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Heavy Gear is one of the all-time classic mech games, and is one of my favorites from my childhood. It, and its sequel Heavy Gear II, are must-haves for anyone who loves the mech genre. Note that Heavy Gear and its sequel are much better than the MechWarrior games; the missions, the customization of the gears, the gameplay are all more interesting, more complicated, and more fun. I often wish they'd built versions of this game for the game consoles. It's a shame they didn't; it's such a lost opportunity. But honestly, the controls are a little too complex for a console controller; you use at least a dozen keyboard keys plus the mouse, there are squad commands to learn... I think you can even designate what formation you want your squadmates to take, like skirmishers right or vee, and this reminded me of my time in the Marine Corps doing patrolling. It's all great fun. The graphics are a little dated, but they're not bad at all for a game from this time period. They don't hurt the gameplay at all. The cutscenes are live-action, filmed with actors, and although they're sometimes a little hammy the story overall is pretty good. I think you'll enjoy it. Bottom line: if you want to experience one of the best mech games of the 1990's, try this one out. And definitely pick up its sequel, Heavy Gear II, because the two together make an excellent set. Some notes on Windows compatibility: You'll want to try to find an older PC to run this on, something with Windows 95 or 98, and a midrange graphics card from the time period (late 1990's). These are extremely cheap on Ebay, and it's worth it. You'll want to remove all Direct X setups from the PC, and allow Heavy Gear to install its own stuff. This is more of an issue with the sequel, which requires Direct X 6 (and nothing newer). Set up the old PC as a dedicated box for classic games, and put all your older classic games on it. This will give you the best results. Try to use a desktop PC, not a laptop -- you need a full-size, comfy keyboard with a full numeric keypad to get the most out of this game. Of course, if you can get a joystick, that works even better, but you'll still use the keyboard for about half the controls. If you use Linux, Heavy Gear works very well with PlayOnLinux! Configure it for Windows 98, and don't install any direct X drivers, let the game install what it wants. Heavy Gear II technically works with Linux, but under some distros it won't recognize the CD because the distro is trying to open it as an audio CD and somehow this gums up the works. You need to find a distro that doesn't treat audio CDs differently from data CDs. Once that's settled, you'll have a minor problem with the keyboard. You'll think your keyboard isn't working, but what's happening is that the keycodes being sent are different from what the game is expecting. All you need to do is go into the controls configuration and map the specific keys you want to use for each control. Once you map them, the game recognizes them. Note that under Linux, Heavy Gear II's escape menu doesn't work while you're in-game; you just get a black screen, but if you hit esc again, you're back in game so it's not a show-stopper.Read full review
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