Two new releases vied for my attention over the weekend. Korea: IL-2 had me reaching for my screenshot key every few minutes, but when it came to seeding smiles and producing the good kind of forehead corrugations, it was Nick Nieuwoudt’s dieselpunk artillery sim that came out on top.
I need to see more – much more – of Iron Nest’s campaign before passing judgement properly. I’ve a slight concern that the novelty of crewing a fictional Thirties walking gun turret may eventually wear off, or the scripted, fairly linear (?) long game could accidentally kindle frustration.
Right now, thanks largely to mesmerising machinery animations, super sound effects, and the puzzle-like nature of finding targets and calculating firing solutions, bread-and-butter activities in this £13.50 (until August 20) flight of fancy are still an unalloyed pleasure.
One thing’s for sure – never before in Simulatia have gamers had the opportunity to operate such an awe-inspiring, charismatic, and lovingly detailed shell spewer. Clearly inspired by the giant naval gun turrets fitted to vessels like the Bismarck, Yamato, and Hood, and the huge railway guns of WW1 and 2, the game’s cavernous/cacophonous star manages to be plausibly elaborate without being overwhelmingly complicated. Although there are separate consoles for things like loading, rotation, elevation, and firing, and each of these is festooned with wheels, levers, dials, buttons, and switches, Nick and co. have resisted the urge to add superfluous systems complexity. Control panels are logically laid out, and come with handy instructional clipboards just in case you ever get confused. Basic training takes barely half an hour.
Nicely complementing the more physical aspects of gunlaying are your map table duties. It’s here you use spotter reports and aerial recon info to plot target bearings and distances – data required by Iron Nest’s primitive firing solution computer. In the missions I’ve completed thus far, targetting is sometimes complicated by nearby friendlies and civilians. Accidental collateral damage has cost me requisition points (RPs are used for restocking ammo and powder charges, and requesting autogyro recon sorties) but hasn’t yet prompted instant mission failure. I’ll be interested to see whether that leniency continues.
A wearable gas mask hanging in one of the turret’s various nooks, and references on the solution computer to numerous as-yet-unavailable shell types hint that the campaign may get darker. That darkness when it comes will, I suspect, be counterpoised by dashes of whimsy and satirical humour. So far, the newspaper front pages that book-end missions, the rewards that occasionally drop through the overhead hatch, and the cosy cat and coffee-machine equipped sleeping quarters below the battle-stations have lightened proceedings pretty adroitly.
In addition to getting darker the campaign is sure to get hotter. I’ve yet to find myself on the receiving end of enemy fire, but sense that baptism of fire isn’t far away. Does Iron Nest include repairing and damage control? I could check the forums or feature list for an answer, but think I’d rather find out through the natural course of play.