Battlezone (1998 video game)
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| Battlezone | |
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| Developer(s) | Activision |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date | March 12, 1998 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter, Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) USK: 16+ ELSPA: 11+ OFLC: G8+ |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | 133 MHz CPU, 16 MB RAM, 1 MB video card RAM, 2X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 5.0, 210 MB available hard disk space, Windows 95 |
Battlezone is a critically acclaimed remake (for Microsoft Windows) of an arcade game of the same name. It was released by Activision in 1998. Aside from the name and presence of tanks, this game bears little resemblance to the original. Activision remade it into a hybrid of a tank simulation game, a first-person shooter and a real-time strategy game.
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[edit] Plot
The game has two campaigns, the American NSDF campaign and the Russian CCA campaign. The game takes place in an alternate version of the 1960s in which the United States and the Soviet Union use alien technology to wage a secret war across the solar system, fighting for control of the rare resource bio-metal.
The game starts in 1957 when a group of meteorites falls near the Bering Strait, which both the Americans and the Russians are able to recover. In these meteorites they find "bio-metal", and discover that with it they can build vehicles with amazing features, such as the ability to hover. Both the Soviets and Americans send forces to the Moon; the Apollo program is revealed to be a cover-up for the massive American military operation there. The American space military force is called the NSDF, for National Space Defense Force, and the Soviets' is named the CCA, for Cosmos Colonist Army (However, manuals for the earlier version of the game call the CCA the 'Communist Cosmonaut Army'). The Soviets force the Americans off the Moon by destroying the main American outpost there, called Eagle's Nest 1. The NSDF relocates to Mars, only to discover that the CCA is already there. An alien artifact is discovered there by both sides, presumably by the same race who created the bio-metal. A weapons factory built by this civilization is also found on Mars. It is revealed that the race in question called themselves the Cthonians, and lived on a planet called Icarus that occupied the orbit of what is now the asteroid belt. According to the game, Greek myths were based on visitations of Earth by the Cthonians.
The Americans learn that the Cthonians were divided into two warring parties who battled throughout the solar system. Each side apparently pursued an ultimate weapon that would destroy the other. To follow the trail of this weapon, called a Fury, the Americans travel to Venus. Another artifact from a Cthonian city is recovered, pointing the way to a weapons research facility built by the Cthonians on Io. When the Americans arrive at Io, they find a relic from the facility and begin to bring it back to their base. However, one of the tugs carrying the artifacts is piloted by a Soviet defector, named Dr. Wilheim Arkin, who steals the Fury relic and brings it to the Soviets. Enraged, the Americans conduct a secret operation on Europa to steal a Soviet Flanker and tap into the Soviet communications network to discover the whereabouts of the Fury relic. It is found that the relic has been moved to the main CCA base on Saturn's moon Titan.
At this point, the stories of the American and Soviet campaigns diverge.
- In the American campaign:
After eliminating the Soviet presence on Europa, the American forces, led by a commander only known as Grizzly 1 (named because of the Grizzly MBT), reach Titan only to find that the advance force has been devastated. The Soviets were able to build the Furies and unleash them against the American units. However, it is quickly learned that the Furies seem to have a "mind" of their own, and the Soviets quickly lose control of them as the Furies destroy the main Soviet base and then escape. The Soviets unconditionally surrender to the Americans, and they pledge to work together to destroy the Furies. After fighting jointly to destroy a Fury production facility on Titan, the Furies escape to a fictional moon of Uranus called Achilles. The Americans destroy the Fury base on Achilles and find that the base had tapped the moon's molten planetary core for power; destroying it had set off a chain reaction that would shortly cause the moon to explode. The Americans leave a small force, and Grizzly 1 in charge of it, to finish the Furies by taking their transport out, which may have escaped the destruction of the moon, however this isn't made totally clear in the game's ending. The ending shows the fiery end of Achilles, and a piece of it, presumably containing some Fury relic, drifting across the solar system to reach Earth.
"History comes full circle. Sometimes, humanity survives. Other times... it's obliterated. We tell stories to help us remember history, to keep us from reigniting a war that would no doubt destroy another planet... and perhaps some other race. I wish the best to those who would find the fallen meteor. One cover a little secret, who follow the trail... who reconstruct my nightmare..." -- Grizzly 1
- In the Soviet campaign:
The Soviets evacuate Venus after destroying an American Platoon and their base and proceed to Io and capture 1 of the 3 Fury Relics. They then take this technology to Titan to try to recreate the Furies. The Soviets reach Titan but find that the Black Dogs have destroyed their main base. They recover important units and re-establish a foothold there. Finally, they are able to build controllable Furies with which they overwhelm and annihilate the Black Dogs and the Americans, completely destroying their presence on Titan - little do they suspect that the Furies have minds of their own. These missions branch into the American campaign directly preceding "The Three Beacons", wherein the controllable Furies turn on their Soviet creators.
The American campaign is significantly longer and better orchestrated and is intended as the main game, with the Soviet missions serving as a more challenging diversion for those players who manage to beat the American game (although for advanced players, the Soviet campaign was easier to win due to jumping directly into the full technology tree.)
An add-on, called The Red Odyssey, was later released which featured a Chinese campaign contemporaneous with the events described above. It took place on Jupiter's moon Ganymede and a planet in another solar system (called Elysium, it was reached with a Cthonian interstellar travel device). This game is much harder than the original Battlezone, and the missions are only for very experienced players. The American campaign is much longer than the Chinese campaign (ala Battlezone) and there is no CCA campaign at all, even though they appear very often in the Chinese campaign, while all three factions never appear on-screen at the same time in any campaign.
[edit] Releases
In 1999 Battlezone went gold to perk gamer's attention and make a tribute to the new release of Battlezone II: Combat Commander. This Battlezone: Gold included the original Battlezone CD, manuals, and the Gold Disc Expansion pack, which introduced a new area to the Battlezone lore.
The Expansion pack The Red Odyssey features the Black Dog Squadron (an elite unit encountered by Russian forces in the original Battlezone) who, during a regular patrol on Ganymede, discover that the Chinese are also participating in the space race, but not necessarily on the side of the Soviets (as revealed through the Chinese Red Army single-player missions).
Red Odyssey offers a considerably higher difficulty level than the original game. New storylines feature the Black Dogs and Chinese forces as protagonists.
In 1998 MacMillan Publishing released "Battlegrounds", the only authorized Level Pack for Battlezone, after conducting a contest in which players submitted their own creations. The Pack contained 45 Instant Action missions and 50 multiplayer maps, along with providing a new utility to launch and manage maps.
In 1999 Macmillan Publishing released the Team Evolve-made addon pack for Battlezone, The Red Odyssey. This expansion contained an entirely new Single Player story arc pitting the Chinese Red Army forces against both their allies, the CCA, and their enemies the "Black Dogs". The "Black Dogs" were a roughed-up, beaten-up offshoot of the NSDF with the reputation of ending up with the toughest missions. The Chinese forces introduced both Portal technology that allowed travel outside the Solar System and a 'Cloak', which hid their ships while disabling weapons.
Activision released a sequel in 1999, Battlezone II: Combat Commander, which involved a war resulting from the incursion of a new race known as the Scions. Battlezone II introduced a split Single Player campaign, allowing the Player to switch sides at one point and join the enemy.
The game was ported to other systems by Crave Entertainment. In 2000, Crave ported the game to the Nintendo 64 under the name Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs.
[edit] Multiplayer
This game also has a unique multiplayer engine. It is based on the anet2 server package, which features a chat lobby and a list of games in progress. A player can select a game to join and then connect to the host's computer. From here the main game server is no longer involved.
Two modes are available in multiplayer: Death Match (DM) and Strategy (Strat). The first category (DM) Is where 2 or more players battle until the opposing ship is destroyed. Once destroyed the pilot is ejected and floats back to the ground, with the user's vehicle being respawned for continued play. The second category (Strat) involves two or more players who compete in teams or against one another for scrap and map domination. On some larger maps a strat game can easily run past the three hour mark.
[edit] Playability on modern computers
Despite its age and use of the obsolete DirectX5 graphics interface, Battlezone can be played on PCs running Windows XP provided that the game is patched to version 1.4 and Data Execution Prevention is disabled for this application. On a Windows Vista platform, the game can only be played in Direct3D-mode with a NVIDIA graphics card.
[edit] See also
- Battlezone (1980 video game) the original arcade game.
- Battlezone (Xbox LIVE Arcade), a Stainless Games developed update published by Atari Inc. for the Xbox LIVE Arcade.
