History VideoGame / Battlezone1998

''Not to be confused with the various other video games named'' VideoGame/{{Battlezone}}

[[Creator/{{Rebellion}} Rebellion Developments]] [[http://www.rebellion.co.uk/blog/2015/6/29/an-open-letter-to-battlezone-fans announced]] a re-imagining of the classic arcade game and a remaster of ''Battlezone 1998'', titled ''Battlezone 98 Redux'' which released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} on April 18th 2016. [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/301650/ Get it here.]] It has support for [[AchievementSystem achievements]], trading cards, [[GameMod workshop addons]] and [[SceneryPorn overhauled graphics with detailed units, smoother terrain, lighting, etc]]. The ''Red Odyssey'' expansion was given this treatment too.

!!Battlezone provides examples of:

* AliensAreBastards: And want to kill us all, or so General Armand Braddock would have you believe. [[spoiler: [[InvertedTrope They [[{Transhuman}} aren't really alien at all]] and actually just want to bring the enlightened Cthonian culture back to humanity.]]

* FunWithAcronyms: Several, given the military premise. The's the two armies, NSDF and CCA, as well as STAB (Stabalized Terrain Adapting Base), the mechanism that the mobile turrets use to anchor themselves, as well as EDD (Equal Damage Distribution) plating.

* PollutedWasteland: Specific parts of Bane which are ground-zero areas of where, presumably, nuclear weapons had been used long ago by a previous civilization (which may or may not be Cthonian) and is responsible for the planet-wide nuclear winter. While it's not featured in the story, it's available in Instant Action and Multiplayer.

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Planet Bane which was forced into a nuclear winter from, presumably, nuclear weapons used by a previous civilization (who may or may not be Cthonian) eons before the events of the game occur. [[RuleOfThree Noticing a pattern yet?]]

* PollutedWasteland: Specific parts of Bane which are ground-zero areas of where, presumably, nuclear weapons had been used long ago by a previous civilization (which may or may not be Cthonian) and responsible for the planet-wide nuclear winter. While it's not in featured in the story, it's available in Instant Action and Multiplayer.

* MajorlyAwesome: Major Manson. He's a morally conscious officer, leads from the front lines, [[spoiler: [[HeelFaceTurn assists the Scions]]]], and [[UnreliableNarrator possibly]] fought during the conflict from the first game, in the 1960s, making him in his [[BadassGrandpa late 60s to early 70s]].

In late 2017, Rebellion announced ''Battlezone: Combat Commander'', a similar remaster of the second game, due out March 1, 2018.

* TheMole: In the BackStory. Shabayev was an FSB ([[RussiansWithRustingRockets The successor to the]] KGB) agent who had infiltrated the highest levels of the CIA. When she was uncovered, she was recommended for ISDF recruitment instead of punishment.

In late 2017, Rebellion announced ''Battlezone: Combat Commander'', a similar remaster of the second game, due in 2018.

* TheRedPlanet: The second major area of the game and the game's first [[TheReveal major reveal takes place]].

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: [[spoiler:Achilles]] with its Earth-like appearance, while its gravity and atmosphere can be justified by it being Earth-sized when compared to Uranus but that means it would also be far from the Goldilocks zone of the Sun which would otherwise render it an iceball despite its molten core. That and, unless it had a very specific orbit, the whole planet would be shaded by Uranus if it went behind it in its orbit.

* [[spoiler: PyrrhicVictory: The remnants of the NSDF and CCA succeed in defeating the Furies, but [[BolivianArmyEnding likely at the cost of their own lives]]]].

* TheAllSeeingAI: In some missions the AI will know if you try to use certain tactics and react instantly, even though the enemy should have no way of knowing this. For example, in the penultimate NSDF mission in the core game your main target is an enemy base behind an extensive minefield. You might get the idea to use howitzers that can easily target the base from the other side of the minefield instead of disabling it with the intended method. Except, if you build howitzers, the enemy air units will immediately make a beeline to them and prioritize destroying the howitzers beyond all else.

* AncientAstronauts: The alien ships and structures are all named after Greek gods, and it is outright stated that the race which created them, the Cthonians, [[spoiler: visited and did experiments on the Greeks in the ancient world.]]
** For example, [[spoiler: an automated vessel called [[MeaningfulName Charon]] was sent by Nexus V to gather DNA from Greek battlefields.]]
* AndIMustScream:[[spoiler:The Furies , being living tissue fused directly into the hulls of bio-metal war machines. Though they are sentient, their only apparent pastime seems to be [[UnstoppableRage blind rage and destruction.]] They also may be a rather twisted example of TheUndead.]]

* BrainUploading: The [[spoiler: Furies get their psychopathic bloodlust from their biometal hulls being imbued with the genetic data of ancient Greek warriors who were dying on the battlefield before being collected by the Cthonians.]]
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: [[spoiler: The NSDF and CCA destroy the Furies, but at the cost of much of the technology they fought the war over. The Cthonians, meanwhile, sacrificed their entire species to destroy them.]]

* TheFaceless: No character's face is ever shown, with one exception; at the end of the final Europa level, you get a closeup of a dead CCA soldier, [[{{Squick}} his faceplate shattered]] [[BodyHorror and his face frozen.]]
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath / CruelAndUnusualDeath: Completing the Europa missions for the NSDF shows a screen of a bloated CCA soldier half-buried in the snow with his faceplate shattered. Dying during the Soviet campaign will show a picture of your character's skeleton in a heavily damaged spacesuit.

* {{Narrator}}: Grizzly One himself, who speaks in the introduction and over the loading screen for each mission. His tone and mood are always dour, and he often laments his situation and that of his comrades who get left to die in the dust on hostile, distant planets. [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold He also regrets that no one on Earth will ever know who he was or why he did what he did.]]

* [[spoiler: PyrrhicVictory: The remnants of the NSDF and CCA succeed in defeating the Furies, but [[BolivianArmyEnding likely at the cost of their own lives.]]]]

* TheRedPlanet: The second major area of the game and the game's first [[TheReveal major reveal takes place.]]

* [[spoiler: SealedEvilInACan: The Furies, not-so-mindlessly violent {{Attack Animal}}s.]]

* TimedMission: Subverted: an early Mars NSDF mission tasks you with attacking a CCA base, but the time limit barely gives you enough time to assemble a base that can run itself. However, just when it seems time is going to run out, an MIA squad attacks the CCA base to buy you time, which ends the timer... It then becomes DoubleSubverted in that the platoon will be wiped out entirely if you take too long after that and the mission will fail but it takes a ''lot'' longer than the initial ten minutes it gives you. [[spoiler: Played straight in the Europa mission where you must intercept a transmission, and in the final mission: if you can't get off Achilles in time, you will be left behind.]]

** [[spoiler: There is also a different type of Fury saucer that's pilotable on the deathmatch map ''Odin's Eye'' but it's locked in by several [=MITS=] mines inside the "eye" of a mountain.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: The manual for this game uses a similar FramingDevice to the first, this time as the ISDF's field manual. It contains profiles on the major characters and some letters, among them a transcript from the black box of Major Manson's Wolverine tank concerning a [[ContinuityNod a battle on Titan against the Furies,]] which would seem to indicate he (and possibly others) survived the Bio-Metal Wars. [[spoiler: Given Braddock's later deception, UnreliableNarrator may be at play in said passage - the date implies the Furies are actually escaping Scions.]]

* DarkWorld: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly-named Dark Planet]], though not so much in the sense of this trope as being a planet that is really, really dark, but unnaturally so, with a permanent planet-wide electrical storm. It ''does'' feature unnaturally geometric terrain and a sense that something is just... [[EldritchLocation wrong, about the place.]] [[spoiler: Though the planet's origin is never made clear, what is apparent is that it is ripe to be terraformed into a clone of the Scion's adopted homeworld, Core.]]
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:[[{{Lzherusskie}} Yelena Shabayev, your commanding officer.]] After disappearing on Bane in a DropShip crash and [[NeverFoundTheBody being presumed dead]], she later reappears on Rend as a Scion, urging you not to side with the power-hungry Braddock. Major Manson is this as well, initially complicit in Braddock's conspiracy, going so far as to have you destroy a "[[BlatantLies Scion]]" mining rig on the Dark Planet. He later forms an ISDF splinter-group of Earth-Government loyalists against Braddock, who at that point plans to return to Earth in force and institute a military dictatorship.]]
* DoomsDayDevice: What the ISDF believe the massive machines found on Rend, Mire and Bane to be. [[spoiler: They're not. They're part of a [[{{Terraform}} terraformation]] system intended to transform the Dark Planet into a new Core, as the old one is somehow "dying" and [[KeystoneArmy taking the Scions with it in droves.]]]]

* EmergencyTransformation: [[spoiler: The Scions, apparently.]]

* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler:The bad ending, where you side with Braddock. Every other named character is dead, and you return to earth a "hero". [[WasItReallyWorthIt But was it worth it?]] In this ending, humanity never gets to know what the Scions were really trying to accomplish.]]

** [[AllThereInTheManual If you read the manual,]] Shabayev's [[spoiler: DefectorFromDecadence moment is [[ForeShadowing Foreshadowed]] by]] her psychiatric evaluation's note of her having an "[[LampshadeHanging overdeveloped sense of justice.]]"

* MultipleEndings: Two, depending on whether you [[spoiler: transport the wounded Scion leader to [[FateWorseThanDeath Braddock,]] or return him to the Scions and join their cause.]]

* NewEraSpeech: [[spoiler: Padishah Frank Burns. [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], as Burns is no longer considered a villain at this point, he delivers this speech in the good ending.]]

* OhCrap: At one point in some Cthonian ruins on Bane, you discover a small transmission unit. Almost immediately, Braddock orders the area bombed to shreds, giving you scant minutes to evacuate the area. [[spoiler: You later find out why: the transmitter in question bore [[ContinuityNod the insignia of the Black Dog squadron.]]]]

* PhlebotinumRebel: [[spoiler: The Scions turn out to be this, [[SecretProjectRefugeeFamily having escaped Braddock's attempt to create super soldiers]].]]

* TimedMission: [[spoiler: The escape from Core after you have destroyed its main reactor, the final mission of the "bad" path.]]
* TransHumanAliens: [[spoiler: The Scions are actually the remnant of a SuperSoldier program that fused humans with Biometal.]]

* TheFaceless: Despite the large amount of character interaction this game has, especially when compared to the first game, you only see ''one'' character's face, though [[http://www.bzcomplex.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=66 concept art exists]] for all major characters. [[spoiler: On the mission where you need to retrieve Padishah Burns from the crashed carrier, you can hop out of your tank and look at his chariot thing, with Burns sitting in it.]]

* TruceZone: Later in the game, Ambassador Kossieh of the AAN attempts to broker a human-Scion truce on Rend. The player and a detachment of ISDF troops wait around in a Scion base while Frank Burns boards a DropShip to meet with Kossieh on a Carrier in low orbit. [[spoiler: Until the DropShip explodes in the Carrier, sending it plummeting to the surface. You later learn that [[MoralEventHorizon Braddock rigged the DropShip, to off both Burns AND Kossieh]] [[FalseFlagOperation and to make it look like a Scion attack,]] reinforcing Braddock's position and [[TakeOverTheWorld bringing him one step closer to his goal.]]]]

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:The Scions. Later on, Yelena Shabayev and optionally, the player character. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that they have come to enjoy being what they are.]]

A fan made expansion dubbed ''Forgotten Enemies'' takes place after [[spoiler: The Scion ending]], in which the golden age of Bio-metal began with peace treaties between the ISDF and Scions... until a salvo of bio-metal-tipped IPBM's were launched toward the new Scion Core world from a base on Pluto, Braddock's personal {{Dead Man Switch}}. Barely any of the Scion population survive and they lose the core unit to the world after ejecting it and a lot of infamy spreads about the ISDF. In response, they dissolve not long after the ''Night of Infamy''. When the Scions came under attack from the Hadean Crown when in search of a new planet to colonize, the few remains of ISDF forces respond by forming the EDF to counterattack and defend Earth. Later, the ''Fleshstorm'' mods (1 and 2) were released, taking place after ''Forgotten Enemies''. The mods introduces two new playable races: [[HordeOfAlienLocusts The Swarm]], and the [[TheRemnant Phaer Ran]].

The mods, all the patches, maps, and so on, are available on [[http://www.battlezone1.com Battlezone1]] and [[http://www.bzscrap.org/downloads/ BZScrap]].

* ACommanderIsYou

* AndIMustScream: Arguably, [[spoiler:the Furies themselves, being living tissue fused directly into the hulls of bio-metal war machines. Though they are sentient, their only apparent pastime seems to be [[UnstoppableRage blind rage and destruction.]] They also may be a rather twisted example of TheUndead.]]

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath / CruelAndUnusualDeath: Dying as an ISDF soldier shows you a [[http://i.imgur.com/x9ZiJeR.jpg failure screen]] with your avatar exploding and simultaneously being ripped apart from a plasma cannon shot. Dying as a Scion shows a failure screen with your character [[ImMelting melting into a pool of biometal, with only a hand reaching out]].

* WeaponisedLandmark: Kind of. An early cinematic sees the Voyager 2 probe picking up a threat in space. It retracts its antennas and transforms into laser-armed "battlemode".

----
!!The various mods feature examples of:
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: ''Forgotten Enemies'' has the ISDF (now the EDF) shift to gray and white for all units excluding air. The Hadeans use tan for all units as well. The Cerberi are interesting in that they use the Hadean tan to indicate that they're under the orders of the Crown but by themselves (Like on Miasma), they're a dark blackish grey.
* CivilWarcraft: [[spoiler:Happens with the Hadeans themselves as it turns out they're being willed by the Ceberi which in turn are controlled by the Core unit that the Scions lost from the IPBM attack. Not even before the midpoint of the game does the EDF receive help from a splinter of Hadean forces led by Crown Prince Thanatos]].
* CoolClearWater: Averted, one of the planets, Spartacus, has trace amounts of arsenic in its water despite looking clear in the missions and actually has been wearing down on the filters that the EDF relied on. Corber mentions in one of the monologues that one of his fellow infantry men [[TooDumbToLive drank some of the unpurified water]] and died about an hour later.
* DeadManSwitch: [[spoiler:Braddock]] has one in ''Forgotten Enemies''. Three years after his death, a series of nukes are launched from a hidden base on Charon towards the new Core.
* DirtyCoward: Major Wyndt-Essex in ''Forgotten Enemies''. She sends Corber (the protagonist) to do all the dirty work. When the EDF comes under heavy attack, she flees in the Recycler to a teleporter, laying mines behind her so that ''nobody'' can follow.
* EnemyMine: The Hadean Crown Prince Thanatos in ''Forgotten Enemies'' allies with the EDF against the Imperial Hadeans once he discovers the [[spoiler: Cerberi]]
* EternalEngine: Planet Facility in ''Forgotten Enemies''. The atmosphere is a sickly green from poisonous gas, all the liquid on the planet is full of toxins, and almost the entire surface is covered in canals, factories, cranes, exhaust stacks, and storage silos. The ring that wraps around the planet is made of orbital factories and ships.
* EverythingIsTryingToKillYou: Planet Miasma in ''Forgotten Enemies''. Even the ''plants'' are trying to kill you.
* {{Expy}}: The Swarm in the ''Fleshstorm'' mod are basically the Tyranids from TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}, but bigger.
* HufflepuffHouse: Outside of background material, the Scions barely appear in ''Forgotten Enemies'' and ''Fleshstorm 1'' [[ApocalypseHow and for good reason]].
* JerkAss: Major Wyndt-Essex in ''Forgotten Enemies''.
* LargeHam: Most mods have Large Ham voice actors for their MissionControl and units. ''Fleshstorm 2'''s first two missions has a guy yelling at you in a fake Russian accent, and the Phaer Ran units are ''all'' Large Hams (''ANOTHER FALLS TO THE PHAER RAN!'')
* LethalLavaLand: Miasma in ''Forgotten Enemies''. Not just any lava but it's molten bio-metal.
* MythologyGag: The Scion Brawler is a rocket bomber unit like the experimental ISDF Interceptor and EDF Hammer but the Brawler resembles a CCA Grendel. [[spoiler: Considering the Scions are made up of the Black Dog squadron of the first game, that was probably what inspired it in the first place]].
* NintendoHard: The missions on Miasma in ''Forgotten Enemies'', and ''all'' of the ''Fleshstorm'' mods.
** In both of the Fleshstorm mods, the player spends most of the game fighting the Swarm, which are a biological race of PlanetLooters. Unlike every other race, Swarm vehicles do ''not'' drop scrap when destroyed, and Swarm units are exceptionally cheap to build, while also being fairly durable - leading to constant spam attacks in almost every mission. The Swarm doesn't even need to use scrap or biometal pools - they can build their own extractors anywhere on the map.
* NoCanonForTheWicked: All of the mods that continue the game's story go with the [[spoiler: Scion]] ending.
* PlanetLooters: The Swarm in the ''Fleshstorm'' mod.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The EDF battalion you command in ''Forgotten Enemies''.
* WingMan: Lt. Shultz in ''Forgotten Enemies'' will sometimes go on missions with you to act as your wingman and help with enemies.

An expansion was released later that same year, developed by TeamEvolve, dubbed ''The Red Odyssey''. It takes place largely on Ganymede and [[GaidenGame is contemporaneous with]] the events on the other Galilean moons of the original game. The NSDF Black Dogs, a RagTagBunchOfMisfits who get all the worst missions, have been assigned to Ganymede, a relative backwater in the scope of the conflict going on. Suddenly, a new enemy in Red China attacks, sparking a conflict that eventually takes the player to a distant planet called "Elysium". The CCA are also tangentially involved.

The game was [[{{Reformulatedgame}} rebuilt]] in 2000 to the N64 - ''Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs'' - It added a third campaign featuring the Black Dogs squadron as well. [[spoiler:Their campaign takes place after the NSDF and CCA team up once the Furies become the new enemy and due to a lack of communication, the Black Dogs believe that the whole thing has been [[TheConspiracy a conspiracy]] and thus set out to collect alien relics and return to Earth with the news while having to deal with NSDF, CCA ''and'' Fury forces along the way. Their involvement against the CRA in ''The Red Odyssey'' or their eventual fate as the Scions in the sequel is not touched upon]]. The only narration is in the opening of the American campaign and the plot is hard to glean, all communications besides the pre-recorded responses to orders are sent via squint-o-vision text messages in the corner of the screen. Players have the option to both order units around or allow friendly units to be ordered around automatically, presumably because of the limited buttons on the N64 controller compared to a keyboard. The game includes local multiplayer and an arcade mode that more-or-less emulates the [[{{VideoGame/Battlezone1980}} original game]], just in a different combat style.

A sequel, ''[=BattleZone=] II: Combat Commander'', released in late 1999, was developed by Pandemic Studios and set in the late 1990s of this alternate history. It was less well-received for abandoning the highly original UsefulNotes/ColdWar plot in favor of a more standard UN vs. Aliens setup, though it had its fair share of twists. The player this time is John Cooke, a lieutenant in the new International Space Defense Force, [[{{Masquerade}} ostensibly intended]] to safeguard humankind from extrasolar threats. Cue the arrival of a mysterious alien foe, The Scions. A first-person shooter/real-time strategy game experience similar to the original ensues.

A fan made expansion dubbed ''Forgotten Enemies'' takes place after [[spoiler: The Scion ending]], in which the golden age of Bio-metal began with peace treaties between the ISDF and Scions... Until a salvo of bio-metal tipped IPBM's were launched toward the new Scion Core world from a base on Pluto, Braddock's personal {{Dead Man Switch}}. Barely any of the Scion population survive and they lose the core unit to the world after ejecting it and a lot of infamy spreads about the ISDF. In response, they dissolve not long after the ''Night of Infamy'', it wasn't until the Scions came under attack from the Hadean Crown when in search of a new planet to colonize, in response, the few remains of ISDF forces form the EDF to counterattack and defend Earth. Later, the ''Fleshstorm'' mods (1 and 2) were released, taking place after ''Forgotten Enemies''. The mods introduces two new playable races:[[HordeOfAlienLocusts The Swarm]], and the [[TheRemnant Phaer Ran]].

* AbnormalAmmo: All of your weapons utilize the same pool of ammunition, courtesy of NanoMachines. What they actually ''fire'' varies greatly, from bog-standard [[MoreDakka bullets and cannon shells]] [[FrickinLaserBeams to lasers and microwave beams.]]

''Battlezone'', released by Creator/{{Activision}} in 1998, is set up as a revival of [[VideoGame/{{Battlezone1980}} the earlier games]]. It is a hybrid vehicle combat, {{FPS}}, and {{RTS}}. TheSpaceRace [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy was a lie.]] After a meteor shower hits the Arctic circle in 1952, American and Soviet scientists simultaneously discover an [[{{Phlebotinum}} amazing new metallic compound]] capable of being molded into [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction vehicles and equipment at fantastic speeds]] and possessed of unique organic properties. Just as quickly, both sides begin to think about how this new material could further their efforts in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. The US forms the National Space Defense Force. The Soviet Union in turn forms the [[SovietSuperscience Cosmo Colonist Army]]. Both nations [[{{Masquerade}} sneak their armies into space under the guise of the "Space Race".]]

* UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace: In the original installation process for the game, a clip of a real Saturn V rocket launch was played, combined with a fictional news report describing Eisenhower officially launching NASA.

* PollutedWasteland: Specific parts of Bane which are ground-zero areas of where (presumably) nuclear weapons had been used long ago by a previous civilization and responsible for the planet-wide nuclear winter. While it's not in featured in the story, it's available in Instant Action and Multiplayer.

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Planet Bane which was forced into a nuclear winter by (presumably) nuclear weapons used by a previous civilization eons before the events of the game occur. [[RuleOfThree Noticing a pattern yet?]]

* ChargedAttack: The MAG (Magnetic Accelerator Gun) Cannon has different attacks depending on how long you charge it. The Combat variant sprays the projectiles in a shotgun spread with longer charges producing larger sprays with more projectiles. The Assault variant works like it does in the first game with short charges producing streams of small projectiles and longer charges firing less but more bigger projectiles. Unlike in the first game, the weapon will continue to consume ammo at full charge.

* PollutedWasteland: Specific parts of Bane which are ground-zero areas of where (presumably) nuclear weapons had been used long ago and responsible for the planet-wide nuclear winter. While it's not in featured in the story, it's available in Instant Action and Multiplayer.

* ChargedAttack: The MAG (Magnetic Accelerator Gun) Cannon has three different attacks depending on how long you charge it for. It starts as a shotgun and ends as BeamSpam.
** Lock-On Missiles need to be charged to aha, lock them on to a specific enemy.

* PollutedWasteland: Specific parts of Bane. While it's not in featured in the story, it's available in Instant Action and Multiplayer.

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Planet Bane. [[RuleOfThree Noticing a pattern yet?]]

* LudicrousGibs: Astronauts will explode in a shower of gibs when shot or run over.

* TakeYourTime: No matter how urgent the mission briefing sounds, there are only three timed missions.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Three of the weapons, one named the MDM Mortar in which the MDM stands for Manual-Detonation-Mortar, making it Manual-Detonation-Mortar Mortar. Then there's the MAG Cannon, the MAG standing for Magnetic-Acceleration-Gun which makes it Magnetic-Acceleration-Gun Cannon. Finally, there's the TAG Cannon which makes it Target-Acquisition-Gun Cannon which it is neither of those, it's a Missile launcher (although it is mounted in the Stoli's Cannon mount).

* TakeYourTime: No matter how urgent the mission briefing sounds, there are only two timed missions.
* TimedMission: Subverted: an early Mars NSDF mission tasks you with attacking a CCA base, but the time limit barely gives you enough time to assemble a base that can run itself. However, just when it seems time is going to run out, an MIA squad attacks the CCA base to buy you time, which ends the timer. [[spoiler: Played straight in the Europa mission where you must intercept a transmission, and in the final mission: if you can't get off Achilles in time, you will be left behind.]]