Seek and Destroy
System: Playstation 2
Publisher: Conspiracy Entertainment
Developer:
Takara
Released: December 2002
Genre: Action/Strategy
Capabilities: Memory Card
Review Written: June 24, 2003
I don’t know what has gotten over me, but I have gotten this serious knack
for budget titles as of late. I think it is just my quest to find the
quintessential $10 game. Rest assured, none of the god-awful Spec Ops
titles will be in there. Anyways, I was at my local Best Buy recently and was
digging through all the PS2 budget titles thinking there hasn’t been one I
played yet. At the far end of the pack there was a title by Conspiracy
Entertainment called Seek and Destroy. Right off the bat the game got on
my good side by being named after a Metallica song, but it didn’t stay there for
much longer.
Seek and Destroy is a tank combat game involving an interesting story and
plays quite similar to the pair of BattleTanx games on the N64. The
storyline is a bit confusing, and in the sheer fashion it’s told in might end up
turning you off. I kid you not, once you start your quest on the single player
adventure text scrolls up the screen exactly like the beginning in all the
Star Wars movies! In a nutshell, two empires are at war, and you venture out
on the good side (dubbed the Protons) as you are about to be crushed by your
evil foes (named the Q-Stein) at your own home base. From there you make your
way across the country regaining all your lost territories and hoping to
vanquish Q-Stein once and for all. I bet Q-Bert is getting jealous right now
though.
When I started up gameplay, maneuvering my tank around was a major pain. The
left analog stick is used for both maneuvering your tank around and
rotating the tank turret. One of them is moved depending on how much pressure is
applied to the analog stick. This horrible system caused me for moving in many
directions I didn’t want to, and messed up the overall controls from the get go.
Other controls for the tanks include firing your main and sub-weapons with the
X, Square, and Circle buttons.
The main story mode plays out a bit awkward at first. Textboxes appear for
whenever the tanks talk to each other, well I guess the tank operators are
actually talking because the game gives names for whoever is talking in the
textboxes, but no portraits of the operators at all are to be found, thus
leading me to believe the tanks are actually talking to each other. The truth is
out there dammit! Anyways the first mission has you repelling the Q-Stein’s
final attack on the Proton’s main base. Once you crush their forces you get out
of your base and move into an overhead 3D map, much like the way an RPG does
from entering/exiting towns to the world map. From there, I maneuvered my tank
around the world map until I came across another town or mission icon.
There are a total of 25 missions in the single player mode and I was surprised
that some of them actually involved more than just winning skirmishes against
the Q-Stein. Some missions actually involve some strategy where I had to blow up
a bridge before the Q-Stein forces reached there. At home base and other towns
there are shops to purchase upgrades and new weapons for my tank. There are also
“arenas” to do one-on-one battles against an AI opponent for cash. Speaking of
the AI, it fluctuates at how good it is. There are times where it is all over me
laying a good whooping on my tank, and times where it’ll just sit there when I
fire homing missile after homing missile on it until it’s done for.
There are a few extra ways to play Seek and Destroy than the main mission
mode. There is an option to go head-to-head against a friend or against the A.I.
in three difficulties (easy, hard, and get this: MIDDLE). Or you
can go against a pal in one of sixteen mini games such as water races and
competing in shooting the most targets in a given time limit.
I don’t know how I should go about describing how far behind the graphics are,
they are about somewhere between Playstation and Nintendo 64 quality. And I
think I’m being quite generous with that statement. The texturing is so simple
and lacking of detail that all the tanks and buildings look as bad as any other
game on the market. Even the explosions don’t look that spectacular. Also
clipping is a major issue as I consistently see my tank going through buildings
and terrains. Very poor effort involved here, then again I’m not surprised by
its budget status, but I’ve seen other budget titles do much better.
The audio is practically nonexistent; as a matter of fact it was nonexistent at
the beginning of the game. I swear this is the first title that has the
background music and sound effects muted as default settings. This is probably
due to the lack of effort also involved in this department. The few happy melody
background tracks would get the job done for a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon
show, but they don’t even belong in a game based on war. Hell, the background
music for freaking Advance Wars on the GBA is better than this pile of
crud. The few sound effects for gunfire and explosions are nothing you haven’t
heard before and will not leave any lasting impressions.
I tried getting my buddy to play the head-on-head mini games with me, but within
five minutes he didn’t want to touch the game again, and I don’t blame him
either. Believe it or not, the single player mission mode is probably the best
aspect of Seek and Destroy with enough gameplay variety to mix things up
and plenty of tanks to unlock by completing it. But it only took me about four
hours to beat all the 25 missions available. After that, there wasn’t really
much else to keep me hooked.
RATINGS
Graphics: 1.8
Sound: 0.4
Gameplay: 5.5
Replay Value: 2.0
Overall: 2.4
I really thought this game was going to be good. I guess it is just the curse of
the budget status. As it stands, Seek and Destroy lives up to its $10
budget price. The only thing going for this game is the mission mode, but after
you take the few hours to beat it there is nothing else is left to do. If you’re
really looking for a good tank combat game, I’d recommend 3DO’s World
Destruction League Thunder Tanks. It’s pretty much a straight up sequel to
the excellent Battletanx games on the N64, and since its over two years
old it can also be found in bargain bins for around $10 as well.
On a final note, I hope the publisher at Conspiracy Entertainment are happy,
they have disgraced Metallica! Just watch, they'll sue them like they did
Napster!