Version number:
Battlezone Gold Edition
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Official Trailer
What kind of Coop Game is this?
Battlezone Gold Edition is a non-VR-port of the 2016 VR reimagining of the 1998 cult classic reimagining of the 1980 cult arcade classic where up to 4 players can hover their tanks cooperatively through a procedurally generated, roguelite campaign.
Details:
Platform:
Price paid:
20€
Number of people played with:
4
Possible number of players:
Time played so far:
7hrs
Estimated completion rate:
completed one campaign succesfully
Estimate minimum Age to play:
6
Date game profile was posted:
03/03/2021
Co-Optimus.com Profile for feature info:
Rating
6/10
Why you should coop this:
Battlezone is a beloved IP – especially since the underdog masterpiece Battlezone (1998) that took some ideas from a 80s arcade game and developed those into one fully fledged RealTimeStrategy-3D Action-hybrid game that could have easily spawned a new genre but somehow didn’t. The IP was abandoned after a sequel in 1999. So naturally ears perked when there was a new entry in the series announced in 2016. It quickly became apparent that this was not a revitalization of the innovative 98 gameplay since the new game ditched all the RTS elements and is now an arcady tank shooter. Booooo! Boycott! Outrage!
After the dust has settled it was okay for me to look at the game free of the baggage of its own heritage and the VR-less switch port was a good opportunity to coop it with friends. And I am surprised and happy to report that is quite nice.
The game ditched the space race and low gravity battlefields and now plays inside a tron-like Computer-World where you have to fight an evil AI with your cool cybertanks. Apparently it is also low gravity in the virtual world so the floaty controls feel very true to the old game. You can choose in the beginning if you want your coop campaign short, medium or long and you can choose the difficulty as well as one of a few tanktypes already unlocked from the start.
Then you are dropped on the map and the host can choose a tile where to move in round based level selection map. You move to the tile and maybe it is a shop, a two-sentence event where you can choose a 50/50% outcome that will either reward you or not or a level where you are immediately loaded into the 3D world and have to play a combat encounter. There are some different mission objectives in these: kill the enemy base, defend an area, kill certain enemies, reach the extraction point,… and the action portion is genuinely fun and due to a heal ability of your tank this game has a well implemented coop mechanic. Putting points on healing allows you to heal your partner or the objective you are guarding – this brings a certain kind of playstyle with it that we appreciated. Other than that communication is important to decide who is scanning bonus objectives or who is going to do a sortie for collecting things or a recon run. You are always juggling your finances which creates some tense moments where you have to decide to either save credits in hope you will reach a shop node soon or spending it on shield, healing or reload upgrades.
Every node you visit will increase the AI threat level and every few levels a pink enemy will spawn on the map and confronts you in a tense fight since these units are tough. You beat the campaign once you destroyed enough generators to weaken the boss-core and then destroying it.
After the dust has settled it was okay for me to look at the game free of the baggage of its own heritage and the VR-less switch port was a good opportunity to coop it with friends. And I am surprised and happy to report that is quite nice.
The game ditched the space race and low gravity battlefields and now plays inside a tron-like Computer-World where you have to fight an evil AI with your cool cybertanks. Apparently it is also low gravity in the virtual world so the floaty controls feel very true to the old game. You can choose in the beginning if you want your coop campaign short, medium or long and you can choose the difficulty as well as one of a few tanktypes already unlocked from the start.
Then you are dropped on the map and the host can choose a tile where to move in round based level selection map. You move to the tile and maybe it is a shop, a two-sentence event where you can choose a 50/50% outcome that will either reward you or not or a level where you are immediately loaded into the 3D world and have to play a combat encounter. There are some different mission objectives in these: kill the enemy base, defend an area, kill certain enemies, reach the extraction point,… and the action portion is genuinely fun and due to a heal ability of your tank this game has a well implemented coop mechanic. Putting points on healing allows you to heal your partner or the objective you are guarding – this brings a certain kind of playstyle with it that we appreciated. Other than that communication is important to decide who is scanning bonus objectives or who is going to do a sortie for collecting things or a recon run. You are always juggling your finances which creates some tense moments where you have to decide to either save credits in hope you will reach a shop node soon or spending it on shield, healing or reload upgrades.
Every node you visit will increase the AI threat level and every few levels a pink enemy will spawn on the map and confronts you in a tense fight since these units are tough. You beat the campaign once you destroyed enough generators to weaken the boss-core and then destroying it.
Shortcomings:
The roguelite nature of this game stayed a mystery. If you use up your lives you are booted back to the main menu and all progress is lost except what kind of weapons you have unlocked in your armoury.
Two things we found strange:
1. What we failed to grasp is how these unlocks are an advantage for your next run: you have to find supplies points on the map and what selection of weapons are on offer there seem very random – you can buy weapons there you have not unlocked and you get weapons offered in a worse variant than what you already have unlocked in the armoury. So why is there this armoury? We did just ignore this and always were able to buy okay enough weapons.
2. You can use up lives once you are downed in a mission. You have only three and buying more costs you credits you better use for weapons and upgrades. In the first few two we used up our lives and failed the campaigns once we were down to zero lives. We then tried not using up lives to revive in mission and getting a team wipe in a mission will send you back to the map with the node failed but no lives lost – the only thing we did miss out on was the credit reward for that level. That seems very unusual for a roguelite game. This lead to a change in strategy that got us a win of a normal, medium campaign at our third try.
So a shortcoming of this game is that its structure seems a bit weird and not very clear.
Another thing is that a normal campaign took us around three hours and it has quite a slow start and only the last third is of the campaign – once you have harder enemies and better loadouts – is really fun so playing through this more than once is not that appealing. After our 7-8hrs with this game, we beat and felt we have seen enough.
This has to be saidas well: if you expect anything like Battlezone 98 in scope, creativity or quality you will be utterly disappointed. Battlezone is a fun action shooter but nothing more.
Two things we found strange:
1. What we failed to grasp is how these unlocks are an advantage for your next run: you have to find supplies points on the map and what selection of weapons are on offer there seem very random – you can buy weapons there you have not unlocked and you get weapons offered in a worse variant than what you already have unlocked in the armoury. So why is there this armoury? We did just ignore this and always were able to buy okay enough weapons.
2. You can use up lives once you are downed in a mission. You have only three and buying more costs you credits you better use for weapons and upgrades. In the first few two we used up our lives and failed the campaigns once we were down to zero lives. We then tried not using up lives to revive in mission and getting a team wipe in a mission will send you back to the map with the node failed but no lives lost – the only thing we did miss out on was the credit reward for that level. That seems very unusual for a roguelite game. This lead to a change in strategy that got us a win of a normal, medium campaign at our third try.
So a shortcoming of this game is that its structure seems a bit weird and not very clear.
Another thing is that a normal campaign took us around three hours and it has quite a slow start and only the last third is of the campaign – once you have harder enemies and better loadouts – is really fun so playing through this more than once is not that appealing. After our 7-8hrs with this game, we beat and felt we have seen enough.
This has to be saidas well: if you expect anything like Battlezone 98 in scope, creativity or quality you will be utterly disappointed. Battlezone is a fun action shooter but nothing more.
Cooperative or Multiplayer Game?
Many games that are listed as Coop are games were you rather play together with players playing simultaneously. The true cooperative element comes in with working together, coordination and good teamwork. Both types are viable and can be great fun. Our aim is to let you know how this game handles this. More on this distinction under “About this Site”.
Cooperation
If the graph is more orange colored the game falls more in the Cooperation category.
Multiplayer
If the graph is more blue colored the game falls more in the Multiplayer category.
Tags:
- action /// communication is key /// coordination necessary /// fun romp /// roguelite
Played by:
- chasinkairos /// Inkzilla /// kwtwo /// Monki