When Battletech first came out, one user posted a review entitled "Battle-meh", which I found funny but did not agree with: I still think that the original game was a solid, if poorly coded, experience. But since then, with every bit of overpriced DLC (I refuse to think of these drips of content as "expansions"), I'm coming around to her/his point of view. This new DLC adds one new 'mech (I'm not counting the Raven as "new" since it was promised to be in the original game), a few new 'mech variants and a new biome that regresses loading times and game performance to those stutter-y lows of the original release. And, yeah, there's a new mission type and some new vehicles, but, honestly? It IS all a bit "meh". If, like me, you're stuck getting these because of the season pass -- tough luck. But if you can pick the next game you invest in, breaks my heart to say it, but invest in something else.
I like the core game, I really do, but the DLC is just not worth it. The new "content" is very meh and probably should have been part of the base game.
There are better alternatives to this pack and they are free.
Pains to say it but this is not worth your time or money.
So I started the career mode for Urban Warfare Difficulty on normal. The missions are completely F@##ed of balance compared to the listed difficulties A two skull mission where an entire company of of mechs drop as reinforcements in three turns half of them heavies and an assault with my escape LZ behind them on the far corner of the map. missions of one and two skulls with a entire company of mech often with and entire lance of mediums. Again and again, missions have you out numbered no less than 2 to 1 and most often 3 to 1 and even 4 to 1 or greater. This happens so often that I want to fire Darius and get a new intelligence officer or shoot him as a traitor.
The new ECM mechanic sucks for you and is great for the computer. Sensor lock can over come the ECM and the computer always as a surplus of units to defeat your ECM, but when they have it you have to sacrifice the turn of one of your four mech to break through the ECM. Again being limited to four mechs with these types of ratios is BS. The designers said they didn't give the player more mechs because they didn't want to slow down game play, but they have no problem of dropping 16 enemy mechs on you nearly at the same time.
This burns even more has the game lags terribly, especially on the new city maps. The new attack defend missions tend to be ridiculously unbalanced. A two skull mission attack defend again enemy started with 7 medium mech and a heavy to start and continued to drop more lances of mediums which only made the game lag worse and worse.
If you have the main game and Flashpoint skip this add on as it make the encounters often unbalanced, unwinnable and the lag and poor memory managment make is a plague to run even on high end systems.
I loved the original game when it came out. Didn't have any problems, no crashes, no corrupt saves. Then the expansions and its been one crash after another. I haven't even been able to play the urban warfare because my save games are corrupt. I hit continue career and the screen loads and comes up like a blurry water color painting and the game is unresponsive. Tried a fresh game install, video card driver install, deleted saved game folder and still doesn't work. Have contacted customer support and all I get is "send us a Direct X file, we see you are running a ultrawide monitor change your resolution. Really at wits end. I guess I will make all my purchases from steam from now on. At least I can get a refund from steam. Two more things. If modders can add a mindblowing amount of content for free and make basic game play more efficient and streamlined, what is the point of spending money for this content and GOG you should really fix your review system. Give us a way to update our reviews.
Rather than whine about GOG or HBS business practice, I thought I might actually talk about the game. I thought GOG was going to get rid of reviews that had nothing to to with the actual game. Eh... maybe that was Steam.
The DLC itself is enjoyable. I've always loved the Javelin in TT and it really doesn't disappoint here, especially with some SRM6++. If you use it right, it's a really powerful Mech. Of course, it's super fragile, as all lights are in this game, but that's not the fault of the DLC. I haven't seen many Ravens and haven't gotten a complete one yet, but to me, that just adds to the fun because there aren't supposed to be 300 of them running around. But, unfortunately, I can't comment on the ECM/BAP game, which I am looking forward to. I'm sure someone else has some review about it but I'm too lazy to look it up... and besides then it wouldn't really be my review
The Urban biome looks pretty slick. I really like fighting in them and, to me, it adds a new dynamic to the game. Stray Shot is AWESOME! doesn't matter what it hits, it's cool. First time I had one my Panther was shooting at an enemy Javelin, missed and hit a Locust in the face. Though most of the time the shot simply goes wide, it's a really cool mechanic. There also are new flashpoints and a bunch of new star systems. There's also a new Mission type which is a bit punishing, but if you've got the right Mechs (or you've got a good strategy) it's fun, if nerve wracking
There really is a lot of stuff packed into the DLC. Is it worth 20? That depends on you. I got the Season Pass a long time ago because I'm a Battletech nerd and I really don't feel robbed. Now if you count content as just chassis as a lot of people seem to do, then you're going to be disappointed. But if you count new chassis, new mechanics, new flashpoints, a new biome, something like 50 new star systems and a challening new mission type it's pretty solid, to me.
