BATTLETECH

My previous exposure to the BattleTech universe has come entirely electronically- I have many fond memories of the MechWarrior/Mercenaries series and LAN-based robo-carnage. With this in mind I was excited to hear about BattleTech, I heard many comparisons to XCOM after release which prompted me to pick it up- hybrid management/strategy of that calibre is pretty rare after all. After finishing the BattleTech campaign, my basic takeaways are that this isn't really much like XCOM except in a very 'broad-stokes' kind of way, I personally think that mech combat works better in a real-time format and the game is good, but not great with a mass of opportunities for improvement through some basic tweaking of the UI and some of the mechanics. My favourite part of the game is the strategic layer; when you're on your ship checking your pilot rosters, outfitting your mechs and choosing contracts things all work pretty smoothly and it feels like the dream version of the 'Mercenaries' system. You can hang out, talk to your crew and immerse yourself in the world too which is a nice touch; it's clear that the devs have a great respect for the universe they're working in, even if (to my taste) the lore does get somewhat oppressive at times. Then you get dropped down to the actual missions and things take a turn for the mediocre- your (nicely rendered) mechs plod across a (nicely rendered) set of landscapes, make contact with some people who need to be blasted, blast them then maybe blast some other stuff before going home. I think my main issue with the missions is I couldn't seem to wring much tactical depth out of them- victory seems to hinge almost entirely on how much mech-tonnage you bring along, coupled with having enough intelligence to avoid turning your back to the enemy. My fights often devolved into my lance standing stock-still while shooting until all my opponents fell over. Still worth a play if giant robots are your thing, just not 'Clan-PPC'-level amazing.

1300+ days into a game, update to latest version. Game file wont open and crashes game...

Good - The soundtrack is great in my opinion - The mech customization is fun Bad - Once you get over the initial learning phase, you realise the game lacks greatly in tactics/strategy - Stuttering even on high end PCs (ssd m2, i7, rx2080) - The campaign is rather dull and full of SJW crap (you'll see it too)

While Battletech have not bad of a start when it comes to later missions you'll find yourself barely making enough money to pay for the stuff that get's damaged during missions (anything other than flawless victory during mission means credits spent for repairs, replacement of weapons that get destroyed along with parts of your mechs, plus downtime for injured pilots (Also you're paying monthly fee that rises when you play the game). Can you mitigate all that on the battlefield? Heck no! You are in command of single lance. Enemy lance have exactly same chances to wreck your crew as you have to wreck them. You got through enemy lance and somehow avoided too much destruction on your part? Cool, heres another enemy lance you sucker! You love that, right? There is no way you can work around that - using covers, special skills etc. give you minimal edge, hardly enough to fight multiple enemy lances. Leveled up pilot mostly seem to let your lance keep up with the enemy rather than giving you the advantage. Think you can save scum, don't you? Ha! Good one. Game is hardly optimized. Every next load of previous save takes longer. If you like me, are bothered by game, that you paid for and did not finish it will waste your time for a vicious cycle of watching your mechs get maimed, spending even more time watching game load, and repeat. I can't really recommend this game. Developer kicked it out the door, hanged bunch of DLC's and refused to polish it.

I hope the devs do not think, that their work is done. There is still much to do (performance, glitches, bugs etc) but the game has potential. It's not an action game like mechwarrior online and definitely not as professional as the free mekwar but nevertheless it is fun and I hope there will be story addons and more mechs in the furture