After a long hiatus, this year seems to be the Year of the Mech. Besides
Hawken (f2p FPS-style mecha game, which is getting its own DirectInput compatible controller),
Reign of Thunder (MechAssault 3 but without the licence: and MechAssault is a four-letter word anyway), and
Steel Battallion Kinect (durr, it's not a real SB without a WTFHUEG controller), there's three official commercial BattleTech games coming out:
MechWarrior OnLine, f2p 'Mech simulator-light not entirely dissimilar to World of Tanks (with its own controller, no word yet on its compatibility);
MechWarrior: Tactical Command, RTS for iDevices;
MechWarrior Tactics, f2p conversion of the tabletop BattleTech, where you can buy "booster packs" trading cards-style (life is like a bag of 'Mechs and their parts: you never know what you are going to get, except that the "premium" boosters bought with real money are more likely contain better stuff).
However, there is already a completely free MechWarrior simulator out there. No, I'm not talking about the recently freely released
MechWarrior 4 (it's 10+ years old and it shows, in a really bad way) nor of the upcoming indie remake of MechWarrior 2 called
Assault Tech 1 (it looks and plays like if it were 10+ years old).
I'm talking about
MechWarrior: Living Legends.
So what it is actually?Right now, it's the best and most "believable" 'Mech game available, ever. It also looks faptastically gorgeous. It's so addictive that I have almost managed to withdraw myself from my FH2 addiction. If you are unfamiliar to BattleTech, a 'Mech is a 8 to 15 meters tall armoured, vaguely humanoid-shaped combat walker (not a robot: it has a human pilot). The game is from first-person view only, either from the cockpit of one of the warmachines, or on foot. It's not pure 'Mech vs. 'Mech, but combined arms; you have battle-armoured infantry, APCs, tanks, hovercraft, indirect artillery, helicopters and aerospace fighters. It's multiplayer only, and no singleplayer is forthcoming, however, what a multiplayer it is. The game has already more 'Mechs and vehicles (with more to come Soon
TM) than most of the games in the series ever had.
The approach in 'Mechs is more simulator and less FPS-like - only the battlearmour plays like FPS, and flight physics are "relaxed". In fact, veterans of FH2 or PR will feel right at home (the game is much more complex than vanilla Battlefield, but the general idea is similar). However, even if you were familiar with the BattleTech universe (not everything is exactly as in tabletop rules, due to the real-time nature of the game and various balancing issues), or have played previous MW computer games (some changes detailed below), the learning curve is nevertheless vertical. The first "public beta" was released in the Christmas of 2009, and some veterans have been playing it ever since, so they seem to have impossibru skill level (over 9000). The effects of various weapons and systems and managing them in the heat of battle while controlling your soldier/'Mech/AFV/flyer takes time to master, but fortunately there is a comprehensive wiki to help newcomers, forums full of useful threads already, and one of the most helpful player communities: ask away on the forums or in-game chat, and you will certainly get help promptly. Despite a difficult start, the game feels very rewarding when you finally beat someone through your own skills.
What do you need to play it?A powerful PC, heh. CryEngine 2 is bent over backwards and forced to do things it was not supposed to while keeping track of much more things as it was supposed to (for example, a flight of missiles is modelled as individual guided projectiles, and at any given there may be hundreds, or at the worst,
thousands of missiles in the air). A fast GPU alone is not enough, MWLL eats processors like there's no tomorrow. My current rig - i5-650/AMD7850HD/6GB - runs 1920*1080 resolution with maximum details with a reasonable framerate, but when there's a lot of action going on nearby, there are noticeable moments of choppiness. Going
beyond maximum details - yes, this is possible with manually editing the configuration files, CryEngine 2, rememer? - or having a higher resolution would probably require even more computing horsepower (unless you want to lower the detail level & FX).
Ha ha. What software you need to play it?It's a mod for Crysis Wars (or rather, a total conversion). Crysis Wars comes bundled with all copies of
Crysis Warhead (it's the multiplayer part that is actually a separate install), and is also included in the
Crysis Maximum Edition. There's some problems installing the digital download versions (or rather, getting the registry key to stick in the Windows registry; solutions for this can be found on MWLL forums), and with disc versions of Maximum Edition, there are genuinely false codes in some printings (you have to ask a new code from EA support; patience required, as the issue has to be "escalated" to a higher level in their help - been there, done that, got a working code). However, as long as you have the legitly purchased code that is actually valid, the actual installation media can be even the free trial version of Crysis Wars that is legally available all over the place (no need to resort to one obtained from "unofficial" sources), it is the full multiplayer game, just without the registration code.
Other than the base game itself, the mod is completely free, and can be downloaded from the
official site.
When in the BattleTech universe does this take place?MWLL is not officially set in any "year", but since there are some assets from TRO3067 (and some experimental stuff from TacOps), it best represents the FedCom Civil War era, so 3065-ish. It will never include anÿ post-3067 (I'm not going to say the J-word) stuff. The two teams are "Clans" and "Inner Sphere", which would point to pre-3060, but there you go. Making the teams such allows for technologically distinct combatants (although "puretech" is not yet enforced, because assets are still missing from both sides to make a fully functioning combined arms force).
BattleTech? Wot the hech?BT is a sci-fi universe dating back to the Golden Age of Mankind aka the 80's. It began as a tabletop wargame and its gazillion add-ons, and the main storyline was told in a series of 64+31 novels (64 for Classic BattleTech, 31 for MechWarrior Dark Age; short stories are still being published and the novel storyline is set to resume). Of course, then there are the official (and unofficial) BattleTech and MechWarrior computer games.
To summarize the setting, it is the 31st century. Humanity has spread into space, inhabiting thousands of star systems; the systems within 500 light years or so are known as the Inner Sphere, beyond them lies the Periphery. Almost 300 years ago, the Star League that had united humanity collapsed in the aftermath of a failed coup. The armed forces and scientists of Star League left known space, vowing to return one day. Civilization started to fall apart, with five Successor States waging perpetual Succession Wars for the right to rule Inner Sphere. Meanwhile, the former communications ministry of Star League developed into a dubious quasi-religion called ComStar, holding the monopoly to Star League era technology, with a major faction plotting the downfall of all humanity: after humanity would regress to pre-FTL, even pre-spaceflight level, they could then emerge as its new leaders.
In 3049, however, the descendants of they Star League returned to Inner Sphere with conquest in their mind: they had become a militaristic warrior society formed into warrior clans constantly fighting with each other for supremacy. Initially seemingly unstoppable, the Clans were eventually fought into a standstill. As ComStar broke into a "good" and "bad" faction in 3052, the "good" faction staged a ritual battle according to the Clan law against the Clans, which the Clans surprisingly lost, forfeiting their right to advance towards Terra for the next 15 years (leaving worlds farther than the truce line still at peril). During this time, a newly formed Star League, born out of forced-by-necessity cooperation between the Successor States, struck back at the clans (which was not forbidden by the truce, hehehe) and after partial reconquest went to strike at the Clan homeworlds in turn and completely destroyed the most belligerent Clan, and then won another ritual battle where the Clans lost their "legal" right to continue the war (with some Clans protesting the decision nevertheless).
By the 3060s where MWLL takes place, however, the new Star League is misused as a tool of political plotting, the union of the two largest Successor States is falling apart in a bloody civil war, Clans fight against each other as some of them still harbour dreams of conquest while others are just minding their own business or have defected to the new Star League altogether, and Word of Blake, the renegade ComStar faction, secretly plots against everyone else.
Enough of the background. How's the game mechanics?The most commonly played gamemodes are Team Solaris Arena (team deathmatch, sometimes gets deadlocked into trench warfare) and Terrain Control (BF2 style fight for flags/bases/control zones, showing the widest variety of tactics). Some servers run Solaris Arena (deathmatch, usually devolves to chaotic brawls) or Test of Strength (team deathmatch with a set amount of in-game currency to buy the assets with).
Yes, "buying". The mechanic is similar to Counter-Strike: you spawn with a set amount of cash, and use that to buy 'Mechs/vehicles/battle armour weapons. Killing enemies, even damaging them, having others kill an enemy you have damaged, capturing flags, passing radar data to friendlies through C3 network, gains you cash and increases your rank. The higher your rank, the more cash you have at spawn; if you die, you will lose your cash (and the asset you were in), unless you had more than you spawned with, in which case you can get to keep it. The most powerful assets cannot be bought with spawn cash, even at the highest rank: to acquire them, you must show some skill and stay alive to earn enough cash.
However, there are no "unlocks", "specializations", "levels", "XP", or persistent stats whatsoever: what you earn is only valid for the match being played (most matches time-limited to 45 or 60 minutes unless tickets run out in TC mode before that). So you have to prove your skills each and every time, there are no shortcuts (such as grinding 200 hours so you could begin every match with the most powerful assets).
The ability to customize your 'Mech ("MechLab", a staple of MW games) is not yet in, but you can select from several variants of each 'Mech/AFV (many of which are straight from the tabletop game).
The Terrain Control is also slightly more complex than BF2/FH2 Conquest: a "flag" may not include a spawnpoint at all, or it may include only infantry spawnpoint, or it might have just the build or repair bay, but not both. Some flags (and usually all the "uncaps") have automated defense turrets, the amount and firepower of which ranges from annoying to definitely lethal.
What are the most important differences to previous MW games?There are no NHUA (no heat, unlimited ammo) servers. Period. Oh, and there is no self-destruct charge either (though a 'Mech can
randomly go critical, nuking its immediate surroungings).
Also, vehicles are much more deadly: no more (literally) walking over the tanks, they can and will take down 'Mechs even on their own. Helicopters can harass you to death, but are terribly fragile themselves. Aerospace fighters (especially the ones with firebombs) are pure murder for the unwary, so AA capable units in your team are a must. Infantry is dead, dead, dead if caught in the open but in broken or built-up terrain will be the death of an unwary MechWarrior.
No "hitscan" weapons. Ballistic weapons, PPC's and dumbfired SRM's require you to lead your target, but beam and heavy lasers require that you keep the beam on target, and MRM's must be guided to target by hand (unfluffy, I know).
LRM's, ATM's, and Streaks cannot be locked onto a certain part of a 'Mech.
There are no "3025" (Level 1, Introductory Rules, pre-Helm Memory Core) technology level units. Even the Inner Sphere 'Mechs - even if older designs - are up to the 3060's standards.
Legging (and arming) is possible: even if all the limbs go, the 'Mech won't be destroyed until the centre torso is gone, but a legless and armless 'Mech is pretty worthless (unless you expose your ankle to it which it could bite; sadly, there is no Black Knight class 'Mech ingame - yet) as it tends to lie on the ground, but weapons (those still attached) can be still fired. Oh yeah, in some cases weapons are in external pods that can also be taken out individually, and destroying the left or right torso destroyes the weapons there (but does not drop the arm). Certain servers ban legging, certain servers
encourage it.
If you manage to eject before your asset is destroyed, you will continue the fight as infantry until you die. This is against the fluff but works surprisingly well. Though, most infantry weapons cannot be taken into the cockpit with you.
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I hope I have managed to get your interest, or if you're a closeted MWLL player already, to get you to participate in this thread. In the very next update alone there's going to be almost as much free content as MechWarrior OnLine is going to have at launch!
Visit the official site for more info.
See you on the battlefield. Freeborn filth and vat-born freaks alike are all welcome to my sights.
