Initial release date 25 November 1997 | Platform Microsoft Windows | |
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Designer(s) Dustin Browder, Jeff Jorczak, John Harris, Michael Ward Developers Activision, Activision Blizzard Publishers Activision, Activision Blizzard Genres First-person shooter, Vehicle simulation game Modes Single-player video game, Multiplayer video game Similar Heavy Gear II, MachineCraft, MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, MechWarrior 2: 31st Century, Interstate '76 | ||
Heavy Gear is a 1997 computer game based on the Heavy Gear role-playing game. A sequel, Heavy Gear II, was released in 1999.
Contents
Development
Faced with the loss of the BattleTech-MechWarrior property, Activision's Production Executive, Frank Evers, spearheaded the acquisition of the video game license in 1995. The game was made for the Windows 95 operating system and was partly based on a game engine derived from existing MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries code. It was released in 1997. Before the release of the PC game an arcade version based on the Virtuality Hardware Platforms was developed but never released. It is unknown if the dwindling interest in Virtual Reality arcade games or the high cost of manufacturing were the reasons, but from the existing footage one can assume that the game was already in a quite late stage of development since even animated instructions on how to use the Arcade hardware and an intro video were implemented as seen in the footage. The working title was "Heavy Gear Extreme".
Plot
The story follows the crew of the CNCS landship Vigilance (an enormous hovercraft carrier) as they played a cat-and-mouse game across the Badlands with a rival landship from the AST, the Draco.