Steel Battalion: Heavy Armour

[shaolin_monkey]

I downloaded the demo, and fired up the Kinect especially to play it. First time in an age.

It's actually...quite good..

What are your impressions?

[shaolin_monkey]

More thoughts:

It's... actually not bad at all.

Long gone is the need for that massive controller on the original Xbox Steel Battalion: Line of Contact (shame, as mine is gathering dust atop a cupboard), and instead it's a combo of controller and motion activated stuff.

You're in a large cockpit with three other guys. You use the motion control to interact with them, and to pull levers and switches. You then kind of pull forward to see outside a wee viewhole, and use the controller to move the VT (vertical tank : )and fire.

Anyway, despite some dodgy moments with the motion controls, I actually quite enjoyed this. I've never been an advocate of Kinect - it's only marginally better than the Wii in my eyes. However, there was something that lent itself to this game. I think it was the whole fumbling for controls in the heat of battle, and then bumping hands with fellow VT occupants when you score hits and stuff... it all just seemed to hang together well.

Plus then the actual combat was as hectic as hell. That wee peephole was pretty cool - the glass cracked, got coverd in dust etc as the fighting ensued. I could also stand up and raise a hand to my face to look through binoculars before steaming into action. As well as enemy VTs there were infantry and motars, which all added to the chaos.

Only one level in the demo, but it's a nice taster and has convinced me. I loved the previous Xbox games, and although I really miss the massive controller, I'm prepared to give this game a shot based on the vibe I got from the demo.

FROM Software are turning out some good stuff lately, eh?

[shaolin_monkey]

Has no-one tried it? I'm curious to know your thoughts.

I thought the motion controls fiddly at first, but after a few tries I've got used to them. It's good to keep calm and use very controlled movements. I've played the single level several times now and really enjoy it.

[HandsomeDead]

No, 'cos I'm now 360-less and have always been Kinect-less.

I've seen the odd preview and they seem to say the motion controls aren't great, but I'm always unsure about most reviewer's attitude towards motion control games, especially since Skyward Sword. The controls on that were fine, yet some insisted they didn't work.

But in a preview situation you don't get to acclimatise to them.

I know your buddies actually die in this, in a Fire Emblem/Valkyria Chronicles kind of way and it's the story side of things that interests me more rather then the implementation of Kinect.

[wholehole]

Had a play with this last night. Everything seemed to work okay in the tutorial but when I got into the main game it all just went to hell. Things only worked about 50% of the time, the other 50% was spent doing something completely different to what i'd intended. I pulled the cover down on the viewport at one point and couldn't get it back open. I got stuck pulling and pushing the cab venting panel. There were even a few occasions spent looking at one of my crew mates and not being able to look forward again. After the dude on my left decided to make a break for it out the top hatch and I wasn't able to pull him back in a second time I decided it wasn't for me.

The main pull of Steel Battalion, which they seemed to have totally missed, was the massive controller. You just don't get the same tactile feedback when waving your hand s around in front of the Kinect as you do with twin joysticks and 40+ buttons to press. The startup sequence on the original was awesome, this time it's just waving your hand down to the right, which is nowhere near as fun.

I see what they've tried to do, and it's a good effort, but there are problems inherent to the Kinect which no amount of programming can overcome.

[shaolin_monkey]

Had a play with this last night. Everything seemed to work okay in the tutorial but when I got into the main game it all just went to hell. Things only worked about 50% of the time, the other 50% was spent doing something completely different to what i'd intended. I pulled the cover down on the viewport at one point and couldn't get it back open. I got stuck pulling and pushing the cab venting panel. There were even a few occasions spent looking at one of my crew mates and not being able to look forward again. After the dude on my left decided to make a break for it out the top hatch and I wasn't able to pull him back in a second time I decided it wasn't for me.

The main pull of Steel Battalion, which they seemed to have totally missed, was the massive controller. You just don't get the same tactile feedback when waving your hand s around in front of the Kinect as you do with twin joysticks and 40+ buttons to press. The startup sequence on the original was awesome, this time it's just waving your hand down to the right, which is nowhere near as fun.

I see what they've tried to do, and it's a good effort, but there are problems inherent to the Kinect which no amount of programming can overcome.

Wow, you had one of your guys try to bail?!? That didn't happen to me! It was all 'good work!' and 'we showed them' and handshaking and stuff.

I feel your pain about the motion detection. It took me ages to get a feel for the movements, and they have to be unforgivingly exact. So when you're having seven types of shit pounded out of you by enemy VTs, it takes willpower and concentration to get the movements just right. That added to it for me, 'cos I fet a real need to hold it together even under severe pressure.

Each play through the worst I suffered was a hole or two in the chassis.

Well, I'm going to stick my neck out and buy it. There's absolutely no denying it really lacks the massive controller, but it hooked me enough to want more...

[Sly Reflex]

I wonder how much it would cost to reproduce the original controller with a USB cable on? Something like that should be doable for under £100 surely? It would be able to undercut the Kinect anyway.

[Craymen Edge]

I wonder how much it would cost to reproduce the original controller with a USB cable on? Something like that should be doable for under £100 surely? It would be able to undercut the Kinect anyway.

Xbox controllers were basically usb with a weird proprietary connector. I used them as PC pads back in the day by splicing it onto a usb connector (eventually you were able to buy usb adapters). I'm surprised the crazy pc mod community hadn't made something that used the steel battalion controller.

So it probably would be pretty easy to make them, but doubt they'd be able to sell enough to make it worthwhile.

[Bob]

I played the demo for it briefly today, to be honest it ended up as more of a segue into a rant about Kinect and how it was meant to be smoother than controllers yet I have to sit through a boring tutorial (something I tend to ignore in everything) every single time I load up a game because I need the intuitive, natural full body controls explained to me. So I have very little to offer on the demo beyond, 'it was very violent'.

[shaolin_monkey]

Well, it's not a great game, but it definitely deserves more than a 3/10.  I'd give it maybe a 6/10, because it is an unusual title, and you have to give Capcom credit for straying from the usual tried and tested formulas. 

It loses points for the Kinect controls - your movements have to be so exact, carefully considered, and slow.  There's a slight lag between what your hands do, and what the virtual hands do.  This makes the game particularly difficult during the more frenetic parts - losing your cool and waving your hands about in panic is a recipe for disaster.

The graphics are ok, being good inside the cockpit, but a little underwhelming when looking outside.  There are a host of nice effects that add to the atmosphere, such as cracking glass, dust and dirt etc.

Some of the gameplay elements are fun.  As well as leaning forward to look out the wee porthole and drive your VT, there's usually something going in in the cockpit too. So far, I've had to shoot a knife wielding arm that was trying tostab my co-pilots through a hole in the chassis, eject a grenade dropped in the hatch by an enemy, and pull a pice of shrapnel out of the side of my turret loading compadre.  After each mission there are some handshakes, friendly punches and other bonding things done with surviving co-pilots. 

Your level of success is shown by how many platoon members survive as you progress through the campaign, which is a nice touch.  So far I've only lost two.  You are also rewarded with different armour and weaponry to upgrade your chassis.

Overall, I think this is going to be a real Marmite game for most people. You're either going to love it or hate it.  I love it, but I wouldn't want to eat it all the time.  The odd bit of toast here an there will keep me going.

[wholehole]

I'd agree with you saying it deserves more than a 3/10 (or lower in some cases ), but only if they had allowed some of the actions to be activated by the controller.

Changing you viewpoint in the cockpit is a complete chore due to having to swipe your arm a number of times to face in you chosen direction. It works okay but it's just not a natural motion for looking around. Same goes for moving to the viewport. Pushing your hands forward and back is okay but it could have done with being mapped to a button.

Pressing the dpad up/down to move in and out of the viewport, then left/right to switch viewpoint in the cockpit could have solved these issues quite nicely. It also would have been nice to have a free-look on the right stick whilst in the cockpit.

I know they wanted to (or were "persuaded" to) make it completely Kinect based, but they've ruined a perfectly fun game in doing so. Some of the actions have to be done with such precision and in such a limited amount of time but the Kinect just isn't up to the task. It ends up with you being punished by the game through no fault of your own which makes it way more infuriating than it should be.