Getcher 'mech on!

Review

by Dave "!FT!Marauder" Kratky. Aug 24.2001

 

Hmmmmm. More 'Mechy goodness from the folks at Microsoft and FASA.

I'm a Battletech fan. Always have been, since the first time I saw those bad boy polygonal 'mechs marching across my friend's amber XT monitor. Since that day I've been hooked, and I've played all of the games and read most of the books. I always thought it'd be cool if they brought the pen and paper game to the computer, and with Mechcommander 1, we came as close as we're ever likely to get.

Enjoyed the first one very much, and Mechcommander 2 continues the saga quite nicely with a tale rich with tragedy, love, war, death... Well.... there's some of that stuff, and of course, 100 ton death machines raining pretty particle effect fire down on the heads of your enemies. The important part of the whole exercise.

Again with the pretty animated menus! Woot!

	Briefings are a series of FMVs with info screens.

 

Graphics Engine & Sound

 

	Fly me to the moon, baby!
	Varying terrain... Like this valley from which to launch my ambush.

 

Now, this is what I call a pretty game. Tons of particle effects, pretty menus, lots of things blowing up. 'Mechs leave little footy prints in the terrain behind them, and splash through water. Buildings collapse realistically when destroyed, rounds hitting targets blow chunks of shrapnel all over the place. Shadows change as missiles and explosions create new light sources. Very cool.

Terrain varies from desert, to lush forest, and even a few missions on the moon. Detail on the terrain is excellent with nice texturing, trees and plants, bases, turrets, towns etc.

Excellent close up detail on the 'mechs.

 

The music is excellent as in the most of the previous Battletech games, and fits into the situation quite nicely. One thing that did annoy me was that (and it might just be me.) I noticed that when you zoom right in on your mechs, you cannot hear the footfalls, but you can hear when they hit a tree and knock it over... A little wierd. My guess would be that it was left out to spare you the constant "thud thud thud" of your 'mechs running around.

 

The 'Mechs

Man. I feel like a kid in a candy store with this one! There are a complete crapload of 'mechs to pilot. All of the old Battletech universe favs are back, from Hunchbacks and Atlases to captured Clan models like the Mad Cat (Wouldn't be a modern 'mech game without a Mad Cat or two!) and the Uller. Enemy 'mechs can be captured during or after missions and added to your arsenal as well, or sold to increase your bank account.

Don't like the way that 'mech is set up? Figure you're going to need a different mix of firepower for this next mission? Noooooo problem. Just click on "Modify Mech" and go nuts. The modification system is dead simple to use, and easy to learn.

Guns, guns guns!

On the battlefield, your 'mechs move realistically, thudding their way across the landscape. Impacts send them reeling, and when a reactor goes off, you know about it.

 

AI

Well, the AI tends to act like the standard run at you shooting "DOOM" AI. Occasionally you do see some smarts as one of the 'mechs with long range missiles or PPCs will back away, staying at maximum range pelting you untill you close and kill him. Your mechwarriors are dumb as rocks. Auto wayfinding sucks. At the end of a mission I'll often find one of my games stuck behind a rock, wall, or desroyed enemy vehicle 3/4 of the map away and have to go walk his stupid ass all the way across the map to the extraction point. I'm constantly having to order my long range 'mechwarriors to NOT close and attack.

Hopefully they fix this in a patch as micomanagment of morons is not why I play games. If I wanted to do this sort of thing I'd become a Microsoft executive.

Good thing that even idiots shoot somewhat straight.

Controls/Camera

Controls for the game are relatively simple. Most of your navigation can be done completely with the mouse. Moving to the edges of the screen will move you in that direction on the map, left clicking selects a unit, right click, hold and drag to change your camera angle. A series of buttons above the minimap and at the right lower side of the screen allow you to get information and command your units. Alternatively you can use the short cut keys to access all of these functions as well. Keys are easily remapable.

• Lack of a sweet intro movie.

The Final Analysis