Recoil

About

Recoil is a PC tank combat game where you pilot an upgraded battle tank through missions filled with enemies and destructible environments. You upgrade your vehicle by gathering new weapons and armor as you progress. Missions range from defending outposts to destroying enemy strongholds. The game supports both solo campaigns and competitive multiplayer matches where players battle in arenas or open maps. Controls focus on tank movement and weapon management with a top-down perspective. The game’s setting is a dystopian future where rogue AI and corporate tech have turned against humanity. You play as a rebel fighter using a prototype tank to take down machine forces. Recoil uses the same engine as 1999’s MechWarrior 3 which gives it detailed tank mechanics and destructible terrain for its time. While its 1999 release date means the visuals feel dated by modern standards players who enjoy turn-based strategy with a vehicular twist might appreciate the tactical depth in its mission design.

Storyline

Tanks patrol desolate city streets. Turrets and missile sites threaten the skies. Robot warriors carrying pulse rifles surround military installations. What's become of Earth? Machines have taken over. Corporate greed and rapid technological advancements have made humans pawns of their own creations. During the first fifteen years of the 21st century, Mega Corp began to dominate computer technology in both peacekeeping and war-fighting applications. As this giant churned out better and better technology for manufacturing and warfare, humans were relegated to service industries or to working as drones on PC terminals. Mega Corp became the largest employer in the United States. By 2010, every computer in America used Mega Corp software and was Internet-connected and monitored through the Mega Corp Network—anti-trust suits be damned. Each day, Mega Corp would issue government-endorsed messages through the Network that broadcast pro-machine propaganda. The country was becoming brainwashed. In 2018, the wonders of artificial intelligence turned ugly in the hands of a few disillusioned Mega Corp programmers. Frustrated at being a part of such an ethically challenged corporation, these hacks altered coding in various Mega Corp products—turning certain robot and tank machinery into self-directed, man-killing machines. Today, May 2019, in a war-torn, machine-ravaged world, only a few freethinkers remain. Only a few outsiders have escaped the spell of the Network. Dr. Raines is the leader of a group of rebels called the Alliance. He and a few others have developed a computer program that gives the operator control over an experimental tank. You control this tank and must defeat these robot warriors.