Earth Siege 2 - Sierra - street price about œ35
              Reviewed by Darkside of the Moon

Minimum System Requirements:
486DX2-66 MHz Local Bus
Windows 95
SVGA Card
Double Speed CD-Rom
8Mb Ram
25Mb Hard Drive
Mouse
Sound Blaster Compatible Soundcard

Recommended System Requirements:
Pentium P60 or Better PCI Bus
Windows 95
Windows Accelerated SVGA Card with 2Mb
Quad Speed CD-Rom
Mouse + Joystick
Sound Blaster Compatible Soundcard

Well that takes care of the technical stuff, now onto the game,
like all full breed Windows 95 games you just insert the CD and
off it goes, it will test your System and inform you if you have
all the necessary items on and in your PC. After that the program
is installed, of course you can choose how much you want to
install, either 13Mb, 44Mb or 57Mb, whatever you choose you will
still need the CD in your drive for all the video clips.

Earthsiege 2 uses something called DirectX, it allows it to
display straight onto the screen instead of in a window, here I
got my first problem. Just 2 days before, I had downloaded the new
drivers for my Diamond Stealth and for once I was actually very
pleased with them, they were screaming fast (up to 27 frames a
second running Duke Nukem 3D through Windows) but they did not
support DirectX, soooo out they went and the new standard drivers
for Windows came back.

After that it all was a breeze, after the great introduction,
which starts at the end of Earthsiege 1 and tells the story of the
Cybrids and how they are starting a new assault on earth,
launching from the moon.

And this brings us to the main aim of the game (that rhymes a
bit), you are the pilot of a HERC, a massive big iron robot, and
you have to protect the earth from the Cybrids.......

Once you have seen this you are at the main screen where you can
start a new game, or if you want you can go straight into action
to try it out, and of course restore a previous game, or set the
games settings. Most settings are okay as they are, some like the
screen resolution can be set to your liking, it all looks and
sounds great.

When you start your campaign you only have a few simple HERCs,
nothing fancy and just a few lasers to mount on your HERC, once
you have done this you go into the Campaign screen and you get
briefed by 'Gering' about your mission, after this you can, if you
want and feel the need, re-equip your HERC to that mission and
save the game, after that it is show time.

The first missions are very easy and are just there to teach you
to control your HERC, and controlling a HERC is all but easy, if
you have a good Joystick you can set your buttons to help you out.
I have found the following setting quite handy:  Main Joystick
for controlling the HERC movements
Button 1 = Fire your cannons (up to 10 in certain HERCs)
Button 2 = Target an enemy Cybrid
Button 3 = Center Turret
Button 4 = Full Stop
HAT = controlling Turret

In the beginning it can be very hard to control your HERC, for
instance....you are heading North and on your Radar you spot
Cybrids coming from the East, you turn your Turret East to face
the Cybrid and shoot at him. In the meantime your HERC keeps
walking North, but your Turret only turns 90 degrees East or West,
so at a certain point the Cybrid moves out of your targeting area
and you start to turn the HERC, and it being a 100 TON metal
monster, takes some time, this goes on and on until at a certain
point you really don't know how or where your HERC is heading.
Pressing button 4 will halt the HERC and pressing button 3 will
center your Turret so you can get your heading and engage the
Cybrids again.

This may sound like a lot of work and it is, but you don't mind
because it all feels so right, you're driving this 100 TON (or
more) metal monster and you don't expect fast movement, it would
be handy but it would not fit in with the game. You really feel
like you are driving this big machine, that feeling is created
perfect, making a quick U-turn is not possible and going into full
reverse takes time, but that all fits in with controlling such a
big monster, even walking up a hill it slows down, and the steeper
the hill the more you get the feeling of "he won't make it", that
is created perfectly.

Of course there are some drawbacks. In the beginning you have a
fast (80 Mph) HERC, not much armor or weapons but you don't need
that yet, so the games goes fast, later on in the game, once you
driving the 'Orc' HERC, which reaches just 50Mph, it all goes
slow, some missions can take up to 20 minutes, and most of the
time it is just walking around scanning the area....

But the game is very very involving......... you're walking around
in your 'Orc' HERC....you spot 4 Cybrids on your Radar, you put
all your power to the front shield, turn to face them, and run
straight towards them...your 10 cannons blazing, blowing up 2
Cybrids before they reach you....and then you are in deep
trouble...they are fast, run around you...shooting at you from
all sides, before you even have centered one Cybrid your shields
are depleted, you start cursing and the Cybrids shoot your first
cannon of your HERC. Now you're really mad and make your first
mistake, you try to run after the Cybrid....while he runs off the
other one shoots you from behind....you lose another cannon....you
come to a full stop...turn your HERC and shoot him...aiming at his
legs, you do want a lot of salvage to be recovered after the
mission so you can build new weapons and HERCs....you destroy the
Cybrid....onto the next....alone he is easy and you survived
another attack....but you did take a lot of damage...more than you
can afford....

...You continue your mission...spotting 4 more Cybrids...this
time you wait for the Cybrids to come to you...this takes more
time and you have more time to kill them...you manage to kill them
all before they reach you.  Although you had to ran straight into
the last one...shooting him from close range...and he doing the
same....you find yourself cursing again as you get a message that
your shields are depleted....you continue a bit slower now...only
10Mph...giving your shields time to recharge...you spot a single
Cybrid...you approach him...only to find out he is on anther side
of a hill...you start to climb the hill....and as your turret
reaches the top you see the legs of the Cybrid.....feel his
cannons hitting your shield...before you even have the time to aim
you'rr blasted into oblivion............  But you don't really
mind, well you DO mind but it just gets you more determined to
finish that mission, it is just great.

Now don't think there are no bad parts to the game, yes there are,
loading is far too slow, there is 'Gering' telling you 'Get your
butt out there, our base is under attack' and then you sit there
looking at the 'loading...please stand by' screen and thinking to
yourself 'by the time I get there the base is gone', this is the
major drawback, loading time, every single thing has to be loaded.
Also I was not so happy with the mission where you piloted a
'Razor' HERC, this one does not 'walk' but it flies, but this
could be my own taste, I never was fond of flight sims where you
can crash into the earth, maybe that is why I like X-Wing...
Also the Manual is a help file, and they can never replace a real
manual.

But then the great missions and the way the game grabs you soon
makes you forget all that.

So to conclude, if you liked Earthsiege 1 you will love this, if
you never played Earthsiege 1 but fancy some real robot driving
then you will have a nice surprise. If you like fast action...then
look somewhere else, once there is action you need a few more
hands to control it all, but until there is action it can be very
boring.
                              - o -