BATTLETECH

The story line is what got my attention years ago

There are some terrible levels that you obviously never tested out. Served Cold is ridiculously overpowered, even on the most simple settings. The game beccomes unplayable. Not worth the money.

This game seems insanely difficult. Setting up a single 'Mech against 5 opponents in the very first mission is a bit much. I've had my 'Mech destroyed 6 times now, sometimes by 'something' firing missiles at it, sometimes by a tiny 'Mech doing a DFA attack on it, and most often by the much better equipped enemy medium 'Mech. About the AI, sometimes for no reason at all the enemy decides to disengage, and runs off in some seemingly random direction. Maybe I'm supposed to 'use' this 'feature' to attack them from behind or something, but it seems very unrealistic that a better outfitted, more healthy opponent would just walk away exposing his back (not that my paltry laser would ever get through its armor anyway). All-in-all I am very sad that I jumped to buy this game, because, well, BattleTech. But it has been more frustrating than anything else. Also, during the 'videos' the GPU ramps up to 98% (a GeForce 1080 gti, no less), and while battling it runs at about 78%, which is a lot more than a lot of better looking games load it at...

I left a long review near release, but it was deleted. I was a backer and wish I didnt. Between the backer rewards (quite insignificant rewards) requiring you to sign in the a Paradox account, which they didnt tell us about until after release, to the terrible optimization burning out GPUs, it is a mess. I understand turn based, but you will sit there for 80% of the time if not more, watching and just waiting. There are still bugs like the game hanging in between turns, crashes, and little annoyances like it focusing on the wrong mech during a turn. I have been a fan since 1995 when I first played MW2 and I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately my inner fanboy is not enough to make me look passed the bugs and horrid optimization. Then factor in how grossly overpriced it is. If you really want it, wait for a significant sale. If you want an idea how overpriced, just look at what you get in the DLC for the price. I hope they can readjust for a sequel, or find a different dev to make it. Unfortunately they to be censoring negative reviews, so make sure to check different sources before you make a decision.

As of writing this review, Battletech is not playable beyond the tutorial mission for a lot of players, self included. The game seizes upon the shuttle cutscene and will progress no further.