Home: HW:AT

Buy: Xbox Live

Developer: Popcap Games

Sometimes, after a hard day, I want to lose myself in an epic, immersive story. I want to feel the thrill of discovering hidden subplots, suffer the icy chill in the pit of my stomach as I uncover unexpected plot twists and engage in deep, meaningful character development. But you know what? Sometimes, I want to sit down with three mates and kill a whole bunch of communists with an atomic tank. Enter Heavy Weapon!

Created by Popcap Games, the developers of the massively addictive Peggle phenomenon, Heavy Weapon: Atomic Tank is as charmingly simple it gets. The Red Star Empire (an exceptional parody of cold war Russia) has taken over the free world, and only a single plutonium-powered war machine stands in its way. You control the titular atomic tank as it inexorably side-scrolls through 2D enemy territory, slaughtering your way through literally hundreds of fighters, bombers and ground vehicles before facing off against a diverse range of bosses. The control scheme is instantly accessible to both shooter veterans and newcomers alike: the left stick governs movement, the right stick aims your cannons, and the right trigger releases an enormous nuclear explosion that destroys all enemies on-screen (producing an immensely pleasing mushroom cloud in the distance). Tried, tested and simple.

In terms of presentation, Heavy Weapon is an old-school 2D side-scroller… no more, no less. The HD graphics are crisp and clean, with high resolution enemy sprites and detailed parallax backgrounds that look good even on larger televisions. The art design brims with character, and your foes range from realistic fighters and tanks to kamikazes, B52s, laser satellites and some of the most humorous bosses you’ll ever encounter. Seriously, once you’ve duked it out with an enormous blimp shaped like Lenin’s head you’ll have real trouble getting back into your more mundane game collection. On the flip side, the audio is a real letdown. Whilst sound effects are functional enough, the game only features a single midi battle march (not including the awesomely crunchy hair metal intro tune!)- you’ll definitely need to fire up your custom soundtracks for this one!

The single-player experience spans 10 levels that you’ll grind your way through twice with incrementally increasing difficulty. The real meat of the game is the upgrade system; whilst your tank starts out with a measly single turret, completing a mission grants you an upgrade point to place into any of your 6 weapons systems- ranging from a laser cannon, rockets, homing missiles and even bolts of lightning. Each weapon system has three upgrade levels, and before you know it you’ll be bristling with ordinance and filling the sky with an obscene amount of brightly coloured death. Which is a good thing too, because the later levels take no prisoners, unleashing ceaseless waves of planes and tanks (though why anyone would dare bring a normal tank to an atomic tank fight is beyond me!) that require quick reflexes and a healthy dose of luck to overcome. Continued play can get fairly stale and repetitive, but Heavy Weapon is designed to be played in short bursts; and the growing attachment and pride you’ll feel towards your ever-upgrading radioactive death machine will keep you hooked for a fair few hours.

By far the best feature is the 4-player local and live cooperative survival mode. You and three friends will be thrown into an endless battle against constantly-increasing numbers of enemies, requiring solid teamwork and tactics to achieve a worthy survival time. All players can respawn so long as at least one tank is still up and running, and frequent supply drops ensure that each tank quickly upgrades to cope with the scaling difficulty. However, each player is vying for the best score as well as the cooperative time, resulting in a frantic mix of teamwork and backstabbing that has caused many of my controllers to be hurled across the room…into the face of a killstealing weasel! My mates and I have clocked up many drunken hours gunning down the Red Star Hordes after the pubs chuck out and I heartily recommend you do the same.

In summary, Heavy Weapon is an engrossing and enjoyable casual game with riotous local multiplayer and a deceptively deep upgrade system. However, only invest if you regularly sit down for a few games with some mates- the single player experience is simply not worth 800MS points on its own merit. Like a good ale, Heavy Weapon is best enjoyed in the company of your friends.

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