This has got to be the single strangest game that I have ever played. Not in terms of its contents, but in terms of just how extreme it is with the differences in its quality. In a single mission it can go from being a unique and amazing game to one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with a video game, then switch back before the mission’s over. I have never seen a game of extremes this insane before.
First off what it gets right. Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor has what might just be one of my favorite ideas for a setting in any form of media. It’s set in the 2080s after a silicon eating microbe appeared in 2020 and wiped out all forms of advanced technology like computers and smartphones in a world changing event known as the “Datacide.” This has essentially set Earth’s technology level back to the 1940s, but with new technologies having been developed since the Datacide such as giant, dieselpunk mechs known as “Vertical Tanks” or VTs. You play as a guy named Winfield Powers (which is a fucking awesome name), a veteran VT pilot who fought in fucking World War III (which happened in the 2060s) and is called back into action to free the United States after its invaded by the Chinese. China’s also taken over the UN and become the world’s de-facto superpower along with Russia, who they’re locked in a Cold War with.
Not only is this setting incredibly unique both conceptually and visually, with some amazing designs for the mechs that look like walking tanks with really detailed interiors, but it’s surprisingly fleshed out between the story, mission briefings and letters your squad mates can get from their family members. And your squad is one of the major highlights of the game. This game does what I wish more mech games/shows would do and has the mechs be controlled by crews of people instead of just one guy. Here, the VTs need crews of 4, with you having a battalion of 40 people that can crew them with you throughout the game and every single one of them can be killed during a mission and die permanently. Each of them have their own personality and custom voice lines, so the tone and dialogue of some missions can change completely depending on who’s with you. You can also customize your VTs by changing their camo and unlocking bonus parts through certain missions. All of this might sound amazing, and the stuff this game does well it does exceptionally well. But there’s a lot of problems that hold this game back from being great, or Hell even good, a lot of the time.
The biggest problem, far and away, is this. The controls for this game do not work. At all. It uses the Kinect along with a regular controller and the Kinect cannot handle what this game needs you to do to progress. Half the time it just spazzes the fuck out and has you grab random shit or switch you from AP shells to HEAT ammo (with HEAT ammo only hurting infantry and not, you know, the enemy VT shooting at you) its infuriating. And what makes it worse is how inconsistent it is. Some times it looks like it’s working fine or at least as fine as it can, then it’ll fuck you for somewhere between a few minutes and a few hours. I can say with confidence that I didn’t play through a single mission in this game without the Kinect fucking up or trying to get me killed at least once.
The sad part is it feels like the devs knew this was a problem, so some missions are ridiculously short. You can legitimately beat at least 4 different missions in this game in under 3 minutes. They’re basically glorified QTEs. It doesn’t help that most of the normal missions have incredibly shit checkpoints and force you to lose like 10 minutes of progress if you die. Every time I had to fight an HVT I legitimately started to sweat since I knew that if I died I would have to restart the entire level since not a single level with those fucking enemies has any checkpoints whatsoever except for one fight near the end at the military factory.
The weird part is the actual content of most missions is still good for the most part. There’s a mission where you hang out and help your mechanic get some upgrades on your VT up and running, a level in the snow with shortened visibility where you can optionally find one of your wounded squad mates out in the blizzard and save him from freezing to death, a level in the desert where you’ve got people riding on top of your VT, the variety between missions is great. The actual main story isn’t that interesting, and it gets pretty absurd when halfway through you go from trying to liberate America to flying to Morocco and it just starts recreating what happened in world war 2 verbatim, complete with the final level taking place in Berlin. But the story surrounding that, about you and your crew piloting your VT, trying to survive and becoming close to each other as the war goes on, is phenomenal. Some characters are clearly better than others, but the knowledge that any of them can die and be gone for good made me care a whole lot more than if it was all just scripted.
This game could have been something really special. And to some extent, it is. The stuff it does right it nails and I genuinely can’t think of another game that does anything close to this in terms of first person mech games, or Hell even just mech games in general. But I would hesitate to call Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor a good game. It’s infuriating to play, frustrating at the best of times and it feels like it’s fighting you every step of the way. I’d say it’s worth checking out for the sheer uniqueness of it considering how you can get both it and a Kinect together for like $28, but I don’t blame anyone who passes this up or gives up on it. You’ve got to be a really specific type of person for this game to appeal to you, but if you are then you’re in for something truly memorable.
First off what it gets right. Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor has what might just be one of my favorite ideas for a setting in any form of media. It’s set in the 2080s after a silicon eating microbe appeared in 2020 and wiped out all forms of advanced technology like computers and smartphones in a world changing event known as the “Datacide.” This has essentially set Earth’s technology level back to the 1940s, but with new technologies having been developed since the Datacide such as giant, dieselpunk mechs known as “Vertical Tanks” or VTs. You play as a guy named Winfield Powers (which is a fucking awesome name), a veteran VT pilot who fought in fucking World War III (which happened in the 2060s) and is called back into action to free the United States after its invaded by the Chinese. China’s also taken over the UN and become the world’s de-facto superpower along with Russia, who they’re locked in a Cold War with.
Not only is this setting incredibly unique both conceptually and visually, with some amazing designs for the mechs that look like walking tanks with really detailed interiors, but it’s surprisingly fleshed out between the story, mission briefings and letters your squad mates can get from their family members. And your squad is one of the major highlights of the game. This game does what I wish more mech games/shows would do and has the mechs be controlled by crews of people instead of just one guy. Here, the VTs need crews of 4, with you having a battalion of 40 people that can crew them with you throughout the game and every single one of them can be killed during a mission and die permanently. Each of them have their own personality and custom voice lines, so the tone and dialogue of some missions can change completely depending on who’s with you. You can also customize your VTs by changing their camo and unlocking bonus parts through certain missions. All of this might sound amazing, and the stuff this game does well it does exceptionally well. But there’s a lot of problems that hold this game back from being great, or Hell even good, a lot of the time.
The biggest problem, far and away, is this. The controls for this game do not work. At all. It uses the Kinect along with a regular controller and the Kinect cannot handle what this game needs you to do to progress. Half the time it just spazzes the fuck out and has you grab random shit or switch you from AP shells to HEAT ammo (with HEAT ammo only hurting infantry and not, you know, the enemy VT shooting at you) its infuriating. And what makes it worse is how inconsistent it is. Some times it looks like it’s working fine or at least as fine as it can, then it’ll fuck you for somewhere between a few minutes and a few hours. I can say with confidence that I didn’t play through a single mission in this game without the Kinect fucking up or trying to get me killed at least once.
The sad part is it feels like the devs knew this was a problem, so some missions are ridiculously short. You can legitimately beat at least 4 different missions in this game in under 3 minutes. They’re basically glorified QTEs. It doesn’t help that most of the normal missions have incredibly shit checkpoints and force you to lose like 10 minutes of progress if you die. Every time I had to fight an HVT I legitimately started to sweat since I knew that if I died I would have to restart the entire level since not a single level with those fucking enemies has any checkpoints whatsoever except for one fight near the end at the military factory.
The weird part is the actual content of most missions is still good for the most part. There’s a mission where you hang out and help your mechanic get some upgrades on your VT up and running, a level in the snow with shortened visibility where you can optionally find one of your wounded squad mates out in the blizzard and save him from freezing to death, a level in the desert where you’ve got people riding on top of your VT, the variety between missions is great. The actual main story isn’t that interesting, and it gets pretty absurd when halfway through you go from trying to liberate America to flying to Morocco and it just starts recreating what happened in world war 2 verbatim, complete with the final level taking place in Berlin. But the story surrounding that, about you and your crew piloting your VT, trying to survive and becoming close to each other as the war goes on, is phenomenal. Some characters are clearly better than others, but the knowledge that any of them can die and be gone for good made me care a whole lot more than if it was all just scripted.
This game could have been something really special. And to some extent, it is. The stuff it does right it nails and I genuinely can’t think of another game that does anything close to this in terms of first person mech games, or Hell even just mech games in general. But I would hesitate to call Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor a good game. It’s infuriating to play, frustrating at the best of times and it feels like it’s fighting you every step of the way. I’d say it’s worth checking out for the sheer uniqueness of it considering how you can get both it and a Kinect together for like $28, but I don’t blame anyone who passes this up or gives up on it. You’ve got to be a really specific type of person for this game to appeal to you, but if you are then you’re in for something truly memorable.