For those who never played the console version, Aquila offers something new to the mech market. For one thing, you're not in a world filled to the brim with mechs. Aquila is a prototype and it's the only mech around. And rather than being a shooter solely focusing on your mech, Battle Engine Aquila drops you into large-scale battles where you are merely one more cog in the war machine.
Features
- Pilot the unique prototype mecha, Aquila
- Massive battles feature two full armies going at it for the fate of the world
- 43 Single-player levels
- Take on a buddy or go co-op with split-screen multiplayer
Told through a heavy number of cut-scenes between missions, Battle Engine Aquila can best be described as Waterworld with mechs and no Kevin Costner. All those crazy scientists were right, the polar ice caps melted, flooding the world. What's left are patches of islands. This land is so precious that people have gone to war. You play Hawk, a civilian with a gift for all things mechanical. Drafted, in a way, by the Forseti military to pilot the unique mecha Aquila, you'll fight alongside hundreds of Forseti soldiers trying to fight of the evil Muspell army.
While the story is negligible to playing through the levels, it is well-crafted with good voice acting and some good cinematics. The evil Muspell and the goodie-good Forseti storyline isn't really anything new, but it's deep enough to draw you in and give you a break from the battles.
Gameplay
I'll be honest, when Battle Engine Aquila was first described to me, I laughed. A first person mech game where battles between hundreds of enemies and allies happen right before you eyes? It sounded like an empty boast, something a company says early on when things on paper sound great, only to find out implementing these genius ideas become impossible. Turns out, Lost Toys wasn't offering wishful thinking. Battle Engine Aquila may not look like much on the surface, but it offers real-time massive wars where you play only one small part.
As Hawk, you're the only one capable of piloting the prototype Aquila, essentially a flight-capable, mobile tank. Your first mission is a training mode, which will teach you pretty much everything you need to know about controlling the Aquila. You have both an aerial and a walker form, each with their own benefits and weapons. Battle Engine Aquila controls like your standard FPS, with the Aquila proving to be very responsive. For those expecting a more simmish MechWarrior gameplay style, forget it. This is an action game and the Aquila controls as such. You have up to three weapons that you can easily cycle through and though you will get upgrades to the Aquila, personal customization is non-existent. With the press of a key, the Aquila quickly transforms from fighter plane to walker robot, complete with retro-rockets for soft landings and burning foot soldiers. There's also a zoom function for more accurate targeting and a quick dodge function to allow you to sidestep incoming missiles. It's pretty easy to get the hang of and the controls should be mastered easily by the time you get to even the most slightly challenging of levels.
While the layout is easy to grasp, there I had some problems using a mouse for aiming. Even with the aim sensitivity at its lowest, the slightest movement sent the Aquila's reticule quickly in one direction. This makes quick and accurate attacks on speedy enemies almost impossible. Switching to a joystick helped alleviate the problem, so if you are going to pick up Battle Engine Aquila, make sure you are properly equipped.
While there are five different types of Battle Engines, each controls the same, only their attributes and weapons change. You'll earn each one as you progress through the story structure, which offers a normal set of 23 missions, plus a near equal number of Evo missions, which are variations of their counterparts (43 missions total). The Evo missions are always tougher and require more strategy and skill to complete. I should note that while there are five different Aquila types, they aren't dramatically different. The design changes are subtle, and most of the change comes with speed and weapon variations. So, unfortunately, there's not all that much to get excited about beyond the original Aquila design.
War is hell
Lost Toys has done a fantastic job of creating a war-type atmosphere. There are lots of mech games out there that have you fighting soldiers, tanks, and other mechs, but Aquila is the first I can remember that actually made me feel like my mech was just a small part of a larger conflict. While you're chasing down enemy fighters, your foot soldiers and tanks are trying to secure the high ground, aircraft carriers are firing onto the mainland, your bombers are approaching, another six minutes away, and someone has to clear out the air defenses or they'll be torn apart. Meanwhile the enemy army isn't just interested in taking out Aquila, they've got their own objectives -- Trying to surround your ground troops, offering air support so their troop carriers have a safe path to land and deploy more tanks. The Aquila always serves an important role in each battle, but the fight continues without you.
Aquila's HUD includes your standard stuff, like targeting reticule, and radar filled with good guys, baddies, and objectives. The cool extra is the combat zone map in the bottom right corner. This simple map, made up of blue and red colors, shows the areas the Forseti and Muspell control. As the battle rages, the map changes, flashing to show you conflict areas. But it's also important to know where you are on this map. If you're injured, stay in the blue friendly-controlled area and if you're daring, or if it's necessary, hit the red. But the biggest point of conflict is always the front line where the two colors meet.
Supporting your men is almost as important as blasting everything in sight. Rather than trying to kill everything yourself, you can lend ground support to foot troops to help clear a path so they can secure better ground or take out anti-aircraft guns so your bombers can get in safely. It's surprising to see how much more effective the Forseti become when you're lending an assist instead of trying to do it all yourself.
This is not your typical mech game. where your one mech is the focus of every battle and is generally the only thing that can topple the enemy. In Battle Engine Aquila, while the Aquila plays an important role in battles, you are but one part of a larger conflagration. The Forseti and Muspell forces come at one another often with little regard for you. That is, while the Aquila is a great asset, it alone can't win battles and eliminate every enemy.
Think of the Aquila as one giant tank. While its bad ass can mow down infantry, other tanks, and even take out big cruisers, it's still just one piece of equipment amidst an army of other tanks, fighters, foot soldiers, and bombers. Running into a conflict zone, trying to take everything out by yourself, and playing it kamakaze may be fun and will even get the job done, but it won't score you a good rating or get you through the tougher alternate "Evo" missions. That's because Battle Engine Aquila is more than just your standard run and gun shooter. There's a good deal of tactical thought to be had and more things to worry about than just your own sorry butt.
One of Aquila's faults, however, is that it fails to recognize a gamer's inherent desire to rush in with guns blazing. For all the work put into creating large-scale battle scenarios with intelligent AI, most people will ruin it right away with a need to kill all the red dots on the radar. I had the same urge and I could have been taught to better appreciate Aquila's strategic elements better if the game smacked me down more often for ignoring sensible strategies. Then I'd learn to play the game as it's designed. But it's too easy to run and gun like a fool and escape to the next level. And playing that style takes away from Aquila's intent. You can't fault any gamer for doing what makes sense to them, but the developer has to put gameplay penalties to keep you on the path they want to take you down.
That reckless abandon isn't as helpful in the more difficult Evo levels, though. If you want good ratings or to pass the majority of Evo levels, you will have to play the game with more intelligence and with a tactical mindset. But it would have been nice if some of that tough love in Evo had been passed down to the standard set of missions. It's like paving a road only to have someone hop off the asphalt and charge down a dirt path.
While some may say that Aquila sounds open to multiple solutions to a problem, the reason I find it to be such a fault is that the game just isn't nearly as enjoyable when played in typical FPS run and gun style. In fact, it becomes increasingly monotonous.
A lot of battles, despite all the enemies, feel a bit slow at times. Aquila moves slow, like a tank, and that actually isn't such a bad thing. But when you're in the air, trying to chase down speeding fighters, Aquila can often feel like it's not moving at all. A bit more zip to the engines would have done nicely. And on that same level, a lot of the strategy comes down to simply landing on top of larger ships and pounding them to death, which, in the end feels a bit cheap once you've had to do it two dozen times. Add to this big, relatively stationary bosses, and things begin to feel a bit pedantic. But overall, Aquila is a rush to play and offers a different spin on the mech genre.
Multiplayer
Sadly, there's no online multiplayer option. Instead, PC gamers wanting to play co-op or any of the deathmatch modes with a buddy will have to do so on the same PC. Yeah, that's right, on the same PC. One sides gets half the keyboard and the mouse, the other side gets, well, all keyboard. That is unless you have joysticks, which is really the only passable way to play Aquila with another person. It's too bad Encore couldn't get their act together to provide online multiplayer, because the two-player split-screen co-op modes offer a lot of variety and makes for a good distraction from the main game. Where most games seem to either focus on single-player or multiplayer mode and let the other mode slide, Aquila does a good job with both. However, sharing a PC not only hurts the framerate but almost seems silly in this day and age.
Graphics
Battle Engine Aquila is a mixture of greatness and mediocrity. The backgrounds look fantastic, with amazing sunsets and beautiful cloud-filled skies. You'll see half-sunken skyscrapers jutting out from the sea, remnants of an old world now buried. The Aquila, troops, tanks, and ships look great as well. However, they also get repetitive as there's just not enough new and unique designs to sustain the entire length of the single-player mode. And while some explosions look good, there are others (especially up close) that are pixellated and not on par with today's PC titles.
Textures also run the gamut from poor to excellent. Some of the mountainous areas look great up close and some broken ground areas with lava seeping through will get you to "ooh." But then there are lots of areas were the grass looks like someone ran the blur tool over it and the textures up close look weak. It's uneven, which doesn't make much sense at all.
You do get fully destructible areas. You can knock down trees by walking over them. Even shots through trees will tear them apart on their way to the enemy. This and the good particle effects for the weapons add some punch. What really kills things is the occasionally weak framerate. Running on a Pentium 4 3Ghz with 1 gig RAM and a 64MB GeForce FX 5200 couldn't stop the framerate from dipping during some of the more intense battles, especially when big explosions happened. And two-player split-screen can hit a crawl at times. On one final "boo" moment, the cut-scenes offer some truly terrible renders compared to the console version. Even at the highest resolution, the cut-scenes lack sharpness.
Sound
Imagine Saving Private Ryan without the great sound. It just wouldn't be the same movie. Well, Lost Toys realized they needed sound to match the pictures, because Battle Engine Aquila features some rocking noise. While the sound effects and solid score may be a bit limited, what's there is done very well. Explosions rock your subwoofer and in-game sound is distributed properly through all channels. A shot from behind travels from the rear speaker to the front as a missile flies overhead. Nothing drives home the fact that there are endless amounts of other soldiers on the playing field than the constant racket of war.
The voice acting is also solid. Though it features relative unknowns for voices, nothing sounds stiff and the dialogue isn't cheesy. But for some reason the cut-scenes don't distribute that sound properly across all speakers. Instead every voice and the minimal sound effects of the cut-scenes come through all speakers at once, making for a loud 2-D sound experience. Weird, since the in-game sound is handled so well.