BattleTech - Review @RPG Codex

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BattleTech has been reviewed by the RPG Codex.

...

Mechs & Potatoes

The core of BATTLETECH are the battles and the tech. Go figure.

[Disclaimer: I’m not familiar with the source material here so I can only judge BATTLETECH the PC game by what it is – though I will state that the misgivings of some of its more ardent players makes it seem as though the tabletop and digital experience are fairly different.]

BATTLEBECH’s battles are split between “freelance” randomized missions and story-missions. It’s similar to Emperor: Battle for Dune in its staccato timing but lacks usage of ‘controlling the strategic layer’ of games like Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. Despite that, both story and random missions are pinned to the larger star map and must be traveled to. Although it’s littered with places to go, the lack of player influence on the map does make it feel a bit barren. And you will make use of its plentiful space as each story-mission is often gated behind a bit of a time limit. During this downtime – or anytime, really – the player can manage a side hustle of pretending to be a mercenary.

On the mercenary missions the players discuss contracts with factions and decide whether to take more cash or a better haul of scrap. You can also give up on either to improve relations with the faction offering the job. I did not once give a damn about faction relations. You get awashed in cash real fast and there is no real fear of being a wanted criminal in a faction’s territories as the gameplay firmly sequesters itself in the mech battles. The lack of care for the factions further sapped the star map of any life (which is mostly unfortunate because it seems absolutely ripe with potential).

Each mission starts with a setup stage where you prep four mechs (a Lance) to take the field. This is the core of where you can alter your BATTLEMECH experience. For example, you can go all medium/heavy/assault mechs and just can-opener your way into the enemy lines, though you risk bearing the full brunt of their attacks hitting your fat, juicy ass. Or you can take a light mech or two with you to dive into enemy ranks, drawing fire which your dwarven machines duck with ease.
[...]


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Completed the game last night and had a great time even with the technical downsides.
You die a bit inside everytime you waste time on slowdowns though but with hard work and a movie on the second monitor it is still quite playable.
Delete all but the most recent saves, sell off as much gear as possible(different parts, don't matter if you got a stack of 2 lasers or 200), don't have more than 6 mech pilots, don't have more than 6 mechs. Yes all that significantly speeds up the game!!!

Funny thing is that for half the game they force you to add a whole slew of mech pilots just because AI got a huge percentage boost to hit you in the head which will put any pilot out commission for weeks. After a while you get cockpit mods that protects against that and suddenly the game stop being a frustrating mess.
 
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Completed the game last night and had a great time even with the technical downsides.
You die a bit inside everytime you waste time on slowdowns though but with hard work and a movie on the second monitor it is still quite playable.
Delete all but the most recent saves, sell off as much gear as possible(different parts, don't matter if you got a stack of 2 lasers or 200), don't have more than 6 mech pilots, don't have more than 6 mechs. Yes all that significantly speeds up the game!!!
This is a whole lot of meta that should never, ever be necessary to enjoy a game.

Funny thing is that for half the game they force you to add a whole slew of mech pilots just because AI got a huge percentage boost to hit you in the head which will put any pilot out commission for weeks. After a while you get cockpit mods that protects against that and suddenly the game stop being a frustrating mess.
Yeah, I had the feeling they were cheating because of how often my pilots got hit on the head.
 
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Yeah, I had the feeling they were cheating because of how often my pilots got hit on the head.

Head shots are just so out of whack, my pilots are almost getting at least one headshot everytime they drop. Getting the ingame cockpit mod is virtually a necessity !!!

Other than that and the slow pace of movement I'm really enjoying my time as a mech jock.
 
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I didn't at all actually. Played through the whole game with only reloading three main missions once each and head injuries happened to me as often as to the enemy.

They happen more often with LRMs as they hit multiple parts of your mechs and even one damage point to the head results in a head injury.
 
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Well there is a way to protect against head shots so it isn't that bad but yea head shots were a problem.
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My evaluation is that the campaign sucked and the maps sucked but the mechanics were so much fun it just didn't matter.
 
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What is it with that lot and overlong, waffling reviews?
 
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I kind of stopped half way to wait for optimization patch. Then I decided to wait longer for the speed up game patch. Hopefully game is in better shape when I get back to it.
 
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Think I was, 6 or 7, when I first played with this.

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I didn't buy the game. Sorry. Three reasons.

First is technical problems I've read about, maybe exaggerated but I was bitten by snake (Skyrim) which means when I hear about bugs…

Second is, forgive me for that, visuals. Overall look feels outdated and menus from screenshots look as an annoying chore for someone who's "micromanager".

Finally, I just can't bring myself back into mindset where pilots are expendable. There was time I had to join the army and expendable people were logical with outdated technology. In many cases the only way to win was accething losses before clash even started with of course ignoring collateral damage. But those were ancient times where soldiers' identities were stripped away only to view them as meat for cannons. Certain units were brainwashed into "robots" and I did feel sorry for them, but it was all logical. We were supposed to view all soldiers as mine detecting sheep. Do you care when sheep steps on the mine and dies from explosion? No.
Some people can't change their mindset. I should say most of people. In my case the change did happen - with remote controls. Yes, I lived during days remote control for TV didn't exist and drones controled from a distance were plain sci fi. And now I can't possibly enjoy a game where mech technology became a purpose of it's own and people are used just as fuel for those same mechs. For all I know about this game, you feel absolutely nothing when a pilot dies. Even worse, you should let them die and save mechs instead.

Note that if another RL war happened and I got to be a part of it, I'd still think of people as sheep if it was necessary. But this is supposed to be a videogame about future technology.
Parts of this post probably belong in P&R thread, but I cannot otherwise explain why I can't force myself into buying this game.
 
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I didn't buy the game. Sorry. Three reasons.

First is technical problems I've read about, maybe exaggerated but I was bitten by snake (Skyrim) which means when I hear about bugs…

Second is, forgive me for that, visuals. Overall look feels outdated and menus from screenshots look as an annoying chore for someone who's "micromanager".

Finally, I just can't bring myself back into mindset where pilots are expendable. There was time I had to join the army and expendable people were logical with outdated technology. In many cases the only way to win was accething losses before clash even started with of course ignoring collateral damage. But those were ancient times where soldiers' identities were stripped away only to view them as meat for cannons. Certain units were brainwashed into "robots" and I did feel sorry for them, but it was all logical. We were supposed to view all soldiers as mine detecting sheep. Do you care when sheep steps on the mine and dies from explosion? No.
Some people can't change their mindset. I should say most of people. In my case the change did happen - with remote controls. Yes, I lived during days remote control for TV didn't exist and drones controled from a distance were plain sci fi. And now I can't possibly enjoy a game where mech technology became a purpose of it's own and people are used just as fuel for those same mechs. For all I know about this game, you feel absolutely nothing when a pilot dies. Even worse, you should let them die and save mechs instead.

Note that if another RL war happened and I got to be a part of it, I'd still think of people as sheep if it was necessary. But this is supposed to be a videogame about future technology.
Parts of this post probably belong in P&R thread, but I cannot otherwise explain why I can't force myself into buying this game.
Well, bugs have almost all been fixed.

To your second point, I can't speak to as visuals are alright to me.

For the pilots, it's up to you if you care for your pilots or not. I saved all my pilots by ejecting if the mech was going to go down, but that's up to you as a commander. So not sure why you think pilots are expendable. Money wise they are as mechs in the battletech universe are supposed to be rare and expensive, but skill wise they certainly aren't.

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The AI doesn't have any boost to head shot injuries guys, total confirmation bias there. You get injuries basically because in all battles you're outnumbered. There is a 1% chance of a particular shot hitting the head, guess what, when you get dozens of hits per round (each missile can hit separately) it'll happen a lot. The problem is not that the AI has a bonus (it doesn't) but that the AI doesn't care when they get a pilot injury as it doesn't matter for the AI, but for the player an injury means you'll be out of commission for weeks.

Having said that, I wish the rule was different, like you can't get an injury until the head armor is gone or something (don't think that's the case as I've gotten injuries in the first missile volley I receive).
 
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What is it with that lot and overlong, waffling reviews?
A good review is long, at least if a lot of topics have to be touched. It is thorough.
And I don't see much waffling, it is a very amusing read beginning to end. Or saddening, if you were really hoping for a great game.

The AI doesn't have any boost to head shot injuries guys, total confirmation bias there.

Having said that, I wish the rule was different, like you can't get an injury until the head armor is gone or something (don't think that's the case as I've gotten injuries in the first missile volley I receive).
Well, you do get too many head injuries, whether it is due to cheating AI or not.
It is kinda ridiculous. If a shot hits so hard it affects the pilot, shouldn't it just outright kill the pilot?
And how is it that if a pilot gets hurt, it is so absurdly often the head of the pilot that gets hit? Shouldn't they wear helmets or something? I always had the impression that the pilots were in some kind of dungeon-like room with a spiky roof so that each bump in the road can cause them to scratch their heads...
 
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I supported them, have the game locked and loaded, it might be the next one up after I finish romping through the Phantasy Star series. This one or maybe Dark Sun, which I have a serious craving for.
 
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A good review is long, at least if a lot of topics have to be touched. It is thorough.
And I don't see much waffling, it is a very amusing read beginning to end. Or saddening, if you were really hoping for a great game.


Well, you do get too many head injuries, whether it is due to cheating AI or not.
It is kinda ridiculous. If a shot hits so hard it affects the pilot, shouldn't it just outright kill the pilot?
And how is it that if a pilot gets hurt, it is so absurdly often the head of the pilot that gets hit? Shouldn't they wear helmets or something? I always had the impression that the pilots were in some kind of dungeon-like room with a spiky roof so that each bump in the road can cause them to scratch their heads…
I think you're confusing something. A shot to the MECH's head results in a PILOT injury, game doesn't differentiate where the pilot is injured, it could be a skull fracture or pinky toe injury, he/she just has 3+ injury slots (depending on GUTS).
 
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They could easily have made it more fun if they let you take a wounded pilot into battle, so you can choose to put their life at risk to let you use the more experienced pilot.
As is you need to get unlucky with explosions to lose a pilot without also having the mech get cut in half.

I had one pilot take 3 headhits in a single battle, he was also attacked 3 times in that whole battle! Which meant I couldn't use him for nearly 3 months, how much fun is that?
 
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Finished it last night, and enjoyed it it general. Encountered no bugs (that I noticed anyway).

Regarding the head hits I also found them too frequent, so I started taking notes. They weren't. It's pretty common in missions to get hit by 50-100 weapons spread across your four mechs (every Mech carries 6+ weapons, many a lot more, and the Short Range Missiles get a location roll for each missile fired) So a head hit or two every mission is not improbable.

I started using more long range and less brawler builds and voila, getting hit a lot less also reduced the number of pilot injuries suffered from head hits. Go figure.

I agree with much of the review, and would probably rate Battletech good but not great. At least not yet. The foundation is there though, now let's see how they improve upon it.
 
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Meh I'll wait till it's finished getting all the patches and expansions to play. Yes I said that as I tired of updating,broken mods, and then having to replay when expansions release.
 
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So not sure why you think pilots are expendable.
The achievements, maybe? The numbers on those are WAY out of whack. You get those for hiring 5, 25, 50, and 100 warriors. I only got the one for 5 and I wouldn't have had even that except I started hiring warriors just for fun. I only lost two warriors through the entire game.

Head hits are annoying. Without them, though, I would have had a hard time getting myself to hire new warriors and get them some experience. Injuries force you to put the n00bs in and give them some experience.
 
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