Review of MechCommander 2
Despite my admitted love for all things BattleTech, I have never played this game before. So, let's talk about MechCommander for a bit.
To say this is a Real-time strategy is to say that Europa Universalis 2 is RTS. Sure, both are strategy, and both have time progress without turns, but neither is really a RTS in the since of Warcraft, Starcraft and other games.
MechCommander 2 is more Real Time Tactics. You move Mechs around, and attack people. Where you go, how you go, and more, is all up to you.
My major graphical issue is that the landscape often had the mid-90s feel to it, where the graphics for the ground looked electronic and fake next to much more realistic graphics for items, buildings, and such. Since the game was released in 2001, that is a good complaint, because even then it would have been fake feeling.
The sound is fine at first, but quickly wears on you.
The videos did not play in my free version from MicroSoft. As such, it would be really hard for someone who does not know the BTech universe to know what is go9ing on, especially when you switch sides suddenly. I watched the videos on youtube, but you really shouldn;t have to do that.
I had two crashes to desktop when hitting quicksave during a mission, so I stopped hitting quicksave. The result was that I could not use that function, but I never failed a mission, so there is that.
In fact, the game was quite easy, and I'd recommend a bit harder difficultly level.
The game progresses as a set of three scenarios. The engine itself is quite easy. You move your mechs around, and you can jump if you have jump jets. You can run, walk, jump, shoot and capture certain buildings. Capture the turret control and now the guns will fight your enemies instead of you, capture the game control and you can open up the gates tied to it, etc.
In between missions, you can buy and sell mechs, and equip them. This is a lot more simple than some previous BattleTech on screen games, but it keeps many of the BTech mechanics such as heat. Gone are weight restrictions and heat scale. You have to fit weapons into critical slots, and every mech has different shaped crit slots. The result is that the weapons do not have weight, so one major factor is removed.
If you played MechWarrior 2, you might remember having to deal with overheating, and perhpas shutting down, or hitting a override to keep goign and risking your engine overloaded and blowing up. Here, that is not the case. You have to be able to disperse all of the heat your weapons make, so you run cool. There is no heat making weapons, and heat is no longer a factor in quick fire weapons.
AS a result, you will quickly learn how to maximize your mechs, and the large diversity of legitimate builds from the BTech iuniverse no longer exists here. Here, you laugh at how useless Flamers are, because they can;t add heat to a mech and cause it to go overheat. Here you laugh at how sucky Machine Guns are because they do not weigh half the amount of a medium laser,when there is no weight here. No ammo explosions, a really dumbed down BTech.
And yet, it IS still BTech. Urbanmechs suck, some mechs are good, others are better, and so forth. Now, its characterization is often a bit off, there were not clan mechs and clan weapons running rampant even in 3063 on Carver V in the numbers represented in the game, I guarantee it.
Anyway, you work for Steiner at first fighting bandits, before realizing that Liao is behind the bandits. Then, after a few fights against Liao, your contract is up, and you sign with Liao, fighting Steiner and Davion on Carver V. Then you are abandoned by Liao to die, and you switch to the citizens of Carver V and Davion to fight Liao/Steiner.
The game does not desribe what is going on in the backstory, so allow me to do so. Carver V was once a planet run by Liao, of the Capellan Confederation. Then, decades before the game begins, Carver V is one of dozens of worlds captured by Davion, the Federated Suns, in the Fourth Succession War. Hanse Davion would marry Melissa Steiner, and the Steiner and Davion nations and families were joined, which is how the Steiner and Davion characters in the game served together. After Hanse and Melissa died, their son ruled the new Federated Commonwealth, both realms. Soon thereafter, he tried to trick the Free Worlds League (Marik) and enraged them, and the FWL and heir new allies, Liao (Capellan Confederation) launched massive guerilla and combat attacks against areas lost to the Federated Commonwealth nations. This resulted in a large number of worlds losing their allegiance to any house, as the individual worlds had factions that vied for various masters. Also, the princes sister takes this opportunity to seize the throne of the Lyran (Steiner) have of th eFederated Commonwealth, resplitting the FedCom.
As a result, the world of Carver V is one such world in the area that is now claimed by many nations. There are pro-Steiner, pro-Davion, and pro-Liao factions in various areas, cities and continents. That's the set up for the game.
So, overall, it was fun, but without great graphics, video, some sound length, and a ctd bug. Not the best ever.
Overall - 2.5 outta 5