Steel Beasts Review - By Derek "Crossbar" Bond Page 1 of 3
Tank simulations have dotted the sim landscape for years.
Games like Panzer Commander and M1 Tank Platoon have given
treadheads reason for hope. However, their luster was tarnished
by bugs, mediocre graphics, less-than-accurate realism or
a mix of all three. Panzer Elite was a step in the right direction.
PE offered good graphics, sound, missions and realism. While
not perfect (and a real system hog to boot), it gave fans
of tank simulations an honest tanking experience, rewarding
realistic tactics and offering excellent immersion. Now there's
a new game in town. And it's called Steel Beasts. Released
in the summer of 2000, Steel Beasts is developed by e-Sim
and published by Shrapnel Games. It focuses on modern tank
warfare featuring the M1A1 Abrams and Leopard 2A4 main battle
tanks. So, is Steel Beasts a step forward or backwards? Let's
take a look.
Minimum system specs:
Win 95/98/2000 with DX7
266 Pentium (450 recommended)
32 MB RAM (64 recommended)
225 MB hard drive space
2MB SVGA video card
Mouse
CD-ROM
This review is of the patched version of Steel Beasts, version
1.1. If for some reason you don't want to use the patch, you
can see what you may be missing HERE:
Installation:
Installation was flawless and takes approximately 230 MB for
a full install. It's worth noting that Steel Beasts never
crashed. In dozens of hours of testing and playing. Not once.
Never. That's saying something these days, isn't it?
Manual:
The manual is fine. Nothing fancy, and you won't be treated
to tons of reference info on the Steel Beasts combatants.
But it does what it should quite nicely. Namely, it gives
the player the information necessary to learn and play the
game. Nothing more, nothing less. 79 pages.
The Machines:
Steel Beasts focuses on two armored fighting vehicles (AFV's),
the American M1A1 Abrams and the German Leopard 2A4 main battle
tanks (MBT's). While it's possible to take limited control
of other vehicles in the game, only the M1 and the Leo are
modeled in depth.
Friendly vehicles in the game include the M2A2 Bradley, M113,
M901, Marder, Jaguar, Humvee and Fist-V. OPFOR vehicles include
the T-72, T-80, BMP-1, BMP-2, BRDM-2 and BTR-80. The Jaguar,
Humvee, BMD-2, BTR-80 and MTLB were all added in the 1.1 patch.
New vehicles are planned for future upgrades. That's a pretty
good stable of horses. With more on the way it can only get
better.
There is no timetable for these upgrades, but they are
planned. We'll have to wait and see. But the current vehicles
are certainly a good mix to recreate some tasty armored warfare.
You may have noticed by the vehicle list that the game is set
more or less in the 80's and early 90's. Remember the Gulf War
and the days when the Fulda Gap might erupt at any moment? You
will if you play Steel Beasts.
