BatTletech game review

My acquaintance with «combat robots» took place for a very long time and and not even from games. It all started with a trilogy of books about Aiden Pride-a fur pillet from the jade falcon clan. Pride had very non-trivial tactical thinking, and relying on him … failed his “final exam”, which is why it became an outcast. But it was this life of the outcast and this thinking ultimately led him to the exploits and glory, about which the clan warrior could only dream.

At one time, I was very impressed with the world of books, with its worked out technologies, society and history full of great battles. A couple of years later, I came across a series of Mechwarrior and the New Battletech. And only lastly I learned that all these thoughtful technologies and politics were created for a board game, and their goal was to provide players with a convincing explanation of the rules, to create a feeling of a full -fledged universe. Thanks to this approach, game parties were perceived by the real “reconstruction” of the battles of the future. Frankly, a similar level of study impressed me even more.

The funniest, of course, is that the board game in the genre of step -by -step tactics, with such thoughtful rules and the world made specifically for these rules, only now tried to transfer to the computer just as step -by -step tactics. And besides, the BatTletech game has a lot of things besides step -by -step battles.

The path of the inner sphere

BatTletech action takes place even before the clan invasion and in it we control the detachment of the mercenaries that help Lady Kamee Arano to return the throne of the coalition of the auriga by rightly belonging to her. Actually, before you join the mercenaries, you and your mentor personally help Arano escape from the planet after the coup. But the mentor perishes at the hands of the Espinosis family and from here another motive appears to fight the usurpators – revenge.

In general, your alter ego has many facts in the biography. On the fact that you choose in the character’s editor, the increase to different characteristics, as well as additional options in the dialogs, will depend. Moreover, replicas are not only in plot conversations (on which little depends-the game is linear), but also during “random events”.

When your transport hangs in space, you can come across pirates. Or «by mistake» get a valuable load. Or your engineer will request permission to convert the compartments to increase the efficiency of work. And every time your decision, even if you choose, to whom to give the last cup of coffee at the end of a particularly difficult working day, there will be consequences. Mainly in the form of low/increased characteristics in mercenaries and crew.

Who would have thought that BatTletech can be turned almost into RPG with difficult solutions and pumping?
The members of your crew are fully worked out characters with their stories. Navigator Surmir Mayer, technician Jan Virtanen, former leader of the team Darius Oliver, who handed over his post to you, focusing on the search for contracts.

Mech warriors also have their own stories, but rather short and simple. And for you, only their characteristics will be interesting to you, allowing the machines that they pilot, run faster, more precisely, shoot and not overheat longer. Although periodically “random events” will also concern pilots. So watch who will give preference. Otherwise the fighter’s spirit will fall and he will not act so successfully on the battlefield.

Song of fire and became

Well, here we have reached the battles – the most important part of the game. After all, all your actions during the ship’s stay are aimed at obtaining the most profitable missions and preparing your furvoins (and their fur) to fulfill the tasks.

Tasks, by the way, are quite diverse. Sometimes it is necessary to destroy the equipment of the enemy, sometimes the structure of its base. Sometimes you need to pick up a valuable item and take it out of the battlefield or escort the convoy. It is necessary to protect your base. Often there are additional conditions – the arrival of reinforcements to the enemy or the emergence of allies. Moreover, new problems can arise right during the mission, forcing to change the tactics of the raid.

Actually, you can even finish the mission in different ways. Having destroyed all enemies you will receive an additional bonus, but sometimes it’s better to just go into the evacuation zone to avoid more damage. You can even cancel the contract right in the middle of the mission if your chances are very bad. Still, the repair flies into a penny, and the fur with a shot hand, although you can put it on the battlefield, it will be more likely to ballast than a combat unit.

So the key to victory is to avoid damage and at the same time concentrate attacks on vulnerable points of the enemy. It will take a few moves to destroy heavy fur, but you can quickly shoot his hand or damage his weapon if you attack from the right side. There is even the possibility of aimed shots at separate nodes, though she spends «determination». This is a special resource of your team – it grows during the battle and reaching a level of 50% increases the accuracy and evasion of warriors. But it can also be spent on actions in addition to targeted shots.

If accuracy is not enough, Nogamstop-casinos.co.uk you can apply a flamethrower. Such an attack will lead to overheating of enemy fur and it will not only receive damage, but can also disconnect if he risks using weapons.

And robots can simply strike in close combat. And then there is a chance to overturn the enemy. Having fallen, he will lose the initiative (that is, he will walk later), and in addition, targeted shots on it do not spend “determination”.

By the way, some types of weapons also have a chance to overturn the goal, depriving it of a balance. In general, the game has many opportunities to annoy the enemy. Like a lot of opportunities to get into troubles yourself – without paying attention to your own overheating, or substituting the enemy’s knot, on which the armor is thinner. Fans of step -by -step tactics have to think about.

In principle, I could still add that the battles in the game are held at a pace, as described by me in books. But it will rather be praise for books.

The book was better

It’s good that the main plot has been tied together by many diverse and interesting combat situations. However, from an artistic point of view, everything is quite straightforward – we free the planets from the directorate of Espinosa, defeat the allies of the directorate, disclose the villains created by the Directorate. The game almost does not show us the intrigues of ruling houses, but it is very hard to show how bad the villains are.

What in itself already looks strange against the background of “side” contracts, where we now and then get the most doubtful proposal from the moral point of view, sometimes even from pirate factions. Not to mention the fact that such a “division into black and white” deprives the plot of the campaign of the opportunity to consider deep issues of morality. The motives of some negative characters simply cannot withstand critics.

Why does the directors create atrocities on the scale of the whole planet, not even hiding this? Because the Espinosis is such a villain! Why is one of the field commanders begin to chase Lady Arano? Because he wants to take revenge on his son who died in a battle with us. And why a veteran who should understand that people are dying in the war, this is what does? There is no answer.

But they are in the game.
Another problem, already from the field of gameplay, is that you can command four furs maximum. Of course, given the variability of tasks and various additional conditions, such as reinforcements and the possibility of the appearance of more than two fractions on the battlefield, you will find many interesting tactical tasks. But still, truly large-scale battles do not shine at you. But there will be many repeated scenarios that will begin to bother at the end of the campaign.

From smaller flaws (or just bugs): the term of contracts does not expire until you move to another system. Even if the description says something like «we were attacked and we will not hold out for a long time». Sometimes overturned enemy fur rises almost immediately. Coolers work poorly in the desert, even at night. And all the missions go instantly – do as many tasks in the system, the timer will not move for a day!

There is no other alternative

And yet, despite the mentioned (and not mentioned) problems, in general, BatTletech honestly reproduces the battles of combat robots, care for them (you will spend a lot of time in the «Angar» setting up your favorite combat vehicles for your tastes and tactics), as well as sensations from the commander of the detachment of the mercenaries who need to delve into all the details of the life of their wards.

However, the authors still work and work on many aspects of the game. They have already corrected something in DLC. So soon I am going to write about my impressions of the «seasonal pass».

Fascinating step -by -step battles in the universe of combat robots with all the attached nuances and many tactical possibilities.
A variety of missions often with additional conditions and restrictions.
Negotiations when concluding contracts, fustle care and various decisions in random events will allow you to feel like a real commander of mercenaries.
The game is accurately reproduced by the «ENT» of the universe of the combat robots.

You can command only one “spear” (4 furs). So there will be no large -scale battles.
Sometimes bugs and shortcomings cause frustration and do not allow to plunge into the game.
In the campaign, the scriptwriters are too trying to show which villains bad. Some actions of antagonists are not friends with common sense.
Long downloads (like all games on Unity).

BatTletech

The best comments

I described what was added after the release. I took the game on pre -order, and now I returned after all the additions to the release.

There were contracts in which the enemy had up to four copies (and I had a well -armed spear of allies). There was a contract in which the allies had two spears, but it required the presence of assault furs, but at that time they did not have.

I don’t remember the full name, but the description said that “the allies and I are going to conduct a joint operation. We need those who could provide us with cover ”, in another contract, just about the fact that the spear needs to cover (although the spear members will be completely sure that they do not need cover).

I did not understand about the last sentence – all three additions from the seasonal pass have already come out. The first added contracts consisting of chains of missions (open after passing the basic campaign), the second-urban battles and intelligence modules (I personally have never used them, and the battles in cities take place every hundred years), and the third-a new chain of missions (with a hint of a sequel about the invasion of clans), weapons and a pack of fur with unique systems.

I note that in comparison with the release version, the evasion system was finalized (increasing the survivability of the furs), hits (the missing weapon can get on another goal), made it possible to buy Lostecov furs and weapons in the black market (on the release all this good was given only by the plot, and the Czech Republic itself) did not appear, plus some mechanics and without additions without additions. Contracts diversified: missions with combat baptism of newcomers, large -scale battles of several copies (such as “help allies” or “two enemy sides are fighting us, burn out and not the winner”) or sudden ambushes (when new fur begins to be planted from all sides) before) was not before).

Well, I will insert my five cents, only in general terms. Just the games of Harebrained Schems have an extremely ultimatical assessment (for some reason).
It really turns out that if you delve slightly, Shadowrun and BatTletech are well acquainted with board games. For example, with the same Shadowrun Returns, I met the desktop Shadowrun, which is an order of magnitude interesting to its game version. With BatTletech, the situation is the same-we just download and watch Megamek, surprised that the fur can trite in some swamp and can be controlled by a variety of techniques. With the desktop version, for sure the differences will be just cardinal.
It is funny that the games in Waha are scolding for this, but the games of Harebrained Schemen for some reason avoided this.

I just wrote a review a little earlier and did not publish right away. Corrected.

I note that in comparison with the release version, the evasion system was finalized (increasing the survivability of the furs), hits (the missing weapon can get on another goal), made it possible to buy Lostecov furs and weapons in the black market (on the release all this good was given only by the plot, and the Czech Republic itself) did not appear, plus some mechanics and without additions without additions.

But it was already when I played.

Contracts diversified: missions with combat baptism of newcomers, large -scale battles of several copies (such as “help allies” or “two enemy sides are fighting us, burn out and not the winner”) or sudden ambushes (when new fur begins to be planted from all sides) before) was not before).

It was also. And still two enemy spears – in my opinion there are not so many.