Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor hands-on preview There's a good chance you've never played either of the previous Steel Battalion games. The original game came complete with a mandatory cockpit peripheral; sticks, buttons, pedals, an emergency eject panel. Naturally, it wasn't cheap, clocking in at around £130 in the UK. The online-only sequel, Line of Contact, also required use of the peripheral. Given the high cost of entry, the hardcore nature of the game (if your tank is destroyed and you don't eject in time, the game erases your save) and the logistical nightmare of setting up a cockpit in your living room, it's no surprise that the original Steel Battalion games became niche collectors' pieces. There are some one-off interactions too. In the section I played, a particularly green recruit on my team had taken a shine to my character, fumbling his words as he excitedly proclaimed his joy at working with me. He offered me his hand, and I shook it. He offered me a candy bar and I took it. He put his fist up to fistbump me, and really, you know we've reached our technological zenith when a camera device lets us fistbump an in-game character. Then on the first mission, as heavy-duty bullets pinged off the shell of our Vertical Tank (VT), as the cockpit became clammy and overheated, as I struggled to take out the lumbering enemy VTs in the distance, the same chipper guy got cold feet. 'I can't take this any more,' he yelped, leaping past me, throwing open the hatch and attempting to clamber free. The game told me to pull him back in. I reached up, past his flailing, dirty boots. I hesitated. Pulled him back in. He slumped back in his seat, minus an arm, part of his chest, and half his face. 'You ------- held him there!' one of my other co-pilots screamed. You killed him! Had I finished the mission, my co-pilot would've been permanently removed from the game. There are around 30 squad members in Heavy Armor, and if you finish a mission when a character's died, they're gone for good. They have their own personalities, their own stories, all of which can be cut down at any point. I played that first mission four or five times. Only once did I see my co-pilot try to escape. It's a fiendishly difficult, grueling game, not unexpected coming from From Software, developers of Dark Souls and Armored Core. These guys know hard, and they know their mechs, and the struggle to control a hulking great vertical tank is presented here in all its sluggish glory, each thundering footfall reverberating through the cockpit, sweat pouring from your co-pilots' brows the longer you stay inside. You can stand up, pop your head out, but most of the time this will prematurely end your run faster than you can say "Bring Back Inside Xbox." Unfortunately, in the levels I played, part of the struggle was getting Kinect to pick up the correct gestures. Some worked perfectly - reaching for the periscope never failed, for example. However, some of the commands were a real chore, particularly trying to close the front shutter. Since this led to my death almost every time, it was kind of an irritating barrier, although flailing around in a panic moments from death could be said to be a deliberate gameplay mechanic, perhaps. It's clearly not, though, and the Kinect controls, especially given how numerous they are, take quite a bit of getting used to before you feel like you're not just dying unfairly. Perhaps, again, this is a reflection on the futility of war, or perhaps it's just that Kinect is a fussy device and is somewhat problematic in a game that requires quick, precise reactions. When you get to grips with the controls, their nuances and the exact movements the game expects of you, however, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is an intriguing, gruelling, extremely deep mech combat sim, and a far cry from the likes of Joyride or Kinectimals. To illustrate the work From Software has put in to recreating the feel of armoured combat, Capcom put on a demonstration in which we were taken out in real tanks; a Leopard and a Sherman. It's impossible to say that this gave an indication of what it'd be like to be out on a warzone, even with the pyrotechnics and dust (a lot of dust), but there's no denying that From has captured the weight and feel of such vehicles. It wasn't until a jaunt in a personnel carrier, however, that we really started to see just how cramped, uncomfortable and claustrophobic these things can be; travelling along a rugged track in the dark, heads bouncing off one another, unsure of the direction we're heading. It's easy to see just how well this has been captured in the game. The atmosphere of Steel Battalion is its strongest point. It just remains to be seen whether the problematic Kinect controls become less of an issue with time and practise, or if they'll be a significant hurdle throughout.