Welcome to the GameCritics.com Forum. We recognize that new members are vital to any thriving community. So we deeply appreciate your visit. Before posting, please read our Code of Conduct. If you enjoy discussing video games and other topics with mature and intelligent gamers, we hope you'll check out our other forums and become a member.
Tucked away at this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo was indie game AirMech, a real-time strategy title that looks a hell of a lot like a spiritual sequel to Herzog Zwei. Don't know it? It's not only of the earliest real-time strategy games, it's one of the best multiplayer experiences on the Sega Genesis.
So, yeah, it's perfectly fine to get really, really excited about AirMech.
AirMech, which you can watch being demoed at PAX 2011 in the video above, is the work of Seattle-based Carbon Games. The independent developer is formerly of Titan Studios and Fat Princess development fame. AirMech is Carbon's first title and currently running on the PC.
As you can see, there's some clear Herzog Zwei influence here: transforming jet mech, base occupation, unit building and transport. But Carbon Games artist James Green told me in an e-mail that AirMech draws additional inspiration from Defense of the Ancients-like strategy games, a trend that seems to be going around.
"Think of the AirMech as your hero," Green explained, "and you also select a Pilot, and then the 8 units you take into battle. As you level up, you unlock AirMechs/Pilots/Units and then can customize your loadout that way—light/fast/cheap units for rushing, heavy units for defense, etc."
"When playing 2v2 multiplayer, each player can take in their own loadout, even though you are on the same team and can move around each other's units."
Other modernized concessions include twin stick shooter-style controls and a UI that looks way more polished than what Technosoft was capable of in 1989.
AirMech is being developed on PC and "plays well" with either mouse and keyboard or gamepad controls, Green says. The indie game is currently without a publisher, but I can't imagine it will be without one for long.
Herzog Zwei was one of my favorite games on the Sega Genesis. The 2 player matches were a blast back in the day, and the single player campaign was pretty fun as well.
I hope they can create the same kind of intense music that Technosoft did with the original.
Looking at the video the UI looks like it's made for consoles (why play a RTS with a gamepad when you have mouse and keyboard?) and where's the minimap? Never played or heard from Herzog Zwei, thus I don't know if not having a map was normal for that as well
__________________ Currently playing: Bioshock: Infinite
I am a huge Herzog Zwei fan (check out my FAQ on the, erm, Game FAQs website ), so this has me stoked.
Li-Ion, HZ was a console RTS back when RTS was not even a genre. So, it won't have some of the tenets of RTS's that we have come to expect over the years.
Linear Mode
