Steel Battalion?

[diesel_dan]

Hey Guys!

Anybody have any impressions of Steel Battalion? That ridiculous controller has always intrigued me, but the equally ridiculous price tag has always scared me away. Is it worth the price of admission?

A local guy is selling the whole setup on Craigslist--what's a reasonable offer?

Thanks!

[dedalusdedalus]

If it's complete in box, Steel Battalion tends to go for around $150.

What you should offer depends on the circumstances--does it seem like this guy really just wants to get rid of it? Does he seem like he knows what the value of this item is? Also, how badly do you want to own a Steel Battalion?

[diesel_dan]

Haha...my desire to own Steel Battalion hinges entirely on how much fun it is to play!

The game is pretty complete...maybe no box (but I don't get too hung up that). Looks like the seller is a college kid trying to scrape some cash together for books.

Ah...those are the real lessons learned in school.

[dedalusdedalus]

Ah, I can't give any first-hand advice on how fun it is to play. The price point and the sheer size of the controllers always scare me off.

But I've read a lot of reviews on Steel Bat, and nearly everyone says that it's balls-hard and the learning curve is steep since there are so many buttons on the thing. Also, if you don't press the eject button before your mech blows up, your save file gets permanently deleted. Definitely seems like a unique gameplay experience.

There are lots of videos on Youtube though for this kind of stuff. Whenever I'm on the fence about something, I always watch a couple of gameplay videos on Youtube.

[MrPopo]

If you enjoy the earlier Mechwarrior games over the later Mechwarrior games then you'll like Steel Battalion. It errs on the simulation side with a vengeance, and if you're into that sort of thing it's pretty awesome. Don't be intimidated by the large number of buttons; 5 of the switches and three of the buttons are only for starting up at the beginning of each mission, and another several will helpfully light up when needed (such as the windshield wiper).

[diesel_dan]

...5 of the switches and three of the buttons are only for starting up at the beginning of each mission, and another several will helpfully light up when needed (such as the windshield wiper).

That's fantastic. That's the sort of thing that makes me want to play this beast.

I wonder how bad this fella wants to sell his?

[t0yrobo]

It's a pretty awesome game, it has it's fair share of annoyances though. The learning curve and difficulty are easily the first things you'd notice, just knowing where all the buttons are takes some time. Also the friendly AI is 100% incompetent. And you don't get any VTs with very good visibility till later in the game, so you're stuck with just the cockpit covering most of the screen. That said, there's no good reason not to get it, unless you simply don;t have the space to set it up. You won't play anything like it except maybe in arcades. There's drivers to use the controller with a handful of pc games too, one of the Mechwarrior games, Freespace, and I don't know what else.

[corn619]

I got mine new and sealed for $70.00. It was worth every penny, this game is just awesome if you set it up right. Warning though you must have patience with this game, it not a pick up and play kind of game. In the later levels you must know the controller well in order to advance. I use a adjustable height table and a nice office chair in front of a 42" HDTV. Hell, I liked the game so much I modeled my room after the game! Here is some pics of the incomplete version, it looks much cooler now. http://racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=10375