Developed by a small group at Capcom, Steel Battalion is the brainchild of Atsushi Inaba, whose work you may know from Viewtiful Joe and Okami. (Not to mention Vanquish, which I quite liked.) Inaba is one to watch; his games are usually weird and wonderful and push these creative right-brain experiments that AAA games are too timid to try. In an era of sequelitis, Inaba shuns iteration for experimentation. And that design philosophy is nowhere more apparent than in Steel Battalion's gargantuan controller, which brought the game's price tag to a whopping $200. I mean, seriously, look at that controller, LOOK AT IT, and tell me you're not filled with a perverse mixture of curiosity, disgust, excitement, and sheer anxiety.
That's 40 buttons, a gear shifter, three foot pedals, two joysticks, and a thumbstick on top of a joystick. And you will use all of these during the course of a mission. Let me see if I can sum it up:
The left joystick rotates the legs of the mech, while the foot pedals are used as gas and break, much like a car. Meanwhile, the thumbstick on the left joystick controls the turret, while the right joystick moves the cross hairs independently and fires your weapons. So, unlike a standard FPS, you have to be looking at your target with your left hand while aiming your guns at it with the right, while simultaneously remembering what direction your legs are facing and operating the gas and brake pedals accordingly. Those 40 buttons will handle functions from the incredibly important (reload, change weapons) to the incredibly mundane (windshield wipers, changing the color of your HUD).
Oh, and as a public service announcement, I'm gonna go ahead and direct your attention to the large red button on the upper right. The one that has a plastic cover and says EJECT. Yeah, remember where that is, and be ready to push it at a moment's notice. Because if your mech is about to be destroyed and you don't hit that button, then the game will DELETE YOUR SAVE FILE and you're forced to start over from the beginning. No, I am not kidding.
The display is styled as though you're actually inside the cockpit, surrounding you with a legion of dials, meters, blinking lights, and various other widgets. And none of them are for show— every single one tells you something important. Yes, in addition to maneuvering your mech and not getting asploded, you also need to worry about things like RPMs and engine heat.
It's a lot to take in, but all that detail and minutiae serve the purpose of making Steel Battalion so immersive. The sheer mental effort required to coordinate all these moving parts can't help but draw you into the world. It is definitely one of the most unique, and interesting, gaming experiences I've had.
I'm just not sure it's actually fun.
At its best, you can't help but be totally engrossed in the experience of shifting gears and flipping switches as you move your hulk across the battlefield. It's a lot to handle, but most of the time the combat is slow-paced and methodical (one might even say lumbering) to compensate. The game does a great job of conveying the sheer size and weight of your walking battle tank, and while it forces you to think tactically and pick your battles to avoid being overwhelmed, it is supremely satisfying to pick apart enemy mechs one by one.
At its worst, though, Steel Battalion can be incredibly frustrating, due to a series of odd design choices. For instance, every time you start a level, there is a 60-second startup sequence where you run through a series of switches and menus. It's exhilarating the first time, but by your tenth outing the experience starts to wear thin and just becomes an impediment to actually playing and enjoying the game.
It is also not served at all by the complete lack of a tutorial. My first time playing, it took me almost 10 minutes to figure out that the reason I wasn't moving was because I left the mech in neutral. Yeah, in retrospect I was kind of an idiot, but the first level immediately throws you into a firefight without giving you any time to learn the ridiculously complex control scheme. Another time, I turned a corner too quickly and toppled over like a seasick toddler after his fourth Jägerbomb. It makes sense that your tank would be top-heavy, and it's a great realistic detail, but it would have been nice to maybe let the player know that's a thing that can happen. We might gripe about being forced to play through "boring tutorial levels" in the modern age, but man alive did Steel Battalion teach me the value of in-game instruction.
And it has to be said, this game is not pretty at all. The textures are so muddy, it's often difficult to tell enemies apart from trees and buildings, which is a huge detriment gameplay. I realize it's running on 15-year-old technology, but I remember Xbox 180 games looking a lot better than this. I played a lot of Armored Core back in the day and I don't think I ever had problems telling enemies apart from the background.
So, what's the final verdict? I have a huge amount of admiration for Steel Battalion's ambition, scope, and pure off-the-walls extremism. It's a dream come true for hardcore mech fans, but the game itself is flawed, and ultimately I gave up the campaign halfway through. But it was an intense and crazy experience while it lasted, and I'm glad I went to the effort to give it a try.
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