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Iron Soldier 3
by Eclipse
Source: nuon-dome.com
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Type: Mech Sim
# of players: 1-2
Levels: 25
MSRP: $29.95
Take on the PENTA forces
Worldwide industrialization has covered much of the earth's surface with large
cities and wastelands. Global corporations, such as PENTA, are using military
force to take over democratic governments in order to create a worldwide
military dictatorship.
As small conflicts became increasingly common, a need arises for a new type of
weapon - a 42 foot tall piloted robot, known as the Iron Soldier. This powerful
and flexible weapon system is used by the defense forces of the United Republic
one of the last independent states.
The Iron Soldier can carry a wide variety of weapons, negotiate rough, urban
terrain, and engage in close combat within the confines of dense industrial
complexes.
As part of the United Republic's elite defense force, your job is to pilot an
IS and use it to stop PENTA Industries' terrorist activities and protect the UR
from military harm.
Features:
* Fully rendered 3D worlds
* Three robot types
* 15 mountable weapons
* Jetpack for high speed action
* Two player duel mode and cooperative mode
* Surround Sound SFX
* Fully destructable environment
* 25 single player missions & arcade modes
* Enhanced destruction effects for buildings and enemies amid rolling
terrain
Hopefully, if you're reading this, you have at least heard of the Iron Soldier
series of games before. Getting it's start on the Atari Jaguar, the series has
since moved to the Sony Playstation and now NUON for the third installment of
this 42-foot tall, building-destroying, helicopter-shooting type of game. Let's
get down to the goods on this game, and see what it has in store for those
lucky enough to snap this up for their NUON-enhanced DVD players.
From power-on, you will notice that this game is polished up to the max. The
formerly static opening NUON logo has been replaced with a rendered animation
(seen on the NUON demo disk) with an accompanying sound effect. Next you'll be
greeted by a few lengthy, crisp, and decidedly well-done full motion video
sequences. As in FreeFall, the FMV is running at DVD resolution and shows
little to no artifacting at all. The opening menu, credits, high scores, etc.
all run on top of FMV backdrops for a very impressive visual effect. Static
screens in the opening menus are all rendered in high-resolution and look
great, which is a great change of pace from the lackluster menu screens seen in
other NUON games (Ballistic anyone?).
But the quality doesn't end at the menus, that's for sure. While NUON may not
be renowned for its polygon-pushing power, Iron Soldier 3 really gets down to
the metal and shows what can be done when a developer is willing to put the
time and effort into making their game look great. If you have played or even
seen the PSX version of this game, you will notice right away that all the
textures and graphics are much cleaner and don't have the blocky-ness that
plagues not only IS3, but most of the Playstation game library. Transparencies
are much more believable, and the lighting effects are outstanding - just wait
štill you're standing at the corner of a skyscraper and an enemy shot makes it
burst into flames.
There are a few noticeable flaws in the graphics, however - there is some
jagginess to the edges of buildings, helicopter blades and such, most likely
due to the resolution being under 640x480. Also, the snow and -desert haze-
effects look great, but the rain is far from convincing, looking more like
jagged little pixels than actual rain. However, the weather effects are
definitely a welcome feature, since they make the environments more realistic
and the world more believable.
As in the PSX version, the land now features height - hills and valleys to make
navigating the different areas of the game more challenging. Now you're forced
to mentally map out a route before taking action, unless you want to be left
staring off a cliff wondering how you are going to get down to it. Again, the
rolling landscape makes the world of Iron Soldier more lifelike, and even more
fun, as you can hurl grenades over a hill and nail an unsuspecting tank on the
other side.
The music and sound effects of Iron Soldier 3 really shine. As Eclipse is known
to do, they've once again included a great Surround Sound option, which allows
you to hear helicopters, tanks and planes coming up from behind you, and
creates an overall ambiance that just cannot be beat. All of the audio is
super-crisp and clear, and fits the game well. Numerous (and long) audio tracks
mean you won't get bored listening to the same looping music over and over.
As far as gameplay is concerned, you've got a few options for your city
destroying pleasure. There's the standard Mission mode, where you make your way
through the 25 missions by completing a variety of tasks. From collecting
supply crates, to defending cities from incoming forces, and even to the
dreaded -protect the truck convoy- missions, there is enough difference in the
levels to keep you from feeling like you're doing the same thing over and over.
Then you've got Arcade mode, in which your goal is to destroy the entire city
as quickly as possible. This can be played either solo, or against a friend to
see who is the ultimate in destruction. Also available is a two player
cooperative mode, which puts you and a friend in the same mech, one controlling
the legs and the other controlling the torso, to tackle the mission mode
together. While a bit disorienting at first, if you can get a partner that is
at least somewhat competent this mode can prove to be pretty enjoyable. Mission
mode is still the most enjoyable part of the game, but the other set of modes
are also a welcome addition to diversify the gaming experience a bit.
One glaring omission in IS3 is the lack of memory card support. Once again,
NUON gamers are forced to keep a list of passwords to keep track of their
progress in the game, rather than having the ease of saving the game
completely. Thankfully the passwords are kept short (six characters per code),
but they don't save stats and records, which played an important part in the
replayability of the Playstation revision of this game. Gameplay and system
settings can be saved with a similar 6-character code, so upon returning to the
game you're able to restore all your settings by entering the password. Close,
but just not the same as having full memory card support. Hopefully this game
will be the last on NUON that uses passwords.
The controls of the game take a bit of getting used to, especially if you are
familiar with the previous two Iron Soldier games. Now, switching controls is
accomplished by cycling through your arsenal using the B button rather than
hitting a single key on the keypad. The dual-analog control of the Playstation
version is missed as well - forward and reverse controls are no longer achieved
by using the second analog stick, but rather by holding the C Down key and
pushing up or down on the D-pad. Again, the HPI Stealth controller is not a
good choice if you want to use the analog stick, since the Z trigger doesn't
map to the L button. Grab yourself a Logitech gamepad or wait for the Pro-Elite
if you're looking for analog control on this one, otherwise the D-pad on the
Stealth is still preferred over the -clicky- Warrior controller.
But don't let the game's few shortcomings get you down, Iron Soldier 3 on NUON
shines and is a blast to play. If blowing up buildings and stomping tanks in a
huge robot sounds like fun, then you won't be disappointed with IS3. With great
graphics, crisp, clear audio, and a completely polished presentation, you won't
believe this game is running on your DVD player.
Graphics-9
Great FMV, crisp textures and overall polish make this game look great.
Slight jagginess keeps it down from a 10, though.
Sound/Music-9.5
Good techno tracks and high-quality sound effects, all presented in full
surround sound.
Control-8
A complex scheme, but it eventually becomes second nature - except for
cycling through your weapons.
Fun Factor-8.5
It doesn't get much better than complete destruction, and IS3 serves it up
with style.
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Overall (not an average)-90%
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