Heavy Gear 2: Activision's Forgotten, Incredible Mech Game

The time when Activision made a really good Mech game and almost made Titanfall a decade earlier
#HeavyGear #Review #Mech
Credit to r/HeavyGear and the extended HG community:
/ heavy_gear_1_and_heavy...
docs.google.co...

[@sax3665]

MrWholesome here, the guy who did the community repacks! So glad you enjoyed the repacks! Sometimes they take a little fiddling, but it's really gratifying to see these games be accessible to everyone again! Don't be a stranger, we love to get together for some multiplayer deathmatches all the time!

[@DeltaAssaultGaming]

The repack worked, but the game still goes into weird graphical corruption anytime I try to enter the graphics settings ingame. Also, the music and cutscenes don’t work without doing the steps in the music and cutscene readme files.

[@sax3665]

@@DeltaAssaultGaming A quick alt-tab in and out of HG2 will fix the graphics glitch during the graphics menu, for whatever reason! But yeah it's a bit cursed. And yep, those fixes are necessary for the music and cutscene to work properly. Wish it worked properly out of the box, but such is the life of necromancing 1999 PC games :D

[@DeltaAssaultGaming]

@@sax3665 Well, I tried to up the resolution in the settings but that made it bug out. Sucks there's no support for 1080p widescreen resolution.

[@salokin3087]

Sorry for the late response, thank you very much for effectively saving these games!

[@MandalorianRaider]

Holy crap, the multiplayer works??

[@GPBlue-zl3sx]

Three things. 1. Do not talk about Heavy Gear Assault. You're pouring salt into a very old wound that still pains us in the Heavy Gear community. 2. Caprice pre-existed Activision's Battlezone. Caprice always was part of the Heavy Gear canon and in fact, in the deep lore, was colonized by Earth BEFORE Terra Nova. 2a. Caprice is, unfortunately, a mostly crimson Mars-like rock, but the Cat's Eye Trench would have made an amazing dedicated series of levels as it's a mega-sized cyberpunk city crammed into a trench that's big enough to swallow New York State and still have room left over. 3. The NEC bombed Peace River (the city that gets nuked in the opening of HG2) to stop the peace talks that were scheduled to happen the day of the bombing have led to a unified Terra Nova. It didn't stop the unification in the end but it did delay it for a long time and changed the shape of that unification away from something that would have a lasting peace.

[@salokin3087]

Thanks for the comment, didn't mean offense in the Assault topic, but some people would bring it up. Yeah, the lore and background details, like Caprice and the Peace river bombing would be a fault on my part in not being so engaged in the setting of HG. But i was going off my own playthrough experience and the manual

[@lmttn]

The similarities to power armor that you spoke of are accurate to the tabletop game that the PC games are based on. They're designed to be way more mobile than something you'd find in BattleTech, and the heaviest tanks in HG can support more powerful weapons than Gears can.

[@mrdoormat6809]

Yeah, gears are basically more like IFV that can walks. Its great that they actually show to take advantage what humanoid structure can do beyond just walking.

[@DrDingleDangle]

I got this game back in 2001 and played it online for countless hours. I've always wanted to come back to it, but I never got it to work with anything newer than Windows 98. Being able to play it again 21 years later is amazing.

[@bigwavesun]

The 80s anime mecha influence is particularly strong in this one. The original table top game felt like an adaptation of VOTOMS.

[@salokin3087]

Had no idea about Votoms before people commented about it, looks neat

[@animationcycles7109]

That's what I loved....(love)about HG. THEY aren't huge mechs, nor personal armor... Just very small piloted armor. No fancy flying ( I get jump/jet packs, for limited linear flight...but they are still "heavy" unlike today's ( or yesteryears mech anime) no flying capability, just an "assist". Definitely VOTOMS-ish.

[@bigwavesun]

@@salokin3087 VOTOMS and Armor Hunter Mellowlink. You'll love it man.

[@salokin3087]

@@bigwavesun Man...I wish we got more

[@navarroguard7911]

This is so clearly inspired by VOTOMS its insane

[@nikushim6665]

Heavy gear is still around in its original tabletop war mini and RPG formats. It was just never as remotely popular FASA's battletech franchise. The fact that they even made a PC game based on it was more so to with do Activision's success with MW2, and with FASA having legal issues they were looking for a different similar license to cash in on.

[@joshuaharlow4241]

I'd give two thumbs up if I could.

[@Nikarus2370]

Loved this game in my youth. I did always find the cycling through weapons to be a touch annoying. IDK if they just really didn't want to copy Mechwarrior. But it would have been quite nice to have a couple "fire" buttons that you could map different equipment to. I always personally wanted to slap 4 MGs (2 on the waist, 2 on the shoulder) and hand carry another, and just run around with all the Dakka. Another issue I personally felt the game had, is there wasn't enough difference in "feel" between a lot of the weapons. MGs, Autocannons, Rifles, all kinda worked about the same but with different damage/ROF, and they were all pinpoint accurate. Always felt that MGs should have been a little "looser", high ROF, but in a cone. ACs being decently accurate, decent ROF middle ground weapons. Rifles should have had a higher projectile speed. I think there was an AA gun option as well, which I though should have had some kind of burst effect on it, like it fired VT fused shells or something (ya know, for AA work).

[@noneya135]

I loved playing Heavy Gear 2 back in the day. The ability to disable suits by shooting them in the knee or shooting off an arm was mind blowing back then. I really enjoyed playing the game and yes the space missions were a bitch. Fun but a bitch to play. Unfortunately the game did have it's crashing issues. Still I enjoyed this game and I'm glad to see a community took the time to revive it.

[@OverlordZephyros]

This game needs a remaster Btw I love your videos, your kind of game reviews correlate with the kind of games I like , its awesome👍

[@steppenwolfmx3882]

Remaster with Ray tracing 🥴

[@krakixel]

Fun fact about Heavy Gear. It started as a tabletop game around 10 years after Battletech, but it was MUCH more anime influenced, as evidenced by it's spin-off/sequel/prequel The Jovian Wars. Then you have the other, more recent spin-offs like Heavy Gear BLITZ, Arena (NOT THE VIDEOGAME) and Badlands Rally It is also the influence for their WW2 themed tabletob wargame, Gear Krieg.

[@joshuaharlow4241]

One of my favorite things about the Dream Pod 9 RPG setting of HG, is the ability to customize/and/or make vehicles. The mechanic flows though to the video game we see here. Wanna put a light rail gun on a gear, sure, go for it. There is a whole system behind it to calculate co$t and "Threat Value." This shines though more in an RPG setting than the Activision titles, but there is no reason it could not. I will also give feedback that the lore of Heavy Gear very much has a space element, so the latter 0-G levels are not -just- a proof of concept. So sad it did not get a follow on, would have loved to see JC in 3D. Thanks for the video!!!! Hope this awesome PC title never dies!

[@tristikov]

Nice video. So cool to hear about these repacks! I bought boxed copies of Heavy Gear I and II at my local outlet store some time in the early 2000s. I was a big fan of Mechwarrior 2 and 4, and I fondly remember spending a lot of time playing Heavy Gear II in particular. I thought the graphics and gameplay were great then, and it still looks nice now. I don't have as much free time as I did then, but I'm going to check it out and see how it holds up!

[@rid71k]

Our favorite obscure Aussie game reviewer is back.

[@ulyssesgrant87]

Salokin: "Nor does it make much sense. Why does the NEC bomb the city in the first place revealing their presence? Who fucking knows." Ulysses: ~Is sitting in the writing room when he hears this, and looks back to his note boards and the excessive amount of red conspiracy strings.~ "...I might have an idea."

[@warbosssnozgrot7695]

If you are familiar with the pen and paper version of HG, the earth is attempting to re-take its long-lost colony. Earth went through an ice age and world civil war and feels that the colonies owe them for the initial support they invested in the colonies. Some colonies welcomed them back, some worked out a commercial deal where they kept their independence in exchange for trade. Terra Nova, however, rejected the emissaries so Earth attempts to take them by force.

[@MiG-21bisFishbedL]

We stan the Heavy Gear CHADS

[@daviddrabick9018]

I enjoyed this game back in the day; my favourite weapon was the Gatling Laser Gun! Still have the original CD. Thanks for the review!

[@OverwatchUA]

I remember seeing those sparks, explosions and missile trails back then, my jaw just dropped. Also the skies, man were they impressive back then. The chatter and pace of combat were excellent. But it was too difficult to play for a kid that I was, maybe it's time to give it another try now :) Thank you for the review and the memories

[@solidustiger9639]

I remember play multiplayer in zero-G it was nuts

[@jesuslovesyoujohn314-21]

Played this game a lot as a kid, surprised to see anyone still plays it today. God bless you and thank you!

[@salokin3087]

Easy as, thanks!

[@FINRedAngel]

it still my favourite mech game, i still have the CD in my home, i pass so many hour to play this game, i remember how hard the game was...

[@SomniaCE]

Heavy Gear 1 is one of my favorite games of all time. I always wanted to play the sequel, definitely gonna have to get around to it

[@ZanDevYT]

I remember getting this in a bundle along with Dark Reign 2 and Battlezone 2. Sadly the version had a bug that kept crashing one of the starting missions. I've been looking it for ages but I forgot what it was called, thanks for the vid :^)

[@salokin3087]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@aubekin]

Aside from that, pretty good bundle!

[@Kamwi_003]

I had that same bundle too! Many many hours were lost to that.

[@Eye_Exist]

we need Heavy Gear 3 so bad. Not the bright colored skin DLC crap Heavy Gear Assault attempted to be, but a real military style mech war game Heavy Gear 2 was. btw there was limb damage system in the game, you got that wrong. hitting or getting hitted to limb could damage limbs caused them to become damaged. it just isn't visible on the health bar visible on the lower right corner.

[@entropy11]

what we did back in the day, max out your fire control and take just enough weapons to kill a couple of things. Maxed fire control makes your threat scale up crazy so you can't take much. Now you can pick up any real weapon on a mission and just wreck face with it. This was extra effective in multiplayer because fire control 5 with a guided bazooka was just stupid.

[@mfkrwill]

I remember trying to play this and the first one back when i was little and having no idea what was going on. My cousin and I just liked shooting the first things we saw (usually our team mates), leading to our favorite line of dialogue from the game "I knew it, I knew it", which we always found funny for some reason. I think that was this game, anyway. Good review!

[@salokin3087]

Lol, this game would've been pretty neat for a kid growing up

[@Goatlowski]

Babe wake up. New Salokin video.

[@starsiegeplayer]

The game was really good overall. The only problem I had was a huge hole in the AI. If you got the high power sniper laser and the particular map had a spot where you could stay far enough away, you could snipe the enemy frames and they had no code to respond. They would just stand there and take the damage, and even if you knocked them down all they could do was stand up and wait for you to shoot them again.

[@joshuaharlow4241]

I agree. I would also add that this is how combat works (maybe not quite this extreme). I did have a lot of fun trying different tactics, some were 100% annnnd others completely cheesed the AI. =)

[@mullerandy]

Very good review! Loved it. You should definitely check out Terra Nova!

[@animationcycles7109]

It's not a perfect game, but definitely fun, and replayable. I actually just reinstalled it onto Windows 10... And no run. :( I'll have to find a workaround. But, what I LOVED about HGII, was that I could use my HOTAS at the time, so it felt like I was piloting an actual mech. ( Rather than using WASDZ etc key presses. ) Great review. Now just to get it patched loaded up in modern PC.

[@godCobain]

i grew up in a 3rd world country with very little money or access to games. was walking through the mall where they were selling pirated games and got this for 2 dollars. good memories playing through it

[@DeltaAssaultGaming]

Well, I tried it out. Started the first mission and had to blow up some wooden tower thing at Nav 1. The tiny little infantry were kinda hard to hit with the heavy autocannon. Then I went to Nav 2 and did the same thing. The sniper laser cannon I was using didn't seem to deal much damage. Maybe I'll try out the railgun next time. Zooming in and out were two separate keys. I dunno why they didn’t just make it one key that zoomed in and then out. Seems like that would’ve made more sense. I went to Nav 3 and blew up three little wooden huts. A friendly Gear appeared. Then I started to shoot at a tank that was near the three wooden huts. Then the mission suddenly ended with a mission failure. Dunno what happened.

[@salokin3087]

Could be your ally died, otherwise, just keep up the armor up. Like i said, control pile up

[@DeltaAssaultGaming]

@@salokin3087 Yeah, I completed it the second try. Guess you just need to destroy the tank first, before it blows up the ally Gear.

[@Aurilion44]

@@DeltaAssaultGaming Yep. Word of caution for anyone unfamiliar with HG. Tanks are SCARY and the better ones can easily one shot majority of gears with their main cannon, so do Striders (more mech like robots). You aren't a BattleMech, but a literal mechanized infantry and acting like a vehicle will get you killed real fast

[@HYDRAdude]

In addition to the inferior mech customization and story/character, I also thought the soundtrack was a step down compared to the original. Still an amazing game though. Such a shame Heavy Gear Arena crashed and burned. I still have the .exe on my computer despite not being in a playable state anymore. And yes I love the zero-g levels, but I haven't heard about the Jovian Chronicles rumor before.

[@sax3665]

I completely agree, I actually included a HG1 soundtrack mod in the repack for HG2 and the game instantly gets 30% better in my opinion

[@DylonND]

Awesome awesome review! Agree with all the points made, 0 G is so much fun - still feels like the future, which you'd think we would have made a game that eclipses it. I tried the new battletech over the top but it's just not the same. Have you reviewed that one yet?

[@Vsont]

This was the best game!!

[@brazilian733]

i hate the fact how it took me so long to remember the name of this game, but man am i glad to see there is a workaround it, thing is how i went to that version on the google drive, yet Antiviruses kept on picking important files piece by piece and i could never run the game properly, which can only be extremely annoying and frustrating because it was seen as a "Trojan" in a .dll file and some "suspicious activity" that does get in the way of a classic (when Activision used to make actual games instead of the Online Only, Pay to Win, Lootbox infested, Rushed and buggy shitware they consider "games") on a sidenote, i was also looking into the 2005 Starship Troopers game, it ran well for as little as it could (running through the hallways in the first level only to crash to the desktop at every single time)

[@basedsketch4133]

I loved hg2 and I worked with dream pod 9 the creators of the game (table top) I traveled from store to store and cons doing demos. It was a great multiplayer game with the pro's and con's to balance the suits out

[@TrajanAugustus]

I'm curious, have you ever played the RTS Urban Assault?

[@salokin3087]

I've got my eye on it for a future video

[@DeltaAssaultGaming]

It’s not as good as Battlezone

[@ChargedPulsar]

It's not forgotten. We can't run or play it multiplayer anymore.. I tried to run it on win10 many times. It's multiplayer servers are long dead as well. Yes it's an old game but.. It had great potential back then.

[@Rallisport]

Great video. You're such a good commentor that you don't need the swears.

[@hunterkiller1984]

I still have the manual and the og jewel case cd. A very enjoyable game along side mechwarrior 2..

[@federicocatelli8785]

Me too

[@Leptospirosi]

One of the best mech games I'v ever played. Too bad stuff like this are no more developed!

[@smoothpoon86]

The customization for this game was wild. For a game in the 90s

[@tripleohno]

Recall this and the first game. Not sure which version I played online. Just recall the anti gear missile was op and fast. So I built a mech that once target lock and missile closing in on me at activate wheels and would outrun missile till it ran out of fuel ( guess, I'd have to speed round for a bit then missile would stop tracking me) great times

[@turinhorse]

the team deathmatch pvp was AMAZING. There were Clans and we played for years for hours and hours and hours every night lol. Good times. IRON LIONS !!!!

[@eoinohalloranmusic8277]

Excellent Review! Loved it, this game was one of my childhood favorites.

[@tripleppp4177]

I primarily remember the zero g bits, and the combination of arcane keymapping and lost horizon just scrambling my brain

[@lpj2216]

1:01 this is what nintendo needs to learn if they want to stop piracy of their older games Not putting lawsuit or putting old games with a huge price tag to sell a shitty online subcription (if this were movies or tv shows distribution, they will get the court on their asees for that) greaat video btw, i need to re play this gem of a game

[@sax3665]

heh honestly I'm still half expecting Activision or someone to slap me with a DMCA even though nobody has active rights to these games anymore, I think it has more to do with that than Activision being a cool dood about these games being hosted again :D

[@KapiteinKrentebol]

If you like this game also check out Strike Force Terra Nova.

[@kevobot9342]

Finally got the cutscenes to work

[@billk7574]

never really played the campaign but probably spent 1000 hours plus on multiplayer was one of my first internet games other than friends playing cnc

[@jeydeem2023]

Still got my boxed copy safely in storage...love this game😉

[@henry2823]

Best Mech game I've played!

[@GENERALBLAIS]

Is there a patch for heavy gear one and two because i got a lot bugs

[@SilverKnightm2138]

man, a heavy gear 2 mod would make for a great mobile suit game if it was all zero g stuff Also the craziest thing I remember from this game is the heavy GUIDED mortar. blew my mind back around 2000. You can lock on and it TURNS AROUND MID AIR TO HIT YOUR TARGET IF YOU OVERSHOOT. Fucking wild. More games need grenade arc predictors baked in standard - and this goes right past that to 'homing mortar'. no, actually. Revulionary shit hampered by a dated control scheme

[@perezzeo2488]

I knew i wasn't dreaming of playing this game!

[@CasepbX]

Are there any indie games like this? I've been trying to find something similar to these games. I beat HG2 a few years ago, so I was just looking for something new. Also played Titanfall 2.

[@kennuimuffins2426]

Nice recent video, was just thinking about it. Such a cool feeling game, even if it is a bit clunky.

[@NebLleb]

Since you took down the earlier version of this video, I'd like to ask again: Will you review Armored Core? Also, The repacks are great, unfortunately my anti-virus had a shitfit and got rid of the HG1 EXE file!

[@salokin3087]

Yo! Sorry about that. Yeah, i've talked about AC games already, might do it again

[@TheJuliusDeane]

When I was just young I had the Heavy Gear II demo on a PC Gamer magazine disc. I played that dang demo to death. What a nostalgic video for me. I'm so happy that there's these community repacks, what legends. I also really liked the pacing and humour of this video. It's very clear, and your points are welcome as a viewer who has only recently had Heavy Gear pop up in my memories.

[@salokin3087]

Thanks! Glad to hear the humor and the pacing is good!

[@TheJuliusDeane]

@@salokin3087 bro pacing in a review like this is super important. It's a rare skill to break up the gritty details with humour and with stuff with more wide appeal.

[@danielmachovoe1636]

first game i ever joined a clan in lol... love this game

[@jerroldjosefd.pulido5153]

how about a remake of heavy gear 2 in unreal engine in the future would be a great idea

[@SuLokify]

I was GOOD at this game. Mortar jumps were king for stealth and close quarters

[@MrSeropamine]

Incisive and balanced review mate. Glad to see people ( another Aussie!) appreciating this game. The story was indeed the weakest part of the game, which is a shame because the weather effects were incredible, the setting was fantastic as you mentioned and the voice acting and some of the character writing was good. They really could have made something incredible if they had better writers. I also think it's a shame that mechanically bland, risk-free games do so well these days, just because of hundreds of millions of dollars spent on their graphics budget or whatever. Heavy Gear tried to do heaps of different things, and they didn't all work, but at least they were being actually creative.

[@skvltdmedia]

This was one of the most unique mech games to date though.

[@onboardlotus]

This is a game that would do well with a graphical rework

[@spacewargamer4181]

Ubisoft should put this in GoG, looks like a funny Armored Core in FPS style

[@sohhyuna]

Huh never knew it was a game. I only knew it as the TV show. That’s amazing

[@salokin3087]

amogus

[@Kuhesgewehr]

The shame of this is the demo, before they'd finalized the movement mechanics, handled ridiculously better- it was near anime 'mech manouverability, fast responsive FPS action, like an outdoor shooter with all the weapons and armor of a 'mech, and jumping/jumpjetting that was super organic to the animations and movement. The problem was, you died even more easily from even smarter AI and more powerful weapons/weaker armor.

[@thiagovercosa8478]

Nice to see that one of my fav animes ever: Votoms, inspired a great game like this!

[@rmisionero]

I always chose SGT. Antoine Maileaux.

[@Acthu69]

anyone managed to make the mouse to work as a aim? im using windows 7

[@kloa4219]

hoping that THQ obtains it and does a remake in UE4

[@irvingforbush]

I hate how something like Heavy Gear 2 could be made in 1999, but it couldn't be made NOW even though the tech is better suited for it.

[@DN_123]

My first fps when i was at 4 yrs old, where all I see are cool robots shooting other robots.

[@likefire1617]

This was a great game.. really

[@dmitridostoyevski]

I love this game

[@mdis2bod]

This game had a great pvp community back in the day. Are people still actively playing this game?

[@narm_greyrunner]

The first game was a disaster. I was so excited to play it but it was a broken mess. I loved Heavy Gear 2. I had a lot of fun with it.

[@alfan0079]

nah, heavy gear was heavily influenced by VOTOMS but the gameplay indeed was influenced by battletech/mech warrior

[@federicocatelli8785]

Wish it could get "g.o.g. treatment"🤞

[@creatorsfreedom6734]

was this really a thing . i only got to play the first one cause some how my father had got it , or it was some one else's

[@Blaurot]

good video

[@grudgingyeti5308]

Do you think you’ll ever make a halo review

[@salokin3087]

Probably not

[@grudgingyeti5308]

@@salokin3087 cringe ngl but thanks for telling me

[@halokinger]

I want you to know that I've found this game after YEARS of thinking it was a fever dream, and then you tell me PEOPLE MADE IT WORK ON MODERN OPERATING SYSTEMS? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa THANKS. TIME TO STEALTH THROUGH THE FIRST RAINY LEVEL AND DIE.

[@salokin3087]

Pleasure to help, let me know how it goes!

[@elbarto6668]

Nice

[@anthonydelonga7181]

I loved this game I'm l[king for source code

[@anthonydelonga7181]

I miss the snub cannon

[@scottbaylo]

If anyone has any suggestions for action mech games that are either isometric/top down camera view, or a side scrolling/platform style, please let me know. I’m pretty obsessed with mech games, but I hate FPS games, and I’ve had my fill of turn based/strategy games. I’ve recently been playing this amazing game called Armored Cavalry: Operation Valkyrie on steam Unfortunately it’s hard to find because it’s actually spelled wrong in the store. I think it’s Armoured Cavalry: Operation Varkiri, which is both hilarious and horrible because we’ll never get a sequel if nobody buys it

[@fmsyntheses]

It's completely out of line to call Heavy Gear a Battletech ripoff. It's a VOTOMS ripoff.

[@salokin3087]

On one hand, this seems true, on another, how many people know this? I'd be deeply surprised if Heavy Gear's original release in 1994 had little to do with the success of Battletech and Mechwarrior.

[@joshuaharlow4241]

Interesting, never heard of VOTOMS. I did discover the HG RPG books growing up.... I very much dig the "power armor" Heavy Gear take vs. "walking building" Battletech take on mechs. We all know mechtech, battlewarrior is a rip of Robotech (Macross) , of the same era as VOTOMS. Ha! Anyway, played HG2 like crazy, looking to play it again! I have used the repacks, what a great effort!