Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf

THE BAD:
-SP story-line tends to take a beaten path
-single player is short, especially for 20 missions (about 15-20 hours, depending on difficulty)
-numerous load times

SUMMARY:
MechAssault 2 was the last game to come out for 2004, and let me tell you: its a doozy.

STORY:
MA2 is a follow-up to the original MechAssault that came out in 2002. the story takes place just a few months after the events of MA1, and you begin on the planet Dante with your buddies from the first game: Major Natalia and Lieutenant Foster. the Wolf's Dragoons have listed you as MIA as a cover to work on a new experimental Battle Armor that Foster has been working on, fashoned from a Data Core recovered from the smoking head of a Ragnarok mech. this is all fine and dandy until an unknown mech appears and begins to wreak havok on the city. you eventually get caught up in a wild romp through different planets to try and find the rest of the data cores.

the story-line is not very new or innovative at all. the campaign itself only takes about 15-20 hours to beat, and there are numerous load times throughout the whole thing.

GAMEPLAY:
this, however, is where the game really shines. not only do you get a set of new Mechs to play with, you can now leave your Mech. a tank, a VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) craft, and the Battle Armor are at your disposal.

a neat feature is also included with the Battle Armor. while close to an enemy Mech, press A, and you should latch on to the mech, beginning a process called Neurohacking. its essentially GTA meets Simon Says. a visual display appears at the bottom of the screen for both the attacker and defender. you must press a series of buttons, and whoever fills a meter first wins the neurohack.

setting aside all the new bangs and whistles, you've got one solid shooter. the gameplay is fast and furious, and undeniably fun. even if you weren't a real big fan of the first game, you should consider at least renting mechassault 2. you won't regret it.

GRAPHICS:
the gameply isn't he only thing to get a nice make-over. the grahphics have been vastly improved over the first game, and it really shows. nice shiny surfaces, smooth fluid weapon animations, ejecting brass... it just looks so beautiful. it doesn't really quite compare to The Chronicles of Riddick, but it still is one of the best looking games on Xbox.

the main graphical highlight of the MechAssault series has always been particle effects. some weapons, such as the PPC and missles, look just plain fantastic. the explosions (especially mech explosions) really take the cake, however. some of them are a litteral visual orgasm.

SOUND:
a nice rock soundtrack to accompany a nice game. Two songs really stand out- Getting Away with Murder by Papa Roach, and a song from Korn are the two loading songs throughout the game.

some of the weapons sound relativly flat comapred to the first game, and even seem a little muffled. the foot steps of Mechs seem to be the dominant sound, and can sometimes drown out other sounds, such as falling trees, or even explosions on some occasions.

OVERALL:
MechAssault 2 should be an immediate addition to any Mech-fan's library. it is one of, if not THE best games on Xbox. if you didn't like the first MechAssault a whole lot, at least rent MechAssault 2. you won't regert it.

STORY: 3.5/5
GAMEPLAY: 4.8/5
GRAPHICS: 5/5
SOUND:4/5
OVERALL: 4.7/5