There's something about many games released in the fall that
bespeaks of desperation. Like long-ago-completed films that have
been hanging around on the back burners and in the out boxes of
film execs sneaking into the theaters, games are often released in
the fall because of their mediocrity. Afraid of being buried in the
plethora of big-budget summer releases or overlooked in the flood
of high-profile Christmas titles, these games are hoping to look like
big fish in the smaller pond venue of the fall. You just play them a
little while, though, and you know right away - you're schooling
with the minnows. There are tons more fish metaphors I could run
with. For example, I could say something about how you need to
catch a lot of them to end up with any kind of meal, or no matter
how many you eat, you're still left feeling empty, but I won't. Part
of being a professional is knowing when to let a metaphor go.
Besides, that one was really too small to be a keeper (yuk yuk).
Sorry. Blame it on the cold medication. Anyway, the title under
the looking glass today is Recon, and it claims to be a fast-paced
action thrillride, or something to that effect. It currently holds the
distinction of being the only game in the history of PC computing
that I actually yawned while playing. That's so catchy, I think they
ought to put that quote on the game box. On the face it looks like
a lot of other fighter/bomber types of games, but there have been
lots of bad design decisions made in this game that really reduce
the fun factor. You start out the game with some cash, and use it
to buy a ship and weapons. Then you're off on a mission - rescue
some MIAs, blow up all enemy buildings, destroy all the enemy
units, protect some structures, or some similar goal. Complete the
mission and earn some cash, go back and upgrade your ship or
buy a whole new one, and then back to another mission. There,
that's the whole game. Where are all the bad design decisions? I
think a description of the gameplay will make them evident:
When I get to the first mission I find that I have a number of extra
lives to complete it - if a ship blows up, another one appears
almost exactly where the last one was. I very quickly find out that
I'm going to need those extra lives, as it seems that enemies don't
actually have to hit me to do damage. I'm flying at a tower and it's
hurling some kind of green energy bolts at me. The bolts are
clearly passing below and to the left of my ship (the camera angle
I'm using shows my whole ship), and yet I'm taking damage. This
area damage effect seems to be a two-way street as shooting in
the general direction of a squadron of enemy planes causes them
to smoke as though I'm hitting them. Just as well, really, because
frankly if shooting into their general vicinity didn't damage them, I
don't think I could ever shoot them down because I sure as hell
can't keep them in my crosshairs. Most enemy planes are much
faster than you are. Much, much faster, and more maneuverable
as well. Your craft, even on afterburners, isn't whipping along.
You're not in some futuristic, high-performance jet; you're in
something more like a Cessna loaded with guns or a blimp at full
speed ahead, and you're not greatly maneuverable. Heck, I've
had a greater feeling of speed in the Jaguar in Need for Speed 3.
Since flying high keeps me above the range of the ground units
and buildings, and I can't outrun the enemy planes, I'm clearly
going to have to deal with the planes first.
They come up on my tail, and, because I'm not faster than they
are, the best I can do is lock my air brakes, suck up the damage
they do, and let them pass by. Locking up the airbrakes causes my
fighter to haul its nose up and to the right, like a Bugs Bunny plane
locking its airbrakes. Very cartoony. You almost expect to hear a
screech of tires. They go zipping by, and I shoot in kind of in their
general direction causing them to smoke a little, so maybe they're
taking damage. Then I notice that my shots that miss the planes
are hitting a clear wall on the horizon and causing ripples like a
pond. Then the enemy ship bounces off this wall like a skipped
stone. Finally I hit this wall and instantly find myself flying in a
different direction, in like a single video frame. It takes a moment
to figure out which way I am flying, and since I didn't skip the
same way the enemy did, it takes another second to figure out
which way it went. The whole battlefield is apparently enclosed in
this dome, so what first seems like an entire planet is actually
pretty limited. The effect turns out even stranger in the missions in
space where this invisible sphere just surrounds the area. The
enemy AI doesn't seem to account for these walls well, and the
whole group of enemy planes bounces along the wall, reminding
me of nothing more than a bunch of fleas hopping around. It looks
kind of goofy.
My guns hold a pretty small ammunition loadout, so in like 30
seconds of shooting at these planes I'm on empty. The more
advanced weapons hold even less ammunition. I leave the enemy
planes to their bouncing and fly off in search of a supply crate.
Supply crates drop from the sky periodically by parachute and
come to rest on the ground. They contain different things like
health, extra ships, ammo, or a temporary shield, and they are
labeled as such. The enemy planes quickly leave the wall to
pursue and shoot at me, but there's nothing I can do about it. I
can't outmaneuver them, outrun them, or shoot them, so the best I
can manage is when the pile up on my ass I lock the brakes and
let them fly by, but they come around again in short order. When I
find an ammo crate, I fly through it to pick it up, and I'm after the
enemy planes again.
When they are all destroyed, I turn to deal with the ground units. I
can save myself a lot of damage attacking tanks and such by
strafing them from the rear where their guns don't point, but most
gun towers can shoot in any direction, and I'm going to take
damage, even from shots that miss, so there isn't any real point to
dodging. I attack until I'm out of ammunition or my damage level
is high, and then I fly off to somewhere on the map where there
aren't any ground units and wait for the gods of supply crates to
rain down their favors upon me. I spent a lot of time flying in
circles waiting for a crate to come down sometimes, and it gets
mighty dull - hence the earlier mentioned yawning. The game
almost needs a circle autopilot so the fighter could wait for crate,
and I could go off and do something else. Finally I'm done with
the buildings and units, and it's time to rescue some MIAs. This
involves lining up on the MIAs who are running around on the
ground, and dropping a ladder for them to grab onto. The ladder
doesn't stay down very long and it doesn't seem to deploy every
time you hit the deploy control. It's a little fussy about your
altitude, and the ladder has to get pretty close to the guys, and
only one grabs the ladder per pass, so I end up making several
runs to pick up a group of MIAs. The radar then indicates that
there's another group elsewhere on the map, and I go and pick
them up. It's not exactly exciting work - in fact, it's deathly dull.
Perhaps if I had left some buildings and tanks around to dodge
while I picked up the MIAs it would be more exciting, but that
would be stupid as the MIAs aren't in any danger, so why not leave
them until last?
Then I've completed my first mission. Hurray! And I get a few
bucks to upgrade my ship. A very few bucks. The cash flow in this
game is ridiculous. Each mission you can buy maybe one new
gun at most, and sometimes you have to sell one of your existing
guns to afford that much. Your ship can fire only two guns at once,
but it can carry lots more, and each gun type has it's own ammo,
so when one gun runs out you can switch to another. An ammo
crates fills all the guns on your ship up to full. Clearly it pays to
stack up on guns, but you don't really have enough money to do
so. Also, in this economy new ships are really expensive.
The graphics look good in some places, poor in others. Enemy
ground units are a creative collection of tanks, hovercraft, and
mechs; though in action they all pretty much behave the same -
they walk/crawl/hover/roll and shoot at you. Terrain is varied
(hilly, mountainous, flat, volcanic, water, except for the space
missions, obviously), and, while it doesn't look real, it does give a
good feeling of height, range, and depth. As a whole, I felt that I
was flying (albeit slowly) over a conflict in Battlezone 2, for those
of you who played that game. By far the game's weakest graphics
come in the weapon effects department, in that there really aren't
any. Colored lighting is heavily used, and weapon beams or
tracers look good, but on impact they cause just a small splash or
a puff of smoke, and it can be difficult to tell if you are doing any
damage. Furthermore, buildings and units only smoke a little
before they are destroyed, so it's hard to guess how many more
strafing runs you will need to make to finish off a target. Enemy
shots hit you (or miss, as the case may be) with just a little colored
spark on the tail of your ship. There might be a little loss of flight
performance with increasing damage, but it's hard to tell - the ship
had so little performance to begin with. Sounds are muted with
dull explosions and gunfire, and the music is very dreary.
I think the greatest problem with this game (and it's kind of a chore
picking just one problem to call its greatest problem) is that the
balance is all messed up. You know how you hear that some
multiplayer game is poorly balanced? This is the first single
player game that I would say suffers from poor play balance as
well. Your weapons are powerful, but have too limited ammo.
Enemy planes are fast, but pretty stupid. There are lots of different
guns and ships available, but you have to play 10 mission to afford
any of them. The action is OK, but doesn't last very long, and I
spent probably ¾ of the time picking up crates and MIAs. How
much fun is that?
By: 
