If you think all mech games involve painstakingly building your machine from the ground up to create the most dominant, slow moving, walking tank around, then you're only half right. While FromSoftware's latest mech game stays true to its roots with a huge number of customization options, the gameplay itself is fast and furious bringing a welcome sense of mechanized action to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Snail-like death machines be damned, Steel Battalion this is not.
Upon starting the game, we found ourselves thrust into a virtual room for a brief tutorial. After going through the motions and learning the basics, the tutorial tops off with a mock battle. It was pretty simple stuff and a good example of how the streamlined controls make piloting one of these metal monstrosities an easy task. The two triggers are used for boosting about with the right one for quick dodges and the left for longer fuel burns. The two analog sticks are used for motion and aiming while the face buttons are reserved for firing the weapons themselves and using the over boost.