BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception
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| Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Westwood Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Infocom |
| Platform(s) | PC, Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64 |
| Release date | 1989 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Media | Floppy Disk |
| System requirements | DOS: 286, 640KB RAM, MS-DOS |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse |
Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception was a turn-based adventure/RPG game released in 1989 by Westwood Studios and based on the BattleTech franchise. It was one of the first commercial ports of the licence, and featured some of the franchise's worlds, institutions, political figures, and weapons, particularly the three-story tall Battlemechs. It supported 256 VGA colour and PC speaker sound.
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[edit] Storyline
The player takes the role of Jason Youngblood, a young cadet MechWarrior stationed on Pacifica in the Lyran Commonwealth. Stationed at the Citadel, Jason is learning how to pilot a Battlemech and also to fight with small arms, all the while having to live up to the reputation of his hero father, Jerimiah. During a training session in his 'Mech, the Citadel comes under attack from neighbouring star-empire the Draconis Combine, slaying the Palace guard, Jerimiah apparently among them. Barely escaping, Jason is rescued from arrest by Draconis Police by Rex, a friend and colleague of Jerimiah's. Together they must find and join up with fellow members of the Crescent Hawks, a secret society established by Jerimiah and the Archon Katrina to organise a guerilla defence of Pacifica should it be overrun.
[edit] Gameplay
The game is divided into three sections, each with different objectives and gameplay style, but a similar interface. The first section is set at the Citadel, and as a way to get a feel for the engine and the interface the player must complete successively harder training missions in a BattleMech, and also enrol in lessons in a selection of small arms. As well as giving the player an idea of the theme of the game, this section allows the player to "level up" and earn some C-Bills, the staple currency in the BattleTech universe. Unusually, all of the game's plot events occur in-play, having the game start before the story. During one of the training missions, the citadel comes under attack and the game changes.
The second section of the game is much more staple RPG: finding people to join your party, finding better weapons, items to advance the plot, and of course, engaging in or avoiding battles. The game here sees the growing party search Pacifica's towns and cities for the means to open an old Star League era cache of Battle Mechs and other equipment Jerimiah seems to have concealed. Navigation around the map is timed to the computer's internal clock, when random encounters with enemy 'Mechs and infantry can occur. The player can choose to manually target his weapons (which introduces the turn based battle system) or can opt for computer controlled combat. Some of the towns are walled and require 'Mechs to be parked in a Garage, meaning that a Mech is not always able to count as protection. Random attacks occur often and cannot always be fled from, and so during this section keeping one's Mech fully functional and protected becomes both challenging and important. Fortunately the attackers become stronger if you gain more Mechs and less strong again if you lose one. C-Bill shortages can become a real problem, especially if you are using weapons with ammunition like missile racks or don't have a party member who can effect Mech repairs. The final section, which is reached once the means of entry to the cave is discovered, consists of a series of puzzles, requiring a combination of luck and logic.
[edit] Audience reactions
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (December 2007) |
Whilst not introducing many new concepts to gaming, The Crescent Hawks' Inception was generally well received, and for its time, did justice to the licence as later more simulation-based games by Activision (and its subsequent owners) would do from the 1990s onwards. The combination of the RPG and piloting elements of the game is not one that has been repeated (within the licence at least) but it is possible that future games could revive this blend in the form of a role-playing first-person shooter / simulation.
Complaints were mostly minor, about the small selection of Mechs involved in the game, the lack of a lance-to-lance 'end battle' where the player gets to fight using Jerimiah's cool Phoenix Hawk, and minor problems with the allocation of skills. Among the anti-personnel weapons available, SRMs and Infernos are the most deadly and can also harm Mechs, and yet they require no skill or training to use.
