I like war tank since i own coloring book about tanks when i was 3 years old. Perhaps that fact will help me on video game tank, like in NMS software's Mass Destruction (1997) on Sony Playstation.
Much like the gameplay (as we shall see), the title screen is simple and straight to the point. It's tank, what else did you expect? I like tank but to be honest the main reason why i play this game is because of its cover art which is better and more brutal than this main screen. Here it is:
Awesome, ain't it? Back when i was younger, i saw this CD case with this brutal yet amazing cover in some shopping center. Back then, i was reluctant to ask to buy it but now it's time for revenge! The most intriguing part of this art is obviously the bloke who happens to be "stuck" on the left treads. There's no blood on him so he must be either target dummy or military crash dummy. No real human involved. So don't worry, folks!
As per usual, i check the option menu. It contains difficulty setting, control setting, etc. The control scheme looks good but i reckon there's excessive buttons for cannon control. I'm fine with shoulder buttons to rotate cannon. I'm quite experience with that control. But i think set the cannon to center is fairly necessary though.
After selecting new game, i'm presented with this mission select. The rows represent campaign while the columns represent mission. I see that the mission on the most bottom campaign called " Stealth". I'm very curious how can you operate stealthily "Tenchu" style with tank. But i decide to choose "Manta" mission instead as the developer intend to. I suppose.
Then i get to choose between 3 tanks and behold they're the trinity of Final Fight character...kind of: One is average in both speed and durability, another one is fast but fragile, and the last one is slow but possesses highest hitpoint. I'm seasoned tank in Mobile Legends, so i very know my ideal definition of tank which is slow yet tough to crack. "Cobra" tank, i choose you! Although i'm objected with the codename. It should be "Rhino", "Elephant", or other heavy animal.
So our enemy is Republican Army (which will be shorten as "RA"). Usually the evilness come from Imperial or Empire. Or maybe it's me who's the bad guy. Destroying water reserves and housings, is what the bad guy does. So, maybe i'm evildoer in this scenario.
As you can see that Mass Destruction is pull-out top down shooter game like Lost World or Team Buddies. But you have ability to shoot in other direction than your "body" facing. Most of the time, you need to move around to dodge enemy's projectile. Even with the slow tank, i can accomplish that pretty well. You can combine the body and cannon rotation, to make the tricky "shooting while moving" maneuver. While keep shooting, i will adjust my aiming with rotation of my cannon or tank body or even both. I like to call that crazy trick "Wild Calibration".
My tank can submerge a bit. How adorable!
There! I destroyed their water tank. By tank i mean reservoir and not the war vehicle like i have here. The enemies begin to tremble with my skirmish so they send airstrike on me. By observing the bomber plane's shadow, you can predict the bombardment and later move out of its way.
I can find these armor refill pickups in some places. Each of this item will replenishes my armor by 100 when picked up. You can see how many armor that i have now in bottom left corner. On to its right there's timer, score, and lastly weapon that i currently equipped. "Shell" weapon is the standard cannon's projectile that have unlimited ammo. On top of that, shell's rate of fire is practically resembles light machine gun. Soldier_specialcompleted04.wav
Heavy_specialcompleted08.wav. That guy will be stuck on my tread like in cover art, for sure. It's much easier to kill him with my cannon but i like to test whether i can trample enemy soldier or not. And the answer is: yes, i can. Especially if they stand still and preferably stop shooting.
By pressing "Select" button, i can bring out the mission objectives (along with their current status) and pressing the same button i can bring this objectives map. You have to take my word for it that the objectives are blinking in the map, which is neat feature.
Once, i finished the mission. I have to move to designated extraction point where this big fat Chinook chopper will come pick me up. Soldier_thanks01.wav
Then i get to see assessment of my performance like in classic Doom. By the God, i don't intent to set the Building Destroyed percentage into the "dirty" number. I swear. I only get so much on pickup collection, no wonder i don't get any special weapon. You know the thing that baffles me here or in any home console's game? There's score but no high score table whatsoever! Unless it reaches certain number that earns me extra life like in Super Ghouls and Ghosts, score is unquestionably useless. Take note that there's no life reserve in this game or at least as far as i know. Also no checkpoint. So you have to play the mission in one-go . After this you get to choose using either saving on memory card or password, to record your mission progress.
On next mission, i must pick up enemy's agent that goes rogue. It could be trap so to mitigate that i must destroy local power supply first but why? Ambush doesn't particularly related to power supply, right? Unless it power hidden turrets or whatnot.
Infantry love to hide behind trees (or just simply hard to spot). For example this flamethrower guy, manage to take me by surprise! Thing that i learn from Command & Conquer: Generals is: flamethrower is excellent against infantry and not vehicle. So he make bad mistake besides not counting the limited range of his flame weapon.
This mission introduces us with anti-tank bunkers that will shoot me when i'm in their range. Because they're immobile, they're easier target than enemy's tanks. You can also destroy them from off-screen. Buildings in this game have 2 stage of destruction. The bunkers will cease to operate if they take damage to 1st stage of destruction. Some of them contain weapon or armor pickup, but you can only gain access to it if the bunker is destroyed in 2nd stage of destruction. In my opinion, there's no reason to not destroy all buildings to 2nd level destruction. Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav
The power supply consist of wind turbines and they're guarded with hidden automatic turrets. But the turret's AI is -let's say- very stupid because they shoot at me while there's wind turbine between us which saves me from trouble. Scout_beingshotinvincible32.wav
That person in brown cloth on top right is the aforementioned agent. He's surrounded by bunkers so obviously i have to destroy them all first before picking him up. Unlike human infantry, he's safe from my treading when i approach him. Good for him. I have this hi-ex gun which is stronger version of the standard shell that travel very faster but has noticeable slower rate of fire.
Next mission takes place in snowy area so called it "Operation Polar Bear" is pretty reasonable. The mission objectives are the usual building demolition but i mustn't demolish nuclear reactor because it will cause total catastrophe. We will see about that.
Apparently my shelling goes astray and ends up destroying said nuclear reactor. I expected some massive radius explosion or mushroom cloud but no. My tank just explodes for no reason. Heavy_negativevocalization02.wav
So this building with nuclear symbol is the nuclear reactor. Thus i only need to destroy buildings that surround it including that chimney. The game change its pace from "mass destruction" to "systematic destruction" which kind of betraying its title.
Oh, i see that there's limit on how much my tank can submerge before explodes unreasonably! See that water effect on the bottom? If it goes above the HUD, my tank is considered drown. It's quite neat feature.
Here's you see the mortar duel of the year. Just so you know that the wall can't be leveled to the ground so either i find a way to get inside of that complex and later squish that mortar guy or i utilize my own mortar. The mortar fires at fixed range so i have to adjust my position to hit that guy. If only there's crosshair to where the mortar lands, the aiming will be much easier.
Finishing the mission rewards me with this CGI movie. I have no idea whether that's my tank shooting at the chopper or my evacuation chopper is gunned down. Whatever the case, i reckon the quality of this CGI is pretty decent for its time.
Welp! I can't go next mission after Polar Bear operation. Maybe i need to clear other mission on other campaign first to unlock that last mission. Thus i skip to "Stealth" mission because i really curious about it.
This doesn't look like stealthy at all. Maybe i can use (automatically) guided missile to kill that mortar guy behind seawall but i was panic and goes forward instead. If you choose "Cheetah" tank for this mission, you're in very big trouble as there's not much space to dodge around. I want you to know that there's gunboat behind me that ready to take potshot at my back.
To reveal further primary objective, i have to destroy the radar installation on southern part of this map. You have to be careful where you have to park the tank here because there's mines around here. You see that grey spots on my riverside? Those are mines.
I was freaking stupid to use all of my guided missiles on ground enemies while this chopper keep harassing with its own missile. I can't use my regular shells on it. Suddenly, i remember that CGI movie so i switch my weapon to machine gun and it tracks on the helicopter thankfully! I forgot to tell you that i have unlimited standard shell and machine gun weapon from the beginning. Machine gun is definitely can't be used to destroy enemy tanks or building but that doesn't mean it's entirely useless. Because it's hitscan weapon, i can dispatch infantry easier (which is appropriate with Command & Conquer: Generals' warfare where machine gun is excellent against infantry) and as you witness here it's very useful against chopper.
After destroying the radar, the HQ feels secured to give me more mission briefing. Next task is to destroy hangars which located behind these walls. Again, this type of wall can't be obliterated. But you can gain access to the walled premise by destroying either the gates or the cracked part of the wall.
I couldn't find any armor refill item even though i have already cleared so many primary targets. Finally, i find one inside this building. Moreover, it's the big one that replenish my armor by 500! I feel more invincible again! Soldier_taunts15.wav
I destroyed all of the primary target and evacuation chopper is ready to pick me up. But i'm not done yet! I must blast this town buildings (which are the secondary target of this mission) to the ground first before exit. Engineer_laughevil05.wav
Next mission's objective is another usual building destruction? I think i'm good for now. Spy_cheers01.wav
NMS software's Mass Destruction (1997) has addicting yet simple gameplay. You drive around a tank, you aim your cannon, and destroy all before you. There's some variety of weapon you can use like flamethrower, cluster mortar, and mine. Speaking of mine, i think it's hard to make it useful because the enemies in this game move in strategic manner and don't chase after you. If the enemies are mindless mob like in -let's say- Crimsonland or Loaded , the mines can be naturally useful. Even so, the enemies aren't fast on their trigger, mostly. They take quite time to fire their weapon (except flamethrower guy) so you can have chance to dodge their projectiles. You can also shoot them from off-screen for safer method. Also, the enemies doesn't take too many damage to destroy which is nice. The weapon cycle feels bit taxing because the weapon indicator is too small and too far from my tank. Even Gadget Twins has more reliability on weapon cycle [ :P ]. The camera will always lock your tank in center thus it works pretty well. The difficulty setting affects enemy's nimbleness. Also note that in easy difficulty, i can find more special weapon easier. As i mentioned before that the score is quite unnecessary to me. If by some miraculous coincident the game get remastered, they should put global score leaderboard so you can compete with your relatives or strangers. The minimap is functional to show you the mission objectives only, but still fairly useful to me. Due to emulation error, i don't hear any music within the game. Even though there's track selection on pause menu. What a shame. The sound effect is loud and good.
Mass Destruction (1997) is perfect for those who looks for rather-mindless action game that emphasize on destroy everything. Even destroying innocent tree, will gives you score. Ah, the beauty of being evil! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment