Assault Heroes
Posted December 13, 2006
This scrolling, overhead-view shooter is an original title developed for the Xbox Live Arcade on the 360. The game’s presentation is simplistic, but effective. The menu system adequately provides the necessary options for jumping into battle very quickly. The futuristic design to the presentation is reminiscent of the stylistic flair found within the Terminator movies. 
Gameplay:
Within the single player portion of the game, the five main levels are quite varied in design and layout. The overhead camera view gives the player a healthy look at the action that encompasses the little assault vehicle. During the main mission, players will visit a forested army base, a futuristic abandoned city, a lagoon area, a desert island locale, and the final robotic lair of the main enemy boss. It’s certainly refreshing to see this amount of variety concerning level design in an arcade game.
At the outset of the campaign, the player mostly has to worry about foot soldiers, stationary turrets, and the occasional tank. Gradually, each level will introduce enemies such as explosive kamikaze soldiers, RPG soldiers, mechs, helicopters, mine dropping buggies, hover-pods, and erratic spiked EMP devices. The bosses also become more lethal and difficult as the game progresses as well. From the first, giant mechanical spider to the final cyborg, you will have your hands full beating down the big baddies.
There are three firearms of choice within the game and two explosive options. The main turret can be alternated between the standard mini-gun, a one-shot energy pulse missile, and a flame-thrower. Upgrades for these three weapons are strewn about each level and can seriously add some firepower to your ride. The car also carries a large supply of grenades and a few nukes on hand. A grenade can be targeted before thrown, but the nuke provides an area attack that decimates any enemy in the vicinity. Weaponry upgrades will be lost if you happen to lose a life, but not if your ride explodes.
The only multiplayer mode included is co-op for the campaign. In theory, players should be able to invite their friends to help complete a section of a certain level or the entire zone. In reality, the co-op system is more problematic than useful. When attempting to connect to a game, I was often left staring at the waiting screen for five minutes. The developer didn’t include any way to exit from that screen; hence a reboot from the dashboard is required. Additionally, invites don’t seem to work properly if your teammate is already playing the game.
If you do happen to connect to a co-op match, the game seems to experience quite a bit of slowdown. The scrolling map movement chugs along and forces partners to constantly wait for more enemies. Also, the game becomes far to simple to complete in co-op, even on the upper echelon of difficulty. It’s almost as if I was beating the game on a God mode. Thankfully, player lag is at a minimum, so your partner will always appear mobile and responsive. On another co-op pet peeve, the underground mini-games immediately halt if one player dies on the team. I can’t understand why the second player shouldn’t be able to continue, similar to Contra.
The achievements are spread among 12 tasks for the standard 200 gamerscore points. All of the achievements can be accomplished within single player or co-op play. Half the points can easily be racked up within the first hour of play while the rest will require a bit of co-op help. The tougher tasks include killing 60% of the forces on foot or finishing an entire zone in less than 15 minutes. Within a patient co-op partner, the remaining achievements should take more than an hour or two to complete. The developer did an average job assigning achievement points, but they should have put level difficulty requirements in to increase replay value.
Graphics:
Visually, Assault Arms incorporates a high level of graphical techniques that blows away most of the arcade offerings on the marketplace. The developer uses a high level of bumpmapped, reflective surfaces; which gives the game a Halo-like appeal. When the vehicle was delivered via plane on the first level, I was immediately brought back to the Warthog delivery in the first Halo. The game also uses a variety of particle effects as the vehicle travels along the dirt surfaces and the shattering of objects in a massive explosion. The bright lighting effects from the weapon fire equally appear as fantastic. It’s extremely hard to find any graphical flaws in this arcade title.
Audio:
The music within the cut scenes is easily forgettable, but fits the cinematic in an arcade manner. The sound effects are a bit on the repetitive side, but they do help when determining the type of enemy ahead. I’m always on the alert when I hear the cries of the exploding kamikaze soldiers. I also like the escalating weaponry noises when a new upgrade is implemented.
Overall:
The game feels extremely short on the first run through. Most folks will be able to knock out the entire campaign on normal difficulty well under two hours. Even when completing all of the extra underground missions, players will find themselves wanting more levels to devour. The problematic co-op mode doesn’t add much to the experience, unless achievements are your goal. Beyond that, the only reason to keep playing is to reach the top of the high score leaderboard. As far as value is concerned, the game should have included double the amount of levels or perhaps reduced the price of the game in its current state. Anyone interested in this arcade shooter should definitely demo this title first.
Gameplay:
Within the single player portion of the game, the five main levels are quite varied in design and layout. The overhead camera view gives the player a healthy look at the action that encompasses the little assault vehicle. During the main mission, players will visit a forested army base, a futuristic abandoned city, a lagoon area, a desert island locale, and the final robotic lair of the main enemy boss. It’s certainly refreshing to see this amount of variety concerning level design in an arcade game.
At the outset of the campaign, the player mostly has to worry about foot soldiers, stationary turrets, and the occasional tank. Gradually, each level will introduce enemies such as explosive kamikaze soldiers, RPG soldiers, mechs, helicopters, mine dropping buggies, hover-pods, and erratic spiked EMP devices. The bosses also become more lethal and difficult as the game progresses as well. From the first, giant mechanical spider to the final cyborg, you will have your hands full beating down the big baddies.
There are three firearms of choice within the game and two explosive options. The main turret can be alternated between the standard mini-gun, a one-shot energy pulse missile, and a flame-thrower. Upgrades for these three weapons are strewn about each level and can seriously add some firepower to your ride. The car also carries a large supply of grenades and a few nukes on hand. A grenade can be targeted before thrown, but the nuke provides an area attack that decimates any enemy in the vicinity. Weaponry upgrades will be lost if you happen to lose a life, but not if your ride explodes.
The only multiplayer mode included is co-op for the campaign. In theory, players should be able to invite their friends to help complete a section of a certain level or the entire zone. In reality, the co-op system is more problematic than useful. When attempting to connect to a game, I was often left staring at the waiting screen for five minutes. The developer didn’t include any way to exit from that screen; hence a reboot from the dashboard is required. Additionally, invites don’t seem to work properly if your teammate is already playing the game.
If you do happen to connect to a co-op match, the game seems to experience quite a bit of slowdown. The scrolling map movement chugs along and forces partners to constantly wait for more enemies. Also, the game becomes far to simple to complete in co-op, even on the upper echelon of difficulty. It’s almost as if I was beating the game on a God mode. Thankfully, player lag is at a minimum, so your partner will always appear mobile and responsive. On another co-op pet peeve, the underground mini-games immediately halt if one player dies on the team. I can’t understand why the second player shouldn’t be able to continue, similar to Contra.
The achievements are spread among 12 tasks for the standard 200 gamerscore points. All of the achievements can be accomplished within single player or co-op play. Half the points can easily be racked up within the first hour of play while the rest will require a bit of co-op help. The tougher tasks include killing 60% of the forces on foot or finishing an entire zone in less than 15 minutes. Within a patient co-op partner, the remaining achievements should take more than an hour or two to complete. The developer did an average job assigning achievement points, but they should have put level difficulty requirements in to increase replay value.
Graphics:
Visually, Assault Arms incorporates a high level of graphical techniques that blows away most of the arcade offerings on the marketplace. The developer uses a high level of bumpmapped, reflective surfaces; which gives the game a Halo-like appeal. When the vehicle was delivered via plane on the first level, I was immediately brought back to the Warthog delivery in the first Halo. The game also uses a variety of particle effects as the vehicle travels along the dirt surfaces and the shattering of objects in a massive explosion. The bright lighting effects from the weapon fire equally appear as fantastic. It’s extremely hard to find any graphical flaws in this arcade title.
Audio:
The music within the cut scenes is easily forgettable, but fits the cinematic in an arcade manner. The sound effects are a bit on the repetitive side, but they do help when determining the type of enemy ahead. I’m always on the alert when I hear the cries of the exploding kamikaze soldiers. I also like the escalating weaponry noises when a new upgrade is implemented.
Overall:
The game feels extremely short on the first run through. Most folks will be able to knock out the entire campaign on normal difficulty well under two hours. Even when completing all of the extra underground missions, players will find themselves wanting more levels to devour. The problematic co-op mode doesn’t add much to the experience, unless achievements are your goal. Beyond that, the only reason to keep playing is to reach the top of the high score leaderboard. As far as value is concerned, the game should have included double the amount of levels or perhaps reduced the price of the game in its current state. Anyone interested in this arcade shooter should definitely demo this title first.