A light but significant story is presented to the player, and it's acted out through the use of voiced over cut scenes. You're a hot shot race pilot, and the military has enlisted your help in piloting a prototype assault vehicle. They believe that you are the only one on short notice that has the skills necessary to handle this vehicle, Aquila, in a fight against an alien race to secure the homeland. Aquila, is a major achievement in design as it can both drive on land and fly in the air. Plus it's equipped to the gills with destructive firepower.

You play through scenarios that are laid out along a branching path with a story scene breaking up the action between each mission. Each fight you enter usually gives you main and secondary objectives to complete. Primary objectives must be completed to move along to the next scenario, but only by completing secondary objectives and killing efficiently will you be able to open up the alternate branches. Your effectiveness in battle is given a grade A-F, and much of the game's replay value is based on revisiting each level in an attempt to obtain a better score and view new branches.

The control in the game is handled beautifully and is easily its best attribute. The arcade style controls, which mimic Mech Assault and many other FPS control schemes, make Aquila very easy to pick up and play. It's all very intuitive. While its mindless to a point like a true shooter, there are basic strategies to employ much like the Star Wars shooters, Tie Fighter and Rogue Squadron. Missions rarely deviate from "protect this ship/base" or "destroy all enemy forces," but there are other things to be concerned with, such as your ammunition levels and shield/energy level. The shield decreases as you take damage, but it also dictates the amount of time you can spend in the air. Even though you get support from friendly tanks/aircraft/wingmen, it still feels like it's you against the world on the battle field. Once you get accustomed to monitoring your resources, the game becomes quite simple.

As you progress through the missions, Aquila will be given different ammunition loads to choose from, and this has some bearing on how easy it will be to destroy certain enemies. Choosing the correct load out is essential to getting the highest grades and usually can't be discerned until you've played though once to get a feel for the forces you're up against. Also, after a few missions, you'll be assigned to a team, and you'll be able to select a wingman after your load out. The wingmen have strengths and weaknesses against ground and air opponents, and just like the weapons, it becomes an important decision for acquiring the high scores.

Full voice is played out during the story scenes, and there is near constant radio chatter while in the battle sections of the game. The voice acting is surprisingly good for action game, and even the radio chatter kept from being annoying and intrusive. The sound effects really help sell the action too. Explosions are full of bass, and the weapon sound effects are sharp and varied. Since you can't see your vehicle, this is really the only sense that you have to go on that you are piloting a giant mech/aircraft.

Wrapping up the good presentation is a strong graphical front. Vehicles, buildings, and other platforms may not be modeled at a very high level, but textures are sharp and colors are plentiful. The different lighting effects from varying times of day are also impressive, but what really makes Battle Engine Aquila a jaw dropper is the sense of scale. The field of view distance is so far at times when you are way up in the air, that it's almost sickening. The detail never drops from this range and the framerate never stutters. It's really a nice piece of work and more than compensates for the rudimentary, geometric models.

Battle Engine Aquila really shows some high production values for what I would consider and arcade shooter, and the developers deserve a lot of credit. What I can't get by, and the reason this score isn't higher, is that the single player mode is just too repetitive. I didn't feel compelled enough by the gameplay to go back and shoot for all A's in every scenario. At the same time though, I like having Aquila around on my shelf so that I can go back and play a quick mission when I need to fill up a quick gaming session. Plus the 2-player coop mode is an excellent addition if you have someone to play with.