Graphics & Sound

Terraformed

Terrain is very impressive. All the terrain is well-modeled and textured, and you'll find everything from lunar landscapes, foothills, icy tundras, dry deserts, or even cities. If we had anything to pick on, it's that the early terrains seem designed to keep your progress linear throughout the mission; you have no option to change the waypoints in a different order.

The terrain is semi-deformable. Though you can't punch holes into the ground like in MW3, you can run into and smash trees, poles, small buildings and even vehicles.

Rockets away!

P-p-p-pulsed!

You can also choose to play your missions at night or day. This can make a huge difference if your lancemates are trained in nightfighting. The map becomes totally different. If you use light amplification, you risk getting blinded temporarily if combat gets too bright. However, running around blind with nothing but an oversized flashlight isn't exactly the best strategy in the world. Damn, but that flashlight does look good.

If there was anything we didn't like about the graphics engine it is the fact that it requires DirectX 8. Most gamers refuse to update DirectX until they absolutely have to, since no one wants to be an early beta-tester. While DirectX 8 didn't conflict with any games I have installed, it didn't help the precarious status of my Win98SE installation. You never know what a significant change to an old Win98 installation can do. Some of us might consider a fresh installation of Windows before trying Mechwarrior 4.

He's not going anywhere

Come on, bring it on!

Gooie kablooie!

*Thump thump* *thump thump* Ooooh... what a feeling of power. There's nothing quite like a lance of four 100-ton Atlas 'Mechs romping around the landscape, crushing everything in its path. Bring them up to full gallop and you can almost hear the chorus of thunder. Bring them in combat, and you've got a symphony of destruction.

The sound effects do a great job of illustrating the chaotic combat between 'Mechs. The sounds of missile locks, missile warnings, heat warnings, exploding rockets, autocannon assaults and lasers cutting through the air are all beautifully done. Even the stomping of an Atlas gets drowned out under the deluge of battle sounds. You can almost hear your 'Mech squeal in protest as you turn your torso back after a salvo of LRMs knock you senseless.

Large explosions - like 'Mechs and certain buildings - could certainly use a bit of work. The large explosion effects just aren't convincing enough.

The ground looks to be in bad shape

Swamps. Blech.

Humming along

The soundtrack is the best since Mechwarrior 2, possibly being on par with Mercenaries, though that depends on who you ask. However, just because it's the best since Mechwarrior 2, doesn't mean it's anywhere close - let's face it, MW2's tunes are classic. As it stands, the Mechwarrior 4 soundtrack is good and long - with about 70 minutes of music. However, it feels like there is far less music. Maybe the songs are too similar, or the game switches to certain songs too often.

Kinda dark

Those buggers can't stay up for long