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.
90% of the time you are not playing, but
-watching load screens, every click on a mech in hanger results in a load screen
-watching 3 transition animations on EVERY jump
-waiting : some options/clicks take several seconds to process on an 8core CPU
-waiting : slow auto camera movement between mechs and ship sections
-waiting : for own mechs to move
-waiting : for even slower movement of enemy units
-waiting for ai to calculate
- ...
The game has unpolished Missions and a wasteful game programming leads to high CPU and unbelievable high RAM usage. And the slooowness ... it takes forever to get something done
Bugs make Iron Man mode unusable, you have to repeat a lot and loose progress.
-
Harebrained Schemes deserves credit for aiming really high in their gaming goals.
Ideal: In-depth tactical play with a significant strategy layer with player choices that have a real impact on the game.
Released: Clunky gem in the rough.
The good news is that BattleTech Advanced 3062 fixes almost all those problems.
-Improved loadtimes, UI is more informative, AI is much, tons of technical problems sorted out (except that the Mechbay is now a little buggier but there are workarounds). Line of sight has been perfected (watch out for friendly fire!) You can now choose which type of melee attack and it affects damage output significantly (kicking does leg damage, punches do torso damage, etc).
-Mech customization is much deeper, you can field up to 8 mechs and 4 vehicles, making all those extra mechs you salvage worth keeping. With the right equipment a 25 ton mech can take on a 55 ton mech. That's a gratifying feeling.
-Mechwarrior customization now has new specialties that make several different styles of play viable. Mech affinities and battle perks add new dimensions to building your squad over and above just levelling them up. Warriors panic and eject (no more suicidal AI).
-Surviving in career mode is much tougher, but workable. They even have bank loans! The campaign has been added into career mode as a flashpoint, so you can play it or ignore it. Brilliant move BTA team!
Overall, I love this game now. I've been a fan of the XCOM series for a long time and have loved the Long War mods. Even though I can't praise XCOM 2 LWOTC enough as a highly replayable and fun game, I find myself prefering Battletech for my precious moments of free time thanks to BTA 3062.
Not very happy watching the battles lose frames, or stutter when mech is running. The first mission after tutorial crash is wonderful also Grade A game here. Looked online and the fix for this is mostly for steam version so gog is left behind again. I'l be back once they fix these issues, for now might unistall and use my 20gb for some other games.
I've always liked playing Mech Warrior games, and generally enjoy tactical (turn-based) games quite a lot. As such, having these combined in a game is definitely interesting.
Unfortunately, Battletech does not meet even my rather basic expectations and I've requested a refund. The performance issues, e.g. stuttering, frame rates dropping, is something I could work around, mitigate. But the frequent stuckage in turns coupled with slow loading becomes aggravating rather quickly. The constant 100% GPU utilization even when ALT-TAB'ed out of the game is totally unacceptable, especially given the rather poor graphics.
Still, I could get past that if gameplay were to be exceptionally good. In my opinion, it's not. Not by a long shot. The handful of campaign missions I've played all play out the same way, tactical options are no where to be found, and chances to hit are a joke (but to be fair they are in most games I've played; here a 85% chance is ~60-65%). You can either move then fire, jump then fire, or fire (and no longer be allowed to move until you acquire a skill later on which is only available when choosing a certain direction in development), move/jump then guard (which magically reduces damage by 50% from front and side), just guard, sprint (use entire turn for moving further). There are a few actions acquired through skills, but that's about the jest of it.
By moving you (and the enemy) build up evasion chevrons; the more you move, the more you get, and these directly influence the chance to hit. Firing will remove a chevron from the target mech. Early on you mainly engage light and medium mechs and will spend most turns trying to remove some, or all, so one of your mechs might actually hit it. Or just get lucky and score a hit at 30-45% chance to hit. A better option is to simply melee the enemies as it will ignore evasion, will remove some chevrons, or even all. I found all missions to be quite boring and repetitive. Yawn.
For exception tactical turn based gaming, go for modded Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13.
There's no tactics, only Randomness.
1) Spawn point. Imagine complete defeat on a mission because of reinforcements appeared exactly on your position. Restarted mission: knowing where reinforcements are coming from it's possible to complete mission with no damage at all.
2) Simple mission to ambush convoy: 4 mechs of normal tonnage + 2 vehicles with more armor than your mechs + 2 vehicles. Absolute defeat. Hard mission to destroy heavy mechs: you just defeating them one by one before they get in range.
3) Mission A: Absolute win because you scored headshots to 2 enemy mechs. Mission B: almost all your shots are missed, you've lost 2 pilots by headshots.
