n 1980 Atari amazed quarter-clutching arcade goers with Battlezone, a tank game that used wireframe, monochrome graphics to create the illusion of 3-D. It was stunning, ground-breaking, and addictive. Now Activision has released a PC game of the same name that, while it has little in common with its namesake, is just as innovative.
First, the story. In 1952, a meteor strike showered the Bering Straight with a strange substance, "biometal." Biometal allowed both the United States and the Soviet Union (each superpower captured a sample) amazing technological breakthroughs, including easy space travel and anti-gravity tanks. Clearly whoever controlled the biometal would win the Cold War, so the rival nations charged into space looking for more. All this was Top Secret, of course. NASA's moon shots were real, but they landed near bases already staffed by hundreds of soldiers. Anyway, Battlezone is the story of that 1960s interplanetary war between the forces of democracy and communism.
The amazing thing about Battlezone is that it uses a first person point of view--allowing players to drive tanks around and blast enemies just like in the arcade game--and combines it with the current mania, real-time strategy. So in between bouts of driving and Commie-bashing, players must command and organize factories, power generators, and lots of other tanks, turrets, rocket launchers, etc. Because the game is always in first person, it has an incredible immediacy: players must drive hither and yon to get things done. Units are positioned by personally scouting out locations. Assaults are directed by the brave commander right from the front line.
Hectic, jingoistic, fun
Unlike previous real-time strategy games in which players hover above the battlefield, godlike, Battlezone forces them to get their hands dirty, and it's quite refreshing. But it's easy to get caught up in the fighting and forget to keep building new units, etc. The command system also takes some getting used to, but it's actually fairly streamlined and just as handy as a typical mouse-driven system.
In addition to its novel interface, Battlezone is strongly plotted. It has none of the standard scenarios of establishing a base, building up a force and attacking an enemy base. Rather, each mission leads players through twists and turns and amazing revelations about the alien biometal. All the while fellow soldiers spout patriotic rhetoric that would make Ronald Reagan proud.
A few quibbles: the units, while fairly autonomous, could use a little more common sense. They drive like they've been guzzling cough syrup, bashing into each other like bumper cars. It's also a little disappointing that the anti-gravity tanks handle exactly the same on different planets with differing gravities. And while multiplayer options include both strategy (with bases) and death match (just tanks) on a variety of maps, there's no way to create new scenarios to play against the computer.
Quibbles aside, this game is fun, fun, fun. It looks great, combat is exciting and dynamic, and it's guaranteed to be unlike any other game.
