While a lot of people will complain a bit about how much of a 'monster hunter' game this is on the harder difficulty settings, it's a pretty apt comparison. However, while I don't enjoy monster hunter that much, this game is pretty flipping epic on Ultra Hard. Yes, flinging arrows into a giant metal monstrosity will not yield much damage on its own, and will necessitate significant scavenging/crafting even mid-fight to grind many enemies down. Tearing off armor and disabling enemy weapons and critical components to cripple enemies is absolutely necessary, or pulling off guerrilla warfare tactics to whittle an enemy down before an open engagement is possible. Yes, the damage values are skewed to heavily favor the enemies, and multiple enemies can attack at once greatly increasing the difficulty of each combat. However, few games have ever given me the sweaty palm feeling and the absolute elation I get when fighting a massively overpowered and agressive Thunderjaw and turning the beast into a hobbling mewling mess that finally gives out and collapses. Graphics are beautiful, nuff said. Story, decent but not as heavy as what I was expecting. Honestly, they could have done a bit more to make the different societies in this game appear more organic. Aside from basic shops and some quest hubs, lots of dead space in many cities that (while being great eye candy) get old passing through it time and time again.
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.
Bought it on steam, and was pretty disappointed as it wasn't much better than an alpha state game. It could be fun at times, but typically I encountered so many bugs and AI issues that I just quit and hoped the next patch would bring relief. Figure I'll give it another year and I'll check back, as this game never should have been released in the state it's currently in. Granted it was significantly worse when it initially released, but as a 'finished' product as far as video games go... they knew it wasn't ready by a longshot. At least the occasional patch still comes out, but I wouldn't be surprised if they give up soon. I for one will not buy anything from this group again.
