Review:
Size: 300+ pages of full color.
Layout: Beautiful for the most part
Contents:
Over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of D20/OGL stuff. Much of it sourcebooks for fantasy worlds galore. We have also seen D20/OGL genre books appear. Books that are so good that they stand out as sometimes definitive works for the genre, which is saying a lot. Spycraft, for instance is I think the best spy RPG I have ever seen. Mutants and Masterminds bites the definitive apple for Superhero games. These books are so good it hurts. Armageddon 2089 is definitely destined to be one of the definitive, if not *THE* definitive Mech (or Mek) RPG out there.
Now let me preface this with saying that I have never really done/read/played much with anything mech related. I thought the Battletech box covers looked cool, but ended up playing Renegade legion. Never see Robotech, but played the RPG. Played lotsa Rifts when I was younger. Never seen much anime. So I am hardly Mech versed.
That said, I think this product is incredible. The first few chapters start with you creating your character. This includes the standards of char creation and mercenary company creation. Thats right. An essential part of of the process is to create your own mercenary company, and their are complete rules for this. Who wouldn't like to take millions of dollars and purchase eveerything from mechs, to facilities, to air support, etc. This quality is a very neat part of the game. Running your company. Fighting to pay the bills. If you do good, big contracts. If you do bad, well, you likely won't be around to see it all burn.
Following chapters cover personal combat, mek combat, environmental hazards etc. The rules are basic enough that you don't need miniatures, but complex enough that if you wanted to use them you could. Either way, it will probably take a fight or two to get the hang of it. But sufice to say, mek fighting is more than just hanging about. It is allocating power to do what you want. It is combat between combatants that are sometimes kilometers away, it is rapid fire rocket rules, it is ECM, infra read signatures, it is.... well, cool as hell.
The entire middle of the book is filled with dozens of fully realized CGI meks and their stats. I can't tell you how beautiful they are. You just have to see them to belive them. They look so dang good. Mechs of varyng sizes and shapes, divided up by company or world faction that operates them (and the WarMeks supplement should be right around the corner with many many more).
Next we get a huge section containing a complete set of Mek construction rules so you can create your own war machines and lead them into battle. I have only looked through this section briefly, but it looks to be very complete and a lot of fun. I believe it won't be long before mek designs are flooding out on fan sites, complete with custom weapons and equipment.
Finally, we end up with a detailed sections on the campaign setting itself and how to run games in the A2089 universe. This section identifies the major movers and shakers in the world, whether they be governments, alliance, or mega corporations. It gives you a good look at this bleak world where no one is really the good guy. The world seems to have evolved by taking the worst traits of everybody.
One of my little habits when I get a new RPG book is that I tend to skim through it quickly, and then start over rereading more carefully, and then rereading again very carefully. This book broke my pattern. I just couldn't skim. There was too much cool stuff to read. I kept saying stuff like "Cool, electronic warfare. How did they handle that" or "Cool damage absorbtion, how did they handle that" It took me two hours to skim, which usually takes 20 minutes. This book is great from beginning to end. And if you don't like the setting, the rules for meks are applicable to other settings.
I thought long nad hard to come up with disadvantages, and I could only really come up with one, and it is nitpicky as heck, but I should mention it. It is the same problem I had with the Mummy Returns (yes, the movie). When a product or movie is so perfect, even the smallest flaw seems to just stand out glaring at you. It is funny how people can be far less forgiving of a product with a lot of flaws, but incredibly unforgiving of the perfect product with the smallest flaw. In the Mummy returns, the FX throughout the movie were so good and so perfect, that when the scorpion king appeared and his face/torso looked so fake, it killed the end of the movie for me. Which si ironic as if the whole movie looked crappy, I prolly wouldn't have minded. A2089 is kind of like this. The Mek art is so perfect and looks so good. The layout is so crisp, perfect and good. But the art for the other vehicles and the iconic character classes was just so inferior to the rest of the product, that it just stood out. Of course, this is just my subjective opinion. And it isn't even that it is terribly bad. It is actully okay, and comprable to other rpg products I have. The problem is the other artwork is just so damn good....
Finale: If you want a war game, buy this product. If you love mechs... buy this product. If you want a gritty geopolitical wargame with realistic hi-tech combat potential, yet ease of play, buy this product. If you just want some serious eye candy and innovative rules for modern or near future environs, buy this product. It may cost a little more, but it is worth every penny.
I recommend this product heartily and give it an "A". For me it is *the* mech game.
After seeing this, I can't wait to see Mongoose's treatment of Babylon 5.
Razuur
Size: 300+ pages of full color.
Layout: Beautiful for the most part
Contents:
Over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of D20/OGL stuff. Much of it sourcebooks for fantasy worlds galore. We have also seen D20/OGL genre books appear. Books that are so good that they stand out as sometimes definitive works for the genre, which is saying a lot. Spycraft, for instance is I think the best spy RPG I have ever seen. Mutants and Masterminds bites the definitive apple for Superhero games. These books are so good it hurts. Armageddon 2089 is definitely destined to be one of the definitive, if not *THE* definitive Mech (or Mek) RPG out there.
Now let me preface this with saying that I have never really done/read/played much with anything mech related. I thought the Battletech box covers looked cool, but ended up playing Renegade legion. Never see Robotech, but played the RPG. Played lotsa Rifts when I was younger. Never seen much anime. So I am hardly Mech versed.
That said, I think this product is incredible. The first few chapters start with you creating your character. This includes the standards of char creation and mercenary company creation. Thats right. An essential part of of the process is to create your own mercenary company, and their are complete rules for this. Who wouldn't like to take millions of dollars and purchase eveerything from mechs, to facilities, to air support, etc. This quality is a very neat part of the game. Running your company. Fighting to pay the bills. If you do good, big contracts. If you do bad, well, you likely won't be around to see it all burn.
Following chapters cover personal combat, mek combat, environmental hazards etc. The rules are basic enough that you don't need miniatures, but complex enough that if you wanted to use them you could. Either way, it will probably take a fight or two to get the hang of it. But sufice to say, mek fighting is more than just hanging about. It is allocating power to do what you want. It is combat between combatants that are sometimes kilometers away, it is rapid fire rocket rules, it is ECM, infra read signatures, it is.... well, cool as hell.
The entire middle of the book is filled with dozens of fully realized CGI meks and their stats. I can't tell you how beautiful they are. You just have to see them to belive them. They look so dang good. Mechs of varyng sizes and shapes, divided up by company or world faction that operates them (and the WarMeks supplement should be right around the corner with many many more).
Next we get a huge section containing a complete set of Mek construction rules so you can create your own war machines and lead them into battle. I have only looked through this section briefly, but it looks to be very complete and a lot of fun. I believe it won't be long before mek designs are flooding out on fan sites, complete with custom weapons and equipment.
Finally, we end up with a detailed sections on the campaign setting itself and how to run games in the A2089 universe. This section identifies the major movers and shakers in the world, whether they be governments, alliance, or mega corporations. It gives you a good look at this bleak world where no one is really the good guy. The world seems to have evolved by taking the worst traits of everybody.
One of my little habits when I get a new RPG book is that I tend to skim through it quickly, and then start over rereading more carefully, and then rereading again very carefully. This book broke my pattern. I just couldn't skim. There was too much cool stuff to read. I kept saying stuff like "Cool, electronic warfare. How did they handle that" or "Cool damage absorbtion, how did they handle that" It took me two hours to skim, which usually takes 20 minutes. This book is great from beginning to end. And if you don't like the setting, the rules for meks are applicable to other settings.
I thought long nad hard to come up with disadvantages, and I could only really come up with one, and it is nitpicky as heck, but I should mention it. It is the same problem I had with the Mummy Returns (yes, the movie). When a product or movie is so perfect, even the smallest flaw seems to just stand out glaring at you. It is funny how people can be far less forgiving of a product with a lot of flaws, but incredibly unforgiving of the perfect product with the smallest flaw. In the Mummy returns, the FX throughout the movie were so good and so perfect, that when the scorpion king appeared and his face/torso looked so fake, it killed the end of the movie for me. Which si ironic as if the whole movie looked crappy, I prolly wouldn't have minded. A2089 is kind of like this. The Mek art is so perfect and looks so good. The layout is so crisp, perfect and good. But the art for the other vehicles and the iconic character classes was just so inferior to the rest of the product, that it just stood out. Of course, this is just my subjective opinion. And it isn't even that it is terribly bad. It is actully okay, and comprable to other rpg products I have. The problem is the other artwork is just so damn good....
Finale: If you want a war game, buy this product. If you love mechs... buy this product. If you want a gritty geopolitical wargame with realistic hi-tech combat potential, yet ease of play, buy this product. If you just want some serious eye candy and innovative rules for modern or near future environs, buy this product. It may cost a little more, but it is worth every penny.
I recommend this product heartily and give it an "A". For me it is *the* mech game.
After seeing this, I can't wait to see Mongoose's treatment of Babylon 5.
Razuur
