Please note:
3rd party Paradox account is needed to challenge other players in 1v1 multiplayer matches and to redeem unlock codes for Kickstarter Backer or Pre-Order DLC. Bonus decorations and emblems require online connection in order to be appliable.
The game is good; despite some rather shitty graphics decisions (dead mechs always fall the same way and completely ignore terrain to lie flat, even if on a 75 degree slope,) and frustration of RNG-type gaming, it is still Mechwarrior and it can really offer some good fun.
But the system optimization is fucking AWFUL. Want to play a short game on your cheap 2020-era potato? Hahaaaa fuck yourself; you are going to wait ten minutes for the loading screen to boot up.
Every single pixel is handcrafted anew from raw firmament for every game. Anyone trying to play on a budget-tier brick is going to suffer extended load times that stretch into multiple full minutes.
TL;DR -- While enjoyable, this game is bad. You will not stop playing this game out of boredom like many others, you will stop playing it when the great theme of Giant Robot Punching and Shooting stops covering up the abhorrent stench of laziness and indifference that permeates 95% of the time you spend playing this game.
The tactical layer of this game is great. Satisfying Robot punching and shooting, good presentation of information, and an adequate User Interface/Controls.
Outside of the tactical layer, everything else is really, really bad. Game performance is bad, required account for content patches is bad, UI is bad, specific information about how the game works is obscured and/or badly presented, cutscenes are repetitive and unskippable, campaign story is OK but very badly told, Bioware's signature meaningless dialogue trees are back, game starts with a forced tutorial, you go through a whole character creation process that determines less about your character than 1 fight in a midgame chapter, game has really bizarre difficulty spikes (which are almost managable because the AI is so bad) and collapses (which are boring and feel like a waste of time for the same reason).
I think the worst thing about this is that mech customization in this game falls into all the same traps as mech customization in every other Mechwarrior game -- of the options presented, there are about a half-dozen good options and everything else is just stuff you do until you get those good options. Instead of, say, LRM's and ML's like in Mechwarrior 3, for example, in this game it's AC/20's and SRM's. Long-range options fall by the wayside because for all the stuff the Devs added, they took away any sort of customization of sensors or engines that might have made long-range options actually useful in the game.
This game might be DRM free, but you're not going to be playing with anyone other then yourself without an online connection and an account with Paradox. I understand that you need someone to host servers, but I know that there's a lot of people here on GOG because they want their purchases to last. I don't want my multiplayer functionality to vanish because they don't feel like maintaining servers anymore.
Loading is also insane. It's probably around 7 minutes to load a game. It's unexceptionable.
I'm still giving this game 3 stars mostly because of how bad I want it to be great.
Games takes a long time to load between matches and seems to freeze for short periods of time when loading (animation stops). This same thing happens on start-up. It will hang and I'll think it's about to crash and then it will behave normally again. I could have dealt with that jank reasonably if it did not also lock up my system when I try to quit it. It even keeps me from briging up task manager as it takes over the desktop fully. It is a very frustrating thing to have to deal with. Looked up the issue online and found community mods giving folks snark for the issue. I ended up finding out how to use shortcut keys to open a new workspace in Windows: Ctrl + Win + D, and that will allow you to bring up task manager.
I'm enjoying the game, but for a relatively old game, it comes with serious jank.
I don't usually leave reviews, but i think this gave deserves better than 3.6 star rating.
There are plenty of Pros/Cons in other reviews if you need more detailed review, what i want to focus on is that the game is FUN! I notice with sadness that latest gaming trends are to optimise the fun out of the game, that's why i stopped playing anything involving multiplayer completely. What i look for in the game: 1)Is the game fun? 2)Does the game have interesting universe that is engaging? How long will it entertain me for?
1)Fun: Everybody have their own definitions of what fun is, but for me, the fun game is when it grabs me from the beginning and keeps me entertained throughout my journey, so i don't have to ask myself 3 hours in "am i having fun yet?".
2)Engaging story: The story is great, the universe is amazing, it is so well written that it got me craving to learn more about it after i finished the game. Engaging story is very important, because a fun game HAS to have a story that makes you want to give a dang about what is going on. This story kept me at the edge of my seat throughout the game.
3)Longevity: The base game kept me entertained for several days. I liked it so much that i got all DLCs to replay it again. So it's not one of those "8 hour single player campaign, see you in multiplayer" type games.
So i guess what i am trying to say is that if you are like me, and you appreciate quality RPG game that will keep you entertained for a while, look no further. Get it, you will not regret it!
