Following Battle Tech: Crescent Hawk’s Inception come Battle Tech 2: Crescent Hawks’ Revenge. It was released in the very late eighties by Info COM after development by Westwood Associates. It is a strategy game featuring a top-down perspective and a great Battle Tech theme.
In the year 3029, Crescent Hawks’ Revenge continues to follow the story of nineteen-year-old MechWarrior, Jason Youngblood. The Succession Wars are still underway, and Youngblood of the Lyran Commonwealth and the House of Steiner is looking to exact revenge upon the Draconis Combine and the House Kurita who captured his father in the original installment of Battle Tech.
Youngblood’s goal in this true sequel is to rescue his kidnapped father and retaliate against the evil forces that took him.
While the Crescent Hawks’ Inception was decidedly a role playing game, the Crescent Hawks’ Revenge is more of a real time tactical war strategy game. The units of the 31st Century Battle Techs are completely under user control, and there are a great variety of different warrior robots to command. Every type of robot warrior has a different combination of attributes and capabilities, ranging from firepower to defensive strength. There are also some basic vehicles, such as those for supply that will also be controlled and positioned by the user.
The game consists of a variety of non-linear missions and the game plays
out in two distinctive portions. The first is the story line, which the user views in order to determine the most appropriate course of action for the ensuing mission. The second part is the actual mission, where the user must make choices and maneuver units, then watch the battles unfold. The campaigns are fixed, and the user cannot build new structures or research great technologies. However, the outcome of each mission directly effects the following missions, making the game’s plot somewhat nonlinear and adding nicely to the Crescent Hawks’ Revenge’s replay value.
Battle Tech 2: Crescent Hawks’ Revenge is a complex and a fantastic strategy game. There is a lot for the user to learn about each of his units, and a lot of forethought is required for success. It is still a great game and features superior graphics and sound, especially when noting its release date, and offers an easy user interface to help the user understand the capabilities of his units, and what is required of them. Overall, this is a good download. It remains true to the Battle Tech story line and theme, while delving into another genre that works admirably with the genre.
