BATTLETECH

Battletech was already a very competent TBS game at launch, just dragging some issues. Those were: -Lack of optimization -Slow loading times -Insufficient mech, weapon, and mission variety -Bland campaign story The first and third issues have been completely fixed due to the great support and updates from Harebrained Schemes, through both DLCs and free content updates. Missions are now varied, weapon types plentiful and mech models very abundant. No run through the game is the same as the last one. The second issue is solved with the use of a SSD, something cheap I now see as mandatory for modern gaming. The fourth issue has been completely sidelined. HBS introduced the sandbox (Career) mode and filled it with custom scenarios and mini campaigns that sport great writing, choices and consequences, and lots of humour. You'll be running around in a portion of the in-universe known galaxy, taking contracts from factions and building alliances or rivalries with them, and in a time-attack fashion you'll have a limited amount of time to earn points and get ranked at the end. Sandbox resumes after your end rank screen and you'll be able to keep playing to your heart's content. I think it may be one of the best TBS games of the decade, and I rate it as high as blockbuster and universally acclaimed XCOM 2.

Much of the criticism that others have leveled on this game is pretty warranted. Mission variety is pretty lackluster, not a lot of mech variety, kind of a crappy engine that makes most light mechs obsolute and useless VERY quickly, limited weapon variety, no armor types to choose between, and other issues. While mods can't get around the crappy engine design, they do help fix a ton of the previous complaints. If you're even considering this game and have a nostalgia factor from the Mercenaries titles, look up Roguetech. That mod pack singlehandedly saved this game for me.

can be fun, but a lot of poor design decisions. poor uis and sluggish gameplay. i get tactics are slow, but i mean this game plays slower then a baseline tactics game. there is also an issue with difficulty -- very inconsistent. go from a mission fighting a tank and 2 battlemechs to fighting 3 battlemechs and get reinforced with 4 battlemechs. compounding UI, slow gameplay, and tilted difficulty you are looking at a really frustrating experience. not sure who thought getting jumped with 1:2 odds with menacingly time consuming mechs launching wave after wave of missiles at you was even remotely fun. big fan of battletech and tactics games. i cannot recommend this game.

Despite all technical problems and all the freezes I really wanted to enjoy this game, but I can't. It's totally unbalanced and uses some wild RNG with wild scenarios. This game could simply generate about 6-8 medium and heavy mechs versus yours 4 medium mechs (it's constant). Also, it can generate enemies in two different parts of maps, so you'll always be in between. This is just one of typical scenarios. Statistics says for itself. I've played 4 or 5 plot missions - spend on it not so many hours - and this achievement is still RARE (only 4,2% GOG Players got it). After last plot mission I've tried to get normal side quests - and got really nothing, just a hordes of heavy mechs literally out of nowhere in a middle of very hard battles. So, even if this game has no technical problems (which is not true) I can't simply recommend it, it's way worse than the other studio titles (Shadowrun series). I simply don't get it, how everyone could praise this game, when they even didn't complete first few missions?

missing video codecs: you have to dig on the internet yourself, GOG support/forum won't help you with this issue. Anyway few hours later game finaly gets in its main menu -- Emotional moment with lots of tears in my eyes -- starting game.... LOADING... LOADING... LOADING... [4 minutes later] *CRASH* "battletech is not respoding" -- no shit sherlock. Let's try again. *eons later* *CRASH* and again *CRASH* different computer --> same results; conclusion: this game doesnt work!