Battle Engine Aquila Review | A pop from the past
Mech focused action games are not really popular today.
That typology of games having shooter aspects, but that focalise on piloting a
mechanical vehicle adding complexity and tools with unique and customizable
properties.
If you ever feel the desire for such a game then you should take a look at Battle Engine Aquila.
Aesthetics
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Fighting to guarantee a bridgehead |
The game, released in 2003, uses standard graphics for the age, with an average number of polygons for the models and textures with saturated colors. Furthermore, the game doesn't go for a realistic style, but for a colorful almost comic book one, very popular during the 6th generations of video games.
The particles effects are on point, but I do wish that they lasted longer, especially since the debris don't stay on the battlefield for long.
There aren't a lot of animations, the onse for the soldiers and the vehicle on the battlefield are ok, whereas the ones for the cinematics are janky and dull
The voice acting is fine.
The soundtrack is bland, in the heat of the fight it's not emphasized enough and gets superseded by the sounds of the battle.
Sounds that lack impact, they aren't able to transmit a sense of frenzy and lack punch.
Despite having received a release on modern computers, the game doesn't have 16:9 resolutions. It's possible to finish it with a stretched 4:3 resolution, but if it's unbearable it's possible to use a fan-made patch downloadable here.
Game Mechanics
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To unlock the true ending, it is necessary to complete the evo missions only at the ending branches |
The game is a mech shooter with the possibility to fly, a bit simplistic compared to other exponent of the genre. Usually, games like this try to enrich the experience with complex commands or with strategic elements, despite this, the game does manage to entertain.
The tools available to the player include: the mech itself, a support squadron and allied NPCs.
On the HUD there are the crosshair, the energy bar used for shields, the life bar and 2 maps: the first map reports the position of the objectives as yellow dots, the second one reports the situation on the front line: the red zones are under enemy control and the player will be outnumbered, while the ones in blue are under the allied forces.
Controlling the mech is satisfying, the movements on the ground have a dash that allows the player to avoid missiles and, if you ever found yourself in a hard situation, it's possible to fly away and reposition. Flying has limitations, the energy consumed is the same one used for the shields and these last ones are not active during flight, Even if the movements are a bit slow, they are functional and flexible enough ti guarantee precise actions.
The missions are chosen on the menu with 2 types available: normal and evo. The evo missions are harder variants of the normal missions. To unlock an evo mission, the player needs to complete all the secondary objectives of the previous mission.
It's an interesting idea, but it could have been implemented better. Apart from some bonus on the goodies menu and the extra challenge, there isn't any reasons to do the evo mission except in the final part.
Due noted that in the middle of the campaign there is a fork with unique not intertwined missions unlockable based on the player's actions in the root mission.
When the player selects a mission it has 2 choices: the typology of the mech and a support squadron. There are 3 kinds of mech that aesthetically don't change, but the weapons they have do. One kind is good against aircraft, another one is good against vehicles and the last one is good against structures.
The squadrons are balanced similarly: one is excellent against aircraft and bad against vehicles, another one is the contrary while the last one is good against everything but excellent against nothing.
At the start of the adventure, you will not be able to choose the mech and the squadrons, but they will be unlocked later on. During my game session, I've believed that I would have picked always only one type of mech and squadron, but that didn't happen. The missions are varied enough to have made me change the type based on what I was supposed to do and what I would have fought.
I liked this, it brought me to decide my options with care, even if sometimes I had to do some trial and error, since the pre-mission descriptions aren't always accurate.
Furthermore, there are optional speed challenges available in the goodies menu, if you ever wanted to practice with the air movements.
The AI of the NPC is overall ok, the enemies aim mainly at the player and the allies aim at the best target suited for them. There is no way to influence the decisions of the allied forces or the chosen squadron, everything happens automatically.
Since there isn't any type of currency or shop, it's not possible to buy or upgrade anything.
Playing the majority of the evo missions and the true final mission, I've finished the game in 8 hours.
Narrative
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Besides the cutscenes between the missions, it is possible to
unlock concept art of characters and units |
The general setting is framed around the planet Allium, a world almost entirely submerged where only a few islands are habitable. The 2 remaining civilizations, the Forseti and the Muspell, fight each other for the small remaining living space. The player takes possession of Hawk, port worker and driver in street races, that gets enlisted by the Forseti army to pilot a new experimental project: the versatile hybrid engine named Aquila.
The story itself tells the carrying out of the war between the two civilizations. There aren't any great revelations and all the narrative continues in an uninteresting way. Due to its extremely linear nature, the game doesn't have any kind of secondary story.
The named characters are few and they don't receive great characterization. It's possible to read the backstories of the characters in the goodies menu to understand better who they are.
Apart some information in the manual and some descriptions, there isn't any reference to any lore.
This is a game clearly more interested in the action than of the telling of a story, with the narrative used just to give context, although there has been an attempt in world-building.
"Soundtrack is bland" word of advice if you have nothing nice to say about the music in a video game then mute the music. God you people are bloody dumb sometimes.
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