Battlezone

Battlezone ( Xbox One) Review

Rebellion has brought back and updated a classic game with the console version of BattleZone. I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to play this game. It may not be a perfect game but I still had fun playing it.

Story

Taking the plunge into a Cobra tank is just a small part of this story. Players must go on and defeat the evil A.I. living inside of a volcano at the other end of the map. After multiple playthroughs the story didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to destroy everything that I could see. The neon landscape really had me thinking more about how this could have been the third Tron movie. The game does really well by just letting you enjoy the fun with or without a deep story.

Graphics

Battlezone has already been released for VR headsets and it is very evident when I’m trying to see everything in-game on my Xbox One console which does not have a VR headset as of yet. Scrolling to the bottom right and left of the field required more work then I wanted to do. The Tron-like set up for this game is something I really enjoyed. Rebellion could have easily went with a more realistic setting for this. The problem that I really had was the clutter of the “desk”. You can remove the bobble heads and keep the console color plan, that would just be boring.

Audio

The sync soundtrack that encompasses this game brings me back to the days of old. The music is subtle and not overbearing. If any current EDM artist would have done the music for the game it would have been just too much to deal with. As the tank combat intensifies so does the music. It really helped me stay focused in this game. For most games I can just ignore the music and play with a Spotify playlist but not in Battlezone. One this that is important about the audio is the warnings that you will receive when playing.

If you were to ignore the robotic voice telling you of incoming dangers or updating you on the mission objectives, you may miss something. The game has a lot going on visually and it actually can be annoying.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very easy to understand. Pick a tank that you think will be best suited at destroying everything and go out and kill the bad guys. Players will pick a different campaign that can be rather short or extremely long. The Hex map allows players to see the direction they need to go to get to the volcano at the end. Each hex on the map represents a different mission that could either be an attack against the A.I., a defense mission or  supply point. The nice thing about Battlezone is the amount of time you can play through different campaigns and never get bored with all of the missions.

Players will notice the small amount of tanks that are available at first. At the beginning of the game you only get three types of tanks – light, medium, and heavy. As I played through the game I found myself going with the heavy tank. Even when I was playing online I just enjoyed its massive firepower.  As you progress through each campaign you can unlock upgrades to armor and more. These upgrades reset each time you play a new campaign. It was frustrating at first until I realized how much more enjoyable the game is like that. Keeping my stats up during all the playthroughs would have made the game boring and easy to beat. 

Verdict

I was plesently surprised by how much fun I had with this game. Rebellion did a good job of brining this classic back to a new generation. Adding the original game was a fantastic touch. I will recommend this game to anyone willing to listen to me.

Code given to the reviewer from the developer.

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