Did you ever play Front Mission 4 on PS2? That was a really good one. You could probably find an emulator for it at this point if you wanted to check it out.
Same here and I'm loving it. All the same old strategies I used to employ seem to be carrying over well here too although the AI isn't the best at employing a variety of those same strategies. Like keeping a Spider moving at full range to make them near impossible to hit.
Wow you did an excellent job relating the Magic that makes Battletech such a unique combat system that's really not like any other game. It's VERY different from XCOM and I've waited over 20 years to finally see a true computer adaptation of Battletech Tabletop game. I can't believe it's taken this long and this game really is a blast regardless of it being slow sometimes. (Much of that can be tweaked and fixed over time) Multiplayer too this game can be amazing if it brings the huge battletech/mechwarrior community together there. The lore is so great too in Battletech. It is NOT shallow. Think Game of Thrones in Space. Tons of great books and deep lore politics within this universe and mostly the game dips pretty deeply into that with some gamey contrivances that are corny at the start as you role your eyes at some of the stupid things that happen just to create a situation to play through. Overall this more than lived up to my dreams of a true Battletech game and i just pray it will grow from here now that we finally have a good foundation. Mechwarrior Tactics was a failed attempt previously and even that was a blast!
The problems with performance have definitely improved over the past year. I haven't bought any of the DLCs yet but the Urban Warfare one looks interesting, might buy this summer. I got the game on sale and do not regret my purchase. Well worth a discounted price.
ACG Patron. Come on by! Summary Game is pretty good and has some chops. But on both testing platforms it had FPS issues, as well as crashing and it looks like thats well known. So for now its a Wait for Sale. Needs a patch or two or a bit lower price. If you do get it at least you have Steam refund.
With graphics straight out of 2007 and this horrible performance (which is caused only by dev's inability to program the engine), the "cut-scenes" and gameplay worthy of a mobile game I'd say its more like "never touch" or even better: I'd rather eat the money. I've been a fan of BT universe for ages now and I've never seen such a pathetic attempt on the franchise.
I'm actually rather wary about the new MW game. I've wasted quite a lot of time in MWO and I'm fairly accustomed with the way PGI handles their games. I'll be surprised if it won't come out an unfinished buggy low-performing mess of a game. I'll be waiting for your video when the game comes out, genuinely interested in your opinion. Cheers.
Wait for sale because of performance issues, I think you could introduce a new category like "wait for a performance fix patch" or something like that. But I also understand that you think the price is a little higher than it should be and maybe I agree with that.
thats conflating summary with status. The two don't always overlap nor is any patch guaranteed to be coming. But a price drop IS guaranteed at some point.
Finally after 20 years comes the MechCommander I always wanted. I play this on an R5 2400g stock clocks and i have the settings on high ... And it runs smooth with no crashes. If you liked MechCommander you gona love this.
one of my first memories of gaming; Battletech Cresent Hawk Inception (sp?) on the C64 back in the 80's Been looking forward to a good Battletech game for a while!!!! Thanks for the thorough review ACG!!
The game has had a lot of updates since release. It's a lot more stable, but there are still weird performance issues from time to time. The game still feels more expensive than it should be, though, especially when you factor in the "Season Pass" model for its expansions. I was able to get the game and the first expansion for $45, but I would honestly not feel like I was getting my moneys worth if I wasn't a massive Battletech fanboy. (I've been playing various Battletech games for 20+ years). I highly recommend this game for Battletech fans, but I would be hesitant to recommend this game as an introduction into the Battletech universe.
Haven’t really had any performance issues. It’s a little ridiculous to say that the $40 price tag is too expensive for a game of this level of complexity. It’s absolutely worth buying at full price. Just, later, after the devs have fixed the bugs and crash issues.
Disclaimer: I am a BattleTech KickStarter backer. Hey, Karak. I agree with your points in the video, and shared the graphically glitches.. However, the new Geforce drivers that Nvidia put out today solved 90% of the graphics issues I was also having. ACG probably doesn't do "second looks", but it may be worth it.
For me, Battletech is Mechcommander x Front Mission 5 x Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander having a love child, the gameplay is really the mix of that 3 games.
I'm pretty deep in, but I feel like I should be a lot farther along... If I could skip animations and if some of the freezes in the action weren't there, missions could be 3-4 times as short depending on if you have allied turrets or a convoy to waste your time. The game really is good. It's loads of fun to defeat enemy mechs get their salvage, optimize your lance and repeat. Not really loving the story yet though. A lot of the characters have too much "attitude" I guess that seems out of place to me and so far, I don't really have any choice in helping Kamea free her people or whatever it is she wants to do
Thanks for the review, I’ll likely be getting this game once it goes on sale. I’m a Gundam fan and as a result I’m generally a mech fan as well. The last strategy type mech game I played was Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front on the PS2.
Just my luck. Got home from work two hours ago and the Steam servers went into maintenance mode as I downloaded the game. Sucks. EDIT: Game just fully downloaded mere seconds ago. lol
I got this game because I enjoyed XCOM 2. This game looked similar to that style and I decided to try it out. I love this game. You should mention that some of the most fun is in designing your mechs and then trying them out in the battle. I really love trying out crazy builds, just to see if they work. Nice review. :)
I can't wait to get my hands on this one, despite the performance issues. Now that they gutted Front Mission, I don't have a lot of ways to get my mecha strategy game fix.
Great review! I didn't realize this was developed by Hairbrained Schemes. The same studio that did the Shadowrun games. So many menus and the dialogue options and story development look extremely like it. I agree $40 is heavy, but it looks like a good title to play.
I played a lot of CyberStorm 1 and 2 and Battletech for SNES. CyberStorm was amazing much like this but older but it had so much more details you could do for an old game like that with Mechs. This game reminded me of those so much, this looks good too.
Shadowrun (another classic FASA adaptation by Harebrained) had alot of the same problems, and it was painfully unforgiving and unintuitive at first, but damn it was engrossing. The lack of every vidya game adaptation of Battletech skipping LAM's really bugs me. They became awesome after the Clans showed up.
Finding that when quitting the game and it unloads from memory, it tends to mess with other things it shouldn't. So I usually restart after playing to get a "clean" slate to do other stuff.
I've always wanted to know ACG, what constitutes a sale on PC? 10%? 20%? 30%? At what sale price is it a wait for a sale game? I tend to get my pc games anywhere from 20-25% off on release so I was wondering if you consider that a wait for sale price or not.
Hey Karak, just finished listening to your international podcast #78 and I heard Absii say that he was looking for other games similar to Bioshock. When you speak with him again you should tell him to check out a game that came out in 2010 called Singularity, its a phenomenal game that deals with time manipulation and is right up there in quality and atmosphere with Bioshock. Thanks for all you do Karak!
Well, nice positive review. But from gameplay videos, my main concern - and from what other reviews I have seen on the same negative point. How slow the combat is. That is my biggest concern, if it is indeed very slow - I just don't think I could enjoy it.
Not experienced any real issues in the game so far. More voice acting.would be nice, & there are some tiny issues with the camera, as mentioned in the review. However, I do believe it was well worth pre-ordering, & I predict great things for the game, going forward.....especially as more money from sales comes rolling in. Its certainly one of the best *new* games I have bought in many years.
I had some sort of Battletech game on my Amiga 2000 in the 80's. Also had original tabletop game. So it needs an optimisation patch. Mind you, suggestions of a memory leak make me think "save, close game, open game, load" but perhaps my age makes me more patient and less demanding. I'd far rather see games like this than another mindless flashy graphics load of bollocks with about as much depth as an average news bulletin.
I've waited for sale and I'm having a blast with it. The performance issues seems to be fixed, as I haven't experienced any yet. The lack of environmental sound and voice are my main gripes, especially as it such a story heavy campaign, and after a long day at work I don't have the concentration to read all of it. Great game though.
I've played about 20+ hours and I've had 1 crash and it was cause I was in a loading screen and I alt tabbed. I've done it a million times as well since and I've had no other crashes.
Just finished Battletech. I took my time and really played the mercenary role. Without rushing or grinding and NO reloads, losing a fight is a big part of the experience, i got 65 hours of very good gameplay. Highly recommend.
Played all day yesterday. Encountered no bugs or graphic issues. Running a GTX 1070. I wouldnt expect this game to need much on graphics though. Maybe it's just bad optimization. Runs like a dream though on my old PC. It honestly feels like I'm playing tabletop battletech from when I was in my early 20s. I'm 40. What video card did you run? Not sure if you mentioned that. I think you said i7 for your cpu.
I have an i7 and 1070 and run it at 4k. It has some fps drops, but since it's turn based it really doesnt impact gameplay that much. I really like the game
I got the deluxe edition for only $28! I wanted to get this game anyways, but saving money is always a good thing. So far I have played about 15 hours and this game is just awesome, but I'm still trying to figure out some things.
I have no intent to buy this game, and have never heard of it. But your reviews are so detailed and thorough, they're a form of art work on their own and I really enjoy watching them. Fantastic work, keep it up.
A lot of the mechanisms mentions i.e. the stat system and the movement system are actually implicit derivations from the original source material (adjacent to the mech warrior RPG, and from the advanced version of the game in the poorly laid out rulebook). There are great abstractions such as the armor system which replaces the more banal and mind-numbing damage system of the first. Evasion is also a boon, it adds an interesting layer of tactical trade-offs. However it isn't without some blatant flaws for example the ui doesn't lend to some tactical considerations, for example I wish the ui indicated which sections of the mech hold specific weapons this would've been nice as the game allows you to target specific body parts. The bombastic plot points at least in the beginning few were trite and were so predictable I was able to enunciate in real time the same emphasis and exact wording used. In terms of pacing this game is a slog, a difficult, massive but somewhat clunky slog, much like the source material.
While I do agree with the pros and cons, I feel the pros far outweigh the cons. Combined with the fact that Harebrained seem dedicated to fixing the bugs in the game and has already released a preformance patch I would say this is a must buy.
Eh, I've bought it as it's a must have for me. Maybe a smidge overpriced but it's a pretty beefy game for 40. Some of these criticism (like lack of voice) are more suited for AAA games with enough DLC to cost $120+ I think the main thing that bothers me with this kind of game is that they get a lot of funding from the community yet end up selling the game corporate style. It also seems screwy to go with community funding then once you get it hop on board with a major publisher. Maybe this is no big deal since the gaming press seems to think nothing of it.
I played it a bit yesterday, and I did like it, but it does have some issues. Now I have almost no knowledge of the Bettletech universe, and I was quite lost after the "tutorial". I mean combat is pretty easy, but most of the UI made no sense to me, and was never explained in the tutorial part. It was just how to move and fire. It took me a while to figure out what phases were. Half of the info on screen is not explained (like what are the individual bars next to a mech or how to know when you are at long, short or medium ranges for your weapons). Not all icons have tool tips, some weapons are not explained well (Like the DCA or something similar) under the melee weapon. I am only on first real mission as a mecenary, so I hope some become more obvious with time, before I get in over my head. Also the camera has some weird angles when forced into the action mode during firing. Lots of clipping of terrain sometimes, and it often whips around, making it difficult to see where an enemy mech is moving to. But it is mech combat, and I have been dying to play a game like this, since I played Mech Commander ages ago.
Good review! I was a backer for this game and I was really anticipating the release. Immediately after downloading it, I was able to play a bit of the first mission. After that, the crashes got so bad that eventually I couldn't even start the game. I got that solved, but I still can't touch the campaign without crashing when trying to load a save. So right now I'm left with the skirmish that seems to work ok. I would really like to give this game a chance, but I think it's pretty incredible that this kind of a hot mess even got released.
A spot on review. A fair amount of technical issues and balance regarding the reinforcements are present. Its a good game overall, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. I only bought the game on launch as I'm a die hard battletech fan and was salty about how PGI fucked up the license.
one option in a game for what you would like your character called is not a big deal my dude. maybe you're more focused on gender politics than you think
As a fan of Front Mission, it would have been nice to see plans for a console release. Left Alive later this year is in the Front Mission world but I think it will play like MGS.
Ugh the camera, on the very first tutorial mission scripted camera shifts had it clipping under the terrain to expose the abyss below but it's not game breaking. The lack of voice acting is very jarring these days, I know it's not a big budget AAA game but still, eh..
Never played the tabletop game though always loved the Battletech lore/setting - felt like most mechwarrior games didnt do that justice. Purchased the other day, and i ended up playing it 7 hrs straight until 5AM. Loving the story/feel of the game. So far havent really encountered your performance or stability issues though. And that's with a lot of alt-tabbing to discord.
The strategic layer has always been one of the most fascinating things to me about the battletech world, as much or more than the tactical layer. Sounds like this was a positive from your perspective?
I thoroughly enjoyed your review. I preordered the game as soon as I saw it on Steam. I do not understand why people are having so many issues such as crashes or FPS loss. I have been playing since the game released and haven’t had any of those issues. The only thing that I have noticed, was what you described as you played a long session, and that is that the game would get a little sluggish, but that has only happened a couple of times. I have an FX-8350, 1080 ti, 16 Gb ram and SSD drives. I just upgraded my video card, and will upgrade the rest of my system shortly. Anyway, as I said, I have enjoyed your review and will subscribe. Take care and keep up the good work.
I loved Robot Jox. Don't want to look it up to see how it looks like now so I don't ruin my nostalgia for it but I'm pretty sure it doesnt look as good as I remember it.
I love this game. I backed it during Kickstarter and this is the most satisfying BT game I have played in my life. They really did a good job with few resources. Lots of bugs but it's still so hell of fun.
Played TT like crazy when I was 13 yrs old with this lunatic 20 year old down the street named Chaz. It was always a tossup between playing BT or WH40k with that guy. Good times. If yr up for it I'll totally skirmish with you. Just say the word.
Curious brother, did you encounter any oddities with difficulty? I have been hearing that if you reload a mission you won't get the same setup of enemies. This makes the scaling of difficulty off because a mission that is suppose to be hard for example turns out easier but reloading that same mission could be problematic. Of course if you keep to the honor system this should not be a problem. Just seems odd for a developer to do this, if it's true.
ACG... love your content man. Keep up the great work. But when you mention Robot Jox, one minute into the review you make me want to subscribe again. Awesome stuff!!!
The polish of the game for $40 seems a little low. Camera problems ACG mentioned, 21:9 support and some questionable interface design problems. At the Kickstarter price of $25 I couldn't be happier. The game is great fun.
Can I just say, having now bought the game, that I cannot recall any other instance of a game where I watch the opening cinematics every time. Yes, I'm a bit of a lore junky for battletech, but watching those 1-2 minutes of opening timeline cinematics is magical, every time.
looool liked and subbed just for mentioning robot jocks! one of my best child hood memories is my dad and i watching this movie all the time, he's the reason i love B movies, and btw theres a book for it, which was actually a good book, but the cheese of the movie is just the perfect amount.
3:41 Alexander Madeira Holy crap! I used to play on MW2: Mercs with a guy named that... he ran the Kell Hounds in the NBT league. COL Hawkeye, is that you?
You say it's a wait for sale based on the performance, but what are the odds the devs will patch what they can in a somewhat timely manner? I know they're not a huge studio but they have a decent pedigree and I'm sure if the only thing that might tarnish their reputation is some performance hitches they'll try to fix those. Are they really so bad it's not worth getting now and getting an update in a couple weeks/a month?
Gaming isn't a charity though. There is no way I would ever feel confident saying buy this thing now that doesn't perform as well as it should just in case someone fixes it later.
Anyone here from Humble Monthly?
Anyone remember the Armored Core series? :)
Still play AC2 on some occasions.
Hmmm what I remember is frint mission
FM3 is the best.
Look up Garrison: Archangel and thank me later.
I member AC.
Be cool to hear your thoughts on Frostpunk
Finally I can enjoy a mech game again without having to be good at piloting mechs!
this is true.
Also love your reviews
I love you too... I mean what? Shit.
Did you ever play Front Mission 4 on PS2? That was a really good one. You could probably find an emulator for it at this point if you wanted to check it out.
Same here and I'm loving it. All the same old strategies I used to employ seem to be carrying over well here too although the AI isn't the best at employing a variety of those same strategies. Like keeping a Spider moving at full range to make them near impossible to hit.
Nothing will compare to trying to play steel battalion. but i'm enjoying this game still.
Know nothing of Battletech, but it immediately reminded me of Front Mission. We need new FM asap.
Wow you did an excellent job relating the Magic that makes Battletech such a unique combat system that's really not like any other game. It's VERY different from XCOM and I've waited over 20 years to finally see a true computer adaptation of Battletech Tabletop game. I can't believe it's taken this long and this game really is a blast regardless of it being slow sometimes. (Much of that can be tweaked and fixed over time) Multiplayer too this game can be amazing if it brings the huge battletech/mechwarrior community together there. The lore is so great too in Battletech. It is NOT shallow. Think Game of Thrones in Space. Tons of great books and deep lore politics within this universe and mostly the game dips pretty deeply into that with some gamey contrivances that are corny at the start as you role your eyes at some of the stupid things that happen just to create a situation to play through. Overall this more than lived up to my dreams of a true Battletech game and i just pray it will grow from here now that we finally have a good foundation. Mechwarrior Tactics was a failed attempt previously and even that was a blast!
thanks
Mechforce still beats this game by far. Ok, ai sucks but at least it works...
The problems with performance have definitely improved over the past year. I haven't bought any of the DLCs yet but the Urban Warfare one looks interesting, might buy this summer. I got the game on sale and do not regret my purchase. Well worth a discounted price.
ACG Patron. Come on by!
Summary
Game is pretty good and has some chops.
But on both testing platforms it had FPS issues, as well as crashing and it looks like thats well known. So for now its a Wait for Sale. Needs a patch or two or a bit lower price.
If you do get it at least you have Steam refund.
Is it just me or is there something weird at 0:48 or 0:49? Like a skip in the audio track.
Great review nonetheless, Karak
With graphics straight out of 2007 and this horrible performance (which is caused only by dev's inability to program the engine), the "cut-scenes" and gameplay worthy of a mobile game I'd say its more like "never touch" or even better: I'd rather eat the money. I've been a fan of BT universe for ages now and I've never seen such a pathetic attempt on the franchise.
mechwarrior soon. At least there is that if you don't like it
I'm actually rather wary about the new MW game. I've wasted quite a lot of time in MWO and I'm fairly accustomed with the way PGI handles their games. I'll be surprised if it won't come out an unfinished buggy low-performing mess of a game. I'll be waiting for your video when the game comes out, genuinely interested in your opinion. Cheers.
ACG Your One Of The Only Good Reviewers Left Thanks Man 🙏🏽
Wait for sale because of performance issues, I think you could introduce a new category like "wait for a performance fix patch" or something like that. But I also understand that you think the price is a little higher than it should be and maybe I agree with that.
thats conflating summary with status. The two don't always overlap nor is any patch guaranteed to be coming. But a price drop IS guaranteed at some point.
ACG if i remember correctly they have promised one though.
Finally after 20 years comes the MechCommander I always wanted. I play this on an R5 2400g stock clocks and i have the settings on high ... And it runs smooth with no crashes. If you liked MechCommander you gona love this.
one of my first memories of gaming; Battletech Cresent Hawk Inception (sp?) on the C64 back in the 80's Been looking forward to a good Battletech game for a while!!!! Thanks for the thorough review ACG!!
The game has had a lot of updates since release. It's a lot more stable, but there are still weird performance issues from time to time.
The game still feels more expensive than it should be, though, especially when you factor in the "Season Pass" model for its expansions. I was able to get the game and the first expansion for $45, but I would honestly not feel like I was getting my moneys worth if I wasn't a massive Battletech fanboy. (I've been playing various Battletech games for 20+ years).
I highly recommend this game for Battletech fans, but I would be hesitant to recommend this game as an introduction into the Battletech universe.
Haven’t really had any performance issues. It’s a little ridiculous to say that the $40 price tag is too expensive for a game of this level of complexity. It’s absolutely worth buying at full price.
Just, later, after the devs have fixed the bugs and crash issues.
I was going to comment this same thing
Thanks for the review, just wondering if you are going to review frostpunk?
sure and maybe. That or impressions
Shoulda checked the comments before asking. Have you played any into the breach great title nice quick UI
ACG cool, thanks!
gotcha
Nvidia drivers update today really helped performance issues
I finally found the one other person on earth that has seen Robot Jox.
lol
I remember it, too.
Saw it on VHS
I just watched robot jox today because of this review. I loved the villains.
wingracer 16 ahhhh but how many remeber the sequel?
Definitely needs an optimization patch.
Still a fun game.
Disclaimer: I am a BattleTech KickStarter backer.
Hey, Karak. I agree with your points in the video, and shared the graphically glitches.. However, the new Geforce drivers that Nvidia put out today solved 90% of the graphics issues I was also having. ACG probably doesn't do "second looks", but it may be worth it.
For me, Battletech is Mechcommander x Front Mission 5 x Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander having a love child, the gameplay is really the mix of that 3 games.
I was actually waiting for this, thank you.
you bet
I'm pretty deep in, but I feel like I should be a lot farther along... If I could skip animations and if some of the freezes in the action weren't there, missions could be 3-4 times as short depending on if you have allied turrets or a convoy to waste your time. The game really is good. It's loads of fun to defeat enemy mechs get their salvage, optimize your lance and repeat. Not really loving the story yet though. A lot of the characters have too much "attitude" I guess that seems out of place to me and so far, I don't really have any choice in helping Kamea free her people or whatever it is she wants to do
Wish they had full voice acting!! I love games that feature full voice acting! Just enriches the characters and draws me into the world
The way you put an emphasis on 'filled' in the video's intro. Very interesting.
Thanks for the review, I’ll likely be getting this game once it goes on sale. I’m a Gundam fan and as a result I’m generally a mech fan as well. The last strategy type mech game I played was Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front on the PS2.
sure
Just my luck. Got home from work two hours ago and the Steam servers went into maintenance mode as I downloaded the game. Sucks.
EDIT: Game just fully downloaded mere seconds ago. lol
I got this game because I enjoyed XCOM 2. This game looked similar to that style and I decided to try it out. I love this game. You should mention that some of the most fun is in designing your mechs and then trying them out in the battle. I really love trying out crazy builds, just to see if they work. Nice review. :)
Wow just added you because of how thorough you are on your reviews. One of the best I have seen in a while. Well done and keep em coming.
Karak, where are the podcasts??? :(
I can't wait to get my hands on this one, despite the performance issues. Now that they gutted Front Mission, I don't have a lot of ways to get my mecha strategy game fix.
Great review! I didn't realize this was developed by Hairbrained Schemes. The same studio that did the Shadowrun games. So many menus and the dialogue options and story development look extremely like it. I agree $40 is heavy, but it looks like a good title to play.
Speaking of Mechs, you should consider Into the Breach, great game.
I played a lot of CyberStorm 1 and 2 and Battletech for SNES. CyberStorm was amazing much like this but older but it had so much more details you could do for an old game like that with Mechs. This game reminded me of those so much, this looks good too.
ya good game
Haven't commented in a while but had to give respect to another Robot Jox reference!
Ive been anticipating harebrained studios new work hope they continue too write good stories with good mechanics
enjoy
"Crash and Burn" great call out good sir
Shadowrun (another classic FASA adaptation by Harebrained) had alot of the same problems, and it was painfully unforgiving and unintuitive at first, but damn it was engrossing.
The lack of every vidya game adaptation of Battletech skipping LAM's really bugs me. They became awesome after the Clans showed up.
Waiting for your frostpunk review acg. Before doin ng a purchase.
hi karak! here in the Philippines it costs cheaper in steam though, only P830 or around USD16
Finding that when quitting the game and it unloads from memory, it tends to mess with other things it shouldn't. So I usually restart after playing to get a "clean" slate to do other stuff.
Reminds me of a more modern MechCommander. I'll definitely going to keep this one on my radar, although the performance issues must be fix first.
somewhat
Yeah, its easily oldschool material by now. I mean, I have it on CD-ROM... This one seems like a modern take on that formula.
Please review "Frostpunk", that game looks amazing
I've always wanted to know ACG, what constitutes a sale on PC? 10%? 20%? 30%? At what sale price is it a wait for a sale game? I tend to get my pc games anywhere from 20-25% off on release so I was wondering if you consider that a wait for sale price or not.
thats more up to the individual person. I just simply indicate that at the going retail price how I felt it all came together.
Hey Karak, just finished listening to your international podcast #78 and I heard Absii say that he was looking for other games similar to Bioshock. When you speak with him again you should tell him to check out a game that came out in 2010 called Singularity, its a phenomenal game that deals with time manipulation and is right up there in quality and atmosphere with Bioshock. Thanks for all you do Karak!
Well, wait for sale translate to buy now for me, because of region pricing, its only about usd 13 here. Great review as always.
thanks
Well, nice positive review. But from gameplay videos, my main concern - and from what other reviews I have seen on the same negative point. How slow the combat is. That is my biggest concern, if it is indeed very slow - I just don't think I could enjoy it.
Not experienced any real issues in the game so far. More voice acting.would be nice, & there are some tiny issues with the camera, as mentioned in the review. However, I do believe it was well worth pre-ordering, & I predict great things for the game, going forward.....especially as more money from sales comes rolling in. Its certainly one of the best *new* games I have bought in many years.
WOW! I think this might be your longest review yet.
its long fo sho
I had some sort of Battletech game on my Amiga 2000 in the 80's. Also had original tabletop game.
So it needs an optimisation patch. Mind you, suggestions of a memory leak make me think "save, close game, open game, load" but perhaps my age makes me more patient and less demanding.
I'd far rather see games like this than another mindless flashy graphics load of bollocks with about as much depth as an average news bulletin.
Steeltrap the game was called mechforce and it was glorious. Played it for years until my amiga 500 died
any chance of updated Review after this last patch? Did they solve performance issue? etc
Thank you,
RamBlade
I've miss your reviews so much!!! I was checking for new vids all weekend XD. Thanks karak.
I've waited for sale and I'm having a blast with it. The performance issues seems to be fixed, as I haven't experienced any yet. The lack of environmental sound and voice are my main gripes, especially as it such a story heavy campaign, and after a long day at work I don't have the concentration to read all of it. Great game though.
I've played about 20+ hours and I've had 1 crash and it was cause I was in a loading screen and I alt tabbed. I've done it a million times as well since and I've had no other crashes.
Just finished Battletech. I took my time and really played the mercenary role. Without rushing or grinding and NO reloads, losing a fight is a big part of the experience, i got 65 hours of very good gameplay. Highly recommend.
This looks awesome, will it be available for the Xbox one? I don't game on p.c. I use it for work for 12 he's aday and don't want to use for for fun.
Played all day yesterday. Encountered no bugs or graphic issues. Running a GTX 1070. I wouldnt expect this game to need much on graphics though. Maybe it's just bad optimization. Runs like a dream though on my old PC. It honestly feels like I'm playing tabletop battletech from when I was in my early 20s. I'm 40.
What video card did you run? Not sure if you mentioned that. I think you said i7 for your cpu.
i have an i7 and a GTX 1080 and this game runs worse than early access, its complete garbage at the moment, no one should buy this game atm
I run an i5 with a GTX 660 and have had no crashing and only some framerate issues.
but thats just you. i have a 970 and an mid grade cpu, and i can run this pretty fine at medium-high
I have an i7 and 1070 and run it at 4k. It has some fps drops, but since it's turn based it really doesnt impact gameplay that much. I really like the game
I got the deluxe edition for only $28! I wanted to get this game anyways, but saving money is always a good thing.
So far I have played about 15 hours and this game is just awesome, but I'm still trying to figure out some things.
My Haiku Review:
ACG is best
Much better than all the rest
Your reviews, we're blessed
Another good video mate, Was wondering if your going to cover Murderous Pursuits with a review or first look when it launches this Thursday.
I have no intent to buy this game, and have never heard of it. But your reviews are so detailed and thorough, they're a form of art work on their own and I really enjoy watching them. Fantastic work, keep it up.
my thanks
A lot of the mechanisms mentions i.e. the stat system and the movement system are actually implicit derivations from the original source material (adjacent to the mech warrior RPG, and from the advanced version of the game in the poorly laid out rulebook). There are great abstractions such as the armor system which replaces the more banal and mind-numbing damage system of the first. Evasion is also a boon, it adds an interesting layer of tactical trade-offs. However it isn't without some blatant flaws for example the ui doesn't lend to some tactical considerations, for example I wish the ui indicated which sections of the mech hold specific weapons this would've been nice as the game allows you to target specific body parts.
The bombastic plot points at least in the beginning few were trite and were so predictable I was able to enunciate in real time the same emphasis and exact wording used.
In terms of pacing this game is a slog, a difficult, massive but somewhat clunky slog, much like the source material.
While I do agree with the pros and cons, I feel the pros far outweigh the cons.
Combined with the fact that Harebrained seem dedicated to fixing the bugs in the game and has already released a preformance patch I would say this is a must buy.
Eh, I've bought it as it's a must have for me. Maybe a smidge overpriced but it's a pretty beefy game for 40. Some of these criticism (like lack of voice) are more suited for AAA games with enough DLC to cost $120+
I think the main thing that bothers me with this kind of game is that they get a lot of funding from the community yet end up selling the game corporate style. It also seems screwy to go with community funding then once you get it hop on board with a major publisher. Maybe this is no big deal since the gaming press seems to think nothing of it.
But Harmony Gold made one big mistake...
They attacked MY HOME PLANET!
hahah. i was going to make an HG joke but I figured like only 4 of us would get it
Screw Harmony gold
That's all 4 of us who would get it 😂
That's 5 of us!
this was like the Front Mission in PS! back in the old days
thumb up simply for RoboJox. Installing it now thx to Kickstarter, curious to give it a spin
had to
Best crpg sountrack since Divinity Original Sin. It fits each mood and theme perfectly
ya dig it
I played it a bit yesterday, and I did like it, but it does have some issues.
Now I have almost no knowledge of the Bettletech universe, and I was quite lost after the "tutorial". I mean combat is pretty easy, but most of the UI made no sense to me, and was never explained in the tutorial part. It was just how to move and fire. It took me a while to figure out what phases were. Half of the info on screen is not explained (like what are the individual bars next to a mech or how to know when you are at long, short or medium ranges for your weapons). Not all icons have tool tips, some weapons are not explained well (Like the DCA or something similar) under the melee weapon.
I am only on first real mission as a mecenary, so I hope some become more obvious with time, before I get in over my head.
Also the camera has some weird angles when forced into the action mode during firing. Lots of clipping of terrain sometimes, and it often whips around, making it difficult to see where an enemy mech is moving to.
But it is mech combat, and I have been dying to play a game like this, since I played Mech Commander ages ago.
Good review! I was a backer for this game and I was really anticipating the release. Immediately after downloading it, I was able to play a bit of the first mission. After that, the crashes got so bad that eventually I couldn't even start the game. I got that solved, but I still can't touch the campaign without crashing when trying to load a save. So right now I'm left with the skirmish that seems to work ok. I would really like to give this game a chance, but I think it's pretty incredible that this kind of a hot mess even got released.
thanks
A spot on review. A fair amount of technical issues and balance regarding the reinforcements are present. Its a good game overall, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.
I only bought the game on launch as I'm a die hard battletech fan and was salty about how PGI fucked up the license.
the devs seemed more interested in gender politics than focusing on optimization and bugs
one option in a game for what you would like your character called is not a big deal my dude. maybe you're more focused on gender politics than you think
As a fan of Front Mission, it would have been nice to see plans for a console release. Left Alive later this year is in the Front Mission world but I think it will play like MGS.
for sure. the more battletech style games the better
Look out for Dual Gear. The demo is promising but we don't know how much they've progressed.
I will
Ugh the camera, on the very first tutorial mission scripted camera shifts had it clipping under the terrain to expose the abyss below but it's not game breaking. The lack of voice acting is very jarring these days, I know it's not a big budget AAA game but still, eh..
Never played the tabletop game though always loved the Battletech lore/setting - felt like most mechwarrior games didnt do that justice. Purchased the other day, and i ended up playing it 7 hrs straight until 5AM. Loving the story/feel of the game.
So far havent really encountered your performance or stability issues though. And that's with a lot of alt-tabbing to discord.
should i get frostpunk or battletech ? im on a budget for a moment..
The strategic layer has always been one of the most fascinating things to me about the battletech world, as much or more than the tactical layer. Sounds like this was a positive from your perspective?
very much so
Thank you for the great, reliable reviews.
ROBOT JOCKS! God yes! I’m 32yrs old. One of my favorite movie when I was a kid. Awesome reference
Reminded me so much of Front Mission so had to buy it. Wasn't disappointed even at the $40 price tag.
thats good
I thoroughly enjoyed your review. I preordered the game as soon as I saw it on Steam. I do not understand why people are having so many issues such as crashes or FPS loss. I have been playing since the game released and haven’t had any of those issues. The only thing that I have noticed, was what you described as you played a long session, and that is that the game would get a little sluggish, but that has only happened a couple of times.
I have an FX-8350, 1080 ti, 16 Gb ram and SSD drives. I just upgraded my video card, and will upgrade the rest of my system shortly. Anyway, as I said, I have enjoyed your review and will subscribe. Take care and keep up the good work.
I loved Robot Jox. Don't want to look it up to see how it looks like now so I don't ruin my nostalgia for it but I'm pretty sure it doesnt look as good as I remember it.
yep me as well
I love this game. I backed it during Kickstarter and this is the most satisfying BT game I have played in my life. They really did a good job with few resources. Lots of bugs but it's still so hell of fun.
very coo!
Played TT like crazy when I was 13 yrs old with this lunatic 20 year old down the street named Chaz. It was always a tossup between playing BT or WH40k with that guy. Good times. If yr up for it I'll totally skirmish with you. Just say the word.
I'm enjoying the game, I found it to be less 'clunky' turning off all of the camera stuff for combat/movement
ya that did help a bit
I'm a HUGE battletech fan but probably will wait for a sale. I'm glad I did for the Shadowrun games and I LOVE those games.
ya SAME LOVED THOSE GAMES!
Just needs some optimization then it would be great.
Curious brother, did you encounter any oddities with difficulty? I have been hearing that if you reload a mission you won't get the same setup of enemies. This makes the scaling of difficulty off because a mission that is suppose to be hard for example turns out easier but reloading that same mission could be problematic.
Of course if you keep to the honor system this should not be a problem. Just seems odd for a developer to do this, if it's true.
Just what I mentioned in the video
ACG... love your content man. Keep up the great work. But when you mention Robot Jox, one minute into the review you make me want to subscribe again. Awesome stuff!!!
lol good times as a kid
Love your videos. So many video game purchase choices I have made that you become the deciding factor of.
thanks
Might check this out when it's cheaper, but I would have preferred a new Shadowrun game.
so what environmental sounds are you expecting that are "missing"? birds? like birds would be around with all the giant robot battle doing on?
The polish of the game for $40 seems a little low. Camera problems ACG mentioned, 21:9 support and some questionable interface design problems. At the Kickstarter price of $25 I couldn't be happier. The game is great fun.
Can I just say, having now bought the game, that I cannot recall any other instance of a game where I watch the opening cinematics every time. Yes, I'm a bit of a lore junky for battletech, but watching those 1-2 minutes of opening timeline cinematics is magical, every time.
nothing wrong with that
This was one of my favorite series as a youngster. Glad to try it now that I'm older. Nice video karak.
thanks
had never heard of robot jox. you have my thanks, sir
looool liked and subbed just for mentioning robot jocks! one of my best child hood memories is my dad and i watching this movie all the time, he's the reason i love B movies, and btw theres a book for it, which was actually a good book, but the cheese of the movie is just the perfect amount.
Hey Karak? Did you get a chance to check out frostpunk? Interesting title only played a couple mins at a friends.
I did a bit
3:41 Alexander Madeira
Holy crap! I used to play on MW2: Mercs with a guy named that... he ran the Kell Hounds in the NBT league. COL Hawkeye, is that you?
Mechassault on heavy barbiturates meets our reality simulator in 75 years.
lol
You say it's a wait for sale based on the performance, but what are the odds the devs will patch what they can in a somewhat timely manner? I know they're not a huge studio but they have a decent pedigree and I'm sure if the only thing that might tarnish their reputation is some performance hitches they'll try to fix those. Are they really so bad it's not worth getting now and getting an update in a couple weeks/a month?
Gaming isn't a charity though. There is no way I would ever feel confident saying buy this thing now that doesn't perform as well as it should just in case someone fixes it later.
Please, PLEASE, review Frostpunk next! 😱
Nobody does reviews better than you! Balanced and detailed! Waiting for frostpunk.
thanks
I have the GOG release of Battletech and play it on Linux natively. And, yes, it's one of the best Linux games out there.
really remind me of the great ol' game, Front Mission