Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor - Two hours of hands-on

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You'll need the patience of a general, but you'll feel like five stars when it clicks

After spending 90-odd minutes destroying, evading, dying, and restarting, we love and hate Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor all at once. Perhaps calling it “the Marmite of Kinect gaming” is a tad self-serving, but it cuts to the core of its polarizing experience. At times, it feels deliberately obtuse in design, and overly fussy to control. Then, in other instances, the fluidity of movements suddenly lets you suspend disbelief, and in those moments, yes, you are commandeering a mecha-tank through war-torn Manhattan, smiting ground troops, and destroying their armaments. Those highs are enthralling. We got a chance to play a near-final version of it at Capcom USA’s headquarters, and we’re solidly convinced that if any game needs an in-depth demo and tutorial before launch, it’s this one.

We saw a long demo in March, and we got hands-on with the game's multiplayer at Captivate, if you’re not up to speed with what Heavy Armor entails. The game starts off with you as a decorated high ranking army official whose family was slaughtered by enemy forces. Not unlike Fallout 3’s twisted 1950s schtick, Heavy Armor embraces the uniforms and aesthetic of Americans in World War II, from the helmets and outfits to the color styles. The result is a goofy funhouse mirror take that weds that look to sci-fi.

After the initial tutorial, we drove the tank through a shoreside battle that led into Manhattan. We learned how important strafing is –though not too much; the game seems to punish you for straying outside of the rails of its warzone—It’s a short section that allows you to practice the numerous movements, from leaning forward to use the tank cannons to blast on gun nests to smiting ground troops.

Sterling McGarvey
Sterling McGarvey