<!--
	Title: Battletech II: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge
	Author: Bernie Yee
	Source: QuestBusters, v8(1)
	Date; January 1991
-->

<div class="article-sidebar-box float-left">
<strong>Type: </strong>Tactical Role-playing<br>
<strong>System: </strong>MSDOS (640K, EGA, VGA, MCGA, Tandy 16-color;
	hard disk required; Ad Lib, Roland, Tandy, Sound Blaster, PS1<br>
<strong>Conversions:</strong> Maybe Amiga
</div>

Based on FASA's paper and pencil *Battletech* universe, Infocom's
*Battletech* series taps into a richly detailed backdrop to provide a real
story line, not just another "fight the alien menace confronting
humanity" story.

*Battletech II* rocks the house. And there's no annoying copy
protection! No pain-in-the-brain key words or key disks or anything — how
refreshing to be trusted. Besides, if you played it without reading the
manual, and referring to its maps and Mech spec sheets, you'd be parsley.

The *Battletech* universe is set sometime in the 3lst Century,
when humans have populated an area of the galaxy called the Inner
Sphere. It's like a cross between *Star Wars* and *Dune*: the Inner
Sphere was ruled by the Star League, a group that tingled with
enlightened despotism and who apparently controlled much of the
high technology upon which their civilization was founded. Still,
rivalries between factions within the Star League (ruling Houses *a
la Dune*) tore it apart. The remnants of the Star League fled to
the Periphery, not to be heard from again.

Until later, that is, when the Five Houses declare themselves
rulers of the Inner Sphere, and a series of Succession Wars break
out, the fourth of which takes places during the two *Battletech*
games.

Land wars are fought by tanks and BattleMechs, huge
Transformer-type robots that walk, sometimes fly and range in power
from the Locust Mech, which is light and fast but under-armed, to
the slow, heavy Battlemaster, which can flatten most anything.

## *Jason is back!*

The premise of *Revenge* is interesting. Your father, leader of
the Crescent Hawk mercenaries, was captured by House Kurita. As
young Jason, new leader of the Crescent Hawks, you're joined by
Rex Pearce (your father's best friend) and two others on a search
for the Kell Hounds, a mercenary group, to inform them of House
Kurita's hostility, your father's kidnapping and hopefully, to get
help in locating and rescuing him.

*Revenge* doesn't require *Battletech I* experience, but you'll
have a better feel (and affinity) for young Jason if you played it If
you had the guts to stomach the last code key puzzle out to the end,
you found a Mech cache for House Steiner, and got commissioned as
the leader of the Hawks and obtained information on your
father's kidnapping.

*Revenge* begins precisely where *Battletech: Inception of the
Crescent Hawk* ended. You arrive at the Kell Hound planet in the
middle of a planetary assault by Kurita on the Kell Hounds, only to
be strafed by Kurita aerospace fighters and crash into a lake. A
Locust spots you as a sitting and sinking duck, and your first
scenario is to repel the Locust, or preferably, destroy it If it escapes
(as is the case throughout the game), the Mech could come back
to haunt you later, and even an extra Locust could turn a battle
against you.

This is not a traditional RPG. Though your initial quest is to
rescue your father by completing the first round of battle scenarios,
you don't roll up your characters or have skills or inventory (except for
special weapons systems).

Whereas *Inception* allowed you to develop various fighting and
Mech piloting skills by exploring the world of Pacifica, recruiting
allies, rescuing friends and discovering the hidden cache of
Mechs and parts, *Revenge* is more of a small-scale tactical wargame
in which you command individual Mechs and tanks, and later on,
groups of them. There are no conversations with NPCs, no
puzzles, no skill acquisition or level progression.

The 27 battle scenarios are graduated in difficulty, and the
story progresses as you win each scenario by defeating your
designated enemy. Strategy and use of terrain means the difference
betweensuccessandfailure,and the game ends if Jason is taken
out.

## *Totally redesigned*

*Revenge* looks a lot like *Inception*, but graphics are in full
blown 256-color MCGA. Game mechanics and combat rounds are
detailed down to the last machine-gun round, and the designers
provided a detailed combat and Mech simulation environment

But the player sees little of this detail, for you get only general
descriptions of weapon capacities and Mech condition. If your
machine gun runs out of ammo, your damage potential drops from
"Brutal" to "Moderate," but you never know how many rounds you
have left. That might be accurate a in a real firefight, but you should
have info as to your own damage (a full damage screen as in
*MechWarrior* would have been nice) and offensive capabilities.

The designers said they wanted to make it easier to assimilate and
play. They left out use of jump jets because a Mech with a jump jet
could leap into the air and avoid a firefight, for example — instead,
jump jets only allow you to travel over rough terrain at normal
speeds, and you have no choice whether to use them or not. I
would preferred all the detail they could have given me, since good
command hinges on having as much information as possible.

The interface is terrific. I found a mouse best, (a first!) but
keyboard would work fine. It plays in real time but can be set at eight
different speeds and does not suffer the same problems
*MegaTraveller I* did.

<figure class="float-right">

<figcaption style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">
Veterans of Breach are likely to enjoy Battletech II's blend of
tactics and science fiction
</figcaption>
</figure>

The slowest speed lets you give orders to all your units without
hassle; higher speeds let you see the battle as it is played out. Real
time gives you the feeling of command immediacy. This real
time, rather than phased, combat works surprisingly well and kept
me on the edge of my seat.

There are 89 Mech types and assorted vehicles, including
variations of Mechs (with three types of Phoenix Hawks), which
lead to lots of fun but also serious consideration of a Mech's
specifications for your missions. You get to choose Mechs only at
certain points, and should always be aware of the enemy's
capabilities, or it will be a very short war.

## *She told me to walk this way ...*

Instead of walking around step-by-step as in *Inception*, you plot
out paths, with stopping points, by using your input device. These
orders are limited to five segments, each signifying a certain direction.
Hence you could send your lance (a group of battle units) north to a
junction, turn left and go 50 meters, turn south and walk
through a Kurita backyard and flower garden, which would total
three segments. Or you could send your Mech off to fire at will at a
designated enemy, or just to go find an enemy and fire at will.

Movement is either slow and fast. Fire control can be set at three
levels: don't fire at all, fire defensively, and fire at will.

## *... talk this way*

This is the first quest I know of that uses digitized voice as a game
tool, not just as sound effects. Every time your comrades have a
message for you, you hear something like "Hawk Leader, this
is Hawk Two. Code Red!" and a color-coded message light flashes.
Then you can read it or ignore it.

NPC personalities vary. Elite fighters give grim, terse battle
reports and kick ass, while green fighters are more excitable, ask for
help when they don't need it, and are generally less effective.

The Ad Lib board sounds great. The sound effects were good, and
the music between the scenarios was generally not annoying — and
sometimes effective, especially the military music.

The new twist in this game is that after you complete the first
series of scenarios (the Rescue Mission), the game advances to
3051, where there is a new menace: the descendants of those
Star League guys who fled the Inner Sphere decide they want
back in. They have more advanced Mechs and different battle tactics.

They've swallowed up a number of star systems and now you've got to
stop their advance — where else but — the Kurita home planet! By
this time, you've become somewhat of a Luke Skywalker — a
hot Mechwarrior and leader of a maniacal mere unit.

You must complete six new training scenarios to make sure
you get used to the new improved Mechs and to commanding three
different lances, and you must learn new tactics. From
there, you get to take on the Clans. There also comes a nice plot twist
and a neat tie-in to the *MechWarrior* game.

There is one bug. After completing the Rescue Mission, it
sometimes prevents you from obtaining replacement Mechs after
a battle. All I can save is make back-ups of your saved games in
case this occurs.

## *Yo! MTV Raps!*

And so does *Battletech II*. It's totally def, it rocks, and it's fun fun
fun — plus there is a nice "surprise" kind of end scenario in
addition to the 27 game scenarios. It would be my pick for best
(almost) quest of the month — if not the year.<br>
**Conclusions:** I got so caught up with this one, I wanted to spray
paint a name onto my Mech (maybe in the next game guys).
Neither *Mechwarrior* nor *Battletech III* are true RPGs, but as
Tom Waits might say, they put a vise grip on my mental health — and
my imagination. I've heard rumor of a plan to combine the
elements of *MechWarrior* and both *Battletechs* into one computer
game. Hope it flies.

<hr style="border-top: 6px double;">

**Company:** Mediagenic<br>
**Difficulty:** Advanced<br>
**Protection:** None<br>
**Price:** $49.95
