Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review
Release Date: June 19th, 2012
Platform: Xbox 360 Kinect
Developer: FROM SOFTWARE
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Motion Control
Players: 1 Offline Player, 4 Players Online
Angry Joe grabs his Kinect and climbs into the cockpit of Steel Battalion once again! Does it live up to its thematic older brother? Or is it the black sheep of the family that no one wants to talk about? I think you know the answer.
Also, I fixed the Box Art. Now its helpful to the potential buyer.
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217 thoughts on “Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review”
if the kinect was more accurate this game would of been better.
I played the whole game and had a blast with it. Kinect actually worked 90% the time. Just calibrate it right (cut your legs in kinect), DONT sleep during the tutorial (sorry Joe, but you slept during it) and use your brain + common sense. The game has its flaws but its still a solid 7/10.
When 1% of the people who buy it can make it work, it still is broken.
What brain and common sense dude? you want to pull a side lever you pull the one on the left, the Kinect freaks out over your hands.
The game would have been great if they just allowed you to use a regular controller. Requiring the Kinect killed it. Vehicles like this have lots of precise buttons and can’t logically be played by waving your arms around on a Kinect. They shoved this type of game onto a system that wasn’t designed for it and had no reason to even be there. Unless they release a “Non PoS Kinect” version, this game was doomed before it started.
While morons frustrate themselves to no end trying to get this to work by waving their hands all over the place just to pilot a Mech, I’ll be on MechWarrior Online come August. Guess what, it has no required PoS Kinect motion sensor to pilot your Mech. I’ll actually be able to control mine. HF with the arm waving.
Sucks i was hoping it would’ve done well
Hey Joe when are you going to do a review on Max Payne 3?
Imagine if this one on the PSMove…that would actually have buttons and work much better
Then I would’ve actually bought this….damn their loss.
You released a product that is nearly unfunctional while ruining a game and perhaps a series?
So tell me why I should buy you’re amazing console extension.
It’s a console extension. Nintendo is the king and extensions and even they can’t pull 95% of the shit out from the “This shit sucks” pile. Just buy the console alone and call it a day.
Wow i would be so sad if someone died like that in my game :C
Why in gods name can we not attach a USB keyboard, use a second controller… christ even the DVD remote as an option for multiple control schemes as WE choose? I remember upgrading my 486 to a pentium just to play mechwarrior 1 because of my love of this genre. Seriouslly, this is why consoles can not play a hard core mech game. I love my xbox AND my PS3, Both! but, why oh why can developers not be allowed to use periphials that this machines have. Press button 1 on remote for selecting squad man 1, 2 etc. If not, a second controllers buttons… if not a USB keyboard. Christ it is not hard… the DJ Hero track swapper or hold a X and spin the turn table left. I know im going over board BUT GIVE OPTIONS for extra functionality instead of being stuck with so few options. I would kill to play with my thrustmaster again… sigh.
sorry about the rant… just as angry a joe right now. Post WW2 Mechs… it almost makes me cry thinking that this game is dead and will probably never return. Thrustmaster is not a sex toy… just in case there is a smartarse! Play a PC Mech game with a thrustmaster and you will never forgive these games for being released without the options of functionality. For those gamers who haven’t tried and LOVE these games, try plain steel battalions with the Controller made for it… Then I think you will understand where Joes ahger comes from. That was joy, immersion… a sex toy.
Because they refuse to pay an Authorized fee on a HID driver interface of each product they want to compatible with on every game they gonna use it.You see on PC the driver are free becase of the OS company pay the bill for that specific OS for us to use in home or company not distribute it in other hand the games are many software and each software has to pay their compatible driver fee So they are like Hey you have this use it I don’t wanna pay.
I couldn’t agree more David. How about even the simple benefit of letting us set up the controller how we want it. Anyone remember the original playstation games that you could re-assign every control on the gamepad? Why are we now locked into using one of their 3 retarded pre-programmed sets. If I happen to like my jump button to ALWAYS be X and that is not one of your ‘options’ I’m already pissed at the game before even playing it. Its 20fucking12! If I can have a better time playing a game from 1998 with my damn joystick how is this progress?
Nothing good will come out of Kinect until MAJOR improvements are made to its recognition software, until that happens, I see no benefit in buying a Kinect. Thanks for the review Joe.
ummm Kinect for a game like that?…..yeah no sorry hey um Microsoft did you get the f*cking memo that your kinect games sucks for example
Star War:Kinect(failure)
Sonic Free Riders(EPIC failure)
Steel Battalion 2012 version(failure)
jeez Microsoft get it right i want to see a 10/10 on the next Kinect Game
i dont think hes reveiwed any of ubisofts kinect games they are doing ti justice imo i havent ran into any major problems that isnt just me rushing shit that im not sopose 2 b
From the moment I saw Kinect on it. I knew this game was doomed.
Good job.
No droid has that intelligence. Oh wait a minute…
good review keep on going
‘i am done with your shhhhhhhhhhiiiit!’
hahah
if only the missions were a bit shorter, we could have had another slow-mo “ffffour mmminutes!”
Sad I actually considered getting this before
Such a shame the Kinect is so terrible. I remember when it first came out everyone was so amazed at the accuracy. Haha makes me proud to have a PS3
Yeah, the move has so many good games too. 8|
the move isnt that much better then the kinect
does any one want to see a last light review
or is it just me
I would like to see this game on the ps3 WITH the use of the controller. .__.
AND on xbox too we steer clear of the kinect it gives us nightmares
Pleas tell us if they patch it, I would like to play this if it was working.
Wow Joe, you actually made something hilarious using Robocop 3! I didn’t think such a thing was possible o.O
Man this game looks awful…
Go kinect
Kinect is 4 pussies
Am i the only one wondering do developers get a tax break or something if they design for kinect? How can anyone be so stupid as to continue thinking the kinect is a good interface system? Even if it worked perfectly wouldnt a better interface have smaller movements required?
What can be said about this Steel Battalion designed for the Kinect. Well, the Angry Video Game Nerd said it best. “What’s the most important aspect of ANY video game? BEING ABLE TO FUCKING PLAY IT!”
What the fuck was Capcom thinking?
$
What is that tune used when you see the gamecover and explosions behind it?
I grew out my mustache so I could be as cool as you… No lie.
Why do we have to deal with so many good franchises being completely killed by corporate and gimmicks?
Wasn’t the whole “give me 200 bucks for this controller and one game” a gimmick in itself?
I’m so glad that I never bought Kinect… I hear about so many problems. The fact that they poison good games like this is infuriating. This is why I’m rapidly switching to PC games.
another who joins the rebellion. Consoles are no longer as good as they used to be and PC’s allow gamers to play better games that are less gimmicky, not to mention mod support, a place where players can tweak settings to make the games they love better, look at skyrim. But beware companies like EA, ubisoft and activision are doing everything they can to ruin pc gaming. Look at spore or diablo 3 or the starforge anti piracy system, and as useful as steam is it is also an over glorified DRM scheme with a datamining subplot. They’ve done well because of consumer trust but its all the same thing no matter what face you wear.
Glad I didn’t have your problems, Kinect works brilliantly for me, and I don’t even have an ideal setup. Figuring the controls out was a bit frustrating though, took about an hour.
I’d give it an 8/10, only because it’s lacking deep customization and a PVP mode.
I’m coming for you…
Joe, I don’t think the Kinect 2 will be that bad. The specs on the camera and lenses are much closer to the project natal specs than the current iteration. The improved cameras should improve functionality (albeit at the cost of a more expensive device). With that said, the current device is ill-suited for a high precision gaming experience. If you want a demonstration of interesting and fun use of the Kinect, try playing Happy Action Theater.
Cheers
my friend you do not understand the issue here, its not that the kinect sucks its that like the Xbox original Microsoft used their customer base as a means of beta testing their product to the extreme. This day and age we cannot abide by that but we are openly accepting that to be ok. I will not beta test a product for a company any more unless that company pays me money to do so or atleast gives me a build of the product for free to try out and test for any glitches. We need to stop falling for it.
bring back the old controler system and ill buy it..and i think its the only way they can redeem themselves ..and make money..cuz im sure they lost money and that should wake them up to how shitty kinect really is for HC gamers
I did a double check on reviewers in the mainstream by checking Gamefaqs. The ONLY people to give this game a C-grade (or C-) is incidentally, the OFFICIAL Xbox magazines. Everyone else universally panned it as D or F. Heck not even that, some people went F-minus-minus, with 0.5′s out of 5, 2 out of 10, 1 out of 10…
They got some balls, whoever is telling these people what to put in the official magazine. They’re the reason why we can’t trust the “official” sources anymore and why the Angry Joe Show exists. If the game sucks, it sucks, don’t bullshit people with a C, which some might take as “good enough to warrant a purchase”. I can’t believe they can do that, you think it would alienate the subscription holders when they buy below-average games with lies of “average” or higher.
Maybe I’m still not jaded enough to believe that kinda garbage from corporate. But they’re a good reason why I stick to online reviewers these days, people who don’t get paid to bullshit.
Famitsu are widely respected and they all scored it 8′s and 9′s.
BTW, oxm isn’t run by Microsoft or paid for reviews.
I actually own steel battalion and I can say the 3.0 reviews on my experience are a crock. Its like Joe said in his review, there may be people who get it to work.took me about an hour to figure out the controls, the issue was me, not my play area. I get 100% gesture recognition now.
A damn shame, because all this game needs to be functional is a controller that they already made, and whose owners have been crying for a reason to take out and use ever since they bought it.
I was sad to hear of the Kinect needed to play this. I loved the big ass controller from the original, and I was hoping maybe they’d make a way for me to dig that back out….but no.
Fuck the Kinect. If I could just play it with the controller, or they find a way for me to get the joysticks out, I may reconsider this game.
Till then, it’s Mechwarrior and Hawken that’ll probably be my mech games.
Yup MechWarrior Online is on the way and it actually has a huge module with a keypad, radar screen, and joystick, that you can use to play the game. If you don’t have the 200$ for that however, you can simply use a keyboard and mouse or a regular joystick. There is no Kinect BS required.
joe please get rid of fuuuu king springboard player it collapses every time
I don’t own a Kinect, fortunately enough, but I really wanted Steel Battalion to succeed. From Software are kick ass veteran Mech developers, they made Chromehounds and Armoured Core, they know what they are doing and from a creative and design perspective Steel Battalion has heaps of potential – all cut short by the Kinect’s horrible technology, shame.
I would recommend Mechwarrior series to any Mech fan, it is quite simply the best of the genre, there is something about that series that goes beyond the typical game scope.
Also Joe you said something about a ‘Submarine Simulator’ like this game? You should check out ‘Silent Hunter’ for the PC, there’s 5 games in the series and it goes back as far as 1996.
The sheer idea of Kinect is a stupid one. It is a ploy to lure soccer moms into buying games with the mindset of “my child can exercise while playing”. But it’s not working and insulting for non-casual adult gamers. I’m not a cheetos consuming basement dweller pile of lard, I love to swim, ride my bike, I used to play football. But when it’s time to play video games I want to get comfortable, damnit.
That means your not the targeted audience.. Kinect is great for fat kids that do nothing but play games. There are a few games that are really fun to play too.
no….no it isn’t trust me. Its great for sheeple who don’t mind being beta testers at their expense. The kinect is great for the pretentious parents who also went out of their way to buy the wii fit even though they could just go outside and walk around the block, maybe talk to their neighbors, or go to a gym and run on a tread mill and so on.
So I repeat the kinect is great for sheeple and people who like to dance in the privacy of their own home……..
Wow…after seeing this review, i died a little inside. Not because of what Joe said about how bad the game was, but because this game looked like the amazing Mech Simulator that I dreamed of with interactive elements and characters and really gritty and mature warfare scenes and battles…yet it was made for the kinect… The Kinect was the only thing that killed this for me… Have the ability to look around your cockpit with the kinect, that’s fine. But they should have had a lot of other features routed directly to the controller. Hell make a new controller all together! that would have been a much better buy! and have the kinect work similarly to the Trick I.R. where it tracks your head movements and you could look around that way. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT! T_T ……..whyyyyyyyyyyyyy…..? The kinect is one of the many reasons why we can’t have nice things….
My friend really liked the first one. Had high hopes for this one; would have been awesome going to his place for Steel Battalion on the 360…stupid kinect.
Not enough mech games out there anymore, and definitely not with this level of potential for immersion. Damn Kinect >.<
Do not fear! Mechwarrior Online and Hawken both come out this year! If you become a founder member for Mechwarrior online you can play it as early as 7th of August.
i was wondering… and it has nothing to do with this game< but i always wondered what is the song? after every review when the credits are doing there thing
Hey Joe, if it is no big problem could you review Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, I have heard good reviews of it but I trust your opinion the most and I don’t have that much set aside for spending on games left.
And on this game I dislike games that are solely dedicated to the Kinnect and sell themselves off as serious, They are mostly absolute garbage and the Kinnect itself is awful when dedicated solely to games (Kinnect only games). Either they radically improve both the quality of the Kinnect and the games used for it or scrap it all together.
Sins is downloadable at various places if you want to test it.
My short review:
Starts out great then becomes stale as hell, once you’ve played every race once you are completely sick of this game and done with it.
Another problem for me is that there hardly is any strategy involved, its just massing ships asap and getting your titan ready to go and then steamroll the enemy until you cross their big fleet, crush em or lose and move on or try again.
I wish diplomacy was better for tactics as well as teching.
Its a fun bargain bin buy nothing more imo
sins will be what its always been, CIV 5 in space, problem is that without some form of story or back story involved it becomes stale extremly fast, I expect the same for sins rebellion as well, if it has a story great but I doubt it.
Thanks guys!
AAAAAHHHH!!!! JOE!!! What the hell man. You got my hopes hope by switching back to your old player for the last several videos where I could finally watch your videos on your site again. And now you go back to that crap springboard player again for this video? Now I can’t watch videos on your website again. I have to go to youtube to watch it. Springboard doesn’t work properly. It’s a pile of garbage. Please switch back to your old play stick to it.
They must do this game into PC or other games.
It looks good, but the Kinect, seriusly???, it doenst work, it’s like 3D, we are not an experiment to companies play with. We are gamers that just want to get into games, have some fun, KICK ASS, but no, kinect is garbage, scept for Dance Central (¿central dance?), the kinect sucks.
its good but only if you get the KINECT working rely hop they remake it fore and wit a controller it just had so many possibly buttons it was nearly impossible to make it work so i fell like i knead to blame KINECT if it was on controler it wold be playable
KINECT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it look very bad
This is the downside of being a game reviewer; there will be times you want to play a game because it’s a good franchise but that game will fall so hard on its face that it dang near destroys a game entirely or actually turns the game into an unsalvageable steaming pile of crap. I’ve played the Steel Battalion with the intense controller and that was the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long while and that was regardless of the fact that a friend of mine had me play it with a crash course on how the controls work and I was flaying around screaming “I need an adult!”. Despite that, it was still a fun game because IT WORKED! Microsoft! Makr the freaking Kinect work or just stop because I am tired of hearing about how much of a FAILURE your motion control gaming is! Either find a way for it to work or scrap your idea of motion controlled games.
Hey, awesome Angry review! Kudos!
Also, can’t believe this game is from From Software… it broke my heart a little since these experienced guys, who developed the awesome Dark Souls, somehow had to work on a Kinect title of all things. Oh boy.
What the hell is Joe doing from 14:37 to about 15:04 rofl? XD (the kinect skeleton thingie)
probably just using, the controller… but i think i know what you’re talkin about