Be Excellent To Each Other

Thought this might deserve a thread of it’s own because I know people are interested in it.

I played the demo last night. Completed the training course and started the first mission so here’s my thoughts.

You start off in 1st person view meeting the rest of your team. Here you do daft things like catch an apple, shake someone’s hand and pick something up. So far so good. The motion control works pretty well on this bit as it’s laid back and you’re not under fire!

Then you end up sitting in your Veet (Mech). You can swipe left and right to face the various members of your team and check out what they do. There’s the usual over the top characters who’s names you’ll instantly forget.

Then the fun starts. In front of you are tons of buttons and controls for the Veet. There’s things like the gear stick, a little cover for your peep hole, a map, a periscope and tons of other stuff. Almost as many controls as the first game! It’s an interesting combination as you use your hands to pull various levers yet still have to use the controller to actually control the mech. When I was first instructed to move it, I didn’t realise that I had to use the controller and spent ages throwing my hands around to try all the levers. This is interesting as you need to be sitting down to have somewhere to put the controller when you’re wailing your arms around.

There’s a nice touch where you can stand up and you’ll stick your head out the top of your Veet. Here you can even use binoculars by holding your hand up to your face. Clever.

So I finished the training mission and then went straight into a beach landing type battle... This is where the problems started.. When you’re under fire and things are getting a bit frantic then it’s really hard to be precise with your arms to control the Veet. I found myself flailing about trying to change my view, putting the controller down, trying to speed up and all sorts. It’s very hard. I was dead within minutes. The controls just weren’t precise enough to do all that they expect of you. The first game was difficult but at least you stood a chance as you knew where you were reaching for and could see the controls in front of you on the massive sticks. With Heavy Armour, and like all Kinect games, you have to hold your hand up to see where it ends up on screen and THEN move it to the control you want to mess with.

So far... Great idea but I would love to play it with a massive controller like the first. Motion controls are pretty rubbish.

I had exactly these same problems when I played the first game at an exhibition (APoD was there I think).

Based on that description, i'm going to give it a go though. Sounds like a hoot to muck around with for 10 minutes, so I think just the demo will suit me

You mean the first game on the original Xbox? With the massive controller? I admit.. it did take some getting used to but at least you could hold on to something.

Is Kinect a requirement for this one then?

Yep. You can't play it without one.