Review NaN of 18
, from Fall River, MA
Price Paid:
$30.00
from Best Buy Summary:
I've been a big fan of the original Robotech for around 7 or 8 years now. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty excited when I first heard about Robotech: Battlecry being announced for consoles. For years, i've been waiting for a company to release a good Robotech game in the US. Many of you may recall a little N64 game that was announced before the system was released called Robotech: Crystal Dreams. That game, as you may know, was canned and never released. A damn shame too since I bough the system just for that game. I've also played a few of the import Japanese titles, and most kind of sucked with the exception of Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love on the Saturn and PS1. Even that one was kind of average game and you really had to be a fan of the series to appreciate it. So, does Robotech: Battlecry suck or soar? Fortunately, it soars but is not without problems as i'll discuss in the review.
Robotech: Battlecry takes place during the Macross Saga era of the anime series. Unlike that series, the main character here is not Rick Hunter. Instead, you assume the role of another ace fighter pilot called Jack Archer. When an alien race called the Zentradi come to Earth looking for a ship of theirs which crashed, a massive war breaks lose between them, and the humans. Its not up to you to help drive these aliens back and save the people of Earth from annihilation.
At your disposal, you fly a special jet fighter called a Veritech Valkarie. Unlike normal jet fighters, this one has the ability to transform. First is its jet fighter form. In this form, you have great speed, powerful lock-on missiles, a machine gun, and can drop decoys to fool enemy missiles. The next form is the Guardian mode. The Guardian sort of looks like the jet fighter, only it has arms and legs. In this mode you can hover, strafe, pick up objects, and shoot a machine gun. You can also shoot lock-on missiles which are weaker then the ones in the jet form, but move faster. The final mode is the Battloid. The Battloid is basically a giant robot. In this mode you can hover, strafe, use a sniper scope, fire a standard machine gun shot, and fire a special faster gun shot which will take down enemy missiles.
And if your thinking the whole transformation thing is just a gimmick, think again. Robotech: Battlecry is a very difficult game and if you ever want to make it anywhere in it, your going to have to master all three of your Veritech's modes and learn when to use them. Im really glad the games developers opted to make it more then just a gimmick. And yes, you are allowed to transform at any time. You are not forced to stay in one for in any mission.
There is also a massive amount of levels to be found in Robotech: Battlecry. About 46 of them to be exact. These levels range from space battles to canyons and cities. The levels design itself is fairly open and allows a good amount of freedom to fly around and explore. The missions themselves come in the form of a number of different objectives including, search and destroy, escort and finding things or people around the levels. And like I mentioned before, this game is tough, especially some of the escort missions.
Nothing really much for play-modes here. You simply get your single player game and a 2 player versus. The 2 player mode is handled via split screen and runs really well. While I normally don't like playing split screen games, I found this one to be rather fun. And no, this game does not support XBox Live. Hopefully if they make a sequel, that one will though. Just think about it, massive 8-16 player battles full of transforming robots and swarming missiles. Hmm, just the thought of it excites me.
Although there is a lack of modes, there's also plenty of extras to unlock here. Doing well and earning medals will earn you new Veritech's, paint schemes, 2 player battle arenas and special interview videos. There's alot to unlock here, so this pretty much makes up for the lack of modes.
Anyway, I do have some gripes about this game. The first being the way the story unfolds and the characters. Now, I do understand that the story is no longer focused around Rick, or many of the other popular characters from the anime. However, I just wish Rick, Lisa, Max and the others had more of an involvement in the game. While they are in it, their appearances seem more like an afterthought then anything.
I also didn't care for the way that some of the animes more dramatic scenes, weren't quite as dramatic here. For example, the scene in the anime where a million Zentradi ships were surrounding Earth in a massive battle was just too cool. Here, things just weren't nearly as intense. Is it me, or didn't Minmay have a major part to do with winning this battle? Well, where is she then? The import of Do You Remember Love portrayed this scene much better and felt more like the anime.
Another example is when the SDF-1's shield overheated and wiped out half of Ontario. These seen lacks any sort of intensity in the game. In fact, it just feels rather mundane here. And unless I missed something, I don't even recall them mentioning where this incident happened. I guess we can't upset any Canadians who may have purchased the game. Stupid if you ask me.
I also noticed many glitches in Robotech: Battlecry. One example was in one of the games city levels. In it, I accidentally managed to get behind some buildings your not supposed to get behind. Then when I managed to get out, I found myself walking on an invisible floor at the top of the level. After 15 minutes of trying to get out of this glitch, I had to restart.
A second glitch came when I was fighting a boss. During my battle with her, she froze in mid air. While she was frozen, she wouldn't fight back. So, instead of beating her the normal way, I simply stood in one spot pelting her mech with bullets and volleys of missiles.
Yet another glitch I came across was during an escort mission. This mission glitched up on me twice actually. The first time it glitched, I was doing great swiftly eliminating every enemy I saw. However, right at the end of the mission, it informed me I failed the mission. Why? I have no clue, the condition of the target I was supposed to protect was fine. So I tried the mission again, only this time I ran into a new glitch. This time, the mech I was supposed to be protecting decided to stop for no reason. Why? Again I have no clue. I had eliminated every enemy that was currently in the level. Ahh, time to restart it yet again.
Graphics 7:
While not perfect, the graphics in Robotech: Battlecry were very good. The developers at Vicious Cycle used the ever popular cel-shading graphic technique to make things look as close as possible to the old cartoon. While the cel-shading here doesn't quite look as good as in something like Jet Set Radio Future, it is very well done and does the old series justice. Everything looks as it should from the amazing mech designs to the trademark missile trails. There does seem to be a hair of slowdown here and there. However, its nothing major though and doesn't affect the game in any way.
The only real problem I did have with the graphics is the camera. While its not too bad, the camera tends to move a little slow trying to catch up to you when you turn. Nothing major but it can get a little annoying at times.
Sound 9:
I found the sound in Robotech: Battlecry to be really good. Now, I don't remember the exact sound effects from the show too well, but, what's here all sounds good and I assume that it probably sounds exactly the same if not close. The voices here were also really well done. In fact, many of the actors were the same ones used in the old show back in 1985.
I also thought the music in the game was great. Again, you'll probably recognize many of the songs from the show here. I especially liked the intro music. Great job on the sound Vicious Cycle
Control 8:
While I did have some slight aiming problems with the machine guns, the overall control here is really good. Everything is really responsive and pretty easy to learn. The biggest challenge you'll face with the controls is learning your fighters 3 forms. After you master those, you shouldn't have any real problems.
Overall, Robotech: Battlecry was a really good game despite some of the problems I had with it. I would highly recommend this to anyone that's a fan of the Robotech/Macross anime, or just big robots in general. Im very pleased with the job the games developers did here. This is easily the best Robotech game i've played yet. I certainly hope Vicious Cycle has a sequel planned sometime in the near future. I just hope that they plan on doing a better job on the bug testing next time around.
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