What I'm tellin' ya: Wow! What a great game! Heavy Gear II is perhaps one of the best mechanized armor shooters I have played. It socks it to you relentlessly, and from all avenues. Each mission completion is a satisfying triumph, entertaining you along the way with strange new worlds to explore, realistic graphics and sound, and intelligent enemies to defend against. It is deeper, grittier, harsher and faster!

	Don't stop to admire the scenery in Heavy Gear 2.
Click on the thumbnail for full image. (108K)

Deeper, because the plots are not just superficial "seek and destroy" missions. Instead, there are missions to escort important dignitaries, scout areas for hostiles, assist rebels, guard installations and capture officers. Deeper still because the graphics provide rich indoor, outdoor and space arenas, including swamps, mountains, deserts, forests, space cruisers and more. Slick weather effects including rain, snow, lightning and wind add to the realism and deep fascinating beauty of these strange new worlds.

Grittier, because of the no-nonsense cutthroat tactics the enemy brings down on you. The enemy adapts to your tactics, trying different angles of attack. This is one of the first games I have seen where the enemy seems to call for back-up and stays under cover if threatened and outgunned instead of just popping out and charging. Even the men and women you command are more realistic than the average computer-run friendly-perhaps too realistic, because they have flaws, such as being timid, or too headstrong, which gets you into trouble at times and requires you to be a good commander. You might have to think a little with this game. A handy book to reference, such as The Art of War, should have been included, but the manual gives great tips.

Harsher, because the graphic nature of this game pulls few punches. You hear the dying screams of your comrades as their gears explode, fragmenting in fiery, smoke-filled, earth-rocking explosions. You see foot soldiers fall in half under the laser, and fly in all directions from the antipersonnel mortar. You can almost feel every hit, hearing it pound on the skin of your gear, slicing its way to you. I enjoyed using the sniper system, which zooms in with long-range weapons to allow you to pick off your enemies, because long distance is the next best thing to being there.

Faster, because there are very few seams to the endless action. Once you get in battle, you'd best be prepared for the enemy to surround you and not cease firing until you stop moving or they fall to your weaponry. If that is not fast enough for you, pop out your wheels, or the SMS (Secondary Movement System). Rocket about the landscape at breakneck speeds, avoiding the enemy in quick retreat, or use the speed to drop in on them for a short, unexpected visit.

If you like mechanized warfare, first-person shooters, or Internet head-to-head games, I would suggest Heavy Gear II. As the box says, it is deeper, grittier, harsher and faster than most video games of the times, and a lot of challenging fun. It would have gotten an A++ if it was not for a few crashes I would get (only when I was winning). So, it gets an A-, with hopes for Heavy Gear III to follow in its deep footsteps, (minus a little bugginess)!

Heavy Gear II requires some fairly "heavy gear, too": a 3-D accelerator card, 166 MHz Pentium processor, 100% Windows 95/98 compatible computer system in English, 64 Mb RAM, 450 Mb of disk space (80 Mb for the Windows swap file), 4X speed CD-ROM, DirectX, mouse, and CD audio (Redbook) support. Recommended: 233 MHz Pentium. Joystick optional.

Lighter Blue: Mini-Reviews

A Brief Look at Army Men II
Never before has a game moved you farther into the persona of Sid, the vicious little boy next door in the movie Toy Story. You are in command of squadrons of little plastic army men, the greens versus the tans, and the game imbues these soldiers with the ability to speak, move, use artillery and scream. That sadistic-kid feeling comes into the picture when you realize the most thrilling parts of the game are when you wield a giant magnifying glass to burn enemy soldiers to a lump, or you strap an M-80 firecracker to a soldier for a suicide mission... which is pretty warped stuff.

At its best, Army Men II almost falls into a category with Jurassic Park: Chaos Island, providing a sort of "strategy lite" experience (with an outdated graphics engine) that might even be aimed at kids. But consistently, Army Men II is at its worst in the areas of control and pathing, with jerky scrolling and funky AI getting in the way of a truly good time. So there's a pretty fun game in the Army Men II box, but there's also plenty of room for improvement, which brings us to the sequel: Army Men: Toys In Space, coming soon! No kidding. Grade: C+.

A Brief Look at Caesar III
The pinnacle of the Caesar line of games, Caesar III, is 90 percent SimCity and 10 percent, well, something like Age of Empires, perhaps. SimCity players will need to unlearn the idea that a building creates a zone of service around it, and instead get used to a Caesarean twist: all traffic is along roads. If a simple road joins two structures, their relationship is simple, but as the road branches in different directions, your people who, for example, extinguish fires, just might get lost along the way to the burning forum.

	Intensely detailed graphics enrich the Caesar III experience.
Click on the thumbnail for full image. (360K)

A fine single-player game with a construction kit, Caesar III will keep you busy managing taxes and commerce, food production and storage, warfare and defense, entertainment and even the local version of organized religion. You'll find yourself offering temples and festivals to appease five gods who mete out their individual punishments and rewards. You'll also want to get satisfied reports from Caesar himself. Graphics are splendid, and sound effects are bustling, though unfortunately not tuned to the screen's activities. And get ready for Impressions' follow-up, coming soon: Pharaoh. Grade: B+.

A Brief Look at Wages of Sin
Step back into the, uh, monstrous biceps of crimebuster John Blade, aided as before by his cocky sidekick J.C., in this add-on pack for Sin (full version of the original Sin required). With the archvillian of Sin out of the way, these 17 new single-player missions are driven by a new bad guy: a cruel mobster named Gianni Manero, and his mutant minions. You've also got seven new weapons at hand, as these levels work their way up from the sewers back to the streets of Sin City. New developer 2015 did a good job working up some clever, enjoyable level maps to keep you and Blade occupied.

	Wages of Sin even introduces multiplayer hoverbike action.
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The dozen new multiplayer levels include some well-implemented hoverbike action, and you're bound to have a wickedly good time with guided missiles. The latest Sin patch is necessarily included on the CD, though hopefully everybody who bought Sin has already applied the (large) patch. If you're running patchless, be advised that the Sin patches really smooth out some aggravating problems with the first release. We won't even bother to ask whether you should be playing a more sophisticated 3D shooter than Sin; you already know whether you want more. Grade: B.