Quick Disclaimers: I -like most ten-year-olds- lacked the purchasing power to get involved in the tabletop game, and only discovered the surrounding lore of Battletech 20 years later through mostly out-of-print paperbacks almost as old as I was. Thus, I was one of many kids who tried to play Mech Warrior on his SNES because it "looked cool" and was subsequently dismayed by how incredibly hard it was to play. In the intervening years I played, and replayed many titles from the universe that were basically slightly thematic adaptations of the IP design to whatever type of computer game was popular then.
That was then, and this is 2018, yet the newest Battletech game until this spring was so old its copyright owner had abandoned the entire idea.
Batetech 2017 (this game) is great because of its limitations, and sometimes sucks because of them. I want to stress that from my gameplay perspective, the only things anyone involved in production got "wrong" were necessary simply because "they," collectively speaking, were trying to resurrect a forgotten scifi universe on a necessarily small budget. That they irritated some crowdfunders was likely unavoidable because of this
Battletech 2017 is a budget title that manages not to feel like a budget title during play sessions. That is the second-highest praise I can give any game. The highest praise I can give is also deserved: I bought this at launch and felt it was worth full price.
In my 25 years since discovering electronic mayhem with a Japanese product noteworthy in that it did not catch fire, I have personally paid full price for only a handful of games, and this is the only one that was worth it to me.
Basic downsides: Engine choice! 1. Unity Engine "calls home" -which is technically DRM- Ahem! 2. Utilizing an "older" engine put very real limits on API's, making optimization difficult. 2. Unity is not an engine that seems to be able to utilize modern processors well, as only a couple engines barely out of development are truly core-neutral. This means the limiting factor on my system is not my RX480, but my i7-4790k -go figure. 3. The engine itself tends toward sound issues on Windows machines using mid-to-high-end soundcards. That's right, Unity, not Battletech, is the common factor for me (I own several Unity-based games, and they all have some trouble with this). 4. Though not yet encouraged, limited modding is possible -see Upsides below, and some simple "tweaking" on my part indicates the engine just can't handle things like doubling pilot capacities of your ship, even though the interface doesn't introduce bugs with this particular change. 5. Medium settings don't improve framerates unless, and I'm guessing here, you're using older or lower-end hardware. This is the deciding indicator of CPU limitations.
Basic Upsides: Here's where things really start to look up! Despite the problems others have noted all over the web, HBS and the Battletech Universe's owner have worked a near-miracle in relaunching the IP without drastically changing much. In the end, you get: 1. Reasonably good graphics -mechs, environment, hand drawn scenes and some really spectacular lighting effects on High settings, with interface elements and some 3D characters that are decent enough tho be suitable without doubling the download size. 2. A Battletech storyline that doesn't snare with remaining lore from the books I've read, yet strikes a balance between gritty realities and a hopeful outlook. 3. Open-ended gameplay that is still pretty fun after the main plotline. 4. A nice variety of characters, mechs, paintjobs, equipment, etc. without burying us in minutia, and 5. An interesting "period" in which to reboot the Battletech IP while leaving plenty of room for sequels.
Basically, the crown jewel of gaming it ain't, but despite some probably warranted dissention on this point by others, a digital garbage fire itis not. Others have made perfectly reasonable arguments about overcomplexity on one side and oversimplification on the other, but to me this is just simple enough that I could sit down and start playing with a little bit of skill within 5-10 mins. and still enjoy coming back for 6 new playthroughs just to enjoy the minor random gameplay differences invokeable using what I'd learned previously.
If you're nervous about plunking a couple pizzas-woth on a new game with mixed reviews, find a friend who has it or watch some videos and wait for a sale. If you like the setting or have enjoyed some other HBS reboots of old properties, this is probably the best game they could've made with the rumored production budget, and some of their best work to date. No, there probably isn't enough engine headroom for an expansion, but that also means 1. less DLC-clutter, and 2. Any sequels eventually forthcoming will likely contain massive improvements to an already solid title. I've never looked at Battletech's IP the way I saw some other scifi titles, but there's just something magical about dismembering 4 story robots using projectiles, beams, and giant metal fists that tells me we'll be seeing more of these in the future.
