n the 62nd Century, Terra Nova is a planet ravaged by war, a distant colony of Earth that has lost contact with the mother world. Now two factions are battling it out on the planet in Heavy Gear, the new Activision title based on the Dream Pod 9 role-playing system (consider this a quasi-sequel to Activision's Mech Warrior series). The conflict between the two main powers, the Confederated Northern City States and the Southern League, has become increasingly savage, and each side now relies on the perfect battle machine, the Heavy Gear combat vehicle. Once used to defend Terra Nova, the Heavy Gear is now the main weapon of choice for interplanetary infighting.
Like the mech games Mech Warrior and BattleTech, players suit up and wrap themselves in a couple of virtual tons of high-density armor, walking combat machines. As rookie pilots, gamers should spend their first few forays with their Heavy Gear in the training sequences, learning how to walk and run in their mechs, and of course how to fire their weapons. Controlling the Gears takes a little practice, as this is not a simple joystick game. After a couple of training missions, players will find themselves deeply involved in the war between the factions fighting on Terra Nova.
The world of Heavy Gear is mainly seen from a cockpit view during combat missions, interspersed with a neatly organized story line. As players complete missions, the game becomes progressively harder, with bigger challenges but also the opportunity for players to customize their Gears as they advance in rank and new weapons become available. Gears can be built from the ground up, and players should save their games before making any final decisions (in other words, take a test drive with a new Gear before committing to it), since some of the weapons systems may not be the most advisable configuration for taking on an equally powerful enemy.
A mech by any other name doth fight as sweet
Like most mission-based games, the plot of Heavy Gear is rather static, with a limited path as play advances. The missions don't really need to be played in any particular order, but certain ones do need to be completed before others become available. The game offers some nice diversity in the types of missions, including the typical scout, assault and ambush sequences seen in other mech games. The enemy units are also quite diverse depending on what side is being played, and players should try out each side to better understand what they will be going up against!
The mission-based format confines the story to a series of individual mini-games and never offers players the option to go off and try something unique. It's unfortunate that the designers weren't able to mix this existing style of play with the openness of an adventure game. Re-playability is limited to trying the same missions over again but using different styles of Gear. Otherwise, once a mission has been completed, most of the fun goes with it. Neither of the two factions offers any real advantage over the other, and the political motivations of each side barely surface.
The 3-D world of Heavy Gear is based on the real-time engine that Activision developed for what would have been MechWarrior III, and the result looks really good, although 3Dfx is highly recommended for the best graphics performance. The settings vary greatly in this game and go beyond the barren wasteland that was all too common in MechWarrior. Players can venture out to a digitally-rendered frozen tundra, across open plains and even into thickly wooded terrain. The game also offers some nice movie-quality cut scenes, but these, like the individual missions, lose their impressiveness after repeated viewings.
