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REVIEWS
Urban Assault DEVELOPER : Terratools Requirements: |
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Urban Assault is not the sort of game that grabs your attention. Based in a familiar post- apocalyptic background, with familiar aliens invading earth, and with familiar military units it is about as nondescript as you can get. Combine this with a stock standard cover and you get what appears to be an average 3D-shooter/strategy-type game.
I can say with all certainty that this is not the case. Microsoft has produced a real cracker of a game with Urban Assault, and though it borrows heavily from previous titles like Battlezone, it manages to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack.
After installing the game (no doubt after skipping the
rather bland manual) the first thing you are greeted by is an extremely crisp introductory
cinematic. 
The video quality is exceptional to say
the least, completely lacking the blocky, low color, "compressed data" feel of
other game's cinematics. The actual plot is a bit on the thin side, and you may find
yourself cringing at the overly dramatic computer voice, but for the most part the
cinematics and storyline serve their purpose. The game is meant to test your strategic
skill and reflexes rather than impress you with a good yarn after all.
The interface is quite clean and easy to use, but it definitely takes some time to get used to. Even for those of us who are aquainted with this fledgling genre, the ability to "jump" from vehicle to vehicle, whilst giving orders to your squads and managing your resources is very hard to co-ordinate. Having said that, the training missions that are provided do an excellent job of teaching you how to use the interface. I found the learning curve to be about an hour, but once you master the nitty-gritty bits, you will not be able to stop.
The in-game graphics are functional, but nothing exciting.
They cannot really compare to the beauty of Battlezone's alien landscapes, but
they do an adequate job of depicting a barren, post-nuclear planet. 
With a 3dfx
card the textures are clear, the colors are (appropriately) drab, and the explosion and
smoke effects are pretty. The models are really quite simplistic though, consisting of
only a few polygons each, and up close there is definitely some texture tearing and
warping. The terrain also suffers from rather heavy tearing between sectors as well,
though in some ways this helps you to differentiate between territory. Sound effects are
also fairly standard, with unit chatter and firing effects all making the grade. There is
no in-game music, which some people may find annoying, but chances are you would turn it
off to bump up frame rates anyway.
So, how does the game play? Well, it is like Battlezone in the sense that it feels like a 3D simulation, but plays like an RTS game. The perfect marriage in theory, and to be honest it does come off well, but there are a few flaws. You are a nameless persona linked up to a big computer, hovering in an Independence Day style spacecraft called a Host Station. Through the computer, you can "virtual presence shift" into any of your land or air units. You can jump into the cockpit of a squaddie helicopter, or take the reins of the squad leader of a heavy battle-tank group. When you jump into a unit its armor, rate of fire, strength, speed, and just about everything else is boosted, making it a super unit. Combine this with the fact that, well, the AI is a bit poor, and you will find that your presence on the battlefield is what wins or loses a battle. I found it was not unusual for me personally to rack up more than half of my entire army's kills.