Very underappreciated, and pretty good considering how fast it was rushed out.. A MUST HAVE for fans.
I bought it on release day, and played through the whole game several times in the first two weeks. I took it online and played xbox live multiplayer with some other fans, and even one of the developers.
I'm not going to tell you the game is perfect, because it's not. When I spoke to the developer I learned that this game was made in only afew months (they had been in the middle of another game and were told to stop and start this one w/out a deadline extension) and in a few small ways the game does show that.
The biggest flaw I can find is the lack of single box multiplayer, yes you can take it online or system link, but you can't do 1-4 players on a single xbox. There is also some room for improvement as far as how the grenades behave, better AI would have helped, and I would have liked a crouch button. That's about it as far as downsides go.
The game looks great, the human mecha and invid mecha are beatiful and work well. The settings and flow of the levels are unlike any other game I've played, since the Invid are an air borne threat, they usually come flying in and land to attack you, or they burrow underground and wait in ambush. Everything is to scale (for the hardcore fans out there), and the wonderful story fits with Robotech Canon.
The story is probably the most ambitious I've seen in a long time where an animated property is concerned. With the third Robotech war raging around them, the characters must fight a guerilla war using their Cyclone Power armors to survive and to complete their mission of dislodging the Invid from Earth. Secrets abound, plot twists, and several alternate endings leave a few more questions than they answer where our characters are concerned.
The multiplayer if fairly standard, with the standard assortment of weapons and power ups with the Robotech twist thrown in. The Multiplayer levels were thoughtfuly designed, and allow you to take advantage of the Cyclone power armor's unique abilities as far as covering terrain or reaching good sniping positions on roof tops and such. The addition of the Cyclone's ability to turn into a motorcycle adds new depth to the FPS genure and makes for some rather interesting fights. All in all it plays alot like Halo 1, except with the addition of built in motorcycles and jump jets. There is alo a built in view function where you can switch between First Person view, Third Person over the shoulder, or Third Person so that you can see your whole character to suit your preference.
As I said, this is a must have for Robotech fans, and for anyone looking for something a little different from the standard FPS gameplay. The addition of the Cyclone's ability to transform into a missile packing Motorcycle in the middle of combat adds an all new mechanic to the First Person Shooter genure.