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Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review (X360 Kinect)

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Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review (X360 Kinect) Capcom
Kinect's first hybrid control game - one that requires both a controller in your hands as well as the Kinect camera to track your body motions - is Capcom's Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. Giving you tactile controls along with Kinect seems like a solution to any Kinect hater's complaints about the device but, unfortunately, it all falls a bit flat. And it isn't all Kinect's fault this time. Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor just isn't a very good game. Our review has all of the details.
Game Details

  • Kinect Sensor Required
  • Publisher: Capcom
  • Developer: From Software
  • ESRB Rating: “M" for Mature
  • Genre: Shooter
  • Pros: Cool concept
  • Cons: Kinect controls don't always work; hard to see anything; frustrating mission design; it just isn't fun

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor takes place in a future where a silicon eating virus has destroyed all of the computers and other technology in the world. War doesn't stop just because your iPhone doesn't work anymore, though, and instead battles are fought with hulking walking tanks called VTs. Despite taking place in 2082 or thereabouts, the VTs and everything else about the world you play in could just as easily take place in the 1940's. It is all very low tech and very analog and the aesthetic has a sort of Fallout feel (minus mutants and deathclaws) to it. The concept here is pretty neat.

Gameplay

Capcom
The actual gameplay, though, is pretty much a letdown. The game takes place in a first-person perspective inside the VT and you only have a tiny view port to look out of. You play the game while sitting down in a chair in front of your TV/Kinect. The idea is that you use a controller to move your VT and look around with the analog sticks, and then use the triggers to fire your weapons. You also use Kinect motion controls to flip switches in the cockpit, lean forward to get closer to the view port to see better, pull down a periscope, change ammo types, and even occasionally stand up to open the hatch on top of the VT so you can look around with binoculars. You even get to fist bump and interact in other ways with the three other soldiers in the VT with you. It sounds cool, but it really isn't.

One thing I have prided myself on with my Kinect coverage is that my setup is pretty much ideal. I have a long living room with great lighting, so I have plenty of room to move around and make sure Kinect works as well as possible. As such, the Kinect controls actually worked fairly well for us with Steel Battlion: HA, unlike some other reviewers that couldn't get the game to even function properly. Sure, they worked properly maybe 80% of the time and in the heat of battle everything pretty much fell apart completely, but we didn't seem to struggle with the Kinect controls as much as some folks have.

What posed more of a problem was the core design of the game itself. The camera view paired with muddy, ugly graphics means it is hard to actually see the enemies you're supposed to be fighting. And you can't really stop for very long to use the periscope to pinpoint enemies because you'll get destroyed very quickly. Pair that with a lot of trial and error as you try to figure out just what you're supposed to do and where you're supposed to go and you are in for a lot of frustration. The only real way to succeed is to just keep trying and dying until you memorize the placement of every enemy in a level. Even when you know where the enemies are, actually hitting them at range with only an iron sight is very difficult. Also, while the Kinect controls worked okay in training or before things really kicked up, in the heat of battle when you're supposed to be attacking, or trying to close the armor over your viewport, or vent smoke from the cockpit, or a million other things all at the same time all while your VT is getting rocked by enemy shells, trying to manage a controller and Kinect controls in a game this complicated was just a giant pain. The game is just bloody difficult to play.

It is funny, too, because the original Steel Battalion on the original Xbox was difficult and hard to play too. The difference there was that it had a huge 40-button controller with two joysticks and three foot pedals that actually simulated you driving a real mech. It was hard, but it was fun. And you put up with the difficulty of the game and plodding pace of everything because you were really driving a freaking mech with realistic controls and it was the most awesome thing ever. With Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, though, it isn't as easy to forgive the crushing difficulty because you never feel like you're driving a mech. It is basically just a super slowly paced first person shooter with added arm flailing as you try to activate Kinect switches and buttons.

Graphics & Sound

The final nail in Heavy Armor's coffin is that the presentation is pretty lackluster. The concept of playing in first person and having to look out of a small viewport is definitely cool, but the execution isn't up to the task. The graphics are generally dark and murky and it is hard to see anything out of your mailslot-sized port. Sitting 8-10 feet away from your TV and squinting to spot enemies in the mess of bad graphics isn't too fun. The sound is similarly disappointing, notable mostly for featuring a ton of swearing in the dialogue. At least the ping of shells hitting your VT is nice and loud and realistic.

Bottom Line

Capcom
In the end, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is a pretty big disappointment. This was supposed to be the game that showed hardcore gamers the full potential of Kinect, but instead it just justifies all of the criticism the device has gotten over the last couple of years. Of course, Heavy Armor's failings aren't just because of Kinect. Even if it was a controller-only game it still wouldn't be any fun thanks to frustrating design, bad presentation, and brutal difficulty. There are better mech games out there. Skip it.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.

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