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Battle Engine Aquila Review - PS2

Mech games have never really interested me. I'm not really sure why, but they just don't appeal to me in any sense. They are usually sluggish moving things that have a huge amount of arsenal at their disposal a lot, of which you never really use. I like my action simple- but with plenty of it! I am sure there will be a day when there is a mech title that caters to my particular taste. Will Battle Engine Aquila change my perspective? I ponder this as I sit down and pop the shiny disc into my PS2.

Gameplay

The storyline for Aquila is straight out of a Vin Diesel flick. In a world where the polar caps have melted and flooded most of the land, the A-grade pilot of the Battle Engine Aquila has flown the coup and joined the sinister Muspell. The Forseti are vulnerable. Invasion is eminent and they need a pilot for their best defensive weapon immediately. No one in the army seems to be qualified, so they scour the glider racing circuit. They find their man, a civilian, a man with an attitude, a man with no fear, a man named Hawk!

Corny premise aside, you take control of a giant spider-like ship, capable of both air and land assaults. After a crash course training program you are sent out into the real world to defend Forseti bases and cargo shipments. Controlling your BE is quite simple and the ability to change from ground to air adds that bit of variety to the game. Air time is limited though which means you have to keep a close eye on the meter as a lot of the levels are set over water, and hitting the water results in instant death. Despite there being, at times, a lot of action on screen, the frame rate remains constant. This is probably helped by the fact that the BEA moves very slowly. A bit more speed would have been nice. The only real drop in frame rate is found in the co-op modes of multiplayer. All the stock standard 2-player games are here.

Your weapons are assigned to you before the mission, they are all stock standard and their isn't a lot of variety either. As you progress through the stages, other Battle Engines become available. They each have there own strengths and weaknesses as well as varying arsenals. It must be said that besides the minor weapon differences, all the Battle Engines are pretty much the same. There is an auto-aim system which locks onto the nearest target that takes away any real skill needed to bring a target down. It's just a matter of aiming in the vicinity of the enemy and firing. While this is very simplistic, it means that you can focus on the action at hand. There are plenty of things to blow up here. With most of your time spent with your finger pounding the fire button, it's ... (continued next page)