Gameplay

PPCs make my day

The thrill of BattleMech combat comes in many levels. First, there’s the customization and design that occurs before battle. Is your next mission on a really cold planet? Then maybe it’s time to stock up on energy weapons, since the improved heat dissipation might make them even more efficient than ballistic weapons. Of course, if the planet is hot, ballistics could be the order of the day even if you are expecting a drawn-out fight where you may run out of ammo. That is, unless you happen to be fighting near a body of water! As you can see, there’s a great deal to consider before the fight even begins.


When fighting, players have to keep track of their lancemates, give orders and use terrain strategically. Often, you will find yourself vastly outnumbered. Keeping a low profile and firing from behind a hill during the first few crucial moments of a battle can make all the difference. The strategies are obvious – if you have long range weapons, keep backpedaling… and yet, these decisions are where the challenge lies. Your opponent may out-range you, but that doesn’t mean it’s smart to rush in with AC20 autocannons. By the time you reach him, you just may very well be dead. So the trick is to make him come to you; hide behind something.

Booyah

A railgun by any other name

Black Cobra mercs

Then again, I could just be bullshitting and trying to make a destructive rampage in a 100-ton juggernaut sound a lot more sophisticated than it is! Of course, if you buy into that, you may find yourself in store for a rude shock at the Arena or on the battlefield.

Changes

Mercenaries offers players limited freedom within the game. After choosing a sponsor company, it’s time to pick a mission. Initially, there are only two available. None of the missions are affected by what sponsor the player chooses, only the equipment, funds and company logo are. As players go through the missions, depending what missions they choose and (on rare occasions) what they do during the mission, the plot may change. There are three possible endings for the game, not counting the player’s death. A dedicated gamer can reach an ending in two days, perhaps one if he’s very quick, playing on low difficulty level or can put in a marathon play session. Just because there are three endings, don’t take it to mean that there are at least 6 days of gameplay. Since most of the missions repeat on the way to the endings, you can expect perhaps a half dozen unique missions per ending.

Teh w1n!

Have some more

In 2 seconds he dies

Despite the title, the mercenary aspect in the game is very limited. Yes, players collect cash for missions, buy their equipment and sell salvage. Yes, they can compete in the Arena and get a name for themselves. It’s too bad these are all superficial changes. Access to powerful ‘Mechs and weapons is restricted early on. The payouts of missions including salvage, steadily increases as one would expect, but only at a pace to keep players on par with their expenditures. So unless someone is playing at a difficulty level far below their skills, they won’t be over-equipped or have a team that’s abusively large and competent. For balance reasons, a player can’t determine how many ‘Mechs he wants to send on a mission, but this just has the effect of further restricting the freedoms one could expect from being a mercenary. All in all, the differences between MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries and MechWarrior 4 itself are like the differences between GM cars in the ‘80s. A few styling cues, a different name and an option or two separate the two titles, but little else.

Fun fun?

The combat itself is identical to MechWarrior 4. In-game mechanics have only been updated in the “more is better” style, where there are now more ‘Mechs to fight with and against, and battles are significantly larger. Since MechWarrior 4 was so much fun, we obviously enjoyed the combat in MechWarrior as well. Of course, the brevity of the campaign and the limited differences between the two titles make us suspect that Mercenaries could have easily been an expansion pack.