AirMech aka Herzog Drei...

[The Coop]

http://carbongames.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW-8NjgTSfw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxGiBWOFjbU

Over two decades ago, Tecno Soft released a game for the MegaDrive/Genesis called Herzog Zwei. It got mixed reviews, in part because no one was really sure what to do with the game. It was strategy and shmup mashed together, and everything was happening in real time. It came and went, and didn't really get much of a following. However, as time went on, people began to realize that this game was a forerunner to the RTS genre we know and love today. It was doing real time battles, resource management, and allowing you to give orders to troops that they'd follow on their own, years before Dune II and the first C&C would erect the basic control template that nearly every RTS game uses today.

Despite HZ's iffy reception back then, it regularly shows up in various lists of the 50 or 100 best/most influential games. But now, there's a game coming out that is so very inspired by HZ, that I'm honestly surprised the makers didn't just try and get the rights to call it Herzog Drei.

Called AirMech, the game is what Herzog Zwei was... part shmup, part RTS. The graphics have obviously been updated to clean 3D models, but unfortunately, you can't get a real feel for the audio. Carbon Games is making it, and the mind(s) behind Fat Princess are responsible for this.

So yeah, check it out. Those who had Herzog Zwei in the early days of the Genesis, and appreciated what the game was doing, should be pretty excited. It's coming out for various systems, with PC, 360/Live, PS3/PSN being the most likely. No release date as of yet, but I know I'll be watching for it.


And for those not familiar with Herzog Zwei (which would be shocking given the site we're on), here's a little video to help...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYfYrhT82RM

[roundwars]

I thought this thread was going to be about the actual Herzog Zwei sequel Tecnosoft was working on for the 32X, but this is cool too. Does anyone have any information about that by the way? My only indication that it even existed is from one line on a Wikipedia article somewhere.

Seriously though, this game really looks like EXACTLY the same thing. One would hope that they'd expand on the concept a little more than that, though I suppose I shouldn't assume there aren't other features that aren't shown in the video. I wonder if it'll support 4-player games.

As for audio, we can only hope the music lives up to HZ's intense, abstract, futuristic military tunes. I'm looking forward to finding out.