 It is the year 2624.
Mankind has been pushed to the brink of extinction in a war against the deadly Cybrid race
it has created. After narrowly defeating the initial uprising, Earth’s Terra defenses
brace for the eminent assault from off world Cybrid forces amassing on the far side of the
Moon. Led by the supercomputer Prometheus, the Cybrid prepare to launch one final assault
that will erase the ragged remains of humanity from the face of the Earth. One final,
Earth siege... The
Review
 EarthSiege 2 has some pretty big
footsteps to follow in since the release of Mechwarrior 2. And although it is in the same
style as Mechwarrior, it is it’s own game. The game opens with you and your squad of
rookie pilots in a small base. The war is going poorly for the humans and the high
command feels that defeat is just a matter of time, but that we will go down fighting. By
winning the missions you are sent on, you qualify to be sent to more important sectors on
Earth and begin to hand the Cybrids’ their butts on a platter. However, the other
sectors are not faring so well and you cannot do everything...the war looks grim again. In
a last ditch move, High Command sends you to a sector in which there are Cybrid landing
craft. By defeating the Cybrid and disabling some landers, you now have a way to take the
battle to Prometheus on the Moon. The war is all but over for the humans, and if you fail
on the Moon, Mankind is doomed to extinction.
Although it is still not as good as Mechwarrior 2, EarthSiege 2 is
definitely a good game. There are a wide variety of weapons you can choose from and each
herc (EarthSiege’s equivalent of a mech) can be outfitted independently. As the game
progresses, new weapons, defenses and hercs are developed and available for use. They even
have a flying Herc, the Razor. In addition, the theme is very well done. Personally, I am
attracted to games with a good theme. And the classic, “mankind is on the brink of
extinction and you alone can make a difference” theme is my favorite. That is why I
have loved the Wing Commander series so much. EarthSiege’s theme pulls you into it
and the game becomes really addictive. Also, I think unless you are an avid BattleTech fan
and know a lot about modifying a Mech already, you will be relieved at the way Hercs are
modified. It is much easier than Mechwarrior 2, although perhaps not as flexible.
EarthSiege 2 is a very good game. However, it does have its share of
problems. The most notable is the controls. While Mechwarrior 2’s controls were
logical and complete, EarthSiege’s are wild and erratic. It's so bad that the
“autotargeting” setting is about the only way you can even hope to hit anything.
Forward and back on the joystick does not raise and lower your sights like you think it
should; it works your throttle. And your turret is next to impossible to keep centered if
you are not using autotargetting. For example, when you pull back on the stick to go in
reverse, your turret turns hard to the left...all by itself. Also, the turret has a
tendency to drift on you when you are turning sharply so you have to constantly keep
recentering it. And all of the hercs turn like slugs, which makes it very difficult to
come about and bring your guns to bear on the enemy if they slip behind you. Even the
assault mechs in Mechwarrior 2 turned pretty quickly. Because of the poor controls and
obvious lack of a turret, which prevents autotargetting, the flying herc is about useless.
Hitting another herc is hard and hitting them enough times to destroy them is nearly
impossible, even on the “rookie” difficulty setting. The other big thing I did
not like was that EarthSiege 2 can only run in Windows 95! That bites! Games like this use
a lot of your computer’s resources, and unless you have a really kicking computer,
you want to have all of your resources available, not tied up in running Windows 95.
--Brent Hegarty |
