The Path To The Outpost
When father and son make a break for it into the woods to escape a platoon of Jade Falcon members, there are a few boards of lead up before the enemy outpost is discovered. This segment is mostly a rehash of the same threats as in the mines, only now rather than rocky outcroppings breaking up the open spaces in between rugged cavern walls, this time it's patches of trees breaking up clearings in a heavily wooded area.
The similar design is making me think about my preconceptions of brown caves as boring, but green forests being cool despite the differences really only being superficial... I don't like it.
Ah! The forest has one thing going for it! A new puzzle! These have been quite subpar for Battle Tech's 2nd episode. Finally, players get one that isn't over in ten seconds, but one that's genuinely really well put together. This one is easily the best puzzle board in the entire saga by a hefty margin. It's original, well executed, and requires your brain to get through it.
The instructions aren't the clearest, but once you make a preliminary save and start playing with the components it gets easier to follow. A trio of cannons provide six total shots between them. The blockers () can be toggled between two positions at the press of a button. The redirector pipes are fixed in place. Your task is to use the cannons to shoot away enough breakable walls that the player can then move inside, cross the bridge, and find a conveniently placed Jade Falcon uniform that's required to get into the outpost.
It works so well due to a number of breakable walls being red herrings, while other breakables are reachable by multiple cannons. The player needs to make sure they toggle the blockers to see how bullet paths can be altered, and only commit to shooting when they're confident that not only will it lead to progress, but that the cannon used to destroy a given breakable isn't going to need two shots later on.
It makes me sad that the other puzzles have been so dire since the early days of Sokoban. This is creative! At this point it almost feels out of place to make players actually stop and think. Had there been puzzles like this back in the lab, my opinion of that section would be considerably improved.
Bonus Dungeon!?
When I was showing off the cool satellite dish of the communications outpost, perhaps you noticed the obvious second exit along the bottom of the screen. This episode has its own secret level along the lines of the Robot Factory. Except this one isn't really connected to the game in any way. It's simply a fun little bonus for observant players.
A blue cave.
With some secrets of its own.
Unlike your usual bonus room, Alex constructs an entire level, filled just as much with enemies as it is rewards. Though it helps temper the extent of the rewards received as you have to spend that ammo and potentially lose some of that health, this bonus area still suffers from the usual unraveling of game balance afterwards. Battle Tech is never too difficult, but having an extra 300 health and ammo for the game's brief final level does tilt the odds in the player's favor a bit too much. Taking the detour here means the the final level can be beaten by just shooting without a thought as to your aim.
It's still probably worth taking a look. You're not going to have a hard time with the final level even without the extra goodies, and exploring this section lets you see this cool-looking temple filled with cameos of ZZTers/MZXers, Duky Inc. members...
...and even Alex himself!
The rabbit hole goes quite deep. Boards within boards culminate with a UFO Catcher mini game that offers bonus points, ammo, health, and gems in adorable plush form.
Naturally I got the grand prize. The Super Ultra Porno Mag. What a game...
Jade Falcon Base
Just as with the outpost, the main Jade Falcon base also starts with players outside. There's no conflict to be had here however, only a peaceful walk through several empty forest boards with only a few treasure chests and a secret cache of gems to grab before the big finale.
It has parallels to the cave before the boss rush of the first entry's finale. Walking through empty spaces can create a sense of unease, as you know you're headed into danger, while being unsure when it's going to show up. The caves are a better fit for such a thing, being a bit more dark and dreary. The buildup here is really just a relaxing walk through a pretty forest.
A lone guard is the only obstacle outside. All the likely scenarios here, calling for back up, having players sneakily deal with them, or even falling back on the repeatedly demonstrated bad habit of Jade Falcon guards being asleep at all times would make for a believable (if silly) way of getting inside. Of course, the actual way in is even sillier.
A mushroom can be found in the forest at the start of the path and picked up simply for the hell of it. Obviously this can be used as a bribe.
Oh. Now the guards are sleeping.
The general lack of fighting does make for an underwhelming finale. I do kind of appreciate the consistency though. This building has a lot in common with the Jade Falcon building back in the first episode. Of course, there you were welcomed as a fellow Jade Falcon member. Here, you're infiltrating an enemy stronghold, and they should very much be on the lookout for someone who fits your profile.
While playing, I figured this was just the hero wearing the uniform from earlier still. A bribed guard and a bunch of drunken soldiers aren't going to make a fuss of exactly who they're interacting with, but your face should surely be everywhere by now. There's a prophecy that says you're going to destroy Jade Falcon and also you were raised by them for years. I think your picture should be on record.
Yet even what little fighting is there, has nothing to do with the player being a saboteur. The classic mutant animals in a lab trope marks the first floor where there's something to shoot. For a layout you only get some basic shapes drawn out of enemies and an environment which doesn't read as a lab at all. You can thank the sign for letting me be able to assign a name to this floor at all.
The other floors get a little more creative with their layouts, so this one is at least a fluke rather than a sign of an author who just wanted their game to be done already.
The computer lab on the next floor is discernible without looking at the sign. Still a whole lot of mutant animals though. One of the programmers even asks if you like their pets.
The only thing that can stop the player on their final assault to destroy the enemy super weapon is ...feral animals. Not a single soldier? Not even so much as a nervous non-combatant begging you to spare them?
The messy layout provides a lengthier and more dynamic combat experience. The narrow, but not single-tile wide halls are a perfect spot for ruffians to make a last stand, and the sharp angles keep enemies from reaching the player all at once.
But it is still underwhelming. The arboretum is the last hurrah for the built-ins, and doesn't hold back, placing tigers where they'll very quickly be able to shoot at players or attack directly, all while buying time for the ruffians behind them.
Supplies are just too high for any of it to matter, even removing the 300 health and ammo from the bonus dungeon. Your ion cannon does indeed make short work of anything that gets in your way. Don't be surprised to leave the floor better off than you entered it.
And then it calms down. The 8th floor offers a reprieve, and has more fun with it than the bar filled with depressed adults. Here you'll find a bunch of children playing with one another and excited to show off their three (probably not mutant) cats.
Dan and his cats all being named makes me wonder if this isn't a bit of a cameo room itself.
While in game the kids are all having a great time, a scroll informs players that they can shoot them if they want.
They have some haunting final words. I don't recommend it.
And where do they children love to play? Why, directly below the massive generator used to power this super weapon. This is an assumption of what I'm looking at, as the "you're not allowed to be in here" text is in fact the sign, and not the yell of some soldiers.
Yes, that's right. On floor ten of twelve, the objects are finally broken out. They act like tigers that take two shots to kill. If you were holding out hope for an exciting final clash, you'll be disappointed.
The fight that brings the game to an end is certainly better than the RPGs. The weird looking alien has me wondering if the flesh eating aliens we were warned about were in fact Jade Falcon this whole time? It would be a pretty wild pivot which I wouldn't put past this game. It's all conjecture though with players being left in the dark once more, left to focus on their fighting rather than the opponent.
With that one final shot, the base explodes and the player escapes to their new peaceful life under a dome. Hope those kids and their cats got out okay...
Final Thoughts
Battle Tech is one of those rare specimens where a kid has a huge adventure in mind that actually gets finished. Regardless of any complaints I may have had, this is a massive game, rivaling Code Red with its eight paths and endings. Somehow it didn't fall apart during development, giving us one of those often plugged yet rarely released ZZT epics. A true mega game.
Size isn't everything of course, but it's hard to cry foul over what Alex provided for players. It's a considerable in scope sci-fi adventure that has you warping across space to do battle with an enemy, twists as your own allegiances are revealed to be meaningless, and then a push to fight back. Regardless of where you are in the journey, the player character is consistent about fighting to make the world a better place. He's just been manipulated and has to discover how to truly fight for what's right. Alex's storytelling is certainly spotty. The first episode conveys almost no information to the player. The second gets just enough out that you can understand what you're doing, with plenty of confusion about what you hope to accomplish. The more you try to put its pieces together, the less sense it makes.
But as a vessel for a healthy dose of action and a touch of puzzles, Battle Tech's not so bad. I do wish the strong points of each episode applied to both. The first has some some great graphics and impressive level designs while floundering the story. The second makes the journey more involved and interesting, but does so at the action generally being more bland. There are some efforts with the lab to give players a good story hook with some more survival-focused gameplay, but the aliens just aren't threatening enough to pull it off. Battle Tech is just very much all over the place, with clear highs and lows and a lack of consistency that makes it hard to actually decide if it's good or not.
While I was playing it, I did have a lot of fun. The early excitement upon realizing the game would have shared DNA with Overflow made it a lot easier to look the other way at the unidentifiable characters and annoyances with finding all the stars needed to reach the end. The second episode's opening was so radically different in style that I very much wanted to see what Alex had up his sleeve. By the last file, the game runs out of surprises, rehashing its RPG engine and going with very straightforward level design. After nearly 200 boards, yeah, it wears out a bit. Never though did I find myself wishing the game would get on with it. The action becomes more brief so it doesn't get tedious. The story, while predictable, provides something to follow. The puzzles, well, that last one was pretty impressive.
It's very much a kitchen sink game, including anything and everything the author can come up with, for better or for worse. For a ZZT game, it kind of works, never lingering on anything for so long that players lose interest, even if whenever the game mixes up its presentation, it never really feels like it's getting better. If you're got a bit of nostalgia for those ZZT games that are constantly throwing things at the player, never once easing up until suddenly it's all over, Battle Tech can be a great game that will definitely keep you busy for a while. The amateur nature of it all is something to be proud of. Taking this little game creation system and building this sprawling sci-fi tale in an era when most kids could do nothing more than play pretend. Battle Tech is a release valve for Alex's myriad of ideas of drama in a high tech future with guns and mechs and aliens and space pirates and anything else he saw fit to include. It results in a pretty unique experience that's worth checking out even if it's likely not the masterpiece the author intended it to be.
