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Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

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Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor
European cover art
Developer(s)FromSoftware
Publisher(s)Capcom
Director(s)Isamu Okano
Composer(s)Yoshikazu Takayama
Platform(s)Xbox 360
Release
  • NA: June 19, 2012
  • JP: June 21, 2012
  • EU: June 22, 2012
  • AU: June 28, 2012
Genre(s)Action, vehicle simulation
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (Japanese: 重鉄騎, Hepburn: Jūtekki) is a video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Capcom for the Xbox 360. It is a sequel to both Steel Battalion and Steel Battalion: Line of Contact on the Xbox. It was announced at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, and requires the Kinect sensor. The game uses a combination of the standard Xbox 360 controller and the Kinect for gameplay.

Story

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor takes place in 2082 in a world lacking computers due to a silicon-eating microbe that started destroying all microprocessors in the world in 2020.[1] It opens with the United States military running an amphibious landing operation on an occupied New York City using massive bipedal robots known as Vertical Tanks as the primary attack force. The troops, with the help of the VT's, were able to take New York City and establish a foothold on the Mainland. Then, in an attempt to sabotage a bridge, the engineering team was ambushed and killed. The nearby VT commanded by Sergeant Powers drove his Vertical tank close to the detonator to blow the bridge. By exiting his Vertical tank via Bottom hatch, covered by Natch Powers blew the bridge thus ending the second mission.

Development

The first Steel Battalion required players to control the game with a $200 special controller, Capcom was unwilling to make such a requirement for a 360-game and for a while it looked like the franchise was dead.[2] This was until Microsoft began showing an early version of Kinect (then named Project Natal) to developers and publishers at which point producer Tatsuya Kitabayashi realized that the series could work with the new motion based controller.[2] Describing the first game as "limited by the controller",[3] Kitabayashi recognized that the Kinect could allow much more movement than the original game could provide [3] Because the game uses both the controller and the Kinect, Capcom had to seek special permission from Microsoft as their certification rules normally require that use the controller or the Kinect, but not both.[3]

Capcom chose to work with From Software from their work on Chromehounds, the Armored Core series as well as their work on Dark Souls.[3] Capcom and From Software worked to make sure that the game was not too easy, although in an interview with Digital Spy, producer Kenji Kataoka noted it was not as difficult as Dark Souls.[3]

The game's music was written by in-house composer Yoshikazu Takayama. Motoi Sakuraba, who had worked with From Software before with Dark Souls, wrote the game's main theme.

Reception

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor has been widely panned for its story and characters, and is considered unplayable due to the inability of the Kinect to accurately read the player's movements. It received a score of 40.95% on GameRankings[4] and 38/100 on Metacritic.[5] X-Play gave it a 0.5/5, being the lowest rating ever given by G4.[6] while Giant Bomb gave it 1 out of 5 stars.[7] It is also considered by some as one of the worst video games of all time. For example, WatchMojo granted the game the top spot on their Top Ten Worst Reboots-list and the eighth spot on their Top Ten Worst Games Of All Time-list.

References

  1. ^ Rubens, Alex (25 June 2012). "Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review". G4TV. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b Pitts, Russ. "STEEL BATTALION: HEAVY ARMOR INTERVIEW: WAR AS CELEBRATION OF LIFE". Polygon. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e Reynolds, Matthew; Wotton, Jamie. "Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor interview: Capcom on Kinect". Digital Spy. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (X360)". GameRankings. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
  5. ^ "Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Critic Reviews for Xbox 360". Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
  6. ^ Rubens, Alex (2012-06-25). "Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review for Xbox 360". G4. Retrieved 2012-06-25.
  7. ^ Shoemaker, Brad (2012-06-19). "Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
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