Robot Alchemic Drive Impressions

[MechDeus]

Character designs by Toshihiro Kawamoto (Cowboy Bebop), the interface of a remote-controlled toy, cheesiness on the level of an 80's movie, and a whole lot of giant robots beating on each other. This is Robot Alchemic Drive.

I'd heard good things about RAD, but was still unsure of how it would feel actually controlling giant robots with something very different from the norm. And so I encountered this little gem and went straight into training to find out that what I had believed was reversed. The humans control slowly and are a pain to get in place, but the huge metal titans are like a dream.

Honestly, I couldn't imagine a more perfect control scheme. The triggers control the leg forward and back motion, the analog sticks each correspond to an arm, and the special attacks are mapped to the face buttons. It makes perfect sense once you actually try it out and is way better then if they tried a more traditional method. It's not only innovative, it's done well. The humans, however, aren't that great. They move at about regular speed across the city, which is slow considering the great distances the robots can move in a short amount of time, and their flying is limited. Never explained at all is the mysterious ability of their remote pilots to fly for a short amount of time, which allows for them to reach higher places to get a better view. Handy, but odd.

Now, the really good stuff: the battles. They're all classic cheesy setups, with the tutorial being a Godzilla knock-off and the other two robots I fought being very reminiscent of the old-style Japanese B-movies. They got the look down perfectly, and during Story Mode, they got the acting and wierd explanations down pat as well. It begins like most movies or anime that deal in this, with a bunch of silly character development and background that really isn't too great. If it didn't capture the feel so well, I'd call it annoying. Once you finally get past all the silly setup, you are finally given control of your own monstrosity to combat the evil ones destroying the city. The character represents my actual placement in their world, so if I'm on one side of a building and my robot is on the other, all I can see is the building. Since they're actually controlling the robots through a remote-control, good placement to seeing is as essential to winning battles as knowing when to attack. This places yet another well-done innovative twist into RAD.

The robots move slowly but kick major ass, slamming each other into buildings (which can all be destroyed), stepping on people (resulting in geysers of blood), and continuously knocking each other over. I did oh so love the power-punches the titans gave each other, swinging back slowly and then blasting the other in the head, knocking them into a building and sometimes through it! Great stuff, I don't know why someone didn't think of this sooner. I also found out the hard way that I could use my robot to step on myself (which I did twice by accident. No, really.), but surprisingly didn't die. I wasn't watching my lifebar, but was pretty surprised I could live through getting stepped on by a 75-ton hunk of steel twice. And my body spouted Mortal Kombat-sized blood fountains, which was kind of funny to watch.

This game is just plain out awesome, any fans of the genre absolutely must own this game! It captures it more perfectly then any other game, and looks to get it better even more then Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters will. I had a blast with it, and want- nay, need more.

[Kbu Chan]

I only played the demo, buts thats all it took, I'm hooked. This game is freakin awesome. I love Enix. I don't think I would compare it to DAMM since they are completely different games though. The concept is almost too good to be true. At one point I was paying too much attention to my bot and I turned around just in time to see the gigantic enemy about to step on me....I screamed like a little bitch!!! This is the kind of stuff I used to dream about when I was younger and watching Godzilla movies. Everyone should try this game.

[Videodrone]

i really like the demo...the managing your character's field of vision took a little getting used to, but after i got that down (not to mention figuring out that i could hover to get on top of buildings )...i was obscesed...i must have played through the demo a half dozen times now...