Review:
Massive Assault Network 2: The Review

I’ve never been much of a strategy gamer. That isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy a good strategy game, I do, and I can appreciate the nuances involved. I love a good Civlization, or Command and Conquer. I still remember my childhood, playing Panzer General against my father over a LAN connection. He would kick my ass every single time. Which I suppose is where me and strategy games don’t get a long. I’m just not all that good at them.

Massive Assault Network 2 is a somewhat by the books game that tries to take a basic formula, lets say Panzer General meets Risk, and put it in a solely multiplayer infrastructure. Sure you can play the computer, but doing so is very dissatisfying. Playing online is where the moolah is and if you’ve already read the score, you might be surprised to know it is actually fun.

It follows the same sort of format as Civilization IV’s play by e-mail mode. It improves on the whole concept as when you do your turn, instead of having to leave the game, and hassle with e-mails, everything is dealt with online with the in-game client. And it works rather well. I would ask that hopefully Civilization V uses a similar, if not blatantly the same, interface for their online games, but we’ll have to see.

Once in game, you’re treated to a fairly small island, split into small pie pieces that you must capture. You start off with 2 or more, and so does your opponent. Every piece of the island you control gives you some money every turn. Your turns are split between the combat phase, followed by the buying things phase, and then the "hey I had a secret base over here you didn’t know about" phase.

The units are reminiscient of old Command and Conquer games, minus the infantry. You have crappy tanks, better tanks, walkers, missile launchers, and they all can move a set amount of spaces a turn, and do a set amount of damage. There’s also planes and boats, to switch things up every once in a while.

The game gets a little more complicated as when you invade an enemy’s territory, they’re given a number of “Guerilla units.” This means you have to put a bit more thought into things before you step over enemy lines. Unfortunately, this also counts towards neutral territories. You walk into a neutral territory and the territory goes “Hey, guess they’re the bad guy, I’m siding with you” and sides with your enemy, giving them control of the territory and guerilla units you then have to fight off. This leads to moments where you’ll both line up on either side of a territory, waiting for the other to step in and make your life easier.