This game, although its quite popular… In its niche that is, its mostly unknown outside of said niche, mostly seen as a gimmick, and always unfairly compared with some RTS heavy hitters which happened to be released the same year (It had to compete with Age of Empires 2, and Starcraft).
Still, looking at it as more than just its gimmick, its a very interesting, and quite innovative game on its own right, a game which did manage to carve its own spot, and has earned itself a quite hardcore fanbase.
It was popular enough for Rebellion to buy the rights from Atari, and to make this remaster, as well as the remaster of the second game.
The version I am covering today, is the remastered version, this was my first time playing the game, as I only knew about it by reputation. I will also be covering its expansion content (Red Odyssey).
The info on the side, its also from this remaster, not the original.
Oh yeah, the game did crash on me once, but for the most part, besides some minor slowdowns when loading into missions with a lot going on, it was a quite smooth experience.
So, enough talk! Let’s go to the Battle Zone.
Story and Setting
The space race was all a charade, the true purpose for going into space wasn’t just for flexing, it was in search of resources, most importantly, a marvelous resource known as “biometal” capable of creating vehicles and weapons of great potential, a material so miraculous, it advanced technology at least a 100 years, on weapon development of course.
Yet, on Earth, this resource was only found near and on meteors which just happen to hit our planet, rendering biometal woefully scarce, knowing that this material is a key item on the path to become the true top dog, both superpowers wanted to have it before the other could, you know, standard Cold War stuff.
If it was in meteors, surely there must be more out there, so the race is on, not just to control it first, but to understand it first.
In their hubris, thinking they have beaten the Soviets to the moon, the American Space Force aka National Space Defense Force (NSDF), is caught off guard by a surprise attack from the Soviet Space Force aka Cosmos Colonists Army aka Communist Cosmonaut Army (CCA)(Yes, the game refers to the Soviets as both sometimes), with heavy losses, and quite pissed off, the NSDF fights back with force.
With this wake up call, the NSDF is now fully committed on winning this war, the war may be cold on Earth, but it has gone hot in space.
Meanwhile, in one of Jupiter’s moons, The NSDF Black Dog Squadron, growing bored of hauling biometal with no much else going on, get a surprise attack by an unknown force, having little time to regroup, and none to call for help, they have found themselves having to fight on their own against the entire might of the Chinese Red Army (CRA).
The Biometal war has begun.
Unbeknownst to all factions, by playing with the devil’s toys, they have inadvertently opened Pandora’s box, and the future of the galaxy will be at stake.
Presentation
3D first-person shooter combined with RTS, something I never knew I wanted, well… I have played Natural Selection 2, but it didn’t capture me the way this game did.
For most of the game, you will be seeing things either on foot, or within your vehicle, which is likely going to be a tank.
You can unlock satellite view to look at the game in a more traditional RTS manner, but it actually makes it less charming (and its kinda unusable once you have gotten used to giving orders on the ground).
For most of the game, you will be seeing things either on foot, or within your vehicle, which is likely going to be a tank.
You can unlock satellite view to look at the game in a more traditional RTS manner, but it actually makes it less charming (and its kinda unusable once you have gotten used to giving orders on the ground).
Although the HUD is a bit filled up with the amount of displays and information, at no point did I feel it got in the way of combat, maybe one of you HUD minimalists would hate it, but for me, it was quite good.
A nice touch is that the HUD has small changes depending on the faction you are playing, and if you capture an enemy vehicle, you will be using their HUD while you drive it.
Another really nice thing I quite loved, was that each vehicle has its own personality, not only on the outside, but on the inside as well, with each one having a modeled cockpit, that you can turn off, if you are a party-pooper. You can also switch to third-person if you need it.
You also get to see some nice concept art at the end of some missions.
A nice touch is that the HUD has small changes depending on the faction you are playing, and if you capture an enemy vehicle, you will be using their HUD while you drive it.
Another really nice thing I quite loved, was that each vehicle has its own personality, not only on the outside, but on the inside as well, with each one having a modeled cockpit, that you can turn off, if you are a party-pooper. You can also switch to third-person if you need it.
You also get to see some nice concept art at the end of some missions.
Each faction has their own color scheme, and design principles for their weapons and vehicles, which also adds a lot of charm and personality in more subtle ways. Even though all of them pretty much use the same classes of vehicles (with some minor changes with the Black Dogs and the CRA), each one takes their own spin at it, with each faction feeling similar enough that you aren’t lost, but different enough to be fun on their own right.
That personality translates to buildings as well.
Each planet/moon you are fighting on, has its own atmosphere and vibe, fighting on Mars, feels vastly different than fighting on Venus, or Europa, or Luna, etc. Each time the story sends you to another locale, its always a treat to see how different it is.
That personality translates to buildings as well.
Each planet/moon you are fighting on, has its own atmosphere and vibe, fighting on Mars, feels vastly different than fighting on Venus, or Europa, or Luna, etc. Each time the story sends you to another locale, its always a treat to see how different it is.
Your radar can also be used as a map, but I always had trouble figuring out elevation on the map view, and, the coolest part, is that things display according to the ping on your radar, a very small detail, but a very cool one.
Oh yeah, also, working scopes, neat detail.
Oh yeah, also, working scopes, neat detail.
Scrap (biometal) is easily identifiable, as well as geysers for your vehicles/buildings that require power, mines, although you have to look for them, can be seen too if you are thorough.
Each weapon has a distinct sound and behavior, that you can tell at a glance, you know whats being shot at you very easily, and can change your approach accordingly.
There is also a little detail, that you can find cloaked vehicles by paying attention at how they move the dust on the ground.
This game is filled with little visual details which add a lot in the immersion department (Decals, and wear and tear, for example), I can stay here all day, but, imma stop it here, I want you to play this game after all, and part of the fun is noticing the cool little things.
Each weapon has a distinct sound and behavior, that you can tell at a glance, you know whats being shot at you very easily, and can change your approach accordingly.
There is also a little detail, that you can find cloaked vehicles by paying attention at how they move the dust on the ground.
This game is filled with little visual details which add a lot in the immersion department (Decals, and wear and tear, for example), I can stay here all day, but, imma stop it here, I want you to play this game after all, and part of the fun is noticing the cool little things.
For sound, as I said, each weapons has its own sound, as well as the voice work of each unit as you order them around, which adds to the personality of the units.
You get used to the radar ping, and it becomes white noise after a while, and the ping it gives when it detects an enemy is so unmistakable you will quickly turn your eyes towards your radar just to see how far they are.
All notifications in the game are through audio, the sound of units being attacked is very identifiable, and you get faction unique voice acting when told that units are being attacked, or dying/being destroyed.
Although there isn’t faction unique music, the music that is does the job quite well, with calm moments feeling tense as you don’t know when the alert for a unit being attacked will pop, and with action moments feeling like a high-energy battle, some battle zones have a unique atmosphere which also adds to the sound department. The Expansion does have its own OST however, which is pretty good overall.
According to the Strategy Guide, you can tell the weight of a vehicle, as well as what kind they are by sound before you engage them, but I was never able to notice it, as I was already too occupied with combat to try and focus on that.
Voice acting wise, the main two campaigns are ok, the biggest stand out has to be the monologues you get during the loading screens (which the game lets you listen to fully even if it has fully loaded), which feels like I am listening to a Military Sci-Fi audiobook, with some really gritty descriptions which add a lot of immersion, sadly only the NSDF campaigns get these monologues, you also get to see some nice artwork of your units during these loading screens.
It would have been nice to have those monologues on the CCA and CRA campaigns.
As for dialogue during missions, you will get transmissions and orders from time to time, even scolded when you fail or take too long with some objectives, pretty good voice acting overall, the only problem, is that the game has no subtitles, but you can repeat the last received transmission.
It is implied that the other factions speak in their language (even to you in infiltration missions), which is a nice touch, although you hear it in accented English, which is hit or miss.
Sadly they couldn’t get good Voice Actors for the Expansion, Red Odyssey has bad voice acting, which sure add to the charm, but, when compared to the original campaigns it feels like vastly different leagues, even when the Black Dogs narration in the loading screen hits, it just feels like listening to some teenager recruit, rather than a war veteran.
The bad voice acting in Red Odyssey is a constant throughout both of its campaigns, including mission dialog, unit chatter, and notifications, with some bad audio mixing added in, apparently it was left the same way as it was in the original, because it was part of the charm.
There are some intro and ending cutscenes, which are taken from the original game, they were left in their original resolution, although they did get creative with how to handle it.
You get used to the radar ping, and it becomes white noise after a while, and the ping it gives when it detects an enemy is so unmistakable you will quickly turn your eyes towards your radar just to see how far they are.
All notifications in the game are through audio, the sound of units being attacked is very identifiable, and you get faction unique voice acting when told that units are being attacked, or dying/being destroyed.
Although there isn’t faction unique music, the music that is does the job quite well, with calm moments feeling tense as you don’t know when the alert for a unit being attacked will pop, and with action moments feeling like a high-energy battle, some battle zones have a unique atmosphere which also adds to the sound department. The Expansion does have its own OST however, which is pretty good overall.
According to the Strategy Guide, you can tell the weight of a vehicle, as well as what kind they are by sound before you engage them, but I was never able to notice it, as I was already too occupied with combat to try and focus on that.
Voice acting wise, the main two campaigns are ok, the biggest stand out has to be the monologues you get during the loading screens (which the game lets you listen to fully even if it has fully loaded), which feels like I am listening to a Military Sci-Fi audiobook, with some really gritty descriptions which add a lot of immersion, sadly only the NSDF campaigns get these monologues, you also get to see some nice artwork of your units during these loading screens.
It would have been nice to have those monologues on the CCA and CRA campaigns.
As for dialogue during missions, you will get transmissions and orders from time to time, even scolded when you fail or take too long with some objectives, pretty good voice acting overall, the only problem, is that the game has no subtitles, but you can repeat the last received transmission.
It is implied that the other factions speak in their language (even to you in infiltration missions), which is a nice touch, although you hear it in accented English, which is hit or miss.
Sadly they couldn’t get good Voice Actors for the Expansion, Red Odyssey has bad voice acting, which sure add to the charm, but, when compared to the original campaigns it feels like vastly different leagues, even when the Black Dogs narration in the loading screen hits, it just feels like listening to some teenager recruit, rather than a war veteran.
The bad voice acting in Red Odyssey is a constant throughout both of its campaigns, including mission dialog, unit chatter, and notifications, with some bad audio mixing added in, apparently it was left the same way as it was in the original, because it was part of the charm.
There are some intro and ending cutscenes, which are taken from the original game, they were left in their original resolution, although they did get creative with how to handle it.
Mechanics
There isn’t actually THAT much to cover, the game is surprisingly simple and elegant, soldiers like things simple after all.
Let’s start with difficulty, it takes a while to learn the many little things that are important, so there is no shame in playing on easy while you are learning the ropes, it took me a few missions for things to finally click in my head, I even got the strategy guide, mostly for information on the weapons and vehicles, but it did help a lot.
What I noticed, was that difficulty affects things like, prices for some units, damage taken by player (I wasn’t sure about damage done to enemies), and AI behavior, with AI being far better in dogfights on higher difficulties, actively leading its shots and being better at dodging yours. That’s about it for what I noticed.
Most of the difficulty in the missions, comes from surprising the unprepared player, once you are familiar with the scripting, it becomes less daunting, but, the game is difficult in on itself, until you get good at dogfighting.
Red Odyssey follows the same things, but its scripting is bulls***, asking you to rush from one corner of the map to another cause “surprise attack,” or “guard this NPC no matter the cost.” Its mostly infuriating.
Let’s start with difficulty, it takes a while to learn the many little things that are important, so there is no shame in playing on easy while you are learning the ropes, it took me a few missions for things to finally click in my head, I even got the strategy guide, mostly for information on the weapons and vehicles, but it did help a lot.
What I noticed, was that difficulty affects things like, prices for some units, damage taken by player (I wasn’t sure about damage done to enemies), and AI behavior, with AI being far better in dogfights on higher difficulties, actively leading its shots and being better at dodging yours. That’s about it for what I noticed.
Most of the difficulty in the missions, comes from surprising the unprepared player, once you are familiar with the scripting, it becomes less daunting, but, the game is difficult in on itself, until you get good at dogfighting.
Red Odyssey follows the same things, but its scripting is bulls***, asking you to rush from one corner of the map to another cause “surprise attack,” or “guard this NPC no matter the cost.” Its mostly infuriating.
For resources, there are only 2, scrap for making everything, and pilots for your vehicles.
Scrap can be found around the map, and from destroyed units, you can also recycle your own units (which sometimes is more economical than resupplying them).
Pilots are a limited resource, which can be expanded with some buildings up to a max of 30.
You see, when vehicles are destroyed, there is a chance that the pilot will eject, if the pilot manages to make it back home, the pilot resource is recovered, otherwise, is a minus for the mission. They are armed so… We aren’t violating the Geneva Suggestion if we shoot them.
Both you and the enemy can be rendered useless when left without pilots (unless its a mission with scripted enemy spawns), and the recycler is the most important unit, being an instant game over if you lose it, or making enemy bases useless once theirs is destroyed.
You will always eject from your vehicle, but its game over if you are killed while on foot (it can happen that explosions kill you as you eject as well), don’t worry, you can order another vehicle to pick you up. You can also leave your vehicle (for sniping), or destroy it for… Reasons.
This game has the best sniper I have ever seen, as, you can snipe enemy pilots from their vehicles, all you have to do is hit the glowing spot that you only see in the scope, then you can capture the enemy vehicle if you wish, but do make sure to do something about it, as enemy pilots can take it back.
All orders are given using numbers on your keyboard, with Space being for commands using your crosshairs, or using Alt for commands related to targeted things, for example, to use another feature of the game, the nav beacons, using them as either rally points or way points.
Nav beacons are often used on missions to help you know where things are, but you can deploy your own for different purposes.
Scrap can be found around the map, and from destroyed units, you can also recycle your own units (which sometimes is more economical than resupplying them).
Pilots are a limited resource, which can be expanded with some buildings up to a max of 30.
You see, when vehicles are destroyed, there is a chance that the pilot will eject, if the pilot manages to make it back home, the pilot resource is recovered, otherwise, is a minus for the mission. They are armed so… We aren’t violating the Geneva Suggestion if we shoot them.
Both you and the enemy can be rendered useless when left without pilots (unless its a mission with scripted enemy spawns), and the recycler is the most important unit, being an instant game over if you lose it, or making enemy bases useless once theirs is destroyed.
You will always eject from your vehicle, but its game over if you are killed while on foot (it can happen that explosions kill you as you eject as well), don’t worry, you can order another vehicle to pick you up. You can also leave your vehicle (for sniping), or destroy it for… Reasons.
This game has the best sniper I have ever seen, as, you can snipe enemy pilots from their vehicles, all you have to do is hit the glowing spot that you only see in the scope, then you can capture the enemy vehicle if you wish, but do make sure to do something about it, as enemy pilots can take it back.
All orders are given using numbers on your keyboard, with Space being for commands using your crosshairs, or using Alt for commands related to targeted things, for example, to use another feature of the game, the nav beacons, using them as either rally points or way points.
Nav beacons are often used on missions to help you know where things are, but you can deploy your own for different purposes.
You can target enemies using T, which assists you on fighting them, you can target allies to see their health and ammo. You can also look at things from their perspective if you target them (if they are allies).
When you select a nav beacon, it has a camera which allows you to look at its surroundings, which can be useful in some situations.
The AI of your units can be dumb, but its straightforward enough that it does what’s needed, although you might need to babysit some units, cause they behave like headless chickens once push comes to shove.
You can get information on units by using I on them, you can make this automatic if you turn on strategy help in the options menu.
When you select a nav beacon, it has a camera which allows you to look at its surroundings, which can be useful in some situations.
The AI of your units can be dumb, but its straightforward enough that it does what’s needed, although you might need to babysit some units, cause they behave like headless chickens once push comes to shove.
You can get information on units by using I on them, you can make this automatic if you turn on strategy help in the options menu.
You can do control groups as well, standard RTS stuff.
Keep in mind units and their weapons have effective ranges, and it can be quite life saving to know them.
Geysers are a necessity in most bases, so keep an eye out for them, they show on your radar, as well as scrap.
Units can be supplied and rearmed using an armory, thing is tho, that the armory yeets things into the air, and they take a bit to fall, so keep in mind that resupply orders can make some units useless for a while, and terrain can mess them up. The armory allows you to give specific weapons to all vehicles, including your own, which can be a game changer at times, the armory can also launch a nuke (Day Wrecker), is not as destructive as you would think.
Keep in mind units and their weapons have effective ranges, and it can be quite life saving to know them.
Geysers are a necessity in most bases, so keep an eye out for them, they show on your radar, as well as scrap.
Units can be supplied and rearmed using an armory, thing is tho, that the armory yeets things into the air, and they take a bit to fall, so keep in mind that resupply orders can make some units useless for a while, and terrain can mess them up. The armory allows you to give specific weapons to all vehicles, including your own, which can be a game changer at times, the armory can also launch a nuke (Day Wrecker), is not as destructive as you would think.
Thankfully there are building alternatives for resupplying, at the cost of being at base and being slower, the pro of the armory is rearmament and map wide coverage, but the supplies do have to travel physically, so moving your supply line is a necessity.
Each faction uses similar vehicles, but with minor adjustments to their loadout and health, per the doctrine of the faction itself, as you play the game you come to understand how to deal with each class.
Chinese units can turn invisible, that’s their gimmick.
And, that’s pretty much it for the basic stuff, the rest, I will leave for you to figure out on your own.
The game is simple at its core, things get hectic once battles start, and you will have to make decisions and give commands under pressure.
Units have their use cases, as well as roles they excel at, use them well.
The AI tends to struggle when navigating terrain, both yours and the enemy, so do take advantage of that for surprise attacks or cool flanking maneuvers.
The strategy guide says that the game gives you everything you need to succeed, and if you keep failing, its because you haven’t found ways to use what you have effectively, the strategy guide is 100% correct.
Each faction uses similar vehicles, but with minor adjustments to their loadout and health, per the doctrine of the faction itself, as you play the game you come to understand how to deal with each class.
Chinese units can turn invisible, that’s their gimmick.
And, that’s pretty much it for the basic stuff, the rest, I will leave for you to figure out on your own.
The game is simple at its core, things get hectic once battles start, and you will have to make decisions and give commands under pressure.
Units have their use cases, as well as roles they excel at, use them well.
The AI tends to struggle when navigating terrain, both yours and the enemy, so do take advantage of that for surprise attacks or cool flanking maneuvers.
The strategy guide says that the game gives you everything you need to succeed, and if you keep failing, its because you haven’t found ways to use what you have effectively, the strategy guide is 100% correct.
Final Thoughts
Battlezone 98 Redux is an acquired taste, at first its hard as nails, but, as you get used to the way your vehicle handles, and to give orders on the fly, the game slowly grows on you.
Red Odyssey on the other hand, its brutal, as confident as I felt after beating the main campaigns, The Black Dogs campaign humbled me enough to go back to easy, the CRA campaign wasn’t difficult, it was tedious.
The main two campaigns are great, while the Expansion ones are hit or miss.
Something that you will notice is that the NSDF campaigns are longer, due to them being the main game, with the CCA and CRA campaigns being more for added context. Do bear in mind that the CCA and CRA campaigns are harder (“harder” for CRA).
A cool little detail, is that all campaigns are canonical, with the CCA campaign showing you the other side of some battles, as well as being a lead up to an important story moment, and the CRA campaign being a prequel to the Black Dogs campaign.
Its kind of a shame that gravity works the same in all planets/moons, I can understand the decision for gameplay purposes, but it did mess with the immersion.
All in all, I quite enjoyed my time with this game, I did find it difficult as I was learning the ropes, but after playing the main game on both easy and medium, I quite understood why this game has such a hardcore fanbase.
I came to understand a lot of little intricacies which are important strategy wise, like the maximum range of defenses, or how to deal with artillery, or the trick to beat walkers, or how to cheese some missions.
Also, I realized that I struggled when having to control too many units, so I changed my approach to have a small mobile personal squad with me at all times, for the purposes of kiting and doing skirmishes around the map, instead of fully committing on all-out assaults.
Reading through the Steam forums, I noticed that Rebellion kept the game pretty much as is from the last patch the original received, only adding Graphical and AI enhancements, truly what a remaster should be.
Still, I look forward to play and review the second game next.
I hope this was enough to at least get you curious enough to try out this game.
Red Odyssey on the other hand, its brutal, as confident as I felt after beating the main campaigns, The Black Dogs campaign humbled me enough to go back to easy, the CRA campaign wasn’t difficult, it was tedious.
The main two campaigns are great, while the Expansion ones are hit or miss.
Something that you will notice is that the NSDF campaigns are longer, due to them being the main game, with the CCA and CRA campaigns being more for added context. Do bear in mind that the CCA and CRA campaigns are harder (“harder” for CRA).
A cool little detail, is that all campaigns are canonical, with the CCA campaign showing you the other side of some battles, as well as being a lead up to an important story moment, and the CRA campaign being a prequel to the Black Dogs campaign.
Its kind of a shame that gravity works the same in all planets/moons, I can understand the decision for gameplay purposes, but it did mess with the immersion.
All in all, I quite enjoyed my time with this game, I did find it difficult as I was learning the ropes, but after playing the main game on both easy and medium, I quite understood why this game has such a hardcore fanbase.
I came to understand a lot of little intricacies which are important strategy wise, like the maximum range of defenses, or how to deal with artillery, or the trick to beat walkers, or how to cheese some missions.
Also, I realized that I struggled when having to control too many units, so I changed my approach to have a small mobile personal squad with me at all times, for the purposes of kiting and doing skirmishes around the map, instead of fully committing on all-out assaults.
Reading through the Steam forums, I noticed that Rebellion kept the game pretty much as is from the last patch the original received, only adding Graphical and AI enhancements, truly what a remaster should be.
Still, I look forward to play and review the second game next.
I hope this was enough to at least get you curious enough to try out this game.
Probably the original devs adding themselves into the game.
Pros
- + Innovative Gameplay.
- + Simple Core, But With Lots Of Intricacies.
- + A True Feeling Of Boots On The Ground Action.
- + Very Immersive.
Cons
- - Steep Learning Curve.
- - Artificial Difficulty Due To Scripting.
- - Mediocre Expansion Content.
- - Poor Use Of Ground Textures (Mostly In The Expansion).
8
Gameplay
The only downside is the scripting which makes bulls*** moments, as well as how long it takes to get used to the floaty vehicle controls, otherwise, its a very nice quick to action RTS.
8
Graphics
The models look really good, and there is a lot of attention to detail on most things in the game, only downsides would be questionable texture work for environments.
7
Story
Its a serviceable story of your standard Red vs Blue, but it has some twists as well, the loading screens dialogue and briefings add a lot on getting you invested in the conflict.
8
Sound
The game relies on its sound to convey a lot of information, and does a really good job on the weapon sounds, but there are a few times in which the mixing is questionable.
7
Replayability
The missions become easier as you know what to expect, but don't fright the game is now easily moddable, and has its own level editor, with lots of community content to enjoy.
8
out of 10
Overall
Battlezone 98 Redux is a very innovative RTS which brilliantly mixes in elements of FPS to give a very unique and enjoyable experience. It has rightfully earned itself a hardcore fanbase thanks to bedrock solid core mechanics, with a very action packed gameplay loop which incentivizes action, combat and mobility. Has a lot of effort put in on getting you immersed in both your vehicle and the conflict itself. Due to it relying so heavily on auditory information, it focuses a lot on making sure everything is clear and understandable. Sadly, the Expansion (Red Odyssey) is quite hit or miss and I can tell you that you can skip it without missing much.
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Thanks for sharing.
