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Well, I can't recommend this game in its current state. I've got about 20 hours into the campgain so far, and well, glitchy, bug ridden, and crashes are pretty common. I played the game on an i7-9700k overclocked, 16 GB DDR4 3300 RAM, MSI Geforce RTX 2080 with an SSD HD. Load times were OK for me, but again, lots of RAM and an SSD. I couldn't imagine playing this game with say, 8GB RAM and a 7,200 RPM platter. Normal play settings, with extreme/high graphics settings.

The game takes place in 3015 during the Succession Wars. You play the son of a Mercenary Commander that is ambushed by a mysterious mercenary group that wipes out your base and takes all your Mech's except for one Leopard class drop ship and a Centurion. So now you get to travel the Inner Sphere collecting more mechs, hiring pilots, and unraveling the mysterious merc company that killed your father and why.

I experience on average one Unity Fatal Exception per hour. Game freezes, and a pop up window announcing some Unity fatal error and that's that. Luckily, the game auto saves before and after every mission and every time you travel to a new planet. I'm not sure what size the save files are, but they don't auto delete, so you'll have to manually go in and scrub 'em or run out of disc space quick. Sound is buggy. Some missions, the announcer is STUPID LOUD, other games, it's muted. Sound effects have no "standard". One shot with a M Laser I get a "pfff". Next shot "FREEEM". Don't recommend playing this game with headsets. Walking is absurdly loud.

You get to change your call sign and later in the campaign, you can change the name of the Merc company, but not the company patch/icon. You never get to see your avatar, so there is no avatar customization. The other person models look bad. Just... like store mannequins. They stand stiff and rigid until you interact with them, and then a lower arm will twitch or the head will move fractionally, but... very Uncanny Valley. My favorite part is when using the "holonet"- a static image will be on the table, and then this fancy 3D sinusoidal wave will appear underneath the image as they speak. Uh, what? LOL Interaction on the drop ship is like "WTF". You ALWAYS start in the mechbay, where you can access a terminal to repair your mechs, and that's it. You have to walk to the command deck where there is a repeat of the battlemech repair consoles, or the main console that has... wait for it... the battlemech repair console as a "tab". The main console is where you select missions, navigate to other planets, fix mechs, read events, communicate with your one crew member (The Op's Officer. You speak briefly to the maintenance guy down in the mechbay, but it's weird and his English gutter trash accent is just bad... so bad...), basically, everything you need to do you have to do from the main console so WTF do I always have to walk up to the command deck after a mission from the mechbay? It's pointless! You have an office just off the command deck and... it's bare/spartan and pointless. At least there is a cactus on a shelf in your quarters and a couple sticky notes on the CRT display monitor on your desk... that you can't interact with or turn on. Again, pointless. If there were some pictures, or maybe the screen would have a picture of the planet you are on or something... And for as big as the drop ship is, you can't go everywhere on the ship.

If you liked MW Mercs or the old XBox Mech games, then the game play will feel very familiar. You have a 1st person view and 3rd person view, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. You'll find yourself swapping between them frequently because the HUD (Heads Up Display) just plain sucks. If you played Mechwarrior Online, then you are familiar with arm mounted weapons not "synched" to your torso mounted weapons or targeting reticle. If you have an army mounted weapon and you torso twist too far, you will get this weird double reticle that is supposed to represent your torso weapons and your arm weapons. The problem is, it's not. Your arm weapons will shoot somewhere between the two crosshairs.Trying to manually target something requires the target to be in your crosshairs, then pushing R and waiting about 2-3 seconds for the reticle to change red and the sound file to play. Good luck on trying to target a fast light mech doing the "Death Spiral" around your mech. Best bet: 3rd person to target them, then 1st person to shoot them.

Mech customization is a click and drag affair, with slots defining what you can place in a location on the mech, such as "Large Energy". It's very much like Mechwarrior Online. You can put a small laser in the slot, or all the way up to the grand daddy PPC. The various weapons and equipment come in different levels of quality that affect their weight, damage, rate of fire, heat, etc. but not how many slots they take up in the mech. You can fine tune the armor in each location. With the amount of times I was shot in the back by my own lancemates or the pop up targets, maximize your rear armor! Damage is quirky. You can lose components. I need to do more testing in this area. One frustrating thing is the repair screen. If you lose components on the mech, you have to manually replace the components. Once the components are replaced, you can then repair the whole mech. It would have been awesome if there was a "Repair All" button that would replace lost components from your inventory AND repair the mech. The amount of times I forgot to repair a mech after replacing a component is embarrassing. The events window doesn't help in the home tab because all it says is "<name of mech> refit complete." Not repair, refit. It's the same message for component replacement and repair.

You can assign weapon groups to various buttons on your mouse or keyboard, and chain fire. While in previous games, you traded rate of fire for heat efficiency using chain fire, but the only thing it seems to do in this game is auto fire your weapons as long as the button is pressed. Movement is good. You feel like you are in a mech, though sometimes, the maps' objectives make no sense. There were several times where I was able to smash through a building, crush huge rocks under my feet, and stomp on tanks. Other times, there is the INDESTRUCTIBLE LIGHT POLE or TREE, or a pebble on the ground that I just can not walk on and must walk around. Another interesting thing- there doesn't seem to be any fall damage and you don't take any damage for running into things. There is no falling down. There is momentum so it takes a few extra steps to stop. Unless you run into something. You immediately come to a stop but take no damage. So protip: Run behind one of your Lancemates and when you need to stop, just run into one of them.

Skins and textures are nice, but have no shadows. It's funny to see environmental objects with shadows, but not your mech. There are also no shadows on your mech. The map textures look great, but there are only a few maps that just change your drop location. Beware that indestructible object! Some of the drop locations are frustrating. The equivalent of the Grand Canyon running down the middle of the map means you have to walk all the way around it, because even if you have jump jets on ALL your mechs, the AI will NEVER use 'em. I've yet to see an AI controlled mech use jump jets yet. As the AI won't use them and there is no falling damage, I just strip out the jump jets and add more armor. I have noticed that if you do jump, anything within range will automatically shoot at you.

Now for the worst thing about this game: The spawns. You'll reach a waypoint or certain location on the map, and all of a sudden POP! "Oh look, a Grasshopper just appeared 50m away from me. Great!" Before you can even see them on your screen, and before the in game voice says "Enemy units incoming..." they are shooting you, usually in the back. The AI defaults to shooting the largest mech (most tonnage), and then switches to the mech that is doing the most damage. It's hilarious to watch. I'll run a 60 ton mech and the rest of my lance at less then 60 and everything will target the 60 ton mech, until another mech does an unperceived threshold of damage, then the AI mech will stop, turn, alpha strike that mech, then turn back to the 60 ton mech. So now I max the armor on my largest mech and offer it as bait.

There is heat, but all it does is shut you down for a couple seconds. I haven't seen ammo cook off or internal criticals yet. There is a sound file that plays saying "Heat is critical" or something, but as far as I can tell, it's actually smart to run stupid hot and shut down. Give it about 2 seconds and you are back online (it's automatic) with half your heat gone. Funny enough, when you shut down, the AI stops attacking you. I wish there was an easy way to tell a lance mate to shutdown. Instead, all you can tell them to do is shoot my target, form up on me, stop shooting, and move to my waypoint. Enemy AI never shuts down and neither do your lance mates. Speaking of lance mates... they can have the best mech you own, have better skills then you, and they will still perform about 1/2 as well as you. As in, my entire lance of heavy mechs can be unloading into a Locust and eventually kill it. If I attack it one on one, it's dead within a couple seconds. It's like my Lance sucks vs. other mechs. Against vehicles? OMG, your Lance are certified Vehicle Terminators. I've had a Panther snap shot at a Helo with it's PPC and hit. Me? If I don['t have an LRM to lock up the air units, I don't even bother. I just target them, then tell my lance to attack my target. Unfortunately, your Lance will totally ignore every single vehicle in the area if there is one mech present. I've actually stood off to the side and laughed as a dozen various tanks, SRM, LRM, Helo's, and turrets picked apart my entire lance as one little Locust with it's MLaser and Machineguns death spirals around my lance. Anyways, AI needs a lot of help, and spawns need to be totally reworked. Nothing should just pop up within 50m of your Lance.

Mission selection- OK, drop tonnage limits are based on your max weight you can drop. This is one of the most frustrating things about Piranha mech games. There is never a reason to drop light. You are screwing yourself if you drop light. I wish there was some incentive for dropping light, like bonus C-bills or more salvage. When it comes to mission parameters, always max out the salvage. You will make more money on the salvage then on the pay or the "insurance". The Insurance is a joke. As far as I can tell, it "pays" for damage you take up to the amount selected, but you "lose" the money on the payout. On certain missions like raids or escorts, I'll click one level. Otherwise, Salavage > Payout > Insurance. Oh, and skip the multi-part missions. These are the ones where you do a mission, complete it, but you can't repair anything, and you have to drop again. You can swap mechs and pilots between the missions, but you can't repair anything. The bonus for these missions is barely more than doing individual missions. On the map screen, it will show you the various missions available to you. What it won't tell you is the tonnage limits for those missions.

Pilots... they have all these different skills, but I have seen no difference between a "Greenhorn" pilot with 1's in everything and a "Hero" pilot. Yeah, their skills go up in various areas, but either the benefit of maxed out skills is very, very low, or it has no affect in game.

Last bit- the flavor text of various mechs alludes to perks or drawbacks to each model that are not in the game.

Overall, it looks nice, and plays like "Mechwarrior Online Light". If they can fix the bugs, glitches, and spawn points, it should be a good game. Until then, pass on this.

 Tamwulf wrote:


Overall, it looks nice, and plays like "Mechwarrior Online Light". If they can fix the bugs, glitches, and spawn points, it should be a good game. Until then, pass on this.

I came to a similar conclusion, though the gaming group I irregularly play with was a group I met while playing MWO, so they are playing the heck out of the game so far. I may purchase the game just because of that, but I'm not in a big rush.

I've been having a totally opposite experience so far. I've got about 13 hours of play without one single crash of any kind. The game is running for max specs for me, with no current issues.

You may not be using the right weapons, but I commonly run PPC's and when you Override Overload, you'll cook yourself to a cinder. I've lost a lot of stuff (Ammo, Heat Sinks, Weapons) this way.

I haven't encountered the issue you've mentioned about the AI stopping their assault due to shutdowns, in fact I tend to get pummeled by them more. Maybe it's just been situational for you?

The AI does need a lot of help, but traditionally I hate bribing along non-human friends in game, so when I'm running single player, I only bring myself and my mech, never any others.

Pilot skills definitely matter, I managed to get a couple of good hires early on and they've made a noticeable difference (when I have brought along a lance) compared to the greener cheaper pilots.

It would have been awesome if there was a "Repair All" button that would replace lost components from your inventory AND repair the mech. The amount of times I forgot to repair a mech after replacing a component is embarrassing

Welcome to mechwarrior, this has been a key part of the game since the 90s. I like it, it gives me the RPG experience that makes me feel like I am actually there, working on the machines, piloting them and so on.

I'd give the game a strong 7/10 and I've been recomending it to my friends, updates and fixes will probably be dropping in the near future for some of the issues you've mentioned so I'd say just sit tight a bit.

 Togusa wrote:

It would have been awesome if there was a "Repair All" button that would replace lost components from your inventory AND repair the mech. The amount of times I forgot to repair a mech after replacing a component is embarrassing

Welcome to mechwarrior, this has been a key part of the game since the 90s. I like it, it gives me the RPG experience that makes me feel like I am actually there, working on the machines, piloting them and so on.

So don't press the "repair all" button. It's not an auto-win button, it's a simple QoL improvement with no downside I can think of, and improves accessibility.

It seems like an issue I'd have all the time. Even in TW games I hit the End Turn button and immediately remember the myriad things I forgot to do. It's part of the reason I don't Ironman any Paradox games--the ability to load an earlier save and go and take care of what I forgot borders on mandatory for me. World of Tanks used to--IIRC it doesn't any more--let you go into battle without any ammo, which was a problem if you just fitted a new gun and wanted to try it out. Fortunately there's a checkbox that lets you auto-restock after each battle, so it was a problem I only had a few times, but a problem it was still, and even for veteran players. Even now, sometimes I forget to check ammo resupply and auto-resupply consumables when I buy a new tank.

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 Togusa wrote:

It would have been awesome if there was a "Repair All" button that would replace lost components from your inventory AND repair the mech. The amount of times I forgot to repair a mech after replacing a component is embarrassing

Welcome to mechwarrior, this has been a key part of the game since the 90s. I like it, it gives me the RPG experience that makes me feel like I am actually there, working on the machines, piloting them and so on.

So don't press the "repair all" button. It's not an auto-win button, it's a simple QoL improvement with no downside I can think of, and improves accessibility.

It seems like an issue I'd have all the time. Even in TW games I hit the End Turn button and immediately remember the myriad things I forgot to do. It's part of the reason I don't Ironman any Paradox games--the ability to load an earlier save and go and take care of what I forgot borders on mandatory for me. World of Tanks used to--IIRC it doesn't any more--let you go into battle without any ammo, which was a problem if you just fitted a new gun and wanted to try it out. Fortunately there's a checkbox that lets you auto-restock after each battle, so it was a problem I only had a few times, but a problem it was still, and even for veteran players. Even now, sometimes I forget to check ammo resupply and auto-resupply consumables when I buy a new tank.

It's sort of a MW thing. The games aren't really for casuals. I'd put it in the category of Dark Souls more than I would something like COD. Putting in work-around buttons cheapens the whole experience IMO.

What?

MW is a simple pilot sim made from a wargame, with some very forgiving targeting rules and a fairly lore-breaking power fantasy that allows the player to just solo and trash waves of mechs and vehicles that should utterly wreck you.

Its never been 'non-casual' or 'hardcore.' You're expected to take on multiple assault lances with a single heavy mech in every single iteration, and that's just barely mathematically possible (and still statistically unlikely) in the game its based on

Difficulty is always a somewhat variable concept - one hard game to one gamer is a dead easy one to another. That said I agree with the notion that Mechwarrior FPS games are typically much easier in terms of how powerful your mech and what it can do; when its compared with the source material.

You can compare it also to the Battletech game which also is Mechwarrior and based on the original game. In that game I couldn't envision a single mech taking on four mechs (of equal and heavier weight) and winning without some very extreme luck.

That doesn't automatically make "mech warrior FPS" games "easier" its just a different balancing approach based on the desired gameplay structure.



A "Repair all" button is purely a convenience for gamers. If they are going to repair every single bit; the repair all is simply making it faster and less frustrating for the player. It won't make the game easier nor harder, its just reducing a time barrier that has no net benefit to the vast majority of gamers. Furthermore if its put into place alongside the current system then players are left free to choose it or not.

EDIT: NVM, really not worth it.

Voss wrote:
What?

MW is a simple pilot sim made from a wargame, with some very forgiving targeting rules and a fairly lore-breaking power fantasy that allows the player to just solo and trash waves of mechs and vehicles that should utterly wreck you.

Its never been 'non-casual' or 'hardcore.' You're expected to take on multiple assault lances with a single heavy mech in every single iteration, and that's just barely mathematically possible (and still statistically unlikely) in the game its based on

I see you haven't played 5 yet.

I guess you got a preview copy? As this game isn't out for at least a year.

(/obvious Epic Store joke)

 Tamwulf wrote:
Last bit- the flavor text of various mechs alludes to perks or drawbacks to each model that are not in the game.

This made me laugh.

Sounds like one to avoid.

*goes back to playing HBS' BattleTech PC game*

 Togusa wrote:

Voss wrote:
What?

MW is a simple pilot sim made from a wargame, with some very forgiving targeting rules and a fairly lore-breaking power fantasy that allows the player to just solo and trash waves of mechs and vehicles that should utterly wreck you.

Its never been 'non-casual' or 'hardcore.' You're expected to take on multiple assault lances with a single heavy mech in every single iteration, and that's just barely mathematically possible (and still statistically unlikely) in the game its based on

I see you haven't played 5 yet.

You described it as a 'MW thing' not a MW 5 specific thing.
And from what I've seen of it, its not any different (except a worse UI and camera shake).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q9lVYJywEc
This video has a single Javelin stomping multiple scorpions and helos simultaneously, when their damage and armor is several orders of magnitude higher than the puny light mech. The players damage output and armor is obviously much higher and the enemy mobs obviously dulled for the play experience.

Darn that interface and sight shake on that video look to be REALLY annoying. I mean I get that they are trying to make the mech feel big and stompy, but you'd think any computerized machine would counter that shake for a smooth interface so that you can see what your'e doing - very annoying.

Voss wrote:

 Togusa wrote:

Voss wrote:
What?

MW is a simple pilot sim made from a wargame, with some very forgiving targeting rules and a fairly lore-breaking power fantasy that allows the player to just solo and trash waves of mechs and vehicles that should utterly wreck you.

Its never been 'non-casual' or 'hardcore.' You're expected to take on multiple assault lances with a single heavy mech in every single iteration, and that's just barely mathematically possible (and still statistically unlikely) in the game its based on

I see you haven't played 5 yet.

You described it as a 'MW thing' not a MW 5 specific thing.
And from what I've seen of it, its not any different (except a worse UI and camera shake).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q9lVYJywEc
This video has a single Javelin stomping multiple scorpions and helos simultaneously, when their damage and armor is several orders of magnitude higher than the puny light mech. The players damage output and armor is obviously much higher and the enemy mobs obviously dulled for the play experience.

That's one of the tutorial missions....

I've been playing all weekend and I can tell you first hand, 1 V Xing anything is a really, really bad idea in this game. It's hard, and I've had more than a few close calls, and several ejections. There seems to be a concerted effort to trash the game, probably because of all the hate for Epic and exclusivity deals. All I would say is make up your own mind about the game by trying it out. Epic allows for refunds as long as you don't play more than three hours. More than enough time to decide if you'll like it or not.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:
Darn that interface and sight shake on that video look to be REALLY annoying. I mean I get that they are trying to make the mech feel big and stompy, but you'd think any computerized machine would counter that shake for a smooth interface so that you can see what your'e doing - very annoying.

There is a specific reason for the shake that is related to the mission. A Jammer feths up your hud, as far as I can tell its only for that one specific mission too.

EDIT*

New Patch is up. Spawns are a lot better now.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I guess you got a preview copy? As this game isn't out for at least a year.

(/obvious Epic Store joke)

 Tamwulf wrote:
Last bit- the flavor text of various mechs alludes to perks or drawbacks to each model that are not in the game.

This made me laugh.

Sounds like one to avoid.

*goes back to playing HBS' BattleTech PC game*

It sounds like a continuation of Pirhana's habit of thinking they're building a full blown Battletech simulator when really all they have is a gakky, poorly thought out, arcade shooter with extra steps.

I used to be a big Mechwarrior fan, and have been really enjoying the progress of Battletech (PC), particularly with the added content (not DLC, just the expanded revisions to the game). I've watched a few MW5 videos and it's really not appealing to me at all, which is pretty sad since I loved the old ones in college.

Guess I'll be sticking to turn-based for a while.

I've been playing this on and off and, big oof. I don't know why I expected better from PGI, who have historically been pretty mediocre developers.

The good: a lot of people have said that their versions are very unstable - I have not had that happen. I haven't had a single crash yet actually. The worst I had was a bad checkpint where a scripted trigger clearly didn't fire and I had to restart the mission. So, stability for me is pretty excellent. I believe the people that have been having issues obviously, I just haven't.

The character models are legitimately terrible and I have no idea how those barely-animated mannequins made it into a (purportedly) AAA game in 2019, but they did. However, the truly atrocious voice action steps up to meet the challenge. I saved a guys life and he is thanking me in the hesitant stulted tones of a non-native language speaker reading off a distant cue card while totally stoned.

The actual mech combat, which is what you came for, is acceptable. It should be since it's wholly lifted from a game that has been running for a decade. Great sense of motion, and the weapons have palpable impact. I don't really care for the new medium\large slot system - I would have preferred a more traditional setup where if I have 2 energy slots, I can put in 2 medium lasers or one large laser or whatever. Still every game has monkeyed with this and there are no more criticals to account for so whatever, I'll give them a pass on that.

Maybe in the year between the Epic store release and the actual release of the game, they can do better, but I would be surprised. I didn't buy it and I wouldn't buy it at any price right now - MWO is free and all this game adds is a SP campaign elements with zero value imo. If you must buy a mech game, get the far superior Battletech.

 Togusa wrote:
Welcome to mechwarrior, this has been a key part of the game since the 90s.

I have played every single Mechwarrior game since the Mechwarrior 2 ATI Rage 3D edition, and I don't recall any version that would let you drop with a destroyed weapon equipped and no (or virtually no) warning to that effect - which also happened to me once. Surprise!

Let's not handwave away gakky UI design and rationalize mediocrity. They should do better. I'm pretty sure PGI already does this in MWO from what I remember - for example, you'll get a warning if you try to build a mech that doesn't have ammo equipped, right?

The good: a lot of people have said that their versions are very unstable - I have not had that happen. I haven't had a single crash yet actually. The worst I had was a bad checkpint where a scripted trigger clearly didn't fire and I had to restart the mission. So, stability for me is pretty excellent. I believe the people that have been having issues obviously, I just haven't.

Probably an optimization issue. I can say from my experience in MWO that PGI eats dicks at optimization and testing hardware, so they probably just screwed that up and it's producing unreliable performance across different set ups.

Voss wrote:
The players damage output and armor is obviously much higher and the enemy mobs obviously dulled for the play experience.

I prefer the Battletech experience, where SRM\LRM carriers open up portals to the missile dimension.


One thing I will give them: I do quite like the concept of negotiation points based on rep and how they are used, even if all the choices aren't always of equal value. It's a good system.

There are the bones of a decent game here, although I suspect the bad voice work is here to stay.