![mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic](https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/17/16982/screen_MechBay.jpg)
(Which probably explains why radar is bizarrely limited to line of sight in MW5 – it doesn’t make any sense from a practical level, but if you could see enemies the second they spawned like normal radar, the game would be ridiculously easy.) A lot of the outlines and bars tend to fade into the surroundings and action, which doesn’t help when you’re in a massive firefight with tanks, VTOLs and enemy mechs spawning out of nowhere.Īnd yeah, that happens a lot: you’ll be carving through a mission and, DOOM style, extra waves pop in out of nowhere. It’s not visually distinct enough on the brighter snowy or grassy levels.
![mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic](http://omnitech.hard-light.net/team/starman/news/DavionGateCTRL.jpg)
I felt like I was playing Heavy Gear, not Mechwarrior.īut when you’re in third-person, the HUD has problems there too. MW5‘s cockpits are flat, and most of the time I just defaulted to the third-person view simply because there wasn’t anything visually interesting inside the mech. But games like these – especially ones backed on Kickstarter – are playing to a particular crowd who love the overwhelming nature of these mechs, particularly the feel inside the cockpit. It’s easier to parse if you’ve never played a Mechwarrior game, for sure. Here’s what the in-game hud looked like for Mechwarrior Online: You can’t remove two smaller guns and stick one medium sized gun in its place, because the hardpoints are locked to guns of a certain size. So, for instance, if you decided to remove four jumpjets from a lighter mech to beef up its firepower, you … can’t. Weapons and attachments (like jumpjets) are limited by size, and mechs have a limited amount of hardpoints on top of that.
![mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic](https://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/17/16982/thumb_620x2000/screen_m_gladiator.jpg)
Mech customisation is pretty limited too. Why aren’t destroyed components automatically removed or deselected? You can’t repair destroyed components, so all the game is doing is wasting a bit of your time. But what if one of your mechs loses a component on the field? You have to go into the repair screen, manually deselect it from the mech and then drag or add a new component from your inventory. You’ll repeatedly stockpile extra weapons, ammo and bits of equipment from the battlefield. Repairing your mechs is an exercise in monotony. They’re all spare salvage, in case you’re wondering, and the game doesn’t give you any indication here on what mechs can use what weapons or what equipment is best for what. Here are all the items in my inventory, sorted by value and into two categories (weapons and equipment). Take this basic trading screen for the mech market. When you get enough standing with a particular faction, your ability to barter increases even further, meaning more money, more loot, and more insurance. It’s usually a good idea to bump up your salvage shares early on, because you’ll usually find weapons that can be palmed off for more cash. All of your mechs have upkeep, and the pilots have their own salary, so you have to balance that against the repair bill and what you risk on the field.Įvery time you step out for a mission, you’ll get the chance to negotiate for extra pay, insurance against damages, or a bigger stake on damaged parts and mechs left over. That costs time and, more importantly, money.īalancing your budget is pretty much what the whole game is about, although there’s some factional elements at play too. Not all of those will actually have missions for you, or even be relevant throughout the course of your campaign, but you might have to travel through some of them to get where you’re going. The game immediately becomes BATTLETECH the FPS from that point: a friend of your fathers hunts down some intel, but you need to do jobs for him in the interim, as well as raising your mercenary reputation in general, so you bounce around from planet to planet basically grinding against cannon fodder until the universe starts to pay attention.Īnd there’s a lot of universe to bounce around, by the way.Įvery single one of those dots? That’s a planet. You’re the son of a legendary Mech pilot who ends up taking over a mercenary company after a lengthy ham-fisted tutorial. It’s just that those mechanics are surrounded by so many other annoyances: a lack of originality, lack of depth, a lack of polish, poor AI, inconsistent visuals and a grind that’s tied together by … well, not much. But there’s a few good ideas and some solid enough mechanics for fans to bite their teeth into. I’m definitely not saying it’s amazing either, because it certainly isn’t.
![mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic mechcommander 2 omnitech automatic](https://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/17/16982/thumb_620x2000/MCO_Anihilator.jpg)
Let me be clear: I’m not saying Mechwarrior 5 isn’t enjoyable. And then there’s the other kind of AA, the kinds of games where that astonishment is replaced with forgiveness. There are some games from the AA space – ambitious without the polish, let’s say – that are so good that it’s astonishing what the developers have accomplished.