textfiles/games/REVIEWS/btletech.rev

 BATTLETECH: THE CRESCENT HAWK'S REVENGE

 If you were dissappointed with either BATTLETECH: THE CRESCENT HAWK'S INCEPTION
or MECHWARRIOR because they didn't bring FASA's universe to life, throw out your
preconceptions now! Infocom listened, and converted the board game, story, and
most importantly, the BattleMechs themselves, into a computer game. The combat
system has been completely redone: The emphasis is on _command_ in BATTLETECH:
THE CRESCENT HAWK'S REVENGE. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version of the
game.)

 BATTLETECH: THE CRESCENT HAWK'S REVENGE (BTII) picks up the saga of 19-year-old
Jason Youngblood (son of Jeremiah Youngblood) shortly after his adventures in
BATTLETECH: THE CRESCENT HAWK'S INCEPTION. In BTI, Jason entered the Citadel on
Charos III (Pacifica), determined to live up to the legacy of his father, the
greatest Phoenix Hawk pilot alive. He began his training at the institute,
trying to master the skills required to pilot and do battle in the awesome
BattleMechs. But before he completed his training, the planet was invaded by
House Kurita, who destroyed the Citadel and sent Jason on a desperate quest to
determine the whereabouts of his father. Conflicting reports listed him as
either captured or killed, and Jason wasn't going to believe the latter.

 During his search, he met Rex Pearce, his father's comrade and a member of the
Crescent Hawks, a crack fighting force that Jeremiah founded. The members were
scattered and forced into hiding, but Jason sought them out; with the help of
Rex and a holodisk that his father had left him, he discovered a huge cache of
'Mechs and 'Mech parts, giving House Steiner a great advantage in the ongoing
Succession War. This also earned him honor in the eyes of his patroness, Katrina
Steiner, who awarded him command of the Crescent Hawks and permission to search
for Jeremiah.

 As BTII begins, you're on your way with your Crescent Hawks to the Kell Hounds'
base on Lyons. The Kell Hounds drove the Kuritas from Pacifica, and you've been
told that Morgan Kell may have information about your father. As you enter
orbit, Kurita aerospace fighters begin attacking your DropShip, the vehicle that
serves as both your transport for your 'Mechs and your Command center. The
Kuritas are honoring a vendetta against the Kell Hounds, and now, you. Your
DropShip crash-lands in a lake, killing the pilot and trapping you, your 'Mechs,
and two remaining MechWarriors inside (Victor Stewart, the pilot, was your
fourth MechWarrior). To make things worse, a Kurita Locust is on its way to sink
your ship before you can escape! A Locust isn't much of a threat to you inside
your Command 'Mech, but you can't get out; one or two hits from its lasers and
it'll deep-six the ship! You spot a really beat-up Kell Hound Jenner in a
position to intercept, but its pilot is very green, and the 'Mechs scanner is
shot. Your only hope is to guide the pilot to intercept and disable the
Locust....

 The history of the Inner Sphere and Succession Wars is detailed in the game
manual, but I'll attempt a brief summary here so you'll understand some of it.
Players of the BATTLETECH CRPGs will be familiar with the universe and story,
which is very rich in detail. Readers of the BATTLETECH books will note that
parts of the game story (first Clan attack, some of the battles near the end of
the game) can be found in LETHAL HERITAGE and BLOOD LEGACY.

 About 1000 years ago, as humans' technology increased, they spread out among
the stars, colonizing as they went. Unfortunately, humankind was still prone to
war, and soon turned its vast technological skill to becoming more adept at it.
The huge BattleMechs, powerful extensions of human pilots' bodies, soon gave
warfare a new and horrifying dimension. The Inner Sphere, as the known galaxy is
called, is split into five major sections, each with a ruling family, or House.
The Star League, a remnant of central Earth authority, kept a kind of peace, but
eventually crumbled, and the League army left the Inner Sphere for an area known
only as the Periphery, taking their technology with them.

 With the Star League gone, there was no one powerful enough to maintain the
peace, and worse, no one who could rebuild that which wars had destroyed. The
Houses (named Steiner, Davion, Kurita, Liao, and Marik) fought desperately among
themselves for the things they could no longer make. While civilization slid
into chaos, the Succession Wars raged on; the only thing humankind improved was
its ability to make war. Alliances were made and broken among Houses, each of
which had a different type of government and philosophy of warfare. Houses
Steiner and Davion are allied through marriage, forcing Houses Marik, Kurita,
and Liao into an alliance. The Kuritas lead the alliance, and follow a strict
old-Earth Samurai code.

 BTII is divided into two parts: the story and the scenarios. The story is where
you get your information, make decisions, and select your 'Mechs and
MechWarriors. The scenarios are where the combats take place, and are a wargame
type of arena. You command up to three lances of four 'Mechs each, using them to
achieve the scenario objective. If a scenario is finished successfully, you can
save the game and the story continues. If you fail, you can replay it or load a
previous position.

 The story itself is divided into two parts: The first part concludes with the
rescue of Jeremiah Youngblood in "Operation Liberty," and the second part begins
about ten years later, when you must put your Crescent Hawks and yourself under
the command of Colonel Chiun, the same Kuritan commander who imprisoned your
father. It is time for the Houses to unite, because a new threat emerges -- the
Clans. They are the descendants of the Star League, armed with superior
technology, and among themselves, they practice a "survival of the fittest"
policy for leadership, with the losers' entire family being killed. In this
second part, the Pacifican institute has devoloped new "Enhanced" 'Mechs, with
better armor and improved weapons. Now the fun really starts!

 After the last mission, all Crescent Hawk members receive various awards.
Everyone who helped defend Imperial City on Dierson receives the Bushido Blade;
those who perished receive the Dragon's Eye posthumously, and the Crescent Hawk
lance leaders (you and whoever finished the final battle) receive The Order of
the Dragon, House Kurita's highest honor. The Crescent Hawks are taken off
active duty, and you are put in charge of the Training Grounds on Pacifica to
train MechWarriors to fight the Clans, who are sure to return someday. A new
option appears when you load a game: "Training Ground," which lets you make your
own battles, assembling Enemy and Friendly forces using any of the over 50
'Mechs in the game.

 The combat is real-time, with speed adjustable from 1 to 8. You directly
command each unit in the Command Lance, but can only give general orders to the
leaders of the other lances. Orders include where to move, formations, speed,
offensive or defensive fire, and targets. Later in the game you may also see
satellite maps, get intelligence on enemy positions, and call in strafing and
artillery shelling. Not to make it too easy, the satellite uplink to the
DropShip jams at irregular intervals during combat. A careful choice of 'Mechs
and tactics before the scenario begins -- as well as careful conservation of
your resources -- is crucial, since you usually go through a few battles before
your 'Mechs get a break.

 There are over 50 'Mech types used in the game. Each type is listed with full
detail in the manual, and included on a big, full-color poster in abbreviated
detail. In combat, 'Mechs are displayed with percent armor remaining, weapon
status, speed, heat, and overall condition. Weapons are grouped into three
ranges (Long, Medium, Close), and ranked from "None" to "Incredible" (displayed
in either in white or gray -- white meaning the weapons are still functioning,
gray meaning that they're damaged or destroyed). The ranking takes into account
all weapons that fall within that range. For example, the Atlas 'Mech:

 1 Class 20 Autocannon
 1 LRM-20 Missile System
 4 Medium Lasers
 1 SRM-6 Missile System.

 Simplified for display, its weapons are:

 Long    Moderate
 Medium  Devastating
 Short   Incredible

 If, say, two of the Medium Lasers are calculated as destroyed, the Medium
rating might drop to "Brutal," and the Short rating may drop to "Devastating."
Movement rate is ranged from "Slow" to "Very Fast J," with the "J" indicating
Jump Jets. The 'Mech slows as it is damaged, affecting its ability to keep up
with the formation. When Speed is displayed in gray, the 'Mech cannot move at
all; in most cases, it may as well be dead. Enemy units may be scanned, but the
results are not as accurate as they are with the improved technology in the
second half of the game.

 The views are overhead maps, and each scenario's map is included in the manual.
Digitized voice messages and message text are sent from units in each lance when
a movement is completed, or an enemy is spotted or destroyed; sometimes, they're
just general comments, like "We're really taking a beating!" or "I could use
some tactical support, sir!" The ones you hate to see are "Too much damage! I'm
punching out!" or "Say goodbye to my family for me...." Each MechWarrior has a
level of experience from Green to Elite, along with abilities you don't see, but
which do affect the way they fight, follow commands, etc. They always fight to
the best of their abilities, and they follow your commands, but sometimes
they'll wander out of formation, or do something equally frustrating. Green
pilots may push their 'Mechs too hard, causing a shutdown, or worse.

 The interface is really smooth, with keyboard and mouse point-and-click
commands, or shortcut function keys to locate the unit. Selecting a unit brings
up the commands menu if it's a unit in your lance, or the Command Unit (CU) of a
subordinate lance. Otherwise, you see a window describing the unit's status.
Clicking on the DropShip icon (when available) brings up the available options
(Intelligence, Shell Coordinate, Rolling Barrage, Call Strafing, View Satellite
Map). Not all options are available in all scenarios, and the Satellite Map
becomes unavailable when the uplink is jammed.

 The scenario may not be saved in progress, but may be aborted or restarted at
any time. The menu is called up with the <ESC> key. Finished scenarios may be
saved in six renamable slots before the story continues.

 BTII is not copy-protected in any way, but the manual contains so much
information (maps, 'Mech specifications, background information, etc.) that the
game would be difficult to play without it. In addition, the manual explains the
tactics, and helps you through the first two scenarios. In a few places, the
designer (Tony Van) respectfully asks you not to copy the game. Personally,
that's good enough for me.

 The program supports the Roland LAPC-1, MT-32, Sound Blaster, AdLib Music
System, PS/1 AudioCard, PC Internal Speaker, Game Blaster/Creative Music System,
Innovation Sound Standard, Covox PC Sound Master, Tandy Advanced Digitizing
Sound System, and Tandy 1000 3-Voice Sound (in short, I believe, any card made).

 Graphics cards supported are EGA, VGA, MCGA, and Tandy. A hard drive, DOS 3.0
or higher, and 537,600 bytes of free RAM are required. BTII runs on the IBM PC,
AT, XT, PS/1, PS/2, or 100% compatibles, as well as the Tandy 1000.

 My edition came with two 3-1/2" 720K disks, and four 5-1/4" 360K disks, both of
which contain ZIPped files that the Install program decompresses according to
the configuration you specify. The files totalled about two megabytes when I
installed for MCGA and PC internal speaker.

 The game also comes with order forms for BATTLETECH RPGs, history and
background books, BattleMech models, and other goodies for the enthusiast. This
may be unwanted junk mail to some, but the BATTLETECH universe is a very well
thought-out and diverse setting for a game.

 I suppose I could criticize the title of the game as being a bit misleading.
THE CRESCENT HAWK'S REVENGE isn't quite right, because Jason doesn't really
exact any revenge on the Kuritas: It's an uphill battle to rescue Jeremiah, then
a desperate escape. Finally, you end up allied with the Kuritas -- sure, to save
the Inner Sphere, but still, where's the "Revenge"?

 BTII can take quite a while to finish; sometimes it takes several tries to
complete a scenario to your satisfaction. Completing a scenario successfully may
not be good enough; you may find that your lances are too battered to complete
the next battle. It was fun (up to a point) to keep trying to finish in the best
possible shape. Ah! But when you finally take command of a Marauder+ (one of the
enhanced 'Mechs) and have 11 other units to command, plus strafing, you can
really get into the BATTLETECH universe -- and it feels so good to hear your
comrade announce "Puma out of the picture!"

 While the first BATTLETECH game didn't even scratch the surface of the universe
created by FASA, and only introduced you to a few 'Mechs, the sequel comes as
close to a board RPG as a computer game can. Some argue that this is a wargame,
not a CRPG. I think that Infocom and FASA have done for BATTLETECH what SSI did
for AD&D, except that the combat is real-time instead of turn-based, making it
perhaps more "real." I wasn't a BATTLETECH fan before this game, but now I'm
considering buying some books and a model or two....

 BATTLETECH: THE CRESCENT HAWK'S REVENGE is published by Infocom and distributed
by Mediagenic.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253