Battlezone II: Combat Commander

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Battlezone II: Combat Commander
Image:Battlezone II - Combat Commander Coverart.png
Developer(s) Pandemic Studios
Publisher(s) Activision
Version 1.3pb3 Public Beta(Latest unofficial release) 1.2 (Latest official release)
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date 1999
Genre(s) First-person shooter, Real-time strategy
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: E (Everyone)
USK: 16+
Media CD-ROM
System requirements 200 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM, 4 MB video card RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 7.0, 600 MB available hard disk space, Windows 95

Battlezone II: Combat Commander, often abriviated as BZII or BZ2, is a 1999 computer game released by Pandemic Studios as a sequel to Activision's 1998 Battlezone. Battlezone II features two races, the ISDF (humans) and the Scions (aliens).

Like Activision's Battlezone, Battlezone II is a hybrid tank shooter, first-person shooter and real-time strategy game. The player pilots a tank, while using the function keys to select and command units.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The events of Battlezone II are set in an alternate version of the 1990s, in which access to alien technology necessitates the creation of an international peacekeeping force, the International Space Defense Force (ISDF), whose role is to oversee distribution of the rare bio-metal resource and mediate disputes between member nations.

The plot had also been changed somewhat comparing to the previous game. The Furies are, in fact, the Black Dog squadron, brought in for experimenting. General Armand Braddock, an M.I.T. graduate, conducts an experiment of fusing bio-metal with human flesh, called Project Pedigree, creating highly efficient killers fused with their vehicles. After some resounding victories, the Furies rebel. The NSDF and the CCA merge, creating the ISDF (International Space Defense Force). Their combined power was enough to defeat the Furies, who flee towards the outer Solar System. To prevent the misuse of bio-metal, the AAN (Alliance of Awakened Nations) is created to oversee the even distribution of the resource between the countries.

After several years, Braddock starts to monitor the boundaries of the Solar System. He secretly builds a base on Pluto from diverted resources without the knowledge of the AAN. They also discover a new celestial body, dubbed "Dark Planet" because of its hidden nature. During these, they come in contact of an alien race who call themselves the "Scion Collective". Shortly after the loss of the Voyager-2 probe, contact with Cerberus Base on Pluto was lost. Braddock informs the AAN's leader, Ambassador Kossieh of the fiasco. A whole fleet of ISDF troops was dispatched to find out what happened.

The storyline follows the experience of Lieutenant John Cooke, who was in the fleet as a subordinate of Commander Yelena Shabayev. After landing, Cooke, Shabayev and Lieutenant Simms find the base in ruins (Simms: "For a scout outpost, this place sure was heavily armed."), and also meet with some unknown - later to be Scion - crafts, who shoot them on sight. Cooke founds a survivor, Major Manson, who requests a discussion with Braddock, but Shabayev notices that something is jamming their communications, prompting Manson to say "Then they already know you're here, pal. Your best bet is to call every squad who can hear you." Meanwhile, Simms is conducting a perimeter patrol and become under attack. The other two saves him, but they receive a distress call from another squad. As Simms is wounded, he is left at the base. Cooke goes out to save the squad and their service unit.

Shabayev and Cooke went out to the main section of the base, encountering a strange, bug-like vehicle, who surprisingly quickly erected a jamming device. After breaking through the Scion defenses, the duo reached the base. Shabayev's past experience with Constructor units came handy, as she restored power to the bases. Cooke singlehandedly defended the base while she was away, receiving his trademark Sabre hovertank. After some skirmishes, Cooke planted a tracking device in a retreating Scion craft, enabling the fleet to follow them to the Dark Planet. After establishing an outpost, Manson requested Cokke's help is destroying an "alien" structure (a pilot noticed "This looks like one of ours."). As Manson requested that he won't say anything to anyone, Shabayev was told that he just wandered off-course (prompting her to argue with Cooke, though she pretended it, knewing that something wasn't right). The remains of Voyager-2 was found some distance from the base; analysis showing that it was destroyed by a Scion missile. After a decisive victory, the Scions retreated through an unknown phenomenon, speculated to be a wormhole. Braddock ordered the whole fleet to follow.

The fleet arrived in another system, thousands of light years from Earth. The system has three planets, Mire, Bane and Rend. After landing on Mire, Shabayev suffered an accident, calling Cooke for help. However, they were trapped in the jungle. Cooke made it back to the base on foot, prompting Manson to say "That was very impressive; the way you marched through that jungle... I must say I'm surprised you survived..." Cooke also brought back a chip, pinpointing the location of a Scion base with a large power signature. The signature turned out to be a large device, anchored into Mire's core, capable of harnessing the power of the entire planet to create a blast capable of destroying Earth in one shot. Although the machine was left intact, the power source was removed per Braddock's orders. Shabayev's team did their own investigation, concluding that the energy used by the device can be used for a number of purposes. The report is incomplete, as the team was removed from site.

The machine had been equipped with transmitters, showing that there are more of them. As all three planets are small, they could only support one device per planet. Bane was the next target. After eliminating a convoy, Cooke was sent through a cave to find the source of an unknown transmission. It was a transmitter, housed in a destroyed city of some sort and bearing the insignia of the Black Dog squadron. Braddock immediately ordered bombing of the building, nearly killing Cooke in the process ("I would relocate immediately if I were you, Cooke." Shabayev: "General, what are you- Wait until my men are out of there! Cooke, get the hell out of there and return to base!") However, the detonation caused the cave to collapse, trapping him if Braddock do not sends a dropship. Due to his bravery, Cooke is promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

Shabayev is extremely suspicious, filing a report for the AAN about Braddock's actions. When they were dispatched to the next mission of demolishing a Scion base, both dropships were shot down. After helping a Recycler stranded in an ice field, Cooke founds the wreckage of Shabayev's ship, but no sign of her. The attack was attributed to a Scion missile, although none of their ships were in the area when the attack occurred. The dropship was cleared for wreckage and she was presumed dead.

Manson was under attack from the Scions, but Cooke arrived just in time to help them and disarm the second weapon device. Unfortunately for Braddock, the transmitter they destroyed previously managed to send a message to Ambassador Kossieh. The leader of the Scions, Padishah Burns, has requested a meeting for arranging peace. Kossieh accepted, suspending Braddock and preparing to send him home to be court-martialled. He navigated his carrier over Rend and sent a dropship for Burns. Manson and Cooke was to oversee Burns' boarding in a Scion base. However, the dropship exploded just as it reached the carrier's dock, blowing it out of the sky. After some major confusion, the Scion crafts opened fire. Manson was cut off and Cooke barely managed to get out alive. Fortunately, Braddock sent some support for him, resulting in the disarming of the final weapon device.

As Kossieh was killed, Braddock was reinstated to power. He promoted Cooke to Major, sending him to the carrier's wreckage to search for survivors. Cooke caught sight of a Scion craft trying to haul away the still living Burns' vehicle. The Padishah was captured and towed back to base, however, a Scion appeared and said itself to be Shabayev ([her distorted, mechanic voice] "John... This is Shabayev...John...please...stop." [normal voice through radio] "John, it's me, Yelena! I'm on my way to you, stay there!"). She tries to reason with Cooke, while Braddock vehemently orders him to fire. The storyline now diverge into two lines:

[edit] ISDF Alternate Ending

John obeys his superior's command and destroys the Scion craft. Braddock informs him that Manson and his men survived, but they refused to obey, saying that he (Braddock) is a traitor to the AAN. Cooke inserts a small team under his lead and destroys the base. Manson's body was found at the outskirts of the base. They also find out that Burns has escaped.

Following Scion transmissions, they locate the heart of the Scion society: Core Planet. It is a medium sized planet presumed to be artificial. The whole planet bears a striking resemblance to the Dark Planet and is essentially a huge computer. After establishing an outpost, Cooke followed a convoy to a hole in the crust, leading to the planet's interior. He descended, and after dispatching numerous automated defenses, destroyed the central crystal, causing the planet to collapse and detonate. His monologue concludes that "The Scion threat is gone. With no Core Planet, the entire race will die off in a matter of days. [...] Why would they wanted to destroy Earth? Or they never wanted to destroy Earth at all? I guess we never know. The answer dies with them."

[edit] Scion Alternate Ending

Instead of shooting as ordered, Cooke orders the Tug carrying Burns to follow the Scion. At this point, all Scion resistance cease. After leading him through an underground tunnel, the Scion confirms that she is, indeed, Shabayev, found by the Scions on Bane. She explains that Braddock ordered the attack on the dropships to silence them. He ordered the Voyager to be shot down to prevent the AAN from detecting the ISDF base on the Dark Planet. She also tell John that Scions are, in fact, humans. The core of the Collective were the Furies, who found the Chtonian ruins on Mire and decided to embrace it (the Chtonians were the creators of bio-metal and fused the matter with their collective consciousness). Every Scion was fused with bio-metal, giving them enhanced speed, strength and intelligence. Their ultimate goal is not to destroy Earth, but to bring the Chtonian culture back to humanity.

John was transformed into a Scion to better aid their cause ("I can do things. I can feel things I never felt before."). He was informed by Burns that the three machines which he disarmed are alchemitors. The Core Planet is dying, as evidenced by a large number of dead Scions found on Pluto and Dark Planet before. They can only survive if they find a new Core, and the Dark Planet is the ideal candidate. A routine patrol has managed to steal one of the power crystals of the three machines. John helped them evacuate it from the area; when the original route was sealed by a landslide, he investigated it and saw a departing Scion vehicle. The second crystal was stolen from a base with a clever tactic: John lured the defenders into an ambush, then shut down the defenses with a surgical artillery strike on the power generators. When the third crystal was acquired, each was sent to their respective alchemitors. However, when he brought the final crystal to Rend, his team was ambushed by a much larger force of rebels who captured the crystal.

Burns received information that Manson's AAN loyalists (including himself) had defied Braddock and are under siege from his New Regimen troops. After breaking the siege, Cooke counterattacked with Manson's forces, destroying the NR base and even intercepting a rebel convoy carrying the crystal which they were willing to give to Braddock for bio-metal.

With the last crystal in his possession, Cooke landed on Rend for a final payback. Braddock personally defended the alchemitor with an Attila Combat Walker, but he was ultimately defeated and the crystal was placed. The three alchemitors were then activated, their combined beam was shot through a wormhole into the Solar System. The beam impacted into the Dark Planet, gradually transforming it into a new Core Planet at Earth's doorstep.


[edit] Gameplay

Pandemic Studios continued and expanded the concept of a RTS and FPS hybrid where the player drove the vehicle in the game, but using a mixture of the reticle and the space bar, select units and buildings to build and order units around the battle field. The F keys at the top of the keyboard were used to create groups of units for easy selection of the units presently on the battlefield when they were not in the range of the player to select via the spacebar.

The common consensus is that Battlezone II was not very popular as it tried to blend to groups together and both styles of players having trouble adapting to the other style they were unused too. Programmer Ken Miller said, "BZ2 was meant to do that at first [appeal to both genres], but headed in the opposite direction. The problem is that mixedgenre games only attract players that like BOTH genres (the intersection) as opposed to EITHER genre (the union). It mainly comes down to learning curve. Action/shooter gamers can pick up just about any action/shooter game on the market and play it in short order, as almost all of them use the same control scheme and feature similar gameplay conventions. Similarly, strategy gamers can pick up just about any strategy game on the market and play it, although strategy games tend to differ from each other more than action games. Confronting an action/shooter gamer with strategy or a strategy player with with action tends to force them outside their genre "comfort zone" and requires a steeper learning curve. My pithiest, if somewhat unfair, summation is this: 'FPS players don't want to think; RTS players don't want to die.'"[1]

[edit] Actors and actresses

Battlezone II sported some known voice actors in both the film and game worlds. These included:

[edit] Instant action

Instant Action mode allows the player to play a single player game against the computer. Pre version 1.3, certain maps forced the player to use certain races, but the ability to switch races was added in 1.3, as well as numerous additional maps.

[edit] Technical issues

Battlezone II was not made to be compatible with Windows 2000 and both its installation program and the main game executable will crash if run on that operating system. Battlezone II can be installed and run on Windows 2000 by using compatibility mode. The installation program \Setup\Setup.exe on the game CD must be run through a shortcut which is set to use compatibility mode with Windows 95 compatibility layer.

In Windows 2000, the Compatibility-mode technology is not exposed by default, and requires the Service Pack 2 or later. To enable it, click Start, then Run..., type: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll and click OK.

Additionally, a patch (v1.3) was released that not only improved the games stability, but made the game fully compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, DirectX 8.1+, and added various new components to the gameplay. Although the 1.3 beta offers better technological support, most members of the Battlezone community feel that the gameplay has worsened due to a bug fix (the ability to fly to unlimited heights) and continue to play on version 1.2. Typically, those still using 1.2 are the only people who still play online.

June 2008 - the version 1.3 public beta patch has resolved most of the outstanding technical issues and added significant modification capabilities. The on-line community is very much a live and playing using the current public beta patch. Several user generated existing and new modifications have been updated to take advantage of the new features available in the v1.3 public beta patch.

[edit] Modifications

Battlezone II was designed to be able to support player modifications and featured an in-game mapping tool. Existing vehicles can be modified and new vehicles can be created. Weapons, buildings and missions can also be edited. Below are some examples of player-made mods for Battlezone II.

[edit] Forgotten Enemies

Forgotten Enemies is an expansion pack created by members of the game's community with some technical support from two of the game's original developers. It takes place a good time after the events of BZII, and adds 2 new alien races, the Hadean Crown & the Cerberi Collective, to the game and features an entire new story. (The story however, follows the events of the 'Scion' plotline, rather than the 'ISDF' plotline, in which the Scions are destroyed.) In this expansion pack, the ISDF, looking to shed any association with the embarrassment suffered under General Armond Braddock, change their name to the EDF, or Earth Defense Force. They currently share an uneasy truce with the Scions who have not yet forgotten the wrath of Braddock. The Scions, while scouting in space, report a disturbance coming from a wormhole. This transmission is cut off, however, leaving the EDF to go on the defensive. The 'disturbance' turns out to be the Hadeans, another race, whose intentions are unclear. Later on, the player encounters the Cerberi, a race of mechanical beings whose motive is also uncertain.

[edit] FleshStorm

FleshStorm is an expansion pack created by Lizard which details the Black Dog Squadron after the events of Forgotten Enemies. This mod brings many new planets, three new alien races, and many other new features to life.

The planet of Gallus IV goes silent and the EDF is sent to investigate. On arrival, they discover that the once tropical world is now reduced to a barren wasteland, dotted with an unknown alien race that has been named the Swarm being the ones responible for the destruction of Gallus IV.

FleshStorm features a completely new look, eight singleplayer missions, and the ability to play as the Swarm, the Phaer Rhan, or the Mechana Defense Network in multiplayer.

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Battlezone Magazine Issue #1, p. 4