BATTLETECH

Not really a bad game, but it needs a better campaign. The story was very post-2016, if you know what I mean. The career mode makes up for this to some degree, but it starts to feel like a grind after awhile without a story tying it all together. Graphics and gameplay are still pretty good though. I want to like it a lot more than I do since I love the Battletech universe, but it just doesn't hook me like the old games did.

The game, when it works, can be passable. However, it feels as though it was rushed and is seemingly in an unfinished state. The graphics, when it isn't crashing, are interesting, and the Mech designs carry over well from the tabletop. The game-play has some measure of promise that may be fulfilled in a patch or two. However, the game can be a repetitive slog, and unfortunately, was seemingly written by 19 year olds attempting to get an A in Gender studies and impress their social justice warrior teacher. And I'm not talking about the inclusion of the extra pronoun. That is completely inconsequential. Far more telling is, in a universe where literally EVERY other race and culture is on display (including Muslims, inexplicably), there are zero white characters that you don't create yourself. Inclusion and diversity are great, but unfortunately the writers are living up to the expectation that diversity simply means "no white people." I'm not sure how this is pushing race relations forward. Unfortunately, I have every expectation that the creators, like most of their ilk, will simply double down, call me racist, and ignore the obvious logical fallacy they are creating in order to signal their own virtue to other closed-minded people. Inclusion, by exclusion, is not inclusion at all. Someday, perhaps when they live in the real world for a while, they will figure this out. Frankly, if I had known that this game was attempting to troll white people, I never would have purchased or supported it. Especially when it was released in its unfinished state.

If you like XCOM, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, or other games like that, check this game out. The progression system in this game is fantastic, you're always getting new mechs, weapons, accessories, ect to keep things fresh. The world is lore rich, having been around since the 80s, though as someone new to the universe myself I didn't find preexisting lore knowledge was in any ways necessary. The plot isn't that complex, and if you want to learn about the specifics they're revealed in character dialog and hover over tooltips. The combat is pretty fun too, there's enough mech variety that fighting the different combos with your new gear always feels fresh. If I had one complaint it would be that you do start to notice the same maps over and over, but it took me about 75 hours to beat the game so I guess there's only so many maps you can make. Overall, a very solid game.

Everything I wanted out of a Battletech game. Merc company management, tight finances, lots of lore, and missions of varying lengths.

For fans of the tabletop, this game may be very good, but seen as a game, without any experience with the tabletop beforehand, it has a lot of rough edges. The combat feels unnecessarily slow, you cant speed up movements of enemies (or i havent found the option for it yet). - The controls feel counterintuitive. - The combat-dialogues of the pilots repeat after 3 rounds. - The game has good voice-acting, but then the dialogues are often written instead of voiced (waste of potential and atmosphere) - The story is a run-of-the-mill betrayal story (im not that far into the story yet, but what im seeing doesnt look good) - When you get to the point, that you can manage your mechs on the ships, it feels like a cheap X-COM 2 ripoff. - I was expectin feeling of power-progression: "Hey, here is a supersmall mech, fight those other supersmall mechs. When you win, you get money/loot and can improve your mech. Sometimes you will be able to fight against bigger mechs and get yourself a bigger mech." But i guess that is personal preference I really wanted this game to be special