Battlezone 2 revamp coming next year

After last year releasing a revamped version of Battlezone, the 1998 RTS-FPS hybrid where spacelords join the battlefield themselves to drive vehicles and scamper about, Rebellion are now focusing on its sequel. Today they announced Battlezone Combat Commander, a remastered version of 1999's Battlezone II. Coming some time in 2018, it'll boast a similar amount of fancying-up as the Battlezone 98 Redux though with a less clumsy (but more confusing) name. Check out the announcement trailer:

If you know Battlezone as an '80s arcade game (or a modern VR game channeling that), I'll explain: yes, these games are sorta connected in that Activision licensed the old Battlezone brand, but beyond that they're wildly different.

These Battlezones are RTS played on battlefields across our solar system and beyond, following a secret space war between the USA and USSR. They're arcade real-time strategy games in the '90s way, only players can also control vehicles ourselves to gain advantages from our superior warskills. They are good! The first is maybe better but hey, this isn't bad.

Rebellion say that Battlezone Combat Commander will bring features including "slick new visuals, mod support for the game's two-decade old modding scene, cross-play online multiplayer between GOG & Steam for up to 14 players, achievements," and, in the Steam version but not on GOG, cloud saves.

And yes, Battlezone II does still have a modding scene. Two fellas from the original Battlezone II dev team have worked on unofficial patches since 2001 and modders are still modding away.

Battlezone Combat Commander is due some time in 2018. Big Boat Interactive, the folks who fancied up the first game, are behind this one too.