Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

In spite of or maybe even because of some of the gameplay barriers, I will remember my experience with it forever. I love it, I hate it and I love hating it.

The new Steel Battalion is going to divide people, in case you hadn't guessed. Some players will choke on the interfacial blunders, gag at the sporadically entertaining missions and walk away calling it the worst game ever. Others, however, will regard even the flaws as a thrown gauntlet.

If From would have nailed the motion controls down, this would have been one of my favorite games of the year because it's so engaging and fresh. Unfortunately, dealing with the sketchy controls can be wildly frustrating.

For what it's worth, if I wanted a simulation of being crammed into a tiny, metal, low-tech claustrophobic coffin while people yell and attempt to kill me repeatedly while I struggle with basic controls, then Heavy Armor offers up quite the war experience. However, that's not what I was looking for, and I suspect that it's not something anyone else is after, either.

The first hardcore game for Kinect: A good concept ruined by a bad peripheral.

If you're a "Kinect skeptic", Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor will not change your mind. At all. Motion controls may work better or worse depending on the room, but they'll never be accurate enough to let you survive an ambush.

The game gets increasingly difficult, so much that you probably won't want to play through the game upon completing it once or twice except to snag some elusive achievements.

With its unusual blend of Kinect and controller – of simple missions and complex control – Heavy Armor is a modern rarity: a game designed to be hard work. Whether that translates directly into it being a game for the 'hardcore' is debatable, but From Software has made the best of a bad situation and, aptly, delivered a game that asks you to do exactly the same.

But much of the time, the controls simply don't work, and instead of feeling immersed, you feel enraged and helpless. If the graphics, story, or even gameplay mechanics weren't as good as they are, I wouldn't be wasting my time with a game with such messy, unreliable controls.

It's full of problems, but it's also full of charm and ambition. Undoubtedly some of you will fall in love with it, viewing even the input issues as the latest in a long line of challenges thrown at you by From Software. Others will regret their purchase nine deaths into the first mission, unable to even think about how difficult the rest of the game could be.

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is the first genuine hardcore Kinect game, something that makes it so much more appealing. Despite some flashy visuals and a hard as nails single-player mode, there's a sense that Heavy Armor would be a little dull if played exclusively with a controller.

What many were hoping to be one of the first real hardcore Kinect games turned into a very frustrating experience; the core concept is good and it's got some nice visuals too, but the motion control is too cumbersome.

Despite a solid story and decent graphics Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor fails to implement the Kinect in an acceptable manor. And so frustration prevails over the pleasure of gaming.

Heavy Armor is certainly an interesting experiment but one that never quite manages to convince. Most missions feel like trial and error rather than a test of your own skill, plus the Kinect wobbles that are thrown your way can have mission ending consequences that are far from satisfactory. When things do work then there are some small rewards, especially in the off the cuff moments with your crew, but Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor feels too much like punishment rather than entertainment.

This could have been a brilliant game. The problem is that it just doesn't work. The Kinect controls work only when they want to, and most of the time they don't, something that ruins an otherwise great experience.

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is back eight years after and a generation later, but despite all that has changed in the meantime, the same problems can be found in the experience. Confusing, frustrating to play and never able reach the full potential inherent in this concept.