Heavy Gear II

Did You Know?

• The game's plot involves an atrocity caused by the New Earth Concordat: the destruction of the Badlands city of Peace River by an antimatter bomb.
• A team of elite Special-Ops pilots from across the planet is sent through the interstellar Tannhauser gate to the planet Caprice.
• The team is equipped with advanced prototype Gears and a newly unveiled intersystem assault shuttle.

Development

Development of Heavy Gear II began in autumn 1997 with a 13-month schedule aiming for an autumn 1998 release. The team was newly formed within Activision, composed of employees with experience on several 3D games. The design team sought to move away from the larger BattleMech-style gears of the original toward smaller, more agile gears, staying truer to the Heavy Gear universe and enabling faster-paced, more diverse gameplay. A new game engine called Dark Side was built in C++, with stability as the first priority, focusing on memory management and leak tracking to allow developers to spot memory leaks immediately rather than later in a test cycle. A modular approach to engine design let developers easily swap different systems in and out during experimentation. Although debated within the team, software rendering was dropped from the engine, making video cards a requirement to run the game. This allowed the team to focus on a single high-quality product, avoiding the need to replicate assets at lower levels of detail for lower-spec machines, cutting production and testing time. Targeting only video card-equipped machines enabled more units on screen and greater environmental detail. Offloading visual rendering to dedicated video cards freed CPU cycles for other uses such as AI systems. The AI approach used a high-level autopilot system, where non-player characters could decide their own objectives and methods, reducing the need for individually scripted actions and enforcing a consistent feel across missions. Enemy units possess tactical awareness, tracking the successes and failures of different approaches against the player and varying their tactics accordingly. They may split into separate fireteams, call reinforcements, or order artillery strikes.

Reception

Heavy Gear II received favourable reviews according to GameRankings. Critics compared it favourably to its predecessor, with PC Zone calling it a huge improvement and GameSpot stating that Activision had redeemed itself for the failures of the original. Gameplay was praised: NextGen described it as a big, splendid mech sim with depth and excellent balance between action and strategy. PC Zone echoed this, calling it a commendable blend of strategy and bot-blasting action. IGN highlighted the variety in environments, Gear loadout, and gameplay as above and beyond others in the genre. The Dark Side engine graphics were well received. GameSpot described them as very impressive, with detailed, heavily articulated gears and vehicles, natural-looking fauna, and vivid landscapes. Maximum PC called the engine gorgeous, praising sharply rendered mechs and terrain details as well as eye-popping explosions, though it noted clipping and polygon-collision-detection glitches. Linux Journal and IGN also mentioned similar detractions. PC Gamer UK found performance surprisingly good even below minimum requirements, while Maximum PC noted a consistent 30 fps on their test machine. IGN warned of several crash bugs in instant action and historical mission modes. Gear customisation options were enjoyed by critics, with IGN, NextGen, and Linux Journal highlighting the sheer number of options. GameSpot felt the threat level limitation was artificial but praised the flexibility. PC Zone called the customisation process a joy. Response to the AI was mixed: GameSpot praised it as challenging, and PC Zone described enemy AI as clued-up on battle tactics, able to dodge, weave, and seek reinforcements. PC Gamer UK disagreed, calling the AI absolutely, hilariously terrible, and Linux Journal described it as basically pathetic, both citing poor pathfinding.