M.A.X. (Mechanized Assault and Exploration) was a fairly interesting RTS (Real-Time-Strategy) game that featured a large array of units and weaponry. M.A.X. 2 follows in the same footsteps but it is too similar to the original and not enough of an improvement to justify another $50 to spend. The story goes like this, the Concord has governed this territory for many years. Their technology is different in operation but comparable to ours. They have a small number of species out of their total that actually create and provide direction. We must monitor this carefully, and seek to promote chaos in their ranks. They are weakest when they lack direction. Now your sent in to learn their technology and prove them with some direction.. however they don't make this an easy task.

Graphics: 12/20

The graphics in this game remind of any run of the mill RTS game, somewhat pixelated and boring. The colors are fairly bland and the use of lighting is almost non-existent. The biggest problem with the graphics were the size of the pixels, they were huge making the units not only ugly, but they looked awkward when they moved. I think a higher resolution or maybe 16-bit color depth would have helped a lot. On the plus side the explosions looked pretty good but weren't enough to salvage the wreckage of the rest of the graphics.

Sound: 9/15

Now the sound effects in this game were fairly boring except for the tanks.. They sound exactly like William Shatner after a lot of dope smoking, which was fairly interesting. The worst part about the sound effects in M.A.X. 2 is the fact that they repeat all the time. The ever changing battle conditions provide a perfect time for sound changes but Interplay took no advantage of these situations and decided to keep the sound effects exactly the same throughout the game. The music in the game was boring, and repetitive, no RTS game is complete without the song from the original C&C (Command and Conquer) "Mechanical Man".

Gameplay: 18/30

The gameplay in M.A.X. 2 in too similar to all the other RTS games out there.. just point and click. There isn't a whole lot in the way of 3D (Three Dimensional) terrain so that looses a lot of points right there. The lack of 3D terrain kills a lot of the strategy element of a modern day RTS game which makes this one just another average RTS game.

Fun Factor: 12/20

M.A.X. 2 has its moments, but for the most part its fairly boring and uneventful. The game starts off fairly fast but the story line moves quite slowly and is quite uninteresting.

Multiplayer Play: 4/5

This game features TCP/IP, IPX and modem play, but nothing new here just the same old, same old when it comes to multiplayer RTS games. The biggest downside is that the speed of TCP/IP games over the Internet were deathly slow and not even fun to play because of the lag.

Overall Impression: 5/10

All in all I was disappointed with this game. It had potential to stand aside from the other RTS games out there and shine but instead it's just another of the same genre with hardly any innovation.