Having not played a Mech game since Mechwarrior 2 (which came out in 1996!), I was a little apprehensive when I received this game. How can I compare it to the latest Mechwarrior games? I don’t have a joystick, so how can I play it properly? I didn’t even have the instruction booklet due to a mix up in the office. Luckily, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries has a brilliant tutorial and hasn’t changed too much from the earlier games in its controls, so I was up and blasting other huge walking tanks in a matter of no time. While it looks a little dated, it’s still an exciting game where massive walking tanks slog it out in a variety of different planetary terrains for fame and fortune.
From what I remember of MW2, you went from planet to planet fighting for your Clan trying to reclaim your right to land / planets / whatever. In MechWarrior 4: the year is now 3063, and you’re hotshot pilot who was involved in the FedCom Civil War. You’ve paid your dues and now are ready to make some cash by joining one of the four Mercenary groups -The Kell Hounds, Wolf’s Dragoons, The Northwind Highlanders, or the Grey Death Legion. Joining a group means you get different mechs and weapons and supposedly different missions, but I played two different groups, albeit not the whole way through, and didn’t notice any difference in the missions. As you progress through the different missions, you’ll find yourself drawn into the story, as every mission you do gives you points with the major players in the universe, and eventually siding with one of the warring factions, Steiner or Davion, which leads to one of two final outcomes.
You start off with a lance of 3 people of varying skills plus yourself, plus 4 light Mechs. As you progress through the missions you gain more money, and more salvage, which includes weapons and Mech chassis. Between missions, you can add or remove people from your pilot roster, replacing any pilots that may have died or hire new ones to form a second lance, as well as buy and sell chassis and weapons on the “Free Market”. You can add different weapons to your chassis in the Mechlab, but you’ve got to manage the heat production and armour as well as electronic anti-combat measures, otherwise you’ll have a huge chunk of metal that keeps shutting down every time you fire. You’ve got to be careful with your money as well, as travelling from star system to star system costs money, as does landing on a planet, and you have to pay your pilots and maintenance costs. I found it relatively easy to keep track of my money though, and a quick sale of a heavy or assault Mech usually gets you enough C-bills to last another mission.
The missions are pretty fast and furious. None of this walking around trying to find checkpoints, you’re pretty much thrown straight into the thick of things. The gameplay is exciting, as you can be battling many other Mechs at a time. Success is achieved through good piloting and aim, as well as tactical use of your Lancemates. Often the success or failure of a mission comes down to the choice of Mechs with appropriate weapons and the level of skill your pilots have achieved. The AI is pretty good, with Lancemates generally staying out of your way, and using long range weapons when they are meant to, and the Opponent AI is also quite clever, although their aim didn’t seem to be as good, and they tend to get confused if they’re outnumbered firing randomly at each target rather than concentrating on just one opponent.
Missions tend to fall into 2 categories – Search / Destroy and Protect / Escort. You can take a breather from the missions to battle gladiator style on Solaris VII, which earns you fame and money, and trains you for online battle. Online battle is a lot of fun, but I STRONGLY suggest you get a joystick… the campaign mode can be won with out one, but you will be WAY too slow for online battle. I had some troubles connecting through the game’s online interface, but no problems connecting through msn.zone.com, the “official” place to play, and I never had trouble finding people to play against.
This games sound is good, the blasts and rat-a-tat-tat of your Mechs AutoCannons sounding pretty realistic, but the in-game music is pretty average techno-rock. Even more of a let down is the graphic engine, being a few years old it really doesn’t stand up to today’s standards. Trees simply disintegrate when you walk into them, and the Mechs themselves just get a little blacker when you pound them with your numerous weapons – no bullet riddled hunks of metal here. It doesn’t take away too much from the game, it just makes it seem like you’re playing a game that came out two years ago.
All in all, MechWarrior 4 – Mercenaries is an excellent game. although its graphic engine is a real let down compared to other games that have come out recently. If you’re a fan of the genre you won’t be too let down, and if you’ve never played a previous incarnation of the game you wouldn’t know any different. The micromanagement of your lances and resources and finances certainly makes the game a lot more interesting and involving, and of course, you’re walking around in huge, heavily armed robot tanks blowing the bejesus out of other huge robots, and what could be more fun than that?
7.5/10
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