Review: Heavy Weapon (PS3)
July 6th, 2009 | Written by Chris Selogy | Topic: PlayStation 3, Reviews
With PopCap’s two major puzzle games already out on PSN, it was time for SOE to bring one of their more interesting titles to the PS3 in the form of Heavy Weapon. This over the top dual-stick shooter still feels a bit fresh amongst the PSN dual-stick shooter crowd despite already appearing on Xbox Live Arcade just over two years ago.
The story behind Heavy Weapon is a simple story of one tank taking on the Soviet Union-like Red Star to take down their Communist air force on your way to Red Star headquarters to stop Communism all by yourself. Though Heavy Weapon is a dual-stick shooter, your movements are confined to horizontal directions while you can shoot in any direction. The typical course of a level has you scrolling to the right as plenty of planes and other types of aircraft with different types of weapons fly above your tank while trying to take you out until you fight the boss at the end. Power-ups definitely play a big part as a support chopper shows up from time to time to drop power-ups like a nuke for you to use while enemies will drop parts of a secret weapon, called the Megalaser, which is pretty much what you think it is. It’s just a simple game that is just pure fun to play, though it may not be the deepest game you’ll find on PSN.
The main mode of Heavy Weapon is the mission mode, which tasks you with invading each of the nine countries within the Red Star Empire and defeating them all. Though there didn’t seem to be a reason why you go for a second tour before taking on Red Star’s headquarters, though it does give you the chance to fully upgrade all of your weapons before taking on the final boss. After you beat a country, you get the chance to upgrade one of your six available weapons, such as homing missiles, arc lightning, and a laser gun, with the max being three upgrades for each weapon. The second tour through the countries is a nice way to be able to use those upgrades to full effect and to test your skills, as well.
Outside of the mission mode, Heavy Weapon offers a survival mode and a Boss Blitz mode to help extend the enjoyment that it offers. The survival mode offers two flavors, Arms Race and War Party, with the latter being a co-operative mode when playing with friends while the former is competitive as you find endless hordes of aircraft to see how long you can last. This is the main multiplayer mode both locally and online, though don’t expect much in the way of online opportunities, so make sure you have friends that interested in playing before buying this game. Boss Blitz mode is opened up once you beat the mission mode and as you may have guessed, it pits you against all of the bosses that the mission mode had to offer in a row. You get a small break so a support chopper can drop some upgrade power-ups for you before going back in to tackle the next boss, which is like the survival mode but for the bosses themselves.
The look of Heavy Weapon definitely screams of a cheap flash game. Almost every part of the game has a simple look to that probably doesn’t help make it seem like a downloadable game that’s worth checking out. The music has a similar feel to it with music that feels like it would be more suitable for a more serious game, which makes the lack of custom soundtrack support a disappointment. When it comes down to it, the presentation is probably the lowest point of Heavy Weapon’s offering, though it’s not bad enough to be harmful to its quality.
Though Heavy Weapon may not a fresh, new title for PS3 owners to play, it’s still a fun, simple experience that is worth the $10 price tag, especially if you have friends with which to tackle the survival mode. Just don’t expect a lot of people play with online if you happen to not have friends around you to play with.
Final Score: 7.4 | Recommendation: Buy It
