Never heard of Cyber Strike 1, but 2 ain’t bad.
“At the dawn of a new millennium, mankind’s government fell by popular dissent
and were replaced by the Mega-Corporations. Free of bureaucracies, the Mega-Corporations
funded the first mission to Mars. This was the beginning of man’s colonization
of the universe. Then a wormhole is discovered around Mars orbit. Within two
years NASA Corporation’s Sagan IV probes returned to earth from the other side
of the wormhole, where a planet hospitable to life was found. Tritium-platinum,
the only known catalyst for cold-fusion, proved abundant on the new planet dubbed
Syren.
Of course, everyone wanted it. The Mega-Corporations scrambled to stake their
claims and soon every major organization had outposts on Syren. But the rights
to ownership of the tri-platinum deposits were never clearly established and
skirmishes became common. (My spider-sense told me this would happen!)
Then the wormhole which opened Syren to man, suddenly collapsed cutting it
off from the Earth. Power struggles immediately swept Syren and the power of
the Mega-corporations faded. In their wake arose the New World Order: The Clans.
(Hey, just like Mechwarrior!) The battle for what little resources still existed
raged over the planet’s untamed surface. The Lost Colonies plunged into a violent
new future: The Clan Wars.”
The level and mission designs were poor. The mission are linear with out any
real dynamic plot twist determined by the outcome of a mission. Many times,
you’ll find yourself wandering around, wondering what to do next and bored to
tears because there are no more enemy cyberpods to play with. This is it’s single
biggest draw back. Then again, Cyber Strike 2 was mainly targeted at an online
audience which it does very well in. The multiplayer capabilities are really
nice. Playing online is as easy as clicking on an icon in the main menu screen.
The connections are fast and gameplay is very fluid with very litte slow downs.
You’ve got a chat room, and quick glance score boards as well as accessible
history files on each of the online opponents you’ll face, so you’ll know what
you’re up against. Cyber Strike 2 has its own dedicated website for online play,
with new maps constantly being added to enhance the experience. There’s usually
about 30 to 50 player on the website at any given time. Yet it just seemed to
lack that free for all kill fest melee that I’ve become accustomed to when playing
games online. It got really boring at times playing online because of the lack
of players to kill. Sometimes I’d find myself traversing the virtual landscape
for what seemed like an eternity before I found an opponent. I can only guess
that this is because there just isn’t as many Cyber Strike 2 players out there
as is compared to more popular games like Quake II and SHOGO. Too bad because
Cyber Strike 2 plays real well online. Other than that, the only other drawback
is that playing online isn’t free like it is on heat.net. You actually have
to pay about $9.95 per month. The graphics are pretty awesome and breath taking.
989 Studios optimized Cyber Strike 2 for Microsoft Direct 3D and 3dfx Glide
technology for real-time lighting effects and seamless indoor and outdoor environments,
and it definitely shows. The landscapes are beautiful to look at. This is both
a plus and minus because on one hand while 989 Studios made nice scenary, sometimes
they made it too pretty. They could’ve used a little more blood, death, destruction
and mayhem, along with some good old fashioned defacement of public and private
property. This is supposed to be a war after all. The graphics implemented to
animate the laser fire and explosion are top-notch. The energy shield effects
look like the deflector shield effects you see on an episode of Star Trek Next
Generation. Cyber Strike 2 also has got some nice FMV’s that compliment the
storyline. The controls are good, and simple to use. Cyber Strike 2 is basically
a Mechwarrior, Heavy Gear rip-off that is done well. So if you’ve ever played
Mechwarrior or Heavy Gear, then the controls will be very intuitive to you.
If you get tired of using the keyboard, and have a joystick, then you’ll find
that Cyber Strike 2 makes good use of it. The enemy AI in Cyber Strike 2 isn’t
bad. Although you don’t have a wide variety of enemies to fight, it’s still
a fun experience. You essentially face the same old enemies over and over again.
These enemies range from tanks, turrets, planes to cyberpods. It’s not that
the enemies get smarter. There are just more of them and they get better and
better equipped. Also, they look just like you and your forces, who don’t do
s#!t by the way. Cyber Stike 2 really lacked variety. Again, your enemies look
just like you except for a different clan insignia! That’s really cheap. Under
Skirmish mode, which is computer controlled deathmatch, you can customize the
enemy forces you engage in battle. You can dictate the number of tanks and enemy
planes you’ll face and the strength of your enemy’s defense grid and opposing
battle pods. This is great for replay value since it’s like a different game
every time. Stack the odds in your favor, making it easy pickings or send you
and your forces on a suicide mission. Each battle pod can be armed with missiles,
mines, mortar, and laser cannons. Although the weapons are awesome to look at,
they lacked any new innovations to games of this battle mech genre. Quite honestly,
the variety of weapons were kind of boring. I personally liked this game. It
tries too hard to copy Mechwarrior, and the giant fighting robot genre. It gets
boring at times due to lack of enemies to fight. The weapons are nothing new
or special. It is nothing short of a clone. Yet, I liked it and had fun playing
it. The sound effects and graphics are top-notch. The online gaming experience
is very good and easy to use, except for the money part. The controls are solid.
It is just nothing new to rave about. Don’t expect much and get a little bit
more.
-
Solid Mechwarrior-like controls
