Graphics and Sound

Is that you, grandpa?

Although the technological blur has slowed down noticeably over the past couple of years, and games released in 1999 (Quake III, UT) still look impressive, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries has fallen behind the curve. Maybe it’s just unlucky timing, since we’re seeing the next great leap forward with games like UT2K3 and of course the upcoming Doom III, but MW4 is not up to spec in terms of graphics. This is not helped by the various pictures of pilots in the front-end interface, or most of the graphical interface as a whole.


The game isn’t bad by any means. Nobody can fault the units for looking blocky, since they are blocky by design. Yet the terrain isn’t as impressive as it seemed back in the day. What were once lush, rolling hills and forbidding tundra environments, packed with cutely animated sprite critters and foliage, are now the last gasps of a two-year-old graphics engine. The terrain is distinctly blocky now, and the textures have much lower resolutions than we’ve become used to over the past few months. The non-interactive sprite characters running across the ground, which were amusing and once added atmosphere to the game, now also serve as reminders of the game’s limitations.

The sights of the city

My favorite toy

Side view

Even the ‘Mechs themselves could stand a bit of tuning. No one expects them to be more elaborate than they are, but they could use a few effects – like a reflective sheen from a fresh paint job. That said the ‘Mechs and the special effects have held up best. Animations are still silky-smooth and impressive, as ‘Mechs rumble across the landscape, recoil from a missile volley and limp in retreat with a damaged leg. And while we could imagine better laser effects, in general the special effects in the game can’t be argued with.

Aural delights

We’ve been saying this for a while and it’s probably old hat, but there’s only so much you can do with sound. MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries is a perfect example. One could put it up against today’s latest titles and make convincing arguments for its sound effects. The speech isn’t the best, granted, but the music and combat effects are considerably more than adequate.

Puny boats

Kris Kross gonna make you jump jump

All that without aiming assistance

As with the graphics though, little has been done to the sound in the game that is new and fresh. Perhaps the music is different, and it just resembles the MW4 tracks? Or maybe the songs are identical. We’d compare, but our original MechWarrior 4 discs elude us. This lack of new content is somewhat disturbing, considering that Mercenaries is a full-priced title.