Heavy Gear uses an enhanced version of Acivision's popular MechWarrior 2 engine, but the game's universe is richer and more realistic. Instead of the sparse Battletech universe where combat usually involves a small number of mechs, Heavy Gear 's universe includes a much wider variety of military units and combat tactics. He who has the biggest armored assault unit doesn't always win. The background of the story takes place in the year AD 6132 and Earth has experienced a second Ice Age. The survivors made space colonization a high priority. The survivors tried to find habitable planets using generation ships, with no success. Eventually they discovered that worm holes could lead to other star systems. After the establishment of several colonies, a war broke out on Earth and the colonies lost contact with the mother planet. On Terra Nova, the planet where all the computer game action will take place, the colony split into approximately 10 city-states.
