Recent reviews by Artix von Krieger

LOVE IT! This is the MechWarrior experience I have been waiting for.

It has the fun of Mechwarrior 2 and the story driven feel of a Wing Commander game. The game does a great job of following the Battletech novels in way that has not been done in previous Mechwarrior games. Every mission is crafted and is accompanied by fully animated & voice acted cinematics.

Transparently, I was not expecting this to be good. As a lifelong BattleTech/Mechwarrior fan who has collected every novel ever printed and played every game released (Including the Japanese console games, the unreleased Sega Saturn Game, and fan made games) you can only imagine my surprise... that this game actually lived up to the hype. Kudos to the devs. They knew who they were making this for.

The story of Battletech is unbelievably similar to Game of Thrones, but in space. The plot of this game takes place in the 3050 Clan Invasion. This was, in my opinion, the most interesting era of the Battletech Universe. In the early 1990's when the board games and novels for this era were released, it caused quite an uproar. A lawsuit from Harmony Gold (the creators of Robotech) forced them to change all of their mech designs. So they introduced a new line of original mechs and new factions which introduced them-- known as the clans. Mysterious invaders from beyond the edge of known space conquer planets. Their mechs are stronger, faster, shoot further, do more damage, and generate less heat. I would say they are the bad guys, but like in Game of Thrones... every faction is the bad guys. Regardless, In this game, you play as them. During the adventure there are cinematic cutscenes for most of the major events that happens in the novels. Although, some of these cutscenes might feel pretty random to someone who does not already know the Universe's story.

The mechs are fun to pilot. You command a Star of 5 Mechwarriors. Your team mates are fully voice acted and are part of the story. (Unlike MechWarrior 5 where you hired, fired, or lost them to a stray AC20 to the cockpit.). You unlock a new type of mech each time you level up. You can customize their loadouts and unlock variants of the mechs. The mech lab is one of the weaker areas of the game's design, but it is (sorta) a little more true to cannon than MechWarrior Online or Mechwarrior 5's systems.

They added A LOT of stats to the game. In between missions you can powerup your crew, techs, scientists, mechs, and even start research to powerup every one of your mechs weapon systems. It seemed a little overwhelming at first, but if you are playing on regular or easy there are really no bad options. There are clearly "better" options. My strategy was to max out survivabliliy and laser range first. Because my Star's mechs take less damage, they do not need as much repair. Another less obvious strategy is to remove some weapons and add more heat sinks. You will do less damage, but your mech will not overheat letting you fire more.... which means you will ultimately do way more damage in a long battle. The Nova is an absolute beast of a mech. IT comes with 6 ER (Extended range) medium lasers in each arm. If you take off two of the lasers and add some heat sinks, it still one shots light mechs, but can continue firing without overheating.

I often find myself on the edge of my seat when doing missions. The voice acted chitter chatter on the coms makes every mission feel special. You fight a lot of mechs, and not very many tanks. (This was a huge improvement over MechWarrior 5.) The game is a little more "arcady" than previous Mechwarriors. For example, you can refill your Star's ammo by simply scanning objects in the map. The game is so immersive that I think this adds more to the fun than it takes away from the realism.

Co-op play is great. My friends Dage & Zhoom were able to play through some of the story with me. When a friend joins your game, they take control of one of your Star's pilots. They can customize their mech. It should be noted that whomever is hosting the game is important. Because everyone play's the host's story. The cutscenes play for everyone connected, so beware of spoilers. Also, note that mission briefings do not autoplay for everyone. Each person needs to click and watch the mission briefing (or simply not watch it and wait for the mission to start.) I bought two more copies of the game for my kids, so looking forward to experience 5-player co-op with all of them soon.

Overall, this is the story driven Mechwarrior game that I have been waiting to play. I really hope they make expansions which tell the stories of the Wolves, Jade Falcons, and Ghost Bears as DLC.

Battle on!
Artix

I, for one, accept our new Grandma Cookie Overlords. 10/10

Fun game! The guys that made this are awesome.