Pros... Graphics - the sprites are crisp and well animated, definitely feels like a great update to the originals. Gameplay - Gameplay still feels great, all the old moves are there (except running) and it just feels great to pull them off. The classic enemies are all there, minus some of the mini bosses. The new enemies range from ok to great, The police with their tasers and shields add a good new challenge, while the thug chemists that throw different concoctions at you can be a cool challenge at times, but they can be equally annoying as they are another enemy you have to chase down with no ability to run. Levels - They all come with some fun gimmicks thrown in and they are well constructed and fun to play. There is nothing super original though, no pirate ship, fair ground or baseball pitch which would of been nice, but oh well. There is one level that you walk in the open back of a cargo plane as you are punching dudes and it takes off, but thats the only level that pleasantly surprised me the others are all pretty standard fare for streets of rage. Cons... You can't run anymore - No idea why they took this out and it can be really annoying at times to chase enemies at walking speed. The Music - The music is quite bad I turned it down, because it was really annoying me. A lot of it is just too busy and instead of simple catchy tunes that get stuck in your head like the originals this is just a mess of sound that I found grating after a while. This is probably the biggest dissapointment I have with 4. Character Selection - The new characters are pretty lame, Cherry is an early 2000's grundge rocker that hits enemies with her guitar and Floyd is just a mix of Dr Zan and Max. I would of preferred it if the devs added the original roster instead. Max is even in the game there is no reason why he shouldn't be in the roster. They should of put the entire cast in as its only an extra 3 characters, this is pretty inexcusable in my book.
If you are a fan of the table top miniatures game you will definitely want to pick this game up, It is a fantastic adaptation of the board game and the management aspects of the game really make it shine. Pros: + Merc corporation management. This is one of the best aspects of the game, you will repair and refit your mechs, hire mechwarriors, choose contracts and pay monthly upkeep. Everything that you do outside of the combat will cost you c-bills and time, you even need to buy the ammo that your mechs consume in missions. The time required to complete these tasks is not inconsequential either to refit a mech can take up to a month depending on how badly damaged the mech is and considering you have to pay your crew and mech upkeep costs every month its a real challenge to keep your merc unit solvent and ready for battle. +Solid combat mechanics: Plays pretty much like the tabletop board game. It does play a bit differently and has tried to emphasize the human part of the mech more through pilot special skills, but everything is here: min and max ranges on the weapons, heat, initiative, terrain modifiers and destruction and falling. It even has a better initiative system than the tabletop game that allows you to reserve mechs so they go later in the round which really helps the light mechs actually be somewhat useful because you can reserve them till the last section of a round so they can essentially have 2 moves instead of one, so you can pop them out of cover fire their weapons then run away when the new round begins. Cons: - Loading times are a bit long, hopefully they will optimise this in the future. - Ai is a bit weak at times. Sometimes the Ai will make some very questionable choices especially the tanks, in one mission I jump jetted a mech onto a hill and the stupid tank just drove around the hill till I blew it up instead of going for one of my other mechs not on the hill. Again hopefully this will be improved in the future. - Does feel a bit rushed and rough around the edges again hopefully this will be improved through patches.
If you are a fan of the table top miniatures game you will definitely want to pick this game up, It is a fantastic adaptation of the board game and the management aspects of the game really make it shine. Pros: + Merc corporation management. This is one of the best aspects of the game, you will repair and refit your mechs, hire mechwarriors, choose contracts and pay monthly upkeep. Everything that you do outside of the combat will cost you c-bills and time, you even need to buy the ammo that your mechs consume in missions. The time required to complete these tasks is not inconsequential either to refit a mech can take up to a month depending on how badly damaged the mech is and considering you have to pay your crew and mech upkeep costs every month its a real challenge to keep your merc unit solvent and ready for battle. +Solid combat mechanics: Plays pretty much like the tabletop board game. It does play a bit differently and has tried to emphasize the human part of the mech more through pilot special skills, but everything is here: min and max ranges on the weapons, heat, initiative, terrain modifiers and destruction and falling. It even has a better initiative system than the tabletop game that allows you to reserve mechs so they go later in the round which really helps the light mechs actually be somewhat useful because you can reserve them till the last section of a round so they can essentially have 2 moves instead of one, so you can pop them out of cover fire their weapons then run away when the new round begins. Cons: - Loading times are a bit long, hopefully they will optimise this in the future. - Ai is a bit weak at times. Sometimes the Ai will make some very questionable choices especially the tanks, in one mission I jump jetted a mech onto a hill and the stupid tank just drove around the hill till I blew it up instead of going for one of my other mechs not on the hill. Again hopefully this will be improved in the future. - Does feel a bit rushed and rough around the edges again hopefully this will be improved through patches.
