Have you noticed, that wherever you pause the video, you could make your own wallpaper? This game is so visually oozing from style! The whole story, gameplay... This thing started to introduce me to the BT universe and I am just mind-blown.
The music score for this game was SOOOOO good. Really brought those cut scenes the emotional depth that they needed to convey the message of the story. The simplicity of the visuals also WORKED for me. They gave it that feeling of a story being read to you out of a book by your mom or dad, letting YOU the gamer use your imagination to fill in the scenes how you see it in your mind. Hope they produce another one soon!
Been playing MW5 recently, and it makes me miss the campaign from Battletech so much. The writing on this game, combined with the aesthetic is as good as gaming gets.
same lol. to the point where i just cant even play mechwarrior 5. i like the gameplay but all of the characters annoy me to genuine anger "fahad will open a case of timbiqui dark" SHUT THE FUCK UP.
I have to agree although MW5 isn't a bad game the story campaign could have been so much better if they had followed the same formula as the Battletech campaign and characters.
The story of MW5 (if you can call it that) is the most cookie cutter crap out there. Once you remove the fan boy ( I was guilty of this too goggles MW5 and is an absolutely mediocre game at best.
For what it's worth, the voice acting is solid in that game and on par with HBS I'd say. The addition of actual manoeuverability is a great changer from playing HBS. But I too lean away from Mechwarrior 5 too for the lack of nuanced engagement. Not to take away from both games as they are great all the same.
I wholly disagree, there was barely a story at all, I would compare it to drinks that are like sugar-free flavoured sodawater. there is a memory of a possible story, hints of something but ultimately it's nothing. I played because the gameplay is great and I think would actually translate fairly well into a real life tabletop style, different from the current one though it might be.
@@TheRumChum Felt bad for him until the next story mission after the cache, when he goes off the deep end and starts massacring refugees just to force Kamea into a fight. His son got killed on a military mission he was on voluntarily. You start tossing aorund atrocities over that, you deserve to get put down like the rabid dog you are.
I swear Battletech has such a rich and long story line, with the right screen play writers and directors, this lore could be made into several movies such as Star Wars or a grand tv show like Game of Thrones. Imagine society where the true heros arent sports figures and actors/celebrity social lites, but the space voyagers and intergalactic war heros representing your homeworld light years away as you watch would would be the equivalent of the Super Bowl but its these historical battles that change the balance of everyones existence. i swear it could be great if done right.
Raju. I wish the game allowed players to know him better. An amazing character, yet I only got to see him once in a battle. And Ostergaard and Iberia. Their end was too easy in my opinion. Perhaps it could have went that Iberia managed to crash land and players had to go finish the poor guy, crippled but not willing to go down without a good fight.
Honestly, as crippled as I was after several broken bones, blood loss and deep lacerations, I would've enjoyed commanding my lance against a last stand but the arena finale works too. Just such a shame I wasn't in any condition to be there in person.
MAny has said this is cheesy or lacking impact... wishing that using full CGI or anything but this kind of this presentation. To me, this is absolutely the best way to tell the story of Battletech. Now afour years after their release, I've watch the gameplay, and love it. Harebrain is indeed play loose with lores, but they capture the essence of battletech quite well. I wish there'll be more of this days later.
@@claytonhess5512 They never even made it TO Terra. They only got about halfway there, and this takes place 180 degrees around on the opposite side of the Inner Sphere. (If 1500 light years is the diameter of the Inner Sphere, then still over 1100 light years away).
@@c182SkylaneRG no they never made it to Terra, but had they used proper tactics as well as avoided competing with each other they did have a chance to win the war, or at least capture enough planets to have a foothold in the inner sphere in which they could continue to expand from after the agreed ceasefire was over
@@kinggoten They did actually get that foothold, and were well on their way to planning the resumption of the war after the ceasefire ended. If it weren't for Clan "Honor", and their customs of using proxy battles to decide the outcomes of entire wars, they never would have fought the battles on Tukayyid which resulted in the ceasefire in the first place, and they would most certainly have made it to Terra. Once they agreed to the ceasefire, it gave the Inner Sphere the time to upgrade, bulk up, and counterattack, eventually fighting a similar series of proxy "Trials" on Strana Mechty over the outcome of the entire war.
@@c182SkylaneRG yes very true, but using proper tactics they would of won at Tukayyid as well guess I'm overlooking that one. But following that could the clans really win if ComStar decided to fully back the innersphere houses? I sort of picture this actually, and I probably take back what I said earlier the war goes mostly the same except the clans have far fewer losses and such.. they still agree to the trials on Tukayyid... they win ComStar inflicts major damage on the clans anyway, the war continues however ComStar decides to fully back the houses in the war, and this I think after the losses on Tukayyid would result in the clans being completely pushed out of the inner sphere, and I do think ComStar would back the houses because they wouldn't want to risk Terra. **edit I say the war goes on because had ComStar lost, no chance they honor the agreement same goes for the houses honestly. Actually losing at Tukayyid probably saved the clans in a sense sure they had far better tech and such but they are also very limited on resources etc... and comstar has star league tech once they share that with the houses it closes the gap close enough and then it just becomes a numbers game and the clans just do not have that.
@@rock3793 Game of Thrones/Song of Ice & Fire has basis in history. So called War of the Roses. So really history makes really good basis for interesting fiction.
a friend of mine said it best.... battletech the way it is written and the way some of the novels are and the universe... could produce political thrillers that are on par to tom clancy how this franchise has NOT been turned into a show or a movie is BEYOND me battletech could use an "astartes" quality fan movie and it would get such a boost
There is a lot of criticism in here regarding the game's story. For the most part, I feel that this is unfair. I loved the art style and the cutscenes (especially the opener), loved the music and voice acting, enjoyed the combat, and yes, even quite enjoyed what was admittedly a rather simple single-arc campaign narrative. The fact that this game even exists is a very big deal, and I wish that some of the neckbeards in here would chill the F out and quit overanalyzing the whole damn thing.
There is a lot of criticism because the game's story sucks, they used a "deus ex machina" to save the chick life in the first mission for god's sake. Art style, music and voice acting can't save bad writing. You don't give a shit about your crew, mentor or the ridiculous Mary Sue protagonist of the story: " i own your debt so i can send you to suicide missions" is not the best storyline ever, "let me fuck you if i save your sorry ass and kingdom" would have made more sense. @@privaterose5021 Ad hominem never prove any argument true, the only thing they prove is people using them can't handle criticism.
@@alfgui3295 Did you play the game? There was no fucking "Deus ex machina"! It was fake footage from her uncle. Also if your an IS mercenary and you owe a shit ton of money, when someone buys your debt(telling you they will forgive it if fight a war?) and tells you jump? You jump or lose everything. Story is plenty good. Name a good story yourself and there will be dozens of people ready to talk about how shitty it is.
@@alfgui3295 Absolutely! "Let me fuck you if i save your sorry ass and kingdom" really WOULD make so much more sense. It's exactly the kind of thing professional soldiers would demand, and I'm sure none of their subordinates would have a problem with their lives being put on the line for a royal booty call. That was sarcasm, by the way. I know it's hard to convey in text. And if you don't give a shit about your crew, that's on you. Personally, I found Yang's deadpan backtalk a delight, and the fact that Farah once married the chain-smoking host of a television show that taught kids to do incredibly dangerous scientific experiments at home makes me wonder what other interesting life choices she's made.
@@TheEcchiSessha It's not only a deus ex machina, it's one of the worst deus ex machina ever, she enters with a battlemech in a dropship which explodes mid-air a couple of minutes later, fake footage my ass. She magically disappeared and escaped from a planet controlled by her uncle because "reasons". Nope, if someone buy your company and ask you to sacrifice yourself you give them the middle finger and look for another job, better poor than dead. The story is so awful they resuscitated in another deus ex machina your mentor to kill him again in a fucking minute and you are like "what the fuck"? So what? It's not that difficult to make players care about characters, give your mentor a couple of missions and let him fucking sacrifice himself for your sorry ass instead of deus ex machining his ass to write a cheap emotional retarded event later, and let your mary sue grow from a useless rookie instead of making her saiyan from the beginning for no reason, it's not that difficult. Patrick Coyle, yours was not a sarcasm, that was you being a dick because you don't like my opinion, no hard feelings though.
The scene of Ostergaards death nearly brought me to tears, and it came out of NOWHERE! What the hell game? I came for big stompy robots, not to witness the complete breaking of a man!
Is it wrong that, understanding he's been driven to the brink by having listened to the order for his son to be killed and then it happened, I still thought "If only he suffered more" because of what he did to the people of Smithion and Panzyr? But I will say that it's a strength of the game if it made you feel that. It wasn't built with a deep story meant to pull a clever twist or anything: it was never meant to be a full on RPG, but if it still got you emotionally invested in the characters then it succeeded.
Ostergaard really came across as one of those great supporting characters that lift the story to new heights. You FEEL for him... but loath him too for the actions he takes. And THAT makes the storyline move forward as you WANT to see the resolution of those feelings
My answer? I'm a jackdaw. I see shiny mechs, I collect them. _Made a flourishing gesture to the Argo's hangars and storage, rows and rows of mech, disassembled parts, and weapons stacked neatly on each other_ So, do you have pilots? Because here is your army.
Imagine if Netflix picked this up and actually followed the story from the point in time of "Decision at Thunder Rift". Imagine if they just created a series from that point in time and onwards...holy...crap...
*The Garden of E sim 117* you know battletech has ALOT of political intriguem and as far as i am concerned with all the SJW bullshit infesting both star trek and star wars.... i'll take battletech over ALL of that anyday...
Watching the first two, and the last, cinematics again after 4 years, the only question in my mind is: will they make a sequel ? The Clans invading ? And when ? The second cinematic scene has one of the best backing tracks ever. The strings are ***perfect***. "But I am not a hero, whatever the stories say. A hero would have sacrificed more, compromised less. A hero would have done better. You know this, of course, you were there." ... One immense campaign later ... "And you know what ? it doesn't matter if you believe it. Because others do, as I believed in the heroes of my fathers stories. After all, when we are gone, stories are what remain" That had balls.
honestly i'd be happy with them staying away from the more fucky side of battletech, with clan tech and such where it just becomes a little too much lol. i could do without locusts that can have as many lasers as a traditional hunchback lol.
@@halooverlord6961 Honestly the atlas starts to become pretty ass at that point because the extra fire power doesnt make up for the horrid mobility loss, clan medium and heavies are fucking broken though, like genuinely hate the whole clan mech thing. its literally just "better than everything else" whilst not having the mitigation that lostech has of being incredibly expensive and rare as its mass produced and freely available. Gauss rifles and ER lasers for everyone! even when the Inner Sphere does get access to shit like that ER weapons and stuff they're just flat out worse than the clan variants. it makes sense from a realism perspective, more modern tech should just be flat out better, but it makes the games balancing shit, because it basically becomes if you're running anything but clan tech you're fucked.
I thought the story was good enough. Especially the last bit on coromidir. I saw about 3/4 th of the plot before it happened though. Regardless i have 3 highlander mechs and have done multiple burials. I’m happy
Oostergard's story is so tragic. So awful for what happened to him, and what he became, for what it means in the real world for people's souls when pushed to dark ends due to loss. Tragic.
Thanks. I'm getting the AVProvideo Crash. Had to disable the cutscenes. I just alter tab to this video to see what I missed. Great game, the art, voice work, and music makes it worth it. Glad I contributed to the kickstarter.
you know what pissed me off? when i got here into the facility and she took an atlas and he blew up the rest? also why not got for a full on atlas lance in that mission, there were defo enough there
You can't just press a Button and a Battlemech, that was sleeping for decades and longer will run smoothly. They had no time and when i remember it right he didn't blew it up, it was Arano so that no one else could use these Mechs against them. And btw. best Scene is 16:30 ... i love this Voice Actor, he's genius. ;)
@@domfloppy Ostergaard's voice actor make players not only hate what he did to Kamea's people but also has sympathize with him due his son's death drive him into mad man.
@@pirotess2 dude he act like a raving dog who just lose his favourite toy. Boo hoo Ostergaard, people die in war what did you expect? You act like your son is the only son that died in this pointless war. What about the many sons and daughter your orphaned in Smithon and Panzyr? What about them?
This implies that post war they didn’t return to salvage what survived, and if the black watch are to be believed, nukes are inconvenience’s so a atlas and the other mechs should be able to survive the detonation
I appreciate that Director Espinosa felt like a rational actor (and not a cartoon villain) with some laudable goals for the Reach: build the economy, make strong allies, and solicit aid. I felt conflicted throughout the story, because while Kamea has right on her side, her war is ruinous for the Reach and likely leaves it at risk for foreign invasion. I hope there's some DLC that focuses on the Reach's struggle to rebuild and survive foreign meddling. Also: Battletech would make a great HBO/netflix series (animated?) - great houses, court intrigue, war, gritty industrial dark ages.... it's like game of thrones in space! Focusing on the Reach would probably work because it wouldn't interfere too much with the rest of the Battletech continuity.
That's something I really liked about the story. Was it deep and complex? No, but it wasn't an RPG, and it never pretended to be. It gave you some options so you could give your character some personality, but ultimately it was mostly limited. But no one was a caricature and everyone had an understandable motive, even if they were not rational in carrying it out. Kamea had a lot of flaws, but shed them as the story went on. As she herself admits, she started her war for little more than the fact that her birthright was stolen. Despite overall being a heroic character, we see the limits of it when she's forced to pick between fuel for her DropShip fleet and supplies for a dozen marginal worlds, and the war dangerously weakened the Reach if only because of Ostergard's temper tantrum against civilian targets. Yet throughout the story, she increasingly becomes aware of those flaws of hers and in a way realizes her humanity through those adverse trials. She saw the costs of her actions, realized that she had been a petty princess-in-exile, and wanted to own the decisions she made (IE, she closely studies the casualty reports from said marginal worlds), and in the end became worthy of ruling by the lessons learned. Director Espinosa as you said ultimately wanted what was best for his people, but in the process he went through it at all costs, even if it meant throwing his people into gulags - including the children of his direct vassals who felt the loyalty that nobility is supposed to show by the assumptions such a system relies on! And in the end, he proved that by surrendering once it was clear the war was over. He took power through violence alone and committed plenty of atrocities to maintain it, but in the end he genuinely believed that what he was doing would strengthen the Aurigan Reach against outside threats. Victoria, like Kamea, had a lot of ideals and ultimately wanted to serve her nation as an honorable MechWarrior the same way historical knights would. But then she was talked into being party to a horrible atrocity, the kind of thing that limited warfare by the Ares Conventions were supposed to prevent, under the guise of it helping the Reach. That broke her, to the point where she became to the point of a cartoon villain. And when her father surrendered, meaning that all she did was for naught... it broke her. She knew that the best she could hope for was to face a firing squad or the executioner's blade, more likely she would be hanged as Kamea promised during the coup or something more inventive. So she threw it all in to die in battle - to at least be a MechWarrior in that if nothing else... to the point even Kamea, who was furious with her for what she did to Maderia, felt pity. And Ostergard… well, his son fucking died and we don't know about the rest of his family. He was on the comms when it happened - he heard this famed heroine order his son's death. That Kamea gave him a chance to stand down didn't matter - his son just got blown to pieces by the fuel reserves being lit up like fireworks. He put the blame on Kamea and gunned for her... then the hypocrite started doing everything he blamed her for. He took his lances and turned them into death squads to murder civilians on Smithion, he tried to starve the people on Panzyr and sent his men to murder defenseless wounded soldiers for no reason than bloodlust. By the end, he didn't even care about the fact that it was all because of House Espinosa fabricating a terrorist attack by murdering eleven thousand Taurian citizens, and that by extension it was Espionsa who got his son killed by dragging the Taurians into things through that. But despite being a despicable asshole, you could still feel pity because his motive was understandable. Was the story deep? No. But the characters had a depth to them, multiple facets that come into play.
Countries usually last longer and better after outliving a political crisis. Aurgian reach will be fine as she is able to stabilize the relationship between federation sun and Tatiana contact. The neighbors will took that as political gesture to maintain peace
I think they cover that by Revealing the truth to the Taurian concordat and the Davions likely gaining powerful allies there and potentially improving the periphery as a result. Doesn't matter though as Kerensky is about to come back.
@@Kalenz1234 Yes because it's not as convulated as Warhammer is but both of them have their hardcore fanbase but if you view it from the standpoint of how a story could be delivered Battletech seems the best to me because in Warhammer no one actually looses the loss may be temporary but they keep existing
This game literally just seems like it could be based on what happens during planetary invasions in Stellaris. I say this because I though it WAS a Stellaris trailer before I knew what it actually was lol
My God! That man was nuts! Hiring Mercenaries to kill his niece, Kamea. And not just his niece, but also hiring them to kill their own loved ones, just for Money, and have no consciences after it. People killing their own... is the lowest thing any nation could do against itself. I'm posting this for those of you who truly want your country to have Freedom... "If anyone out there has always fought for your loved ones, during times of horrible warfare... never stop doing so. If anyone else feels this way... the good way... they will join you in the Good Cause. And so will I."
I was still calming down from the small panic attack that Victoria's King Crab fucking sent me into, HOW much fucking damage in one turn I beg your fucking pardon?! XD
You are a mercenary. You accepted to fight for her because she is gonna pay ALL of your debts and every mission you'll do for her she still gonna pay for each of 'em. What kind of merc are you if you say no to such an astronomical paycheck?
Man, presenting Directorate as an over-the-top totalitarian regime was such a wasted opportunity. I also think this is one of the best cutscenes capturing the drama of coup d'etat and civil war. Unfortunately later on the designers need to make sure that we are not confused who the bad guy is and design Directorate to be III Reich / USSR in the making.
It'll be interesting to see the House Arano (sp?) Sourcebook come out for the tabletop side in late April. If the HBS people involved in it can meet the quality of the original House books, that'll be enjoyable reading.
Honour is a fool's pride & glory is of no use to the dead, your Lady, men come and ago, Kings & Queens are born, they live and die, be it by the sword, the slow passage of time, poison or being backstabbed, Empires & Kingdoms will rise and fall with them as well as their respective ideals, but us warriors,.....there will always be battles & wars to be fought thus warriors will always be and as long wars will be waged, my wallet will always be full & my sword is always for hire, for the right price of course, I'm no hero, never wanted to be one either, no, in the famous words of my mentor, Geral of Rivia "The White Wolf" "This world doesn't need a hero, it needs a professional!"
@@mohdridhuanmdkamal8582 well...Blackjack is a long range fire support if I remember rite. Pretty much suits a commander's role there if he pilfer or buy some MLaser ++, a UAC2++ and SRM6++ along the way. Who the heck kind of leader that lead from the front, get killed from the first wave, and destroy the cohesion of the fighting forces and morale, and also the hope of the rebellion. *look at Lady Arano*
Fielded the Blackjack in the early game, got lucky and was able to play most of the campaign with a Marauder, and ran a BattleMaster for the final missions (gave the Highlander to Glitch cause she deserves nice things). Felt like my commander was progressing through a TV series or book trilogy.
@@Iwanwahid1969 No missiles on the Blackjack. Frankly, best config I found for it was stripping out 2 MLas and the Autocannons and then slotting in two Large Lasers instead. That allows you to also add in anotehr ton of armor and enough heatsinks that it actually runs pretty cool despite that lightshow loadout.
I cannot take that Ginger Muppet(as someone on the Battletech subreddit called him) seriously. I mean, he sounds like Adam Jensen. And I didn't ask for that XD
16:35 "You should listen to your uncle Lady Arano, we have unfinished business you and I. The Iberia still carries a full complement of battle mechs, plus enough firepower to level a city, and you know it's too late to withdraw your forces. When I reach Coromodir, I will drown your restoration in a sea of fire! Every dog in Arano covers will die. You took my son from me, Kamea; my hope for the future died with him! Now I'm killing yours..." Nahum
Imagine what would actually happen if man kind ever created such weapons of war. We already have nukes and such like that, but imagine what would happen if we truly created mass machines of war that were stories tall
Sadly (thankfully?), these kinds of machines are impractical for several reasons from videos I've seen: Extremely high ground pressure with two-to-four points of small ground contact on machines weighing from 20 to 100 tons. High technological requirements such as advanced motors, gimbals, controls, balance mechanisms, etc. Lots of moving parts which mean a lot of failure points. Very high profile because they literally stand over everything.
It would be impossible. Their own weight would destroy them. You can only have buildings that tall because they stay perfectly still and are reenforced everywhere to support the weight. Unless you develop some new material that is super impossibly strong while being impossibly light weight. Or go fight on an asteroid or moon somewhere with much much lower gravity. But besides that they HAVE much more devestating weapons than the mechwarriors. They have nukes, and use bio and chemical weapons in the game. They just realized "Uh...if we nuke the planet, how are we gonna go get all those rich resources and stuff we wanted the planet for in the first place?" It's like pirates who just sink ships instead of looting them and realizing they just capsized the booty. After razing a few worlds and realizing they have nothing to show for it they shifted back to conventional warfare which at least left the worlds infastructure intact enough to make invading it actually profitable. Thus big robots and keeping their uber destructive weapons mothballed until they find a target they don't care about getting intact.
Or like Richard II or Richard III with the perspectives flipped. Or maybe King Lear? The return of the king is the framework for a lot of great storytelling. (Interestingly, the Tolkien book of that name puts that aspect of the story firmly in the background.)
@@TheTrueAdept What is XNT equipment? Sarna.net does not give an answer. Underwear and coolant vest are the uniform of the rust bucket low tech period of Battletech., when this game takes place.
@@Jorjgasm Whoops, had an N where the C should be. It would be XCT Equipment or Xenoplanetary Conditions Training equipment. Basically, the sort of sealing and training for planets hostile to human life like airless rocks or Venusian hell holes.
@@TheTrueAdept But I remember from the novels that even the guys fighting on airless rocks were in their shorts in pressurized Mech cabins. One example was the book where Phelan Kell gets taken as isorla by the Clans.
HBS plays a bit loose with the lore. The actual Periphery isn't drowning in heavy and assault mechs like in this game, not even 10% of numbers shown here. Full body cooling suits are lostech that ran out after the 1st Succession War. The game aesthetics are anachronistic too, not 80s retro-future at all.
Surrounded by a Battalion of the Concordat most decorated soldiers? Well shit, Commodore Oostergaard, this is Republic Lord Fandragon Crimsonspirit of the Knights Republic Legion and you shoulda brought more mechs! Also, call an uber, cuz at the conclusion of this radio transmission, your dropship will explode...Fandragon Out! *LNDF Guardian Eternal and LNDF King V'Zen come out of orbit and turn the poor Fortress Class into an insurance claim*
This story made me so angry at the Taurian military. Ostergaard should never have been allowed anywhere near a mission he had such a personal stake in. The disaster that was his campaign was almost inevitable.
There's lot of good things about this game. But the story ain't one of them. It's funny to see all the people feeling sad for Taurian commander guy, when all I remember about him is Adam Jensen's voice and "MUH SON, MUH REVENGE" mood all the time. Such a great character he was, this commander guy.
what? you realise that not all story telling has to be incredibly deep and nuanced? people like samuel ostergaard because he is perfectly portrayed for what his character is supposed to be, and it serves as a FANTASTIC moral grey area for the story which battletech revels in. no matter how you slice it, its hard to argue that samuel's actions aren't completely justified, we kill his son in cold blood on bad intel. for his perspective the mercenaries we command are nothing but cutthroats who murdered his only son like militant dogs. sure all he expresses is rage and murderous intent... but as a grieving father who has had his entire world shattered? thats a perfectly reasonable way to write such a character. now im not going to say that battletechs story was an amazing story. but it is the perfect story for the game, the game gives you enough of a tie to kamea and mastiff that you have reason to care about her cause but also not so much so that you cant rationalise being a bit of a dick and choosing to take the stance of "this isn't my war, i work for your wallet not for your morals" the villains are fairly well done with the power hungry espinosas, the previously mentioned devastated samuel ostergard as well as the other politically charged allies of the directorate. i think that a lot of the story is pretty decent, the missions themselves can be borderline badass (SLDF Cache anyone?) and the general plot structure and gameplay pacing works well with a lot of the story missions offering a high risk high reward prize mech at some point (I.E the quickdraw in the argo mission, the jagermech in the prison mission so on and so forth) allowing you to riskily take less direct measures against these heavier mechs, leaving them alive and dangerous for longer but giving you the opportunity of more salvage of heavier mechs earlier than you would usually be able to deal with them. my one issue with the story. my only major issue, is kamea fucking arano and her god damn salvage decimating kintaro with 3 srm 6's. the amount of god damn times ive shaved off a mech to nothing, just about to score that pilot kill until "FOR THE RESTORATION" a wild kamea arano appears and alpha strikes my beautiful salvage into dust.
I just wish we could've gone to the other side instead. Especially after I was forced to blow up an entire cache chock full of Star League era mechs and lostech. Screw that noise, I was willing to put up with a bunch of incompetents and quirky caricatures, I was begrudgingly willing to accept that I was working for a selfish spoiled princess throwing a tantrum over muh birthright, and while Ostergaard nearly broke my resolve... This was too far and that wasn't even up to debate. I'd rather be a clanner than willing accessory to a crime like this.
to be fair, she does have a change of heart. realising that she shouldnt be fighting because its her birthright, but instead because of the awful rule the people are dealing with under her uncles iron fist. and i think ostergaard was a tragic character but ultimately i think that its unfair to claim that you should turn coat to the directorate for it. Perhaps a third option? like be able to turn over to ostergaard's side and wipe out both the directorate and restoration? but i think the restoration is definitely the defacto good option of all 3 of those.
My characters answer: "You have a good heart my lady, I will fight every moment of every day by your side to see that it can remain so. For the Reach, and for you, my Lady."
Would be nice if these cutscenes "worked in the game". I have had to disable them for the game to run...apparently a "common problem" a lot of people have had! :-/
@@Marauder1981 yeah some but the new plastic minis look rad there even making plastic tanks and vtols there's a mercenary Kickstarter comming in fall so ignoring everything beyond fedcom civil war I'm happy the game isn't dead
@@Marauder1981 they are there making some of the plastic molds in metal and variants loadouts also check out the new Atlas II it's using the new artwork from the recognition guide it's looks amazing I love iron wind too but a lot of those models need a update
going to do all that hard work fighting someone elses war just for money doesnt cut it. her hand in marriage that way you get the girl the money and the kingdom now that would be better deal.
Hurrrr lets blow up the star league era super fortress full of incredibly powerful Battlemechs because a big dropship is coming down, not like this super fortress's heavy rail turrets would be able to blow it out of the sky or anything. BTW I'm going to take the Atlas because I'm the real hero of this story - Bitch employer
What rail turrets? The only defenses the place had were drone hovercraft and some basic defense turrets, which your single mech lance is able to dispose of. There's no way that would hold off a Fortress dropship and a full 36-mech battalion, and there wasn't nearly enough time to bring in more people to reinforce the position. And blowing it up was Yang's idea anyway, not Kamea's.
@@patrickcoyle5469 I bet Yang secretly works for the Comstar, they couldn't let a bunch of dirty periphery trash get ahold of a full Castle Brian's worth of supplies and lostech.
Hurr, let's not bring down the defenses and die like dogs to a never ending army of drone weapon carriers, While we're at it, let's not destroy the base we can't hold that's full of SLDF mechs that can rape entire armies so our enemies can claim them for themselves and ensure we drown in a sea of our own blood. Dumbass.
60hrs in, i have more then enough mechs. what counts are your mechwarriors, but u should have at least 1 extra pilot for each skill set archetype. after reaching 3 skillfeats they gain so few xp and they can always die to an ac 20 hitting the cockpit. also if one or two are wounded the time they recover costs you as well, u can do easier missions and train up the bravo lance ;)
This game was fun until I got seriously hamstrung by the single lance limit of my merc company. Seriously? I have millions of credits but can't afford to buy another dropship? Meanwhile I'm constantly fighting against larger numbers and the game turns take so damn long for the enemy side I resorted to watching youtube vids to pass the time. Also the plot got shit pretty fast, everytime you do a story mission that makes you feel accomplished the writers screw you over with a deux ex machina on the enemy's side. Like I get not having the good guys win all the time, but holy crap the hurdles I had to get though plotwise for such an unsatisfying ending makes me almost regret playing this game in the first place. Also the redhead dude is an absolute fucknugget. Hate him so much.
The difficulty balance is pretty piss poor when you can't field more than a single lance of 'Mechs and yet you face enemies with up to *three* lances and maybe some vehicles that leaves your plucky lance out-numbered, out-tonned *and* out-gunned.
While I agree with your sentiment of a lance limit, fielding and operating more than a lance in a battle would really slow down the game even further and throw off the balance. Besides, it's a fun challenge going up against 2 Assault lances with only a Heavy lance, it really pushes you
It's actually quite justified in universe where mech's can cost millions and lost of base infrastructure to build its spare parts after sucession wars means that deployed it en masse are out of option.
the late game and end game is a mess. There is just simply no way an assult lane go against 3 lance of heavy or even assult sometimes. I have to lose some man and mech to grain more mech.
List price for a Leopard, about the smallest Mech dropper around, is a cool ~60 million C-Bills. And I don't think anyone out in the Periphery even makes any of 'em at that time.
it was ok but why do it with painting what happen to full on cinematics? was that too costly and hard to do anymore. I prefer ones with the full on movies myself and how was the actual game play?
yeah full CGI coast a lot of money even bad CGI the only other thing they could have done is use in game models and even then you need extra time for animation and it limits you to just mechs and a few character models
well I would love to see some BattleTech in action in todays standards, the story boards used at least in the intro are far better at telling a story by simply showing some slides, when they are animated more etc it would have to be much longer to show the same information hard to explain.
The writing, oh god the writing........3:33 "That's what makes you a Hero in the eyes of history. Wether you believe it? That's up to you!" No seriously, why don't you instead write: "That's what makes you a hero in the eyes of History. Wether you believe it or not!" Or instead: "That's what makes you a hero in the eyes of people, wether you believe it or not." (Yeah full disclosure, I study history and pre-historic and medievel archeology, so I have my pet peeve with that overuse of history, like the eyes of history, the right side of history, historical etc.pp. Remember history is the story we tell each other, it's the story and the narrative we agree upon. And quite often, like in the late classical and early medieval period, we can't be sure if what we are told is actually what happened. Which is why we need to check it again and again, and review it on factual basis. ) Also the trope of the once prosperous kingdom in decline..........boooring, just take a good look at the periphery in BT and you will find it rather interesting, as it's an interesting collection of shades of gray. There are bandit kingdoms as well as there are free societies. And no faction, no leader in the Battletech Universe is as clear cut good or evil as shown here. Also "the noble Lady......" is what is redundant, in the Battletech Universe the title Lady usually denotes a Noble. Which indicates that the noble here is to contrast the lady with her uncle, again the women are wonderful and men are villains trope. Also personally I dislike the speech for being overly dramatic and speaker is overacting. It also feels out of touch with the Battletech universe's style of speech, even if you look at the heads of the houses in the novels, they spoke differently. And I'm sure the captain's death is supposed to be impactful and make us feel sad, but do we really know him enough for his death to be impactful? Also in her speech in the Snow I find kind of strange, as she is neither defending herself nor offering her apology for not being there, instead of a heartfelt speech, it's more of another bit exposition to paint the enemy faction as evil, especially that bit about the secret police, the disappreance of people and the conscription of children. Now I'm quite sorry to say, some of what she claims is unforgiveable is not that uncommon in the Battletech universe, neither in the Inners Sphere nor especially in the Periphery. I mean just look up say Loki, the Lyran Secret Police/Secret agency on Sarna.net, or look at the ISF (Internal Security Force) of the Draconis Combine and the Maskirovka of the Capellan Confederation. None of them above torture, murder or using informants to spy on their population and most of them of rather authoritarian outlook. It feels a bit weird and out of place of for the BT universe, makes the Aurigan Reach seem a bit too sheltered for the Battletech universe, and a bit too unreal given some of their neighbours, which are: -the aforementioned Capellan Confederation, which is known for having some rather Mad Chancellors and an absolutely brutal and sometimes psychotic secret Police the Maskirovka. -the Free Worlds League, which officially is a bit more concerned with the liberty of their subjects, but in reality is the most balkanized state of the IS, with more than a few atrocities committed by the civil war parties. By Comparison to them the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordant are rather nice places to live, but I wouldn't trust a Capellan to save my live. As the Taurian's found out: www.sarna.net/wiki/Ariana%27s_War The speaker is also a bit off, she sounds more like she's about to start crying instead of being angered by what she's seen and having the burning ambition to right those wrongs. What is there to make people rally to her? Also I did not know is an incredibly weak defense, come on you can write better. Oh come on and the writing when commandant what's-his face of the Taurian Concordant speaks, no commander would call his troops "the most decorated", they would call them the best, or would expect their company's name to speak for itself. I mean the Kathil Ulans or the, Kell Hounds, the 10th Lyran Guard, also kown as the Undead, or Mac Arron's Armored Cavalry, need no further introduction. If you hear their name, you know shit's about to get real, because those are elite units. And same goes for the Taurian Defense forces, their best units would be known by their neighbours. Like for example the Taurian Guards or the Concordat Commandos. And demanding unconditional Surrender..............we're talking pre 4th sucession war where such a thing would almost never be done, so they would talk about surrender conditions. You know at that time the tech was rather scarce, and battlemechs and other tech hard to come by, so most commanders would avoid a costly battle if they could....... And then that fangirling over "The sword of restoration"....and painting the ice red with blood....and has he eaten a tub of rusty nails for breakfast? Could they stop the overacting? I feel reminded of the "UNLIMITED POOWWAAAAAH!" ;) And do we actually get some characterization for the characters? And the music is supposed to be epic, but in the end it's grating on my nerves, trying to create the epicness in combination with overuse of slow-mo in those strange half moving scenes. It also seems like the devs had an over fondness for strings*, because they every cutscene, I mean I like strings, but if you overuse them, they start to be grating. The problem is the lack of variety in the music, each piece that accompanies a cutscene is of the "dramatic" or even overly dramatic variety, there is no lighthearted theme, no "let's go and get them" theme in them, just drama. And no variation in tempo, it's always slow and drawn out. Good music lives from changes in tempo, lively, languid, fast, slow, just listen to a symphony in comparison. (Listening to Dvorak's Ninth in the background.) Another problem I have is that the monologue about what she learned about herself and her worthiness, should that not be a monolgoue and Laudatio been given by a third person about her, not by herself about her? And at 20:14 there is a question she asks herself and is never answered, instead we have a jump cut to something else, to a monologue about war, which is rather stilted and has unnatural breaks. Also a Hero asks himself or herself not if they are a hero, most of the true ones assume they don't, they only think they did their part. And that humility in combination with their sacrifices and their deeds is what makes them heroes. Also if she doesn't know what drove the mercenaries, who are so central to the plot, that indicates she never talked with them, which makes her seem rather like a distant employer with strong ideas about class distinctions. Which is a bit weird, given how that is counter what was in the Novels of Battletech and how much the rulers there cared to know what was going on in their merc units, even if it was only to keep them under control and safeguard against betrayal. *Among my favourite pieces of music are Adagio for strings, Elgar's Nimrod, Blackheart from Two steps from hell, Edoras and King Theoden from the Lord of the Rings, the Black Symphony by Within Tempation and the Metropole Orchestra, the orchestral version of Rock you like a Hurricane by the Scorpions and a lot more. Including some of John Williams's work and Dvorak's No.9 the New World. Just feast your ears on Nimrod's Majesty: th-cam.com/video/NhnMd1Jl7SA/w-d-xo.html
LupusAries, you know no one finished reading that, right? Battle tech is much more interesting than the pc drivel they made, but the storyline is just an excuse to have giant robot battles.
Thanks and you're welcome to White Fang. And yeah I have encountered the same issue with another person's comment that I found noteworthy and important enough to post elsewhere (with due credit, as you want to do.) Now in the case of honesty, after seeing more of the story, I would modify my position one one or two counts. Mainly that the death of the Captain is a bit more impactful if you take more of the story into account. However, I would still wish for a bit more interaction with him, which could be written in say, a flashback. You know expanding upon for example, the gladiator arch, and the one bad fight. Maybe even include a flashback to a mission, either from the PC or Kamea's perspective. Or they could write a scene where they talk about him, maybe hold an impromptu wake and get drunk. The scene from Mass Effect two with Doktor Chakwas and the Ice Brandy comes to mind, especially where they remember Jenkins. Mind you in the framework of this game, without the big cinematics of Mass Effect, as that would go way over budget. To make him more of a character and less like the women in the refrigerator who is sacrificed to further the character archs of two other characters. The other thing is maybe the atrocity in the camp, a lot of the info is dumped in the Briefing or Pre-briefing, which for us is an atrocity akin to the worst in our past (and yeah I'm trying really, really hard to avoid Godwin's law ;) because it doesn't need to be about that group there are plenty else.), but the thing is, while it is not a daily occurence in BT it is not that rare. You know it's not unlike the situation on say Csesztreg III www.sarna.net/wiki/Csesztreg Or Ziliang www.sarna.net/wiki/Ziliang And Mind you were are near the end of the third Succession war and smack dab in that period of decline where for example the water purifying plants on Csesztreg III failed. We are in a period that is more like the late eighteenth to early 19th century in some respects and on some worlds, despite them having spaceships and advanced tech. (Most of which in that period can't be replaced.)
I wish that the Union's destruction led to something more than "he was my son!" I could buy it if they had spent more time building up Samuel Ostgaard's character in order to explain his dedication to destroying the Restoration, but as it stood they needed something else. When the mission originally occurred, the Capellan in me thought that what the Dropship carried was probably the families and dependents of the Directorate's supporters. That would've caused a backlash both in Directorate (and possibly) Taurian space, and would've given Kamea something to wrestle with. As is, she mostly was absolved of any sin because "she didn't know," and only killed combatants. Without that, the fact that his men continued to follow him after the Taurians pulled out meant the vast majority of them were only loyal to him, or his son, which I don't buy. Sure there was a mutiny, but how was it put down if most of his men were Taurian? I also agree with you that a hero doesn't wonder whether or not they actually are a hero. The answer to the unanswered question I thought was implied by the "History chooses its heroes," aka: I won therefore a hero am I. If said right, the monologue could be cynical and imply a realization on the part the character played, how they were no better. In this case, it sounds like a rationalization of "well people died under me, but it's OK because we won, and that makes us heroes. Also, this conflict which destroyed all of our industry made me a better ruler, so everything's fine!" At best, Kamea is a noble who wanted to play at being a mechwarrior, got to play at it and achieve something by being a Joan d'Arc figurehead. Likewise I figured the speech on Weldry was hammed up because she knew it was being used as propaganda. One of the options you have in conversation notes that it's a pretty skeezy move. You're right that what happened on Weldry was not that big of a deal in-Universe, but it was to the Aurigan people. Secret Ops probably aren't well known, likewise incidents that occur on one planet probably aren't well known unless they can be used to politically motivate a group (Eg, Varus the Butcher from the Mech 2 Mercs Campaign). This is pretty much true to life. And there's real research done that shows how a "humanized" death or incident can be more motivating than a hard to imagine atrocity. Most modern account I can think of are the drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, or the Douma chemical attack. Both of which have been used as major talking points to motivate political change where the estimated 400,000 deaths I've never heard mentioned. Numbers naturally dehumanize, and past a couple thousand most can't comprehend them.
As much as I like Battletech... after so many years they could have hired some intelligent script writers. But ofc not. So many flaws and cheesy cliches that it makes one feel pure shame. Still the game itself is quite decent and hope future expansions will improve it, but that wont change the fact the main campaign, overall, royaly sucks.
Well to get the more simplistic but for me most open minded approach: allow the player to chose between the Coup Party or the Restoration, we are playing a mercenary company after all. Would have been a great signal of maturity allow the player to chose between a monarchy (terrible choice) or a "tyrannical dictator", each of them having its flaws and virtues. If not that then the story of a small merc company making its first steps in the Periphery involving bad contractors, grudges, revenges, argumental turns involving change of sides. All that while keeping pace with the current situation in the Inner Sphere at the time. As the base campaign for the game it would serve as a beginning to our little merc group, only to be improved and expanded in future expansions.
@@cesarandrade1987 So because you can't write scripts you can't criticize problems the game has? I hope someone tells you you can't talk because you're not a car mechanic if you are ever unfortunate enough to get a lemon car.
Mechwarrior 2 hat better "cinematics". But that was in 1995. 23 years later you get animated slideshows, promises not fullfilled by the devs, expensive low content DLCs (which should have been in the main game) and in the end: abandoned. I expected more from HBS, before they sold themselves to Paradox. It's still the best modern BT game there is. Now where is my MechCommander Gold CD....
wow... ive never seen someone who dislikes the cutscenes in this game. are they technically impressive? no. are they artistically beautiful? ABSOLUTELY. every single moment is a new amazing dekstop wallpaper that perfectly encapsulates the aesthetic of battletech. as for promises unfulfilled, i cant really comment as i never really followed the development of this game and just happened to come across it on release day. though i will say the dlc is a little expensive for what it is (though i think they got better with each one with flashpoint being a bit meh but heavy metal being genuinely pretty great) its still one of my favourite games of all time though :P
What? There's only one ending to the campaign? I was wishing I can switch side to the Uncle for a better pay since we're mercs (and he's also the better leader). "Every employer is one missed payment away from being a target and every target is one good bribe away from being an employer." Game of Thrones my ass, this is the cheesiest tumblr fan-fic tier story I've ever seen in a long time.
Cole Linse what a shame, I liked HBS. I played all of their Shadowrun games. I just can't understand what went through these developers' mind. They had their own thing going, why ruin it? After seeing the steam reviews, I hope they learn from this mistake, honestly.
Cole Linse I'm one of those gamers that just can't overlook shitty writing. In my opinion they should've just removed the campaign altogether and focus on gameplay mechanics, if they can't/won't hire a decent writer. I'm not even an American, but I can sense that this story is low-key anti Trump. Jordan should've stayed as lead designer tbh.
Kanjejou you don't have to look hard. It translate very nearly to the skewed Hillary supporters views of the past American election. The "rightful" female ruler deposed by a populist national-revivalist male "tyrant". This "tyrant" also turns out to be backed by a foreign state. Really, the whole story reads like anti-Trump masturbatory revenge fantasy.
Of course it gets political. This is *Battletech*. You know, the universe where the dominant factions are basically Feudal Houses with monarchy states being the norm and all the dirty politics and baggage that surrounds it. An example is this game's story. What initially seems like a coup d'état by Kamea's uncle is revealed to actually be a proxy war between the Taurian Concordat (who has supported the uncle for some time already) and the Magistracy of Canopus, which supports the dethroned Kamea. The Taurian Concordat supports the Aurigan Directorate because they want a proxy state against the Federated Suns, one of the major Feudal Houses in the Inner Sphere while the Magistracy of Canopus secretly support Kamea so that she can retake the throne and create a buffer state between the Concordat and the Suns to prevent another major conflict between the two factions. So yeah. It gets political. No shit.
the gameplay is good, but the story is horrible, it's so bland and silly, it's just the rebels of justice vs the evil space nazi that kicks pups for fun, looks like the current Star Wars
Have you noticed, that wherever you pause the video, you could make your own wallpaper? This game is so visually oozing from style! The whole story, gameplay... This thing started to introduce me to the BT universe and I am just mind-blown.
yes I agree
I started with the tabletop back in the early 90s. But the games of late have all been beautifully done
I know that. But no one who sees my Facebook cover image does! 😉
The music score for this game was SOOOOO good. Really brought those cut scenes the emotional depth that they needed to convey the message of the story.
The simplicity of the visuals also WORKED for me. They gave it that feeling of a story being read to you out of a book by your mom or dad, letting YOU the gamer use your imagination to fill in the scenes how you see it in your mind.
Hope they produce another one soon!
These cutscenes remind me of Homeworld. Dramatic and melancholy music. Painted still images with sliding layers.
Agreed. Homeworld has best story and music in gaming history. BT has very similar approach ...
Except here the story is shit.
@@Atrahasis7 hu?
@@Atrahasis7 Except your taste is shit.
Now that I've finished the campaign, I can finally answer the first question of the cinematics: The money. I did it for the money!
I did it for the eventual Kamea romance. Noticed too late that I wasn't in a classical Bioware game.
@@Kalenz1234 Eh, we all knew she was going to romance Alexander, anyway. :)
I did it for the experience, money was just a bonus.
I did it for Kamea Arano in romance, I want to ascend to noble status by marrying her. Hahahaha...
I did it for.....
Discount Dan
Welcome back Battletech to the PC. Almost 20 years Welcome back
Since Mech Commander 2
Since Crescent Hawk inception?
Been playing MW5 recently, and it makes me miss the campaign from Battletech so much.
The writing on this game, combined with the aesthetic is as good as gaming gets.
same lol. to the point where i just cant even play mechwarrior 5. i like the gameplay but all of the characters annoy me to genuine anger "fahad will open a case of timbiqui dark" SHUT THE FUCK UP.
I have to agree although MW5 isn't a bad game the story campaign could have been so much better if they had followed the same formula as the Battletech campaign and characters.
The story of MW5 (if you can call it that) is the most cookie cutter crap out there. Once you remove the fan boy ( I was guilty of this too goggles MW5 and is an absolutely mediocre game at best.
For what it's worth, the voice acting is solid in that game and on par with HBS I'd say. The addition of actual manoeuverability is a great changer from playing HBS. But I too lean away from Mechwarrior 5 too for the lack of nuanced engagement. Not to take away from both games as they are great all the same.
Pretty good story, didn't expect to enjoy it so much going into Battletech. Ended up playing mainly for that.
The story was beautiful.
Characters Hollywood should learn to create
yea pretty good story if you like B movies or fan fiction
I wholly disagree, there was barely a story at all, I would compare it to drinks that are like sugar-free flavoured sodawater. there is a memory of a possible story, hints of something but ultimately it's nothing. I played because the gameplay is great and I think would actually translate fairly well into a real life tabletop style, different from the current one though it might be.
16:40 wow, Adam Jensen sounds pissed. Then again, he never asked for this.
Lady Arano: "Sometimes you just have to let go and embrace what you become"
felt super bad for him.
He had a good reason, plus his excellent performance made the next cutscene especially poignant.
@@TheRumChum Felt bad for him until the next story mission after the cache, when he goes off the deep end and starts massacring refugees just to force Kamea into a fight. His son got killed on a military mission he was on voluntarily. You start tossing aorund atrocities over that, you deserve to get put down like the rabid dog you are.
I swear Battletech has such a rich and long story line, with the right screen play writers and directors, this lore could be made into several movies such as Star Wars or a grand tv show like Game of Thrones. Imagine society where the true heros arent sports figures and actors/celebrity social lites, but the space voyagers and intergalactic war heros representing your homeworld light years away as you watch would would be the equivalent of the Super Bowl but its these historical battles that change the balance of everyones existence. i swear it could be great if done right.
I get "The Expanse" vibes from watching BattleTech/MechWarrior but with giant robots.
Its up there with Warhammer 40k, Star Wars, and a few other series that have really solid, deep lore.
it would be done wrong
@@rock3793 No no, the "shitty Mechwarrior show" happened already, that god-awful cartoon. They got it out of their system.
@@KillerOrca apparently that show is cannon as propaganda in the lore lol.
Raju. I wish the game allowed players to know him better. An amazing character, yet I only got to see him once in a battle. And Ostergaard and Iberia. Their end was too easy in my opinion. Perhaps it could have went that Iberia managed to crash land and players had to go finish the poor guy, crippled but not willing to go down without a good fight.
Honestly, as crippled as I was after several broken bones, blood loss and deep lacerations, I would've enjoyed commanding my lance against a last stand but the arena finale works too.
Just such a shame I wasn't in any condition to be there in person.
MAny has said this is cheesy or lacking impact... wishing that using full CGI or anything but this kind of this presentation. To me, this is absolutely the best way to tell the story of Battletech. Now afour years after their release, I've watch the gameplay, and love it. Harebrain is indeed play loose with lores, but they capture the essence of battletech quite well. I wish there'll be more of this days later.
And 35 years later everything would change when the Clans attack
I don't know the full story of the lore, but the Clans never made it past "Terra".
@@claytonhess5512 They never even made it TO Terra. They only got about halfway there, and this takes place 180 degrees around on the opposite side of the Inner Sphere. (If 1500 light years is the diameter of the Inner Sphere, then still over 1100 light years away).
@@c182SkylaneRG no they never made it to Terra, but had they used proper tactics as well as avoided competing with each other they did have a chance to win the war, or at least capture enough planets to have a foothold in the inner sphere in which they could continue to expand from after the agreed ceasefire was over
@@kinggoten They did actually get that foothold, and were well on their way to planning the resumption of the war after the ceasefire ended. If it weren't for Clan "Honor", and their customs of using proxy battles to decide the outcomes of entire wars, they never would have fought the battles on Tukayyid which resulted in the ceasefire in the first place, and they would most certainly have made it to Terra. Once they agreed to the ceasefire, it gave the Inner Sphere the time to upgrade, bulk up, and counterattack, eventually fighting a similar series of proxy "Trials" on Strana Mechty over the outcome of the entire war.
@@c182SkylaneRG yes very true, but using proper tactics they would of won at Tukayyid as well guess I'm overlooking that one. But following that could the clans really win if ComStar decided to fully back the innersphere houses? I sort of picture this actually, and I probably take back what I said earlier the war goes mostly the same except the clans have far fewer losses and such.. they still agree to the trials on Tukayyid... they win ComStar inflicts major damage on the clans anyway, the war continues however ComStar decides to fully back the houses in the war, and this I think after the losses on Tukayyid would result in the clans being completely pushed out of the inner sphere, and I do think ComStar would back the houses because they wouldn't want to risk Terra.
**edit I say the war goes on because had ComStar lost, no chance they honor the agreement same goes for the houses honestly. Actually losing at Tukayyid probably saved the clans in a sense sure they had far better tech and such but they are also very limited on resources etc... and comstar has star league tech once they share that with the houses it closes the gap close enough and then it just becomes a numbers game and the clans just do not have that.
i love how battletech is more then just mech fight's it like game of thrones but in space....but more lol
now we only need a actual movie about it or a series xD plenty of lore to go thru!
Even though Battletech was created first?
@@rock3793 Game of Thrones/Song of Ice & Fire has basis in history. So called War of the Roses. So really history makes really good basis for interesting fiction.
a friend of mine said it best.... battletech the way it is written and the way some of the novels are and the universe... could produce political thrillers that are on par to tom clancy
how this franchise has NOT been turned into a show or a movie is BEYOND me
battletech could use an "astartes" quality fan movie and it would get such a boost
@@mrgoob76 Check out "Hired Steel" by TMC
its basically the "Astartes" of the Battletech universe
There is a lot of criticism in here regarding the game's story. For the most part, I feel that this is unfair. I loved the art style and the cutscenes (especially the opener), loved the music and voice acting, enjoyed the combat, and yes, even quite enjoyed what was admittedly a rather simple single-arc campaign narrative. The fact that this game even exists is a very big deal, and I wish that some of the neckbeards in here would chill the F out and quit overanalyzing the whole damn thing.
There is a lot of criticism because the game's story sucks, they used a "deus ex machina" to save the chick life in the first mission for god's sake. Art style, music and voice acting can't save bad writing.
You don't give a shit about your crew, mentor or the ridiculous Mary Sue protagonist of the story: " i own your debt so i can send you to suicide missions" is not the best storyline ever, "let me fuck you if i save your sorry ass and kingdom" would have made more sense.
@@privaterose5021 Ad hominem never prove any argument true, the only thing they prove is people using them can't handle criticism.
@@alfgui3295 Did you play the game? There was no fucking "Deus ex machina"! It was fake footage from her uncle. Also if your an IS mercenary and you owe a shit ton of money, when someone buys your debt(telling you they will forgive it if fight a war?) and tells you jump? You jump or lose everything. Story is plenty good. Name a good story yourself and there will be dozens of people ready to talk about how shitty it is.
@@alfgui3295 Absolutely! "Let me fuck you if i save your sorry ass and kingdom" really WOULD make so much more sense. It's exactly the kind of thing professional soldiers would demand, and I'm sure none of their subordinates would have a problem with their lives being put on the line for a royal booty call.
That was sarcasm, by the way. I know it's hard to convey in text.
And if you don't give a shit about your crew, that's on you. Personally, I found Yang's deadpan backtalk a delight, and the fact that Farah once married the chain-smoking host of a television show that taught kids to do incredibly dangerous scientific experiments at home makes me wonder what other interesting life choices she's made.
@@alfgui3295 Uh... ok. With respect I don't think your comments, especially the last one, bear any merit.
@@TheEcchiSessha It's not only a deus ex machina, it's one of the worst deus ex machina ever, she enters with a battlemech in a dropship which explodes mid-air a couple of minutes later, fake footage my ass. She magically disappeared and escaped from a planet controlled by her uncle because "reasons".
Nope, if someone buy your company and ask you to sacrifice yourself you give them the middle finger and look for another job, better poor than dead.
The story is so awful they resuscitated in another deus ex machina your mentor to kill him again in a fucking minute and you are like "what the fuck"? So what? It's not that difficult to make players care about characters, give your mentor a couple of missions and let him fucking sacrifice himself for your sorry ass instead of deus ex machining his ass to write a cheap emotional retarded event later, and let your mary sue grow from a useless rookie instead of making her saiyan from the beginning for no reason, it's not that difficult.
Patrick Coyle, yours was not a sarcasm, that was you being a dick because you don't like my opinion, no hard feelings though.
The scene of Ostergaards death nearly brought me to tears, and it came out of NOWHERE! What the hell game? I came for big stompy robots, not to witness the complete breaking of a man!
Is it wrong that, understanding he's been driven to the brink by having listened to the order for his son to be killed and then it happened, I still thought "If only he suffered more" because of what he did to the people of Smithion and Panzyr?
But I will say that it's a strength of the game if it made you feel that. It wasn't built with a deep story meant to pull a clever twist or anything: it was never meant to be a full on RPG, but if it still got you emotionally invested in the characters then it succeeded.
Ostergaard really came across as one of those great supporting characters that lift the story to new heights. You FEEL for him... but loath him too for the actions he takes. And THAT makes the storyline move forward as you WANT to see the resolution of those feelings
I have to say that he has the best cinematics in general, starting with the one that introduced him with such sheer menace.
The art and direction is top notch.
Yeah, that scene really was poignant.
i love battletech aesthetics.
it's a futuristic science fantasy, but essentially its social structure is like middle age Europe.
My answer to her question on the first cinematic... "Lady, I just wanna see where this goes... And also you said you'll clear my debt."
My answer? I'm a jackdaw. I see shiny mechs, I collect them.
_Made a flourishing gesture to the Argo's hangars and storage, rows and rows of mech, disassembled parts, and weapons stacked neatly on each other_
So, do you have pilots? Because here is your army.
This is so epic
I want a series or a movie from this story
Imagine if Netflix picked this up and actually followed the story from the point in time of "Decision at Thunder Rift". Imagine if they just created a series from that point in time and onwards...holy...crap...
Someone make this happen! This needs to be a TV show/Movie
*The Garden of E sim 117* you know battletech has ALOT of political intriguem and as far as i am concerned with all the SJW bullshit infesting both star trek and star wars.... i'll take battletech over ALL of that anyday...
A great movie would be about the beginning of the succession wars after General Kerenskey leaves the inner sphere in 2784.
Oh hell yes
Thanks to a certain someone, I can't look at that image of Richard Cameron without laughing.
Lmfao I know exactly who you mean
Watching the first two, and the last, cinematics again after 4 years, the only question in my mind is: will they make a sequel ? The Clans invading ? And when ?
The second cinematic scene has one of the best backing tracks ever. The strings are ***perfect***.
"But I am not a hero, whatever the stories say. A hero would have sacrificed more, compromised less. A hero would have done better. You know this, of course, you were there."
... One immense campaign later ...
"And you know what ? it doesn't matter if you believe it. Because others do, as I believed in the heroes of my fathers stories. After all, when we are gone, stories are what remain"
That had balls.
honestly i'd be happy with them staying away from the more fucky side of battletech, with clan tech and such where it just becomes a little too much lol. i could do without locusts that can have as many lasers as a traditional hunchback lol.
@@jacobely6826 I'm fucking sorry a WHAT NOW?!
If that's what a goddamn LOCUST can carry, the fuck many guns can an ATLAS carry at that point? XD
@@halooverlord6961 Honestly the atlas starts to become pretty ass at that point because the extra fire power doesnt make up for the horrid mobility loss, clan medium and heavies are fucking broken though, like genuinely hate the whole clan mech thing.
its literally just "better than everything else" whilst not having the mitigation that lostech has of being incredibly expensive and rare as its mass produced and freely available.
Gauss rifles and ER lasers for everyone! even when the Inner Sphere does get access to shit like that ER weapons and stuff they're just flat out worse than the clan variants. it makes sense from a realism perspective, more modern tech should just be flat out better, but it makes the games balancing shit, because it basically becomes if you're running anything but clan tech you're fucked.
I thought the story was good enough. Especially the last bit on coromidir. I saw about 3/4 th of the plot before it happened though. Regardless i have 3 highlander mechs and have done multiple burials. I’m happy
I did it because like you, I believed in the stories that came before us.
I did it because I believed in you.
Oostergard's story is so tragic. So awful for what happened to him, and what he became, for what it means in the real world for people's souls when pushed to dark ends due to loss. Tragic.
Me too man. Seeing the picture of him and his son cracking in the fire was heartbreaking
Thanks. I'm getting the AVProvideo Crash. Had to disable the cutscenes. I just alter tab to this video to see what I missed. Great game, the art, voice work, and music makes it worth it. Glad I contributed to the kickstarter.
you know what pissed me off? when i got here into the facility and she took an atlas and he blew up the rest? also why not got for a full on atlas lance in that mission, there were defo enough there
You can't just press a Button and a Battlemech, that was sleeping for decades and longer will run smoothly. They had no time and when i remember it right he didn't blew it up, it was Arano so that no one else could use these Mechs against them.
And btw. best Scene is 16:30 ... i love this Voice Actor, he's genius. ;)
@@domfloppy For decades? They sit there for 250 years since the fall of Star League. Atlas in that base are considered Los Tech at that time.
@@domfloppy Ostergaard's voice actor make players not only hate what he did to Kamea's people but also has sympathize with him due his son's death drive him into mad man.
@@pirotess2
dude he act like a raving dog who just lose his favourite toy. Boo hoo Ostergaard, people die in war what did you expect? You act like your son is the only son that died in this pointless war. What about the many sons and daughter your orphaned in Smithon and Panzyr? What about them?
This implies that post war they didn’t return to salvage what survived, and if the black watch are to be believed, nukes are inconvenience’s so a atlas and the other mechs should be able to survive the detonation
This game has potential to makes some DLC with new stories, there's a lot of factions in this game
Dam!! Its about time for someone in Hollywood to make a blockbuster for a Battletech Univers. 20 years af talking and nothing!
Epicness is what Battle tech is all about keep it up Gents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I appreciate that Director Espinosa felt like a rational actor (and not a cartoon villain) with some laudable goals for the Reach: build the economy, make strong allies, and solicit aid. I felt conflicted throughout the story, because while Kamea has right on her side, her war is ruinous for the Reach and likely leaves it at risk for foreign invasion.
I hope there's some DLC that focuses on the Reach's struggle to rebuild and survive foreign meddling. Also: Battletech would make a great HBO/netflix series (animated?) - great houses, court intrigue, war, gritty industrial dark ages.... it's like game of thrones in space! Focusing on the Reach would probably work because it wouldn't interfere too much with the rest of the Battletech continuity.
That's something I really liked about the story. Was it deep and complex? No, but it wasn't an RPG, and it never pretended to be. It gave you some options so you could give your character some personality, but ultimately it was mostly limited. But no one was a caricature and everyone had an understandable motive, even if they were not rational in carrying it out.
Kamea had a lot of flaws, but shed them as the story went on. As she herself admits, she started her war for little more than the fact that her birthright was stolen. Despite overall being a heroic character, we see the limits of it when she's forced to pick between fuel for her DropShip fleet and supplies for a dozen marginal worlds, and the war dangerously weakened the Reach if only because of Ostergard's temper tantrum against civilian targets. Yet throughout the story, she increasingly becomes aware of those flaws of hers and in a way realizes her humanity through those adverse trials. She saw the costs of her actions, realized that she had been a petty princess-in-exile, and wanted to own the decisions she made (IE, she closely studies the casualty reports from said marginal worlds), and in the end became worthy of ruling by the lessons learned.
Director Espinosa as you said ultimately wanted what was best for his people, but in the process he went through it at all costs, even if it meant throwing his people into gulags - including the children of his direct vassals who felt the loyalty that nobility is supposed to show by the assumptions such a system relies on! And in the end, he proved that by surrendering once it was clear the war was over. He took power through violence alone and committed plenty of atrocities to maintain it, but in the end he genuinely believed that what he was doing would strengthen the Aurigan Reach against outside threats.
Victoria, like Kamea, had a lot of ideals and ultimately wanted to serve her nation as an honorable MechWarrior the same way historical knights would. But then she was talked into being party to a horrible atrocity, the kind of thing that limited warfare by the Ares Conventions were supposed to prevent, under the guise of it helping the Reach. That broke her, to the point where she became to the point of a cartoon villain. And when her father surrendered, meaning that all she did was for naught... it broke her. She knew that the best she could hope for was to face a firing squad or the executioner's blade, more likely she would be hanged as Kamea promised during the coup or something more inventive. So she threw it all in to die in battle - to at least be a MechWarrior in that if nothing else... to the point even Kamea, who was furious with her for what she did to Maderia, felt pity.
And Ostergard… well, his son fucking died and we don't know about the rest of his family. He was on the comms when it happened - he heard this famed heroine order his son's death. That Kamea gave him a chance to stand down didn't matter - his son just got blown to pieces by the fuel reserves being lit up like fireworks. He put the blame on Kamea and gunned for her... then the hypocrite started doing everything he blamed her for. He took his lances and turned them into death squads to murder civilians on Smithion, he tried to starve the people on Panzyr and sent his men to murder defenseless wounded soldiers for no reason than bloodlust. By the end, he didn't even care about the fact that it was all because of House Espinosa fabricating a terrorist attack by murdering eleven thousand Taurian citizens, and that by extension it was Espionsa who got his son killed by dragging the Taurians into things through that. But despite being a despicable asshole, you could still feel pity because his motive was understandable.
Was the story deep? No. But the characters had a depth to them, multiple facets that come into play.
Countries usually last longer and better after outliving a political crisis. Aurgian reach will be fine as she is able to stabilize the relationship between federation sun and Tatiana contact. The neighbors will took that as political gesture to maintain peace
I think they cover that by Revealing the truth to the Taurian concordat and the Davions likely gaining powerful allies there and potentially improving the periphery as a result. Doesn't matter though as Kerensky is about to come back.
She is in the Periphery and it's the 3040s. I think the Clans are going to curb stomp her and she will have to push back in the sequel.
There already was an animated series.
Thank you for recording this, I like the ending scenes.
13:34 - Is that Elias Toufexis who played Adam Jensen from Deus Ex Human Revolution?
Yes, thats him. He was a voice actor in several video games, including Assassin's Creed and Need for Speed Carbon
lore of battletech can give GOT run for its money, there is soo much to it even 10 seasons won't be enough.
It can even give a run for the money to Warhammer
@@frequencyatom7052 Bold claim.
@@Kalenz1234 Yes because it's not as convulated as Warhammer is but both of them have their hardcore fanbase but if you view it from the standpoint of how a story could be delivered Battletech seems the best to me because in Warhammer no one actually looses the loss may be temporary but they keep existing
@@frequencyatom7052 That makes no sense.
@@Kalenz1234 Tell me your point of view then ??
Now bring on the clans
I was never overwhelmed with so much damn lore until I played this game lol
It would be awesome to see a game set during the Fourth Succession War with House Davion Kicking ass against the Capellans.
I’d prefer a full on Tukayyid campaign, personally.
@@Harkeilla this
Well i mean we kinda dif
MW5 has a DLC regarding the 4th succession war
@@electrohalo8798 It's by far the best part of MW5 too
Damn. Half the cutscenes are from the first 3 story missions.
This game literally just seems like it could be based on what happens during planetary invasions in Stellaris. I say this because I though it WAS a Stellaris trailer before I knew what it actually was lol
Paradox.
It took me a while but this was well worth the cost. Just waiting for the DLC that's due the 21st
God damn I wish this were a show
My God! That man was nuts! Hiring Mercenaries to kill his niece, Kamea.
And not just his niece, but also hiring them to kill their own loved ones,
just for Money, and have no consciences after it. People killing their own...
is the lowest thing any nation could do against itself.
I'm posting this for those of you who truly want your country to have Freedom...
"If anyone out there has always fought for your loved ones, during times
of horrible warfare... never stop doing so. If anyone else feels this way...
the good way... they will join you in the Good Cause. And so will I."
"And standing over my Cousin's broken body, Victory"
chills every time
I was still calming down from the small panic attack that Victoria's King Crab fucking sent me into, HOW much fucking damage in one turn I beg your fucking pardon?! XD
TO YOUR STATIONS! FOR THE DIRECTORATE!
God dammit, campaign... I so much wanted to be on the other side... Let me be a mercenary... :(
This is my favorite moment, too.
You are a mercenary. You accepted to fight for her because she is gonna pay ALL of your debts and every mission you'll do for her she still gonna pay for each of 'em. What kind of merc are you if you say no to such an astronomical paycheck?
Man, presenting Directorate as an over-the-top totalitarian regime was such a wasted opportunity. I also think this is one of the best cutscenes capturing the drama of coup d'etat and civil war. Unfortunately later on the designers need to make sure that we are not confused who the bad guy is and design Directorate to be III Reich / USSR in the making.
It'll be interesting to see the House Arano (sp?) Sourcebook come out for the tabletop side in late April.
If the HBS people involved in it can meet the quality of the original House books, that'll be enjoyable reading.
Gorgeously inspirational.
Honour is a fool's pride & glory is of no use to the dead, your Lady, men come and ago,
Kings & Queens are born, they live and die, be it by the sword, the slow passage of time, poison or being backstabbed, Empires & Kingdoms will rise and fall with them as well as their respective ideals, but us warriors,.....there will always be battles & wars to be fought thus warriors will always be and as long wars will be waged, my wallet will always be full & my sword is always for hire, for the right price of course,
I'm no hero, never wanted to be one either, no, in the famous words of my mentor, Geral of Rivia "The White Wolf"
"This world doesn't need a hero, it needs a professional!"
At first it was just to avenge Raju, eventually, I was like GIMME DAT MONEY BABY!!"
3:33 The MC still has the Blackjack that he started with, like dude you get better mechs than that but keep it I guess
I think in lore, the protagonist fought the whole campaign in his Blackjack. Now that's a challenge.
@@mohdridhuanmdkamal8582
well...Blackjack is a long range fire support if I remember rite. Pretty much suits a commander's role there if he pilfer or buy some MLaser ++, a UAC2++ and SRM6++ along the way. Who the heck kind of leader that lead from the front, get killed from the first wave, and destroy the cohesion of the fighting forces and morale, and also the hope of the rebellion.
*look at Lady Arano*
Fielded the Blackjack in the early game, got lucky and was able to play most of the campaign with a Marauder, and ran a BattleMaster for the final missions (gave the Highlander to Glitch cause she deserves nice things). Felt like my commander was progressing through a TV series or book trilogy.
@@Iwanwahid1969 To be fair, her mechs are good and the SLDF Atlas she got mid-game is damn near impenetrable.
@@Iwanwahid1969 No missiles on the Blackjack. Frankly, best config I found for it was stripping out 2 MLas and the Autocannons and then slotting in two Large Lasers instead. That allows you to also add in anotehr ton of armor and enough heatsinks that it actually runs pretty cool despite that lightshow loadout.
Is the Taurian Commodore actually voiced by the same guy who did Adam Jensen in Deus Ex?
darkawakening01 yes!
Pretty badass.
@@darkawakening01 I felt the same way when I realized I was hearing Solid Snake's voice in The Long Dark
16:00 most powerfull.
Is that Elias Toufexis' voice?
Yeah I was wondering that. He sounds a lot like Jensen with the distinctive gruffy voice.
I cannot take that Ginger Muppet(as someone on the Battletech subreddit called him) seriously. I mean, he sounds like Adam Jensen. And I didn't ask for that XD
But his voice acting was sooo goood. :D
16:40 best part. felt bad for the guy.
16:35
"You should listen to your uncle Lady Arano,
we have unfinished business you and I.
The Iberia still carries a full complement of battle mechs,
plus enough firepower to level a city,
and you know it's too late to withdraw your forces.
When I reach Coromodir, I will drown your restoration in a sea of fire!
Every dog in Arano covers will die.
You took my son from me, Kamea;
my hope for the future died with him!
Now I'm killing yours..."
Nahum
The Inner Sphere and The Clan will be swipe as side when the Tetatae found a way to the Battletech system.
SO MANY STRONG WOMAN FIGURES IN BATTLETECH LORE EVERYONE WOULD LOVE IT!!!!
I do
They are real and combat flexible design, not like half nun half tank or go nude with chainsaw like 40k design seems totally dog shit
Natasha. Fucking. Kerensky.
Oh that is how the cutscene sounds, cool cool, spend money just to have mute cutscenes, at least youtube does have sound
Goosebumps @12.20 (for those that have played the game)
This is why I am Tripp Smith of the Aurigan Coalition.
Nice speech, lady. Now pay up.
wonderful game , had a great experience
we need an anime with this games and the lore
i haven't booted this game up in years, maybe its time...if my steam account hasn't been hacked to oblivion
Imagine what would actually happen if man kind ever created such weapons of war. We already have nukes and such like that, but imagine what would happen if we truly created mass machines of war that were stories tall
The Wobbies blended the two.
The Urbanmech that can use Arrow IV missiles. Arrow IVs that can be nuke-tipped...
Sadly (thankfully?), these kinds of machines are impractical for several reasons from videos I've seen:
Extremely high ground pressure with two-to-four points of small ground contact on machines weighing from 20 to 100 tons.
High technological requirements such as advanced motors, gimbals, controls, balance mechanisms, etc.
Lots of moving parts which mean a lot of failure points.
Very high profile because they literally stand over everything.
@@racer927 As a note, this exists. www.sarna.net/wiki/Essay:_BattleMech_Technology
It would be impossible. Their own weight would destroy them. You can only have buildings that tall because they stay perfectly still and are reenforced everywhere to support the weight. Unless you develop some new material that is super impossibly strong while being impossibly light weight. Or go fight on an asteroid or moon somewhere with much much lower gravity.
But besides that they HAVE much more devestating weapons than the mechwarriors. They have nukes, and use bio and chemical weapons in the game. They just realized "Uh...if we nuke the planet, how are we gonna go get all those rich resources and stuff we wanted the planet for in the first place?" It's like pirates who just sink ships instead of looting them and realizing they just capsized the booty.
After razing a few worlds and realizing they have nothing to show for it they shifted back to conventional warfare which at least left the worlds infastructure intact enough to make invading it actually profitable. Thus big robots and keeping their uber destructive weapons mothballed until they find a target they don't care about getting intact.
The cutscenes are epic, although this story is basically a sci-fi giant mech version of The Lion King, right?
Hamlet.
The Lion King is just furry Hamlet.
Or like Richard II or Richard III with the perspectives flipped. Or maybe King Lear?
The return of the king is the framework for a lot of great storytelling. (Interestingly, the Tolkien book of that name puts that aspect of the story firmly in the background.)
Part Hamlet/Lion King, part Star Wars (good rebels vs evil Empire).
Why weren't they all in shorts and coolant vest? :))
For the Periphery, that would be UNWISE given that a fair share of the worlds out there requires XNT equipment.
@@TheTrueAdept What is XNT equipment? Sarna.net does not give an answer. Underwear and coolant vest are the uniform of the rust bucket low tech period of Battletech., when this game takes place.
@@Jorjgasm Whoops, had an N where the C should be. It would be XCT Equipment or Xenoplanetary Conditions Training equipment. Basically, the sort of sealing and training for planets hostile to human life like airless rocks or Venusian hell holes.
@@TheTrueAdept But I remember from the novels that even the guys fighting on airless rocks were in their shorts in pressurized Mech cabins. One example was the book where Phelan Kell gets taken as isorla by the Clans.
HBS plays a bit loose with the lore. The actual Periphery isn't drowning in heavy and assault mechs like in this game, not even 10% of numbers shown here.
Full body cooling suits are lostech that ran out after the 1st Succession War. The game aesthetics are anachronistic too, not 80s retro-future at all.
Surrounded by a Battalion of the Concordat most decorated soldiers?
Well shit, Commodore Oostergaard, this is Republic Lord Fandragon Crimsonspirit of the Knights Republic Legion and you shoulda brought more mechs! Also, call an uber, cuz at the conclusion of this radio transmission, your dropship will explode...Fandragon Out!
*LNDF Guardian Eternal and LNDF King V'Zen come out of orbit and turn the poor Fortress Class into an insurance claim*
Fantastic music!
If I may leave my 2 cents I love the intro cinematic but the others just dont quite feel right for some reason
I think the reason may be the lack of movement in latter scenes as opposed to the intro
When this game hits VR ... shit is going to get real
The intro seems rather short, it could do with being a full 5-minute cinematic...
I did it for STOMPY ROBOT MAYHEM
Going from legendary MW2 intro by Digital Domain to a cardboard cartoon cutscenes is not a good sign :/
This story made me so angry at the Taurian military. Ostergaard should never have been allowed anywhere near a mission he had such a personal stake in. The disaster that was his campaign was almost inevitable.
Yay ! THX.
Can you upload all of the Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr cinematics and cutscenes?
There's lot of good things about this game. But the story ain't one of them.
It's funny to see all the people feeling sad for Taurian commander guy, when all I remember about him is Adam Jensen's voice and "MUH SON, MUH REVENGE" mood all the time. Such a great character he was, this commander guy.
what?
you realise that not all story telling has to be incredibly deep and nuanced? people like samuel ostergaard because he is perfectly portrayed for what his character is supposed to be, and it serves as a FANTASTIC moral grey area for the story which battletech revels in.
no matter how you slice it, its hard to argue that samuel's actions aren't completely justified, we kill his son in cold blood on bad intel. for his perspective the mercenaries we command are nothing but cutthroats who murdered his only son like militant dogs.
sure all he expresses is rage and murderous intent... but as a grieving father who has had his entire world shattered? thats a perfectly reasonable way to write such a character.
now im not going to say that battletechs story was an amazing story. but it is the perfect story for the game, the game gives you enough of a tie to kamea and mastiff that you have reason to care about her cause but also not so much so that you cant rationalise being a bit of a dick and choosing to take the stance of "this isn't my war, i work for your wallet not for your morals"
the villains are fairly well done with the power hungry espinosas, the previously mentioned devastated samuel ostergard as well as the other politically charged allies of the directorate.
i think that a lot of the story is pretty decent, the missions themselves can be borderline badass (SLDF Cache anyone?) and the general plot structure and gameplay pacing works well with a lot of the story missions offering a high risk high reward prize mech at some point (I.E the quickdraw in the argo mission, the jagermech in the prison mission so on and so forth) allowing you to riskily take less direct measures against these heavier mechs, leaving them alive and dangerous for longer but giving you the opportunity of more salvage of heavier mechs earlier than you would usually be able to deal with them.
my one issue with the story. my only major issue, is kamea fucking arano and her god damn salvage decimating kintaro with 3 srm 6's. the amount of god damn times ive shaved off a mech to nothing, just about to score that pilot kill until "FOR THE RESTORATION" a wild kamea arano appears and alpha strikes my beautiful salvage into dust.
I just wish we could've gone to the other side instead. Especially after I was forced to blow up an entire cache chock full of Star League era mechs and lostech. Screw that noise, I was willing to put up with a bunch of incompetents and quirky caricatures, I was begrudgingly willing to accept that I was working for a selfish spoiled princess throwing a tantrum over muh birthright, and while Ostergaard nearly broke my resolve... This was too far and that wasn't even up to debate.
I'd rather be a clanner than willing accessory to a crime like this.
to be fair, she does have a change of heart. realising that she shouldnt be fighting because its her birthright, but instead because of the awful rule the people are dealing with under her uncles iron fist.
and i think ostergaard was a tragic character but ultimately i think that its unfair to claim that you should turn coat to the directorate for it. Perhaps a third option? like be able to turn over to ostergaard's side and wipe out both the directorate and restoration? but i think the restoration is definitely the defacto good option of all 3 of those.
wish they use good old fmv style instead this
true battle tech lore..
many altas at the starting cinematics: there is 4 in total!
My characters answer: "You have a good heart my lady, I will fight every moment of every day by your side to see that it can remain so. For the Reach, and for you, my Lady."
so epic .
Would be nice if these cutscenes "worked in the game". I have had to disable them for the game to run...apparently a "common problem" a lot of people have had! :-/
Battletech vs Titanfall...
And then the jihad and dark age ruin the fucking setting by killing all the main factions that made the universe intresting
Just pretend anything after Clan Invasion never happened, just like Disney Star Wars is a mass hallucination.
Battletech has be ruined since the 90´s. Still got all the books and minis. It´s a shame
@@Marauder1981 yeah some but the new plastic minis look rad there even making plastic tanks and vtols there's a mercenary Kickstarter comming in fall so ignoring everything beyond fedcom civil war I'm happy the game isn't dead
@@somerandomhuman4145 I. HATE. PLASTIC. I hope than Ironwind Metals put out more new designed minis.
@@Marauder1981 they are there making some of the plastic molds in metal and variants loadouts also check out the new Atlas II it's using the new artwork from the recognition guide it's looks amazing I love iron wind too but a lot of those models need a update
going to do all that hard work fighting someone elses war just for money doesnt cut it. her hand in marriage that way you get the girl the money and the kingdom now that would be better deal.
Hurrrr lets blow up the star league era super fortress full of incredibly powerful Battlemechs because a big dropship is coming down, not like this super fortress's heavy rail turrets would be able to blow it out of the sky or anything. BTW I'm going to take the Atlas because I'm the real hero of this story - Bitch employer
What rail turrets? The only defenses the place had were drone hovercraft and some basic defense turrets, which your single mech lance is able to dispose of. There's no way that would hold off a Fortress dropship and a full 36-mech battalion, and there wasn't nearly enough time to bring in more people to reinforce the position.
And blowing it up was Yang's idea anyway, not Kamea's.
@@patrickcoyle5469 I bet Yang secretly works for the Comstar, they couldn't let a bunch of dirty periphery trash get ahold of a full Castle Brian's worth of supplies and lostech.
Hurr, let's not bring down the defenses and die like dogs to a never ending army of drone weapon carriers, While we're at it, let's not destroy the base we can't hold that's full of SLDF mechs that can rape entire armies so our enemies can claim them for themselves and ensure we drown in a sea of our own blood. Dumbass.
I'm pretty sure there's a Sun Tzu passage about denying resources from your enemy.
Whats annoying about this game is how much resources it needs for so little....
?
you mean the hardware required to run this game, or how you're charged every 30 in-game days simply for owning a ship, mechs, and pilots?
Ferrick well all those things cost money to maintain and you have to pay the pilots. Remember you are running a business
blackvial yeah that's why I carry a vast array of mechs, but only a squadron of pilots
60hrs in, i have more then enough mechs. what counts are your mechwarriors, but u should have at least 1 extra pilot for each skill set archetype. after reaching 3 skillfeats they gain so few xp and they can always die to an ac 20 hitting the cockpit. also if one or two are wounded the time they recover costs you as well, u can do easier missions and train up the bravo lance ;)
This game was fun until I got seriously hamstrung by the single lance limit of my merc company. Seriously? I have millions of credits but can't afford to buy another dropship? Meanwhile I'm constantly fighting against larger numbers and the game turns take so damn long for the enemy side I resorted to watching youtube vids to pass the time. Also the plot got shit pretty fast, everytime you do a story mission that makes you feel accomplished the writers screw you over with a deux ex machina on the enemy's side. Like I get not having the good guys win all the time, but holy crap the hurdles I had to get though plotwise for such an unsatisfying ending makes me almost regret playing this game in the first place.
Also the redhead dude is an absolute fucknugget. Hate him so much.
The difficulty balance is pretty piss poor when you can't field more than a single lance of 'Mechs and yet you face enemies with up to *three* lances and maybe some vehicles that leaves your plucky lance out-numbered, out-tonned *and* out-gunned.
While I agree with your sentiment of a lance limit, fielding and operating more than a lance in a battle would really slow down the game even further and throw off the balance. Besides, it's a fun challenge going up against 2 Assault lances with only a Heavy lance, it really pushes you
It's actually quite justified in universe where mech's can cost millions and lost of base infrastructure to build its spare parts after sucession wars means that deployed it en masse are out of option.
the late game and end game is a mess. There is just simply no way an assult lane go against 3 lance of heavy or even assult sometimes. I have to lose some man and mech to grain more mech.
List price for a Leopard, about the smallest Mech dropper around, is a cool ~60 million C-Bills. And I don't think anyone out in the Periphery even makes any of 'em at that time.
it was ok but why do it with painting what happen to full on cinematics? was that too costly and hard to do anymore. I prefer ones with the full on movies myself and how was the actual game play?
Full CGI is very expensive and to be honest, I quite like this art style. So its a good compromise.
This is a kickstarter game so just enjoy what they could afford to give you
yeah full CGI coast a lot of money even bad CGI the only other thing they could have done is use in game models and even then you need extra time for animation and it limits you to just mechs and a few character models
well I would love to see some BattleTech in action in todays standards, the story boards used at least in the intro are far better at telling a story by simply showing some slides, when they are animated more etc it would have to be much longer to show the same information hard to explain.
The writing, oh god the writing........3:33 "That's what makes you a Hero in the eyes of history. Wether you believe it? That's up to you!"
No seriously, why don't you instead write: "That's what makes you a hero in the eyes of History. Wether you believe it or not!"
Or instead: "That's what makes you a hero in the eyes of people, wether you believe it or not."
(Yeah full disclosure, I study history and pre-historic and medievel archeology, so I have my pet peeve with that overuse of history, like the eyes of history, the right side of history, historical etc.pp. Remember history is the story we tell each other, it's the story and the narrative we agree upon. And quite often, like in the late classical and early medieval period, we can't be sure if what we are told is actually what happened. Which is why we need to check it again and again, and review it on factual basis. )
Also the trope of the once prosperous kingdom in decline..........boooring, just take a good look at the periphery in BT and you will find it rather interesting, as it's an interesting collection of shades of gray. There are bandit kingdoms as well as there are free societies.
And no faction, no leader in the Battletech Universe is as clear cut good or evil as shown here.
Also "the noble Lady......" is what is redundant, in the Battletech Universe the title Lady usually denotes a Noble.
Which indicates that the noble here is to contrast the lady with her uncle, again the women are wonderful and men are villains trope.
Also personally I dislike the speech for being overly dramatic and speaker is overacting.
It also feels out of touch with the Battletech universe's style of speech, even if you look at the heads of the houses in the novels, they spoke differently.
And I'm sure the captain's death is supposed to be impactful and make us feel sad, but do we really know him enough for his death to be impactful?
Also in her speech in the Snow I find kind of strange, as she is neither defending herself nor offering her apology for not being there, instead of a heartfelt speech, it's more of another bit exposition to paint the enemy faction as evil, especially that bit about the secret police, the disappreance of people and the conscription of children.
Now I'm quite sorry to say, some of what she claims is unforgiveable is not that uncommon in the Battletech universe, neither in the Inners Sphere nor especially in the Periphery.
I mean just look up say Loki, the Lyran Secret Police/Secret agency on Sarna.net, or look at the ISF (Internal Security Force) of the Draconis Combine and the Maskirovka of the Capellan Confederation.
None of them above torture, murder or using informants to spy on their population and most of them of rather authoritarian outlook.
It feels a bit weird and out of place of for the BT universe, makes the Aurigan Reach seem a bit too sheltered for the Battletech universe, and a bit too unreal given some of their neighbours, which are:
-the aforementioned Capellan Confederation, which is known for having some rather Mad Chancellors and an absolutely brutal and sometimes psychotic secret Police the Maskirovka.
-the Free Worlds League, which officially is a bit more concerned with the liberty of their subjects, but in reality is the most balkanized state of the IS, with more than a few atrocities committed by the civil war parties.
By Comparison to them the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordant are rather nice places to live, but I wouldn't trust a Capellan to save my live.
As the Taurian's found out:
www.sarna.net/wiki/Ariana%27s_War
The speaker is also a bit off, she sounds more like she's about to start crying instead of being angered by what she's seen and having the burning ambition to right those wrongs.
What is there to make people rally to her?
Also I did not know is an incredibly weak defense, come on you can write better.
Oh come on and the writing when commandant what's-his face of the Taurian Concordant speaks, no commander would call his troops "the most decorated", they would call them the best, or would expect their company's name to speak for itself.
I mean the Kathil Ulans or the, Kell Hounds, the 10th Lyran Guard, also kown as the Undead, or Mac Arron's Armored Cavalry, need no further introduction.
If you hear their name, you know shit's about to get real, because those are elite units.
And same goes for the Taurian Defense forces, their best units would be known by their neighbours.
Like for example the Taurian Guards or the Concordat Commandos.
And demanding unconditional Surrender..............we're talking pre 4th sucession war where such a thing would almost never be done, so they would talk about surrender conditions.
You know at that time the tech was rather scarce, and battlemechs and other tech hard to come by, so most commanders would avoid a costly battle if they could.......
And then that fangirling over "The sword of restoration"....and painting the ice red with blood....and has he eaten a tub of rusty nails for breakfast?
Could they stop the overacting? I feel reminded of the "UNLIMITED POOWWAAAAAH!" ;)
And do we actually get some characterization for the characters?
And the music is supposed to be epic, but in the end it's grating on my nerves, trying to create the epicness in combination with overuse of slow-mo in those strange half moving scenes.
It also seems like the devs had an over fondness for strings*, because they every cutscene, I mean I like strings, but if you overuse them, they start to be grating.
The problem is the lack of variety in the music, each piece that accompanies a cutscene is of the "dramatic" or even overly dramatic variety, there is no lighthearted theme, no "let's go and get them" theme in them, just drama.
And no variation in tempo, it's always slow and drawn out.
Good music lives from changes in tempo, lively, languid, fast, slow, just listen to a symphony in comparison. (Listening to Dvorak's Ninth in the background.)
Another problem I have is that the monologue about what she learned about herself and her worthiness, should that not be a monolgoue and Laudatio been given by a third person about her, not by herself about her?
And at 20:14 there is a question she asks herself and is never answered, instead we have a jump cut to something else, to a monologue about war, which is rather stilted and has unnatural breaks.
Also a Hero asks himself or herself not if they are a hero, most of the true ones assume they don't, they only think they did their part.
And that humility in combination with their sacrifices and their deeds is what makes them heroes.
Also if she doesn't know what drove the mercenaries, who are so central to the plot, that indicates she never talked with them, which makes her seem rather like a distant employer with strong ideas about class distinctions.
Which is a bit weird, given how that is counter what was in the Novels of Battletech and how much the rulers there cared to know what was going on in their merc units, even if it was only to keep them under control and safeguard against betrayal.
*Among my favourite pieces of music are Adagio for strings, Elgar's Nimrod, Blackheart from Two steps from hell, Edoras and King Theoden from the Lord of the Rings, the Black Symphony by Within Tempation and the Metropole Orchestra, the orchestral version of Rock you like a Hurricane by the Scorpions and a lot more. Including some of John Williams's work and Dvorak's No.9 the New World.
Just feast your ears on Nimrod's Majesty:
th-cam.com/video/NhnMd1Jl7SA/w-d-xo.html
I'm watching some of it now, is it going to be any better?
I mean I really like the Gameplay.......I just have problems with the story right now.
LupusAries, you know no one finished reading that, right? Battle tech is much more interesting than the pc drivel they made, but the storyline is just an excuse to have giant robot battles.
Lucky Chops
Wrong, I just read the whole thing. And I’m gonna copy paste it. (With due credit of course)
Edit:Dammit can’t do itz
Thanks and you're welcome to White Fang.
And yeah I have encountered the same issue with another person's comment that I found noteworthy and important enough to post elsewhere (with due credit, as you want to do.)
Now in the case of honesty, after seeing more of the story, I would modify my position one one or two counts.
Mainly that the death of the Captain is a bit more impactful if you take more of the story into account. However, I would still wish for a bit more interaction with him, which could be written in say, a flashback. You know expanding upon for example, the gladiator arch, and the one bad fight.
Maybe even include a flashback to a mission, either from the PC or Kamea's perspective. Or they could write a scene where they talk about him, maybe hold an impromptu wake and get drunk. The scene from Mass Effect two with Doktor Chakwas and the Ice Brandy comes to mind, especially where they remember Jenkins.
Mind you in the framework of this game, without the big cinematics of Mass Effect, as that would go way over budget.
To make him more of a character and less like the women in the refrigerator who is sacrificed to further the character archs of two other characters.
The other thing is maybe the atrocity in the camp, a lot of the info is dumped in the Briefing or Pre-briefing, which for us is an atrocity akin to the worst in our past (and yeah I'm trying really, really hard to avoid Godwin's law ;) because it doesn't need to be about that group there are plenty else.), but the thing is, while it is not a daily occurence in BT it is not that rare.
You know it's not unlike the situation on say Csesztreg III
www.sarna.net/wiki/Csesztreg
Or Ziliang
www.sarna.net/wiki/Ziliang
And Mind you were are near the end of the third Succession war and smack dab in that period of decline where for example the water purifying plants on Csesztreg III failed. We are in a period that is more like the late eighteenth to early 19th century in some respects and on some worlds, despite them having spaceships and advanced tech. (Most of which in that period can't be replaced.)
I wish that the Union's destruction led to something more than "he was my son!" I could buy it if they had spent more time building up Samuel Ostgaard's character in order to explain his dedication to destroying the Restoration, but as it stood they needed something else. When the mission originally occurred, the Capellan in me thought that what the Dropship carried was probably the families and dependents of the Directorate's supporters. That would've caused a backlash both in Directorate (and possibly) Taurian space, and would've given Kamea something to wrestle with. As is, she mostly was absolved of any sin because "she didn't know," and only killed combatants. Without that, the fact that his men continued to follow him after the Taurians pulled out meant the vast majority of them were only loyal to him, or his son, which I don't buy. Sure there was a mutiny, but how was it put down if most of his men were Taurian?
I also agree with you that a hero doesn't wonder whether or not they actually are a hero. The answer to the unanswered question I thought was implied by the "History chooses its heroes," aka: I won therefore a hero am I. If said right, the monologue could be cynical and imply a realization on the part the character played, how they were no better. In this case, it sounds like a rationalization of "well people died under me, but it's OK because we won, and that makes us heroes. Also, this conflict which destroyed all of our industry made me a better ruler, so everything's fine!" At best, Kamea is a noble who wanted to play at being a mechwarrior, got to play at it and achieve something by being a Joan d'Arc figurehead.
Likewise I figured the speech on Weldry was hammed up because she knew it was being used as propaganda. One of the options you have in conversation notes that it's a pretty skeezy move. You're right that what happened on Weldry was not that big of a deal in-Universe, but it was to the Aurigan people. Secret Ops probably aren't well known, likewise incidents that occur on one planet probably aren't well known unless they can be used to politically motivate a group (Eg, Varus the Butcher from the Mech 2 Mercs Campaign).
This is pretty much true to life. And there's real research done that shows how a "humanized" death or incident can be more motivating than a hard to imagine atrocity. Most modern account I can think of are the drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, or the Douma chemical attack. Both of which have been used as major talking points to motivate political change where the estimated 400,000 deaths I've never heard mentioned. Numbers naturally dehumanize, and past a couple thousand most can't comprehend them.
I like Ostergaard more than kamaehammaeha, friggin danes
Iberia dude. Ginger... with actual red hair?
Good music. I don't consider clip-art moving with an animation tool a "cinematic."
As much as I like Battletech... after so many years they could have hired some intelligent script writers.
But ofc not.
So many flaws and cheesy cliches that it makes one feel pure shame.
Still the game itself is quite decent and hope future expansions will improve it, but that wont change the fact the main campaign, overall, royaly sucks.
Surprised you're not just happy there is a game.
Oh I am very very happy, but just because you like something does not mean you have to ignore its flaws :> .
I'd love to read your scripts.
Well to get the more simplistic but for me most open minded approach: allow the player to chose between the Coup Party or the Restoration, we are playing a mercenary company after all.
Would have been a great signal of maturity allow the player to chose between a monarchy (terrible choice) or a "tyrannical dictator", each of them having its flaws and virtues.
If not that then the story of a small merc company making its first steps in the Periphery involving bad contractors, grudges, revenges, argumental turns involving change of sides.
All that while keeping pace with the current situation in the Inner Sphere at the time.
As the base campaign for the game it would serve as a beginning to our little merc group, only to be improved and expanded in future expansions.
@@cesarandrade1987 So because you can't write scripts you can't criticize problems the game has? I hope someone tells you you can't talk because you're not a car mechanic if you are ever unfortunate enough to get a lemon car.
These are cartoon graphics - I don’t think this is based on fact.
Mechwarrior 2 hat better "cinematics". But that was in 1995.
23 years later you get animated slideshows, promises not fullfilled by the devs,
expensive low content DLCs (which should have been in the main game) and in the end: abandoned.
I expected more from HBS, before they sold themselves to Paradox.
It's still the best modern BT game there is. Now where is my MechCommander Gold CD....
wow... ive never seen someone who dislikes the cutscenes in this game.
are they technically impressive? no. are they artistically beautiful? ABSOLUTELY. every single moment is a new amazing dekstop wallpaper that perfectly encapsulates the aesthetic of battletech.
as for promises unfulfilled, i cant really comment as i never really followed the development of this game and just happened to come across it on release day. though i will say the dlc is a little expensive for what it is (though i think they got better with each one with flashpoint being a bit meh but heavy metal being genuinely pretty great)
its still one of my favourite games of all time though :P
What? There's only one ending to the campaign? I was wishing I can switch side to the Uncle for a better pay since we're mercs (and he's also the better leader). "Every employer is one missed payment away from being a target and every target is one good bribe away from being an employer." Game of Thrones my ass, this is the cheesiest tumblr fan-fic tier story I've ever seen in a long time.
Cole Linse what a shame, I liked HBS. I played all of their Shadowrun games. I just can't understand what went through these developers' mind. They had their own thing going, why ruin it? After seeing the steam reviews, I hope they learn from this mistake, honestly.
Cole Linse I'm one of those gamers that just can't overlook shitty writing. In my opinion they should've just removed the campaign altogether and focus on gameplay mechanics, if they can't/won't hire a decent writer.
I'm not even an American, but I can sense that this story is low-key anti Trump. Jordan should've stayed as lead designer tbh.
Are you sure your not over anylising it...? Why woudl it be anti trumppropaganda? cheasy writting okay but political ?
Kanjejou you don't have to look hard. It translate very nearly to the skewed Hillary supporters views of the past American election. The "rightful" female ruler deposed by a populist national-revivalist male "tyrant". This "tyrant" also turns out to be backed by a foreign state.
Really, the whole story reads like anti-Trump masturbatory revenge fantasy.
Of course it gets political. This is *Battletech*. You know, the universe where the dominant factions are basically Feudal Houses with monarchy states being the norm and all the dirty politics and baggage that surrounds it.
An example is this game's story. What initially seems like a coup d'état by Kamea's uncle is revealed to actually be a proxy war between the Taurian Concordat (who has supported the uncle for some time already) and the Magistracy of Canopus, which supports the dethroned Kamea. The Taurian Concordat supports the Aurigan Directorate because they want a proxy state against the Federated Suns, one of the major Feudal Houses in the Inner Sphere while the Magistracy of Canopus secretly support Kamea so that she can retake the throne and create a buffer state between the Concordat and the Suns to prevent another major conflict between the two factions.
So yeah. It gets political. No shit.
Oh man, this game was such a disappointment. Welp at least it didn´t fry my PC like so many others.
Too short, probably because the stupid turn based mode is just bad.
the gameplay is good, but the story is horrible, it's so bland and silly, it's just the rebels of justice vs the evil space nazi that kicks pups for fun, looks like the current Star Wars