrible intermission repetitive cutscenes are voiced and captioned in Japanese. Otherwise it’s a smooth ride in the language department.

• Great customization

• Boring and short missions
  
• Seriously lacking online play
  
• Deceptive graphics that turn out to be hideous at times
  
• Huge lack of polish that makes it feel extremely rushed
  
• Default controls
  
• Installing to the HD is mandatory and locked up my PS3 the first try