BATTLETECH - Mercenary Collection

Full disclosure I'm a day 1 Kickstarter backer so was always the target audience for this game. As for stability and loading times I've had no issues running a 10 year old rig with an SSD. Among people I've spoken to directly, including on the official forums, I've heard of no real major issues since launch. My experience is that there are some unlucky people who have had a bad time but problems are certainly not common. In terms of the game, it delivers everything I wanted from a Battletech game from the tactical missions to the story to the 'mech designer. While there is a relatively significant learning curve due to the number of mechanics you need to keep track of, there is more than enough tactical depth there to make missions interesting from the start to the finish. If you're interested in Battletech as a setting already or are just looking for a different tactical gameplay experience then the base game's campaign gives you everything you need without the DLC, meaning the barrier to entry for this game in terms of price is actually very low. Once you've played the main campaign and find you want more though, the game really hits its stride in the Career Mode which sees you playing a mercenary company doing its best to survive life on the Rimward Periphery. At that point buying the DLC will be more than worth it and really expand your experience of the game. Finally the game is eminently moddable with plenty of setting that you can mod on your own just by editing .json files. There is a vibrant community of modders that have also done plenty to expand the range of the game running from mods with minimal gameplay changes to complete overhauls giving the game some significant legs: I've owned this game since launch and I'm only now starting to consider getting some of the less obtrusive mods. Given the sheer quality and amount of content on offer this game is easily one of the best things you can buy if you enjoy tactical games.

Battletech is a big game with a lot of history, so generally speaking when a Battletech video game comes along, it needs to be judged by how it takes a slice of the game and presents it in a fun and effective way, while hopefully being true to the source material. From that perspective, HBS's take on Battletech is very good. It feels like a faithful rendition of the board game (which I haven't played since 1989, so I can't say whether it IS faithful, but it feels faithful). Aside from that, it's a fun tactical sim game with some light managerial elements. If I'm going to criticize the game, it's because it makes me want more. So I suppose that's a good thing, because I can't imagine wanting more of a bad game. But HBS's Battletech is funny in that it centres itself around a very specific storyline - the restoration of the Arano government after a bloody coup. It does this quite well, with a well-told storyline, although the game limits you to a single lance of 4 'mechs in all missions. Which is weird... your ship clearly has docks for 2 or 3 drop ships, so you spend the whole game waiting to acquire more drop ships so you can do big complex missions with multiple lances... and it never happens. So it does tend to stretch your credulity to imagine you fighting a galactic war with just four guys at a time. From that perspective, the game is very constrained, which is a big part of why it leaves me wanting more. The thing about Battletech is that the mechs range in weight from 20-ton scouts up to 100-ton assault beasts. But it's not meant to be a progression like leveling up in an RPG... a 100-ton mech is not "better" than a 20-ton mech, it's just designed for different mission roles. So the best Battletech missions let you mix light, medium, heavy, and assault lances to carry out missions that call for different mechs to do different things. Unfortunately, HBS's Battletech is too constrained to allow for that, which is too bad.

I wont go into much of the Vanilla gameplay as it is all said about it - in itself it is a very enjoyable game worth the money especially on sale. Oposite to what is said about the vanilla game Mods open up a new dimension for gameplay with Tanks and Aircraft becoming available for control as well as enabling multiple lance gameplay direct under your control or as AI allies/opponents. Battletech Exteneded 3025 Commanders Edition Mod allows the campaign game while offering i.e. multiple lance gameplay. Roguetech is the Mod to go for Career Mode and adds vehicle and airccraft combat plus even more detailed damage models and all kind of weaponry. There are to many mods out to mention them even in part but if you Google for them Nexusmod, or Mods in Exile or Steam will have them to enhance your gameplay way beyond the limits of the vanilla game incuding Clan Era Mechs and Weapons. This game has almost infinite replayability!

The Good: This is probably the best version of the tabletop game to be made for the PC to date. The Bad: Poorly Optomized. Don't know why this game is 35GB on harddrive. Not a big deal or anything, but why does it need that much space when there is really nothing to look at. Graphics are not very good. Load times are just long enough to be annoying. There are hard missions like on XCOM, so I had to save scum on a few of them. Instead of quicksaves being near instant, they take a good 20-30 seconds. Not that long but annoying when you have to reload frequently. Closing thoughts: Buy on sale. Got the Merc. Collection during summer sale for $30 which isn't bad, but the regular $90 pricetag is silly. Game isn't worth nearly that much.

The game is a real gem. I hesitated before buying, given the turn-based gameplay and player reviewers concerning performance issues. However, after playing through the campaign for many hours, I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised by Battletech. The turn-based approach works well with the gameplay, and I have had no technical issues. The campaign is long, and the outcome is predictable. But there are a good variety of missions, and your team and mechs improve over time. Also, mechs are very customizable. I actually got attached to some of my mechwarriors and flinched (or cursed) when some of them died. The game has decent graphics and very good special effects, and I liked the voice acting and music. The warfare is very tactical, and some of the systems will take a little time to figure out. Also, the AI plays appropriately most of the time. The mission difficulty, however, can jump erratically. For example, one 2-skull mission can be a cake-walk and the next one could have you hopelessly outnumber 2-to-1. However, picking and choosing the right side missions to pursue is an important part of the game, and you can withdraw from a mission if things go badly. My only real criticism of Battletech is that it is stingy on mission rewards, even on the "generous" setting. Especially early game but even later, the game felt more like a financial crisis management simulator than a warring robots game. It is very easy to get into a doom spiral regarding finances, where you have to grind low-level missions because you are afraid to chance taking expensive loses by taking on higher-level missions that may pay more. It's frustrating. Thankfully, there are in-game setting that you can tweak that can mitigate this issue, and the game files are easily modded. Overall, this is a very fine game. I have just started a career-mode game, and I haven't played any mods yet, but the game does have some replayability. It's worth the $25 I paid for the Mercenary edition.