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.
I hope the devs do not think, that their work is done. There is still much to do (performance, glitches, bugs etc) but the game has potential. It's not an action game like mechwarrior online and definitely not as professional as the free mekwar but nevertheless it is fun and I hope there will be story addons and more mechs in the furture
The game is pretty fun to play, I get a "Just one more turn" vibe while playing similar to when playing Civilization. Tactics can be pretty deep with on the whole fairly smart AI and a load of options for you to customize the unit you command. Graphics are very nice to look at, they aren't the greatest ever but they're more than passable.
My main complaint is the overall pacing of the game - when you encounter an enemy, any enemy whether it be a turret 800+ meters away or something closer you enter a sort of battle mode where each of your units can only be commanded one at a time in turn based order - the issue is that each unit takes forever to do anything, even with animations set to minimum waiting around for your mech to move can get old, fast - repeat 4 times per turn (the number of units you command) and it can become aggravating.
A slow paced turn-based strategy game, with very detailed damage mechanics, lots of micromanagement and decent story to boot. Well, that's what you usually get, when you use tabletop game as a foundation.
Cons:
- The interface is clunky, and often unresponsive. Strangely, in combat it's ok, but slows down considerably when in the ship, which is barely animated anyway.
- Insanely long loading times. Seriously, most of modern open-world games load times fater than this. This is probably because Unity engine.
- A very weird approach to voice acting. Whithin one dialogue, half of lines belonging to one person is voiced and another half is not. Devs should have just scrapped voice acting entirely instead of this, and polished other areas that really need it. The way it is now it's just... disorienting.
Pros:
+ In a modern game market, where everything is dumbed down for the sake accesibility and maximum audience coverage, someone have the guts to make a strategy game. Turn-based one at that!
+ Decpite how cliche the story is, it is well written, to an extent where reading walls of text isn't really feels like a chore.
+ Fans of mechwarrior franchise will probably be satisfied.
So far the game is everything I hoped it would be. I had one incident where the game crashed but that's it after countless hours of play time. Maybe it's because my computer has the recommended requirements but I haven't experienced long load times nor glitches. I enjoy the story and the mission structure. It does have a slow pace to the battle scheme but having played the beta and original Fasa Battletech, I'm no stranger to it and it's fine by me. Extremely satisfied.
This is the most disappointing game I've played and will play in 2018. Let's just get to the bullet points, since I don't want to take too much time.
Pros:
- New BattleTech game for all the starved fans
- Management sphere is good, as long as it works (and when it doesn't, enjoy mercs with constant low morale or mechs with no armor). tl;dr, the game lacks variety and you will get bored before you'll finish the main story. There's simply not enough content to keep you interested and more likely than not, you'll encounter a bug that will make your game impossible to complete anyway.
Cons:
- Gameplay is purely RNG based
- Missions are very repetitive and sometimes buggy
- Only 4 mechs under command, severely limiting the tactical options available
- Game takes place in years where technology isn't too advanced - low amount of weapons and mechs available
- Story is laughable and you have zero control over anything
- Many inconsistencies and idiotic things in the story
- Characters are extremely bland and uninteresting
- Unimpressive graphics that kills your CPU and GPU - game is poorly optimized
- Camera works in a very predictable manner - it will almost always pan away from the action, so you have to manually inspect your mechs to see who got hit and where
- Completing a turn requires you to sit through extremely long animations coupled with waiting times - this makes the game drag on forever
- I could probably go on and on, but that's not really the point in this case.
Fun fact - the previous review I submitted wasn't accepted, for some reason. Way to treat a backer who believed in you from day 1!