BATTLETECH

I grew up playing Battletech with friends in the 80's. I hadn't ordered anything from GOG since the complete Ultima series many years ago, but saw what I thought was a spam email for Battletech from GOG and said, "Oh yea! This is happening!" I did something I rarely do and preordered the game. Heck I haven't even ordered a game since CIV 5. I was hoping this game wouldn't be like that abomination. It installed well and I have had no crashes like others have reported so far. I don't have a power machine, AMD 6 core AM3 processor, 16GB memory, 250GB solid state C drive, 6 TB D drive with a Nvidia 750TI video card. Mainly used as a HTPC. Started up, went through the setup just fine. But man is it slow between some moves and missions. The game is completely installed on the SSD and still SLOW!!! In between missions is kind of confusing to me and that is where I stopped for now. Its just not making much sense to me, bank loans, hiring, retrofitting the mech, etc. My son plays a lot of games and tells me I need to watch twitch streams to see how others do it. Watching others play a game? hmmm.... I'll figure it out, but honestly I just wanted to battle. So, I decided just to play the combat scenarios instead of the story line and I did something I hadn't done in years. I started playing while it was still daylight and when I decided to quit playing it was 6 hours later and I realized I was going to be dragging at work. No game really since CIV 4 has caused me to lose track of time like that. I applaud you Harebrained Schemes for that. My wife, not so much. I really like this game and if it weren't for the slow load times this would be a solid 5 star from me. It really brings me back to when we played 30+ years ago.

Having played completely through the campaign before the first patch I have to say this has become one of my favorite PC games. The gameplay may not be for everyone as it tries to translate some rules and abilities from the table-top game into something workable for the gameplay. The developers are actively working on more content and bug fixes and hopefully there will be some new things announced soon. Good: Gameplay in the missions is really nice Understandable and easy controls BattleTech "feel" Bad: Some repetitive voiceovers during missions. Graphics can challenge some systems Mission variety is a little lacking

Quick Disclaimers: I -like most ten-year-olds- lacked the purchasing power to get involved in the tabletop game, and only discovered the surrounding lore of Battletech 20 years later through mostly out-of-print paperbacks almost as old as I was. Thus, I was one of many kids who tried to play Mech Warrior on his SNES because it "looked cool" and was subsequently dismayed by how incredibly hard it was to play. In the intervening years I played, and replayed many titles from the universe that were basically slightly thematic adaptations of the IP design to whatever type of computer game was popular then. That was then, and this is 2018, yet the newest Battletech game until this spring was so old its copyright owner had abandoned the entire idea. Batetech 2017 (this game) is great because of its limitations, and sometimes sucks because of them. I want to stress that from my gameplay perspective, the only things anyone involved in production got "wrong" were necessary simply because "they," collectively speaking, were trying to resurrect a forgotten scifi universe on a necessarily small budget. That they irritated some crowdfunders was likely unavoidable because of this Battletech 2017 is a budget title that manages not to feel like a budget title during play sessions. That is the second-highest praise I can give any game. The highest praise I can give is also deserved: I bought this at launch and felt it was worth full price. In my 25 years since discovering electronic mayhem with a Japanese product noteworthy in that it did not catch fire, I have personally paid full price for only a handful of games, and this is the only one that was worth it to me. Basic downsides: Engine choice! 1. Unity Engine "calls home" -which is technically DRM- Ahem! 2. Utilizing an "older" engine put very real limits on API's, making optimization difficult. 2. Unity is not an engine that seems to be able to utilize modern processors well, as only a couple engines barely out of development are truly core-neutral. This means the limiting factor on my system is not my RX480, but my i7-4790k -go figure. 3. The engine itself tends toward sound issues on Windows machines using mid-to-high-end soundcards. That's right, Unity, not Battletech, is the common factor for me (I own several Unity-based games, and they all have some trouble with this). 4. Though not yet encouraged, limited modding is possible -see Upsides below, and some simple "tweaking" on my part indicates the engine just can't handle things like doubling pilot capacities of your ship, even though the interface doesn't introduce bugs with this particular change. 5. Medium settings don't improve framerates unless, and I'm guessing here, you're using older or lower-end hardware. This is the deciding indicator of CPU limitations. Basic Upsides: Here's where things really start to look up! Despite the problems others have noted all over the web, HBS and the Battletech Universe's owner have worked a near-miracle in relaunching the IP without drastically changing much. In the end, you get: 1. Reasonably good graphics -mechs, environment, hand drawn scenes and some really spectacular lighting effects on High settings, with interface elements and some 3D characters that are decent enough tho be suitable without doubling the download size. 2. A Battletech storyline that doesn't snare with remaining lore from the books I've read, yet strikes a balance between gritty realities and a hopeful outlook. 3. Open-ended gameplay that is still pretty fun after the main plotline. 4. A nice variety of characters, mechs, paintjobs, equipment, etc. without burying us in minutia, and 5. An interesting "period" in which to reboot the Battletech IP while leaving plenty of room for sequels. Basically, the crown jewel of gaming it ain't, but despite some probably warranted dissention on this point by others, a digital garbage fire itis not. Others have made perfectly reasonable arguments about overcomplexity on one side and oversimplification on the other, but to me this is just simple enough that I could sit down and start playing with a little bit of skill within 5-10 mins. and still enjoy coming back for 6 new playthroughs just to enjoy the minor random gameplay differences invokeable using what I'd learned previously. If you're nervous about plunking a couple pizzas-woth on a new game with mixed reviews, find a friend who has it or watch some videos and wait for a sale. If you like the setting or have enjoyed some other HBS reboots of old properties, this is probably the best game they could've made with the rumored production budget, and some of their best work to date. No, there probably isn't enough engine headroom for an expansion, but that also means 1. less DLC-clutter, and 2. Any sequels eventually forthcoming will likely contain massive improvements to an already solid title. I've never looked at Battletech's IP the way I saw some other scifi titles, but there's just something magical about dismembering 4 story robots using projectiles, beams, and giant metal fists that tells me we'll be seeing more of these in the future.

This game is perfect for me... it won't be perfect for everyone, but if you liked the old Mech Commander games, then you will love this game. I think it does a perfect job of taking the feel of the tabletop turn based game but adding a few much needed twists. The evasive chevrons for movement and the ability to guard add a lot of options and the initiative system really does let faster, lighter mechs shine if you learn how to use them properly. This game has a lot of meat to it and it will take some effort to master, but it is well worth it. The mercenary management part of the game is spot on and completely awesome. I have a beefy computer so I haven't had any performance or loading issues. But come on... are you really going to comdemn a turn based game that takes over half an hour to do one mission based on 30 seconds of load at the beginning of a mission? Especially when that will probably not be an issue some months from now. If you want, give the game a while to get a few patches... but if you have any interest in a turn based mech game, this is a gem. Voice acting is also excellent and deserves some mention.

This is a game worthy of the title Battletech. It feels like a tabletop without minutes of confirming that everthing is in order with the rules. My first try of the tabletop put me off because it took me one hour for the first round (4mechs vs 4 mechs). But this is fast, accurate and makes fun as hell. Yeah of course there are some problems, like bugs, but come on. It got out yesterday. EA games won't even start until a week later. I miss that the charakters are not voiced, but with the amount of info your getting thrown at you, half of the buget would have gone to voiceactors. Some complain about the 'hidden' DRM and only give one Star because of this. So I give full five Stars even If I intended to only give four. Giving a game such a low rating only because you have to log in is a no-go. The game is great and give the game credtis where it belongs.