Assault Heroes 2

March 11, 2008 - You
know Xbox Live Arcade has hit its stride when sequels to original games
on the service begin getting announced. Such is the case with Assault
Heroes, now a legitimate franchise that was born on Live Arcade near
the end of 2006. Wanako Games hasn't missed a beat and is putting the
finishing touches on the sequel, preparing to release another dose of
co-op shooting into the digital download world.

Assault Heroes 2
doesn't stray from the core gameplay of the first title. At first
glance, you might not even notice a difference between the two games at
all. You'll still battle your way through endless waves of grunts and
suicide bombers, take on giant mini and main bosses, and scour the
ground for weapon upgrades. Look a little closer and you'll see that a
lot has been added and improved. Michael Fahrny, associate producer at
Sierra Online, told IGN that the team looked closely at forum and focus
group feedback in order to keep the strong core gameplay intact and
blow out the features everyone enjoyed.

Blowing out the game means new and more powerful weapons, interactive
and destructible environments, hijackable vehicles, improved level
design and a 30% longer experience. Stages have now been added that
stray away from the vertical design, creating a path that snakes in all
directions. The team has also made the stages more three dimensional in
appearance. One area we saw had the heroes riding on a bridge high
above water, adding a sense of grandiose perspective. That water, by
the way, looks very cool and is quite impressive for an XBLA game.

The prize for the coolest stage shown goes to one that opened with the
players working through a jungle area. That in itself is pretty
standard, but Sierra Online added some magic mushrooms onto the playing
field. These puppies warp your vision, causing things to distort and
move in and out of focus and alter your controls to make things
difficult. Don't worry, the mushrooms only make a teasing appearance at
the beginning of the stage -- the developers aren't interested in
annoying the player.

Along with adding some on-foot areas outdoors to mix things up, a
larger emphasis has also been placed on the underground, on foot areas.
Dying in these doesn't automatically warp you out to the main world and
a greater focus has been put on making these areas feel as complete as
the main game. There's even a new dodge roll move to keep the absence
of a vehicle from being a death sentence. You'll need it, too, if you
find yourself on foot with a pink kamikaze Cadillac barreling your way.


The levels are now designed to look more three dimensional.

The
game remains capped at a two player co-op experience. The team looked
at expanding the number of players to four, but found the screen too
cluttered for its own good. Even though it is still locked at two
players, a couple of new features have been added to make the co-op
game more enjoyable. The first is the option to replay single stages
co-operatively, rather than having to start from the beginning and work
your way through the entire game. The team has also made it easier to
activate the co-op linked weapons. Either player can hit a button to
begin the strong attack as opposed to the old style where both had to
engage the power at the same time for it to work.

At its heart, Assault Heroes 2 is a casual game designed so that
anybody can pick it up and start blasting. That doesn't mean Wanako has
forgotten about the hardcore gamer. The three difficulty levels have
been tuned for the sequel. The easiest setting will be a little more
friendly while the hardest will take some real talent to survive. Even
the people who had been playing the game everyday couldn't last too
long on the hardest setting during our demo.

Assault Heroes 2 is targeting a Spring 2008 release on Xbox Live Arcade and has already been rated Teen by the ESRB.