A Review: Battletanx: Global Assault, N64 1999

BattleTanx: Global Assault is the second game in the series and a direct sequel to BattleTanx 64. It was made available on Playstation One too. This time around, the story focuses on an evil Queenlord, as she spies on Griffin and his family in order to kill them and kidnap his son, Brandon. The player is then tasked with rescuing Brandon and stopping the evil Cassandra in her plot. The game ends on something of a cliffhanger with a sequel planned, but sadly, The 3DO Company went bankrupt not long after releasing BattleTanx: Global Assault, and so no sequel ever came. The gameplay is a little changed from the first game, but it sees the addition of new tanks and weapons for the player to wield.

I liked this game more than I did the first title and found it to be an enjoyable experience to play through. I did find that the pacing was broken up a little too much, and I thought that some more story dialogue or maybe some different missions would have helped with that. It just felt like the story was rushed along because the stages were so short, and I struggled with that. I liked that this time around the player could drive different tanks and wasn't just limited to using the standard one from the first game. It felt good to have a little variety in that department, and it was also nice to have some new weapons too. Blasting away with some of the new weapons was really fun and helped to keep things reasonably fresh and engaging. I wasn't as sold by the plot this time around, but I did like it and the revelations that came with it. I felt that the ending was a little too clichéd and could have been better, but I do get that it was meant to lead into another game that was never going to come, sadly. I found that at times the control responses didn't translate so well, and a couple of times I found that the camera seemed to struggle with world objects and such. I did like the wave survival stages and found that they gave the player a chance to calm down and take a break before the next mission. It was also always fun to try and beat your own scores the next time around. I did enjoy this game, but I found that there was a lot left out. There were also so many questions that I had, but sadly, there was no way of ever having them answered.

The visuals were certainly improved from the first game, in my opinion. The textures seem to be much better detailed and of higher resolution. The tank models were more detailed and generally looked better; the skins were less stretched and blurred; and the damage models were also better. It now looked like your tank had actually taken damage, rather than looking like a lump of mushed-up, charred metal. The open tracks on the larger tanks were animated, and I thought that was a nice touch. The roads, paths, and highways looked better, both from a distance and closer up. I liked the work that went into the world and environments, and I thought that they looked better than the first game too. The different weapons were nicely portrayed, and I liked the explosion and building destruction animations.

Overall, I liked this game more than the first, but I find it a shame that this is how the series died. I would have liked to see what would have come next.

6/10 – Good Fun! 

Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ