Be very sure what game you are into before buying this game. It's NOT a RPG, it's NOT an open world adventure. It's a card game with exploration and story tacked on. It's core gameplay suffers the same problems as any card based games suffer from, the RNG elements and the luck of the draw. The story and NON-RNG based puzzles and battles really shine in the game. BUT it is let down by the battles that are RNG based, i.e. regular combat. What's even worse are puzzled based combat with RNG. Whether you are able to complete the puzzle depends on the luck of your draw. This would have been an easy 5/5 star game if there were no RNG battles at all. The puzzle battles really makes you think and find the correct solution to the problem based on the rules of the cards. Personally I cannot stand luck/RNG based combat or gameplay loops. Which is why I am giving this a 3 star only. If you LOVE Gwent, you will love this game. But for people who hate card games or core gameplay that has a huge element of luck, look somewhere else.
TL:DR? This game got all the Battlemech parts right, and everything else wrong. The core gameplay is great. But everything else starts to detract from the experience. 1. Poor optimisation: The game is poorly optimised with stutters all over the place. It brute forces the processing so your CPU/GPU is running full tilt all the time. I had to artificially limit my 1080Ti to 60fps to get a smoother experience and more reasonable temps. This should not be happening. 2. Poor progression: The old Mercernaries experience is about making you feel like you are building an empire of Mechs. In this game, everything you do makes it more expensive to do more things. Instead of focusing of expansion, you're thinking how little you can make do with. 3. Waste of the universe: The old Mercernaries did a good job of fleshing out the universe with newsfeeds, even side missions made you feel like you've accomplished something. This game does not. The game has a giant star map of the Inner Sphere, but you NEVER get to explore ANY of it. You want to jump 10 systems away to see what contracts it may offer. Sure, if you don't mind bankrupting yourself. What a waste of an opportunity to make you feel like a true mercernary, galivanting around the Inner Sphere, kicking arse and taking names.
TL:DR? This game got all the Battlemech parts right, and everything else wrong. The core gameplay is great. But everything else starts to detract from the experience. 1. Poor optimisation: The game is poorly optimised with stutters all over the place. It brute forces the processing so your CPU/GPU is running full tilt all the time. I had to artificially limit my 1080Ti to 60fps to get a smoother experience and more reasonable temps. This should not be happening. 2. Poor progression: The old Mercernaries experience is about making you feel like you are building an empire of Mechs. In this game, everything you do makes it more expensive to do more things. Instead of focusing of expansion, you're thinking how little you can make do with. 3. Waste of the universe: The old Mercernaries did a good job of fleshing out the universe with newsfeeds, even side missions made you feel like you've accomplished something. This game does not. The game has a giant star map of the Inner Sphere, but you NEVER get to explore ANY of it. You want to jump 10 systems away to see what contracts it may offer. Sure, if you don't mind bankrupting yourself. What a waste of an opportunity to make you feel like a true mercernary, galivanting around the Inner Sphere, kicking arse and taking names.
