DEMIAN: single Wolf will give you a strange appreciation for the hermit crab—though you can climb not at home of your giant robot and hie around on puny human feet you’ll have feeling naked until you’re safely (well.

DEMIAN: single Wolf will give you a strange appreciation for the hermit crab—though you can climb not at home of your giant robot and hie around on puny human feet you’ll have feeling naked until you’re safely (well, relatively) encased in four stories of armored plating with big ol’ fire-arms once again. The second MechAssault is still all about the mech battles in their city-destroying glory, yet this time you’ll also drive tanks, man small towers jump-jet around in powered battle armor...and die almost instantly if the enemy catches you in the expand without a vehicle.

Unfortunately, the single-player game doesn’t improve plenteous over the last version. It’s short (I beat it in about seven hours), and you’re usually fighting the battle single-handedly—hence the lonesome Wolf title. And though the on-foot sections perceive tacked on and not particularly pleasantry the tank and battle armor bits add emergencyed variety.

In multiplayer, though, solitary Wolf goes from so-so to in this way sweet. The vehicle-swapping aspect takes forward a new importance—in most fashions you’ll start out on bottom and scramble to find a vehicle, then switch it for another, depending forward the situation; sometimes, in the heat of battle you’ll on a level hijack enemy mechs. Couple that with the of the present day Conquest feature (see sidebar), and MechAssault should continue to be individual of Xbox Live’s most popular games.

CRISPIN: Blasted-to-scrap robot stroke up big and nuked buildings fall hard in MechAssault 2 making the game just plain sport to watch. Fortunately, it’s sport to play, too—although it’s an frequently mindless sort of fun. stable the game’s makers have ramped up its strategic proper spheres not the least of which is the option to scamper across the war surface bounded by parallel circles in a wee suit and jack mech five times your size. And mostly of the multiplayer modes (which are more enjoyable than the respectable single-player game) demand a surprising amount of communication and team cohesion, especially when you jaculate tanks and supply-dropping airships into the equation. Thing is, when mech move toe-to-toe, strategy often goes without the airlock as the bot lumber in circles blasting the hell disclosed of each other. But with explosions this spectacular, who cares?

SHOE: You’re not in this game to example your shooter reflexes; you’re experiencing life as a hulking, 40-foot-tall instrument of innocent destruction. Step outside of your walking tank, notwithstanding that and you’re just a squashable ant in the giant world of MechAssault. The beautiful graphics and destructible environments (both upgraded from the last game) add to the ambience, nevertheless the single-player game disappoints with brevity (6-7 hours to beat) and a throwaway story that not at all sets the mood properly with its weak dialogue and characters.

Multiplayer, however, is tons (sorry) of pleasantry It gets choppy when the action’s chaotic, moreover the thrill of jacking another player’s mech or getting the right support at the right time from your VTOL-flying teammate winning cards anything in the first Mech-Assault...or greatest in number online games these days.

Command and Conquest

MechAssault is at its lumbering best onward Xbox Live, and aside from one new game types, Lone Wolf brings a major addition: winning mode. In Conquest, you’ll ally yourself with undivided of five warring factions battling for territory in a persistent online world. You’ll ne to win a series of team battles to guard or take over a planet—and confidence your comrades have held the territory from the time you log back onward The servers weren’t populated enough to abundantly evaluate conquest when we played, if it were not that if it turns out to be mind-blowingly awesome—or doesn’t work as advertised—you’ll hear about it in a yet to be edition of our reviews wrap-up column

Good: Making cloth go boom, online modes

Bad: Single player is too short and predictable

Could Use: More squad-based strategy

The verdicts (out of 10)

Demian 80

Crispin 80

Shoe 80

Publisher: Microsoft

Developer: Day 1

Players: 1-2 (2-12 online)

ESRB: Teen

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Copyright ?© 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserv Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly