What brings this from annoyance to outright frustration, however, is the way these issues tie into Campaign mode. I've already mentioned how each player VT in this mode is unique and must be replaced when lost, but I did not go into detail on the consequences of dropping out of a match due to a connection error. Get this: dropping out of a match due to a CE will actually result in your currently deployed VT being lost forever, forcing you to buy back a new one, even if it was never actually destroyed - and VTs eaten by connection errors will never be reinstated. Picture waiting a number of hours for that particularly rare, particularly spicy (and expensive) VT that you've been waiting for to drop, only to jump into your first match with some random people from Scotland with quirky DSL connections that appear fine in the lobby, but actually end up causing the game to crash out with a connection error after a mere thirty seconds of it beginning. Bang, VT gone, and no replacement for the victim. Again, these problems don't occur very commonly, but there are inherent flaws in the game's network code that seriously need patching. This kind of thing is completely unacceptable if pilots are expected to spend their hard-earned supply points on expensive VTs, risk them in an open battle, and then lose them without a shot ever being fired due to circumstances totally beyond their control. Who tested this thing? Oh, that's right, I did - I and the three other American testers who actually bothered to log in to the beta to "stress test" the game on a semi-regular basis. Could a spotty and poorly-managed beta program have contributed to this game's vast technical and gameplay problems? Given how it was actually released ahead of schedule, I honestly have to wonder.

Let's get back on track with some more gameplay discussion. As previously outlined, there are four factions in the game, and each has their own totally unique VT lineup. So how do these different guys balance out between each other in Campaign mode? PRF focuses on simplistic knife-fighting, with VTs that can effectively dance around and carve up enemies at close-range, while HSD specializes in long-range warfare, preferring to tear their victims apart from a distance with heavy artillery and sniper rifles. The Right Brothers get fairly light VTs that don't quite match up to the PRF when it comes to straight-up fighting, but have direct access to the "Marker Launcher" weapon, which can highlight enemy targets on the radar display of all friendly VTs and have a huge focus on tactics over brute force (their use of the "Sheepdog" scout VT, which can monitor enemy communications and consistently see enemy positions makes them supreme in this role), while the Jaralaccs just like to wade into battle and crush the hell out of everybody with their high-end, flexible, highly expensive hardware. After witnessing the scheduling for the game's first "Round" and observing commentary, opinions, and experiences as new VTs were released with each turn, I have to say that Nudemaker has certainly taken an interesting approach to gameplay balance. It has hardly turned out to be the standard "Rock-Paper-Scissors" approach most would be used to, but instead is a more intriguing design, rife with underlying complexities and radical elements that can only be exposed through extensive playing.

To go into more detail, the way the game is set up, no VT can be ultimate in every role - there are always weaknesses, and this encourages players to trade with each other and work together to try and create a flexible platoon. Think you're the big shit with your shiny new Railgun-equipped Prominence M2 VT, with its Optional Armor and menacing appearance? Think again - that thing turns like a turtle, and while you can effectively pick off foes like crazy from a distance, things will get extremely hairy once someone moves into close range. Add a second escorting buddy in a fast, quick Blade or a versatile Prominence M1, however, and the tables even out a little. While VTs like the Quasar or Garpike have the flexibility and power to get themselves into and out of most situations in one piece, any VT can be chewed to pieces if a pilot is surprised by a sudden ambush from behind - especially in overwhelming numbers The game has such a heavy lean on tactics, co-ordination, and teamwork over straight up dog-fighting that any player who thinks they're frigging Mecha-Rambo and runs off to try and win the war on their own will quickly find themselves shunned and verbally abused by their team mates as their VTs are flanked and cut to pieces, putting a dent into the team's overall ticket rating for that specific match and potentially compromising their chances for victory. If you're the kind of player that thinks Quake 3 was the coolest game of all time, please don't apply.

Towards the end of the Campaign's first round, however, I began to notice some serious problems in the gameplay balance. The largest issues appeared once the "third-generation" VTs were unveiled in the seventh turn, which gave the various factions access to some really high-end muscle. PRF forces gained the Quasar, which is an astonishingly powerful VT capable of wielding a devastating Railgun along with numerous other heavy weapons, for example, but Hai Shi Dao's new VTs were curiously underpowered, with that faction gaining access to the "Regal Dress" line of VTs. These models were only marginally better than previous VTs already in circulation for HSD, yet had an insanely high purchase cost associated with them (and were also incredibly rare) for some reason. Since these VTs can have problems even effectively fighting off a determined pilot in a middle-of-the-line 2nd-generation VT (the weapons lineup for the Regal Dress "N" variant is nothing particularly special, and the "A" variant is only effective as an artillery VT), it does not make sense to make the VT so difficult to obtain and so pricey. I really have to question Nudemaker's motives in balancing during this phase of the Campaign, as they effectively rendered Hai Shi Dao's third-generation line useless (Juggernaut aside - the Quasar's bigger brother, which arrives for Hai Shi Dao in the final turn of the round and is even more expensive) for no apparent reason. What does all this mean for the casual player hooking up the game for the first time? Be wary if you enlist in Hai Shi Dao - you can expect to be screwed up in the ass repeatedly by these balancing problems. It's nothing that cannot be overcome by determination and teamwork, but getting raped constantly by the superior equipment other factions are wielding in a much easier manner can get tiresome, quick.

There's a huge amount of equipment available in this game. Not only are there over 30 totally unique VTs to play with, each with their own strengths and weaknesses (and unique little quirks, such as the Siegeszug's "Shield Binder", or the Earthshaker's odd cockpit swaying when moving in a high gear), but there are also a huge number of different weapons to choose from that all have very different characteristics and handling that pilots would do best to familiarize themselves with, before they go to unload a sniper rifle on an advancing Decider only to watch the shell bounce off because the attacker zoomed inside of the weapon's minimum range too quickly. One interesting addition to Campaign mode is the range of "Optional Parts" available for use, which do anything from increase the number of supply points a pilot will receive at the end of a match, to affecting his VT's handling, such as battery recharge rates or overall durability. Op. Parts range in performance based on their level (1-3), and there are even a few unique parts that have some very interesting effects, such as the "Goddess of War", which reportedly saves a pilot from KIA status if he fails to eject somehow. What irks me on this front, however, is the total and complete lack of documentation on Optional Parts. Nowhere does it indicate exactly how they are handed out, and to this date, I have not found a single player who actually knows for sure how to get them. All I know at this point is that they are released after a mission in the post-match screen, where players can check their stats for that session and elect to salvage any VTs they happened to leg. The chance of obtaining Optional Parts seems to be completely and totally random, and I myself have only managed to get a few useless level 1 toys to play with - most of them under totally differing circumstances. My repeated deep inquiries into the matter in an attempt to learn more have met with total failure, so I guess the community is going to be totally left in the dark on this front until someone makes a breakthrough.

Another neat affair that lacks any manner of documentation is that of the player profile. As a pilot fleshes out his Campaign stats, his online profile card (accessible any time and visible to other pilots) develops with him and changes to show his exact performance level. Aside from hard numbers to indicate win/loss ratio and how many VTs the player currently owns, there is also an automated text log which indicates where the player had his first mission, how many times he's defected to another faction (if at all), and any exceptional performance details (key phrases here are "Veteran" or "Feared by pilots everywhere"). Neat stuff, but one of the most interesting aspects to this is that of the "Professional Name". A few of these are obvious in meaning, such as "Trainee", "Rookie", "Senior", or "Veteran", which the game will assign based on the age he enters when he makes his profile, but as the game is played more and more, new professional names will appear, including "Pest" or "Tadpole", or more elaborate ones like "Raven Executioner" or "Ogre". This stuff is incredibly cool and would really give players a chance to distinguish themselves, were it not for one minor problem - half the playerbase has no idea what any of the names actually mean. There are numerous working theories (some which make a lot of sense, such as the concept that prefixes like "Red" or "Raven" are given out based on a player's preferred color-scheme on his VT), but the meaning behind many of the other names still remains wholly unidentified and undocumented, making them ultimately useless. When a pilot joins the room with a professional name of "Pest", how the hell am I supposed to know if it means a good or bad thing? Once again, repeated attempts at securing more information through my available sources yielded no results. Gaaah!

Enough about the mystery and intrigue surrounding the gameplay for now, let's move on to another issue I had during the beta, the graphics. While they are undoubtedly superb (I love seeing a sunset reflection on the water, and the VT animations are just awesome), the same framerate issues still bog the game down. It is less noticeable now than it used to be, but in almost every match, I noticed a certain level of erratic choppiness (or at least something resembling an "absence of smooth") when I went to close the cockpit hatch and start up my VT. It's nothing really terrible, but it certainly got distracting after my 50th session or so. On the bright side, the view distance has still maintained it's jacked up appearance ("jacked up", that is, as opposed to the terrible fog enshrouding all of the original Steel Battalion), and the developers have used some tricks to let the player see even further into the distance if they need to by zooming in the camera on their main monitor display - the fog will pull back a little to yield more visibility. That said, the overall scheme of the game maintains the muddy, gritty style presented in the original, making for some really intense combat and giving off a surprisingly attractive, very appealing atmosphere. Objects on the ground, such as buildings (and even parked jets on certain maps, which are hilarious fun to plow through with your VT's giant feet) and towers all have some nice level of detail to them, though the trees unfortunately look rather shoddy (given the high quantity of these in some forested maps, this is understandable), and I've even witnessed some flying helicopters via the game's replay mode that are actually totally untextured - I guess they thought nobody would notice? I think the only major complaints I have besides that of framerates at this point are that the VTs themselves have some annoying clipping problems (the weapons that move up into position during boot-up tend to go right through the VT's knees), and that the main monitor display has some incredibly fuzzy output that can make it hard to see on occasion. Come on, this is the future! And where's my blasted spotlight for those impossible-to-navigate night missions? One final note for you high-def freaks out there - LoC scales as high as 720p, so be sure to give the game a shot in that mode if you have the appropriate hardware.

My apologies if this article has turned into more of a rant than an objective review, but given the vast amount of time, effort, and money that I have put forth into this game, I wouldn't feel right with writing up a lesser piece. My final stance on Steel Battalion: Line of Contact is very conflicted. On one hand, I cannot promote this game to newcomers in good faith. With the connection problems, exploiting players, lack of support/interest from Capcom, and absolutely no clear sign of any resolution on the near horizon, things do not look good. On the other hand, if you happen to have an ISP that goes well above the listed requirements (ones that officially claim to support Xbox Live will generally have much better mileage), don't mind a number of bad apples, and are willing to put up with some of the glaring issues in the game, you will find yourself armed with an experience that cannot be matched by any other title. This is one of the single most intense, most hardcore Mech simulator experiences ever to come out, and will instantly make anybody nostalgic for the old Battletech "Tesla Pod" days. I think the best I can do at this point is direct prospective buyers to the facilities at Steel Battalion Central to find all the information they need. Perhaps in the future, Capcom will release an update that will overhaul the game to make it more playable for the target audience at large (balancing adjustments, exploit patches, technical fixes), as well as take action against the disruptive parts of the community and start offering some god damn large-scale support for this sinfully neglected title. Until then, do some careful research into your own connection capabilities and what the game's current state is before you splurge - just to be sure. Trust me when I say that I would not hesitate to openly promote this game far and wide were it not for the issues currently tying it down - it is just that good. Don't discount the game entirely, just poke around a little for further information before going out of your way to pick it up. Steel Battalion: Line of Contact definitely has the potential to be one of the best online games ever, but it needs to have this potential unlocked first, which cannot be done in its current state. Time to go back to nursing the ol' beanbag…