If you've never played Battletech - the tabletop - fair warning, its not for twitch gamers. Battletech is chess with particle cannons - and this version is very true to the original. As a long-time fan (I remember the ad for it in Dragon Magazine) this is what I've been waiting for these many decades.

It seems to be a solid cross between the tabletop and the RPG Mechwarrior. The strategic game strongly reminds me of the original PC Mechwarrior game, although the economics seem to be much more harsh. This does add a more realistic level of stress; I have a perfectly good Vindicator sitting in storage because particle weapons are expensive and rare, and I'm not going to roll it out without a PPC. I find myself much more tactically cautious because I dont want my mechs getting broke. It feels a lot like a tabletop merc campain I was in once. Stopping large caliber rounds with your face is certainly a call-back to that campaign. Good times, good times...

There are some nice additions and tweaks that would be a pain to do tabletop. Environments that change your heat disspiation. The hit mechanism has been changed so that movement still counts against your opponent, but the more fire you take from multiple targets, the less evasive you become. Direct and indirect missile fire is more common-sense than the wonky tabletop rules.

There is room for improvement. I'd like to see fire and smoke - especially since this is the 3025 Battletech, so heat is a serious issue. Vehicles are a welcome sight, but I'd like to see infantry eventually. And enemy scaling is a bit too fast - I'm early in the campaign and suddenly facing 2:1 odds, and not with the kind of tonnage a House unit could muster. I'm not happy that pilot ejection is only manual, and as a result I've been seeing casualty rates approaching X-COM. I mean, they're only 30 grand to replace - thats, what, a jump-jet replacement? Still, that's 30 grand of my money!

Graphics are pretty, clear, and mostly smooth. The decision to make the mechs more boxy than anime works well, all the while avoiding the convoluted legal issues the original game (still) has. The still art pieces are in the style of HBS's Shadowrun releases, and works well in this setting. Havent seen any bugs yet, which in this day and age is pretty amazing. There are some nice references to older games; Wolf's Dragoons showing up one day, out of the black, with mint-condition mechs. Hmmm. A quote from your psychotic old mentor in MW:Mercs.

Still angry about porting everything over to Paradox. Very unhappy that multiplayer MUST go through them - its a minor point, but a point aginst them never the less. Overall, however, I'd have to say that HBS has outdone themselves, both in terms of bringing Battletech to the PC, and in comparison to their earlier games. A high bar, but they cleared it.

Addendum: ...its not...wholy without bugs. One of the maps on Mekdur has a spawn error where one of your 'Mechs gets stuck in a rock. There's a freeze error where the game didnt progress after one of my Mechwarriors ejected (her 'Mech being held together with wishful thinking and armed with harsh language). Still, as of this edit, the game's only a week out of release - we'll see what they do with the first patch.

If you've never played Battletech - the tabletop - fair warning, its not for twitch gamers. Battletech is chess with particle cannons - and this version is very true to the original. As a long-time fan (I remember the ad for it in Dragon Magazine) this is what I've been waiting for these many decades. It seems to be a solid cross between the tabletop and the RPG Mechwarrior. The strategic game strongly reminds me of the original PC Mechwarrior game, although the economics seem to be much more harsh. This does add a more realistic level of stress; I have a perfectly good Vindicator sitting in storage because particle weapons are expensive and rare, and I'm not going to roll it out without a PPC. I find myself much more tactically cautious because I dont want my mechs getting broke. It feels a lot like a tabletop merc campain I was in once. Stopping large caliber rounds with your face is certainly a call-back to that campaign. Good times, good times... There are some nice additions and tweaks that would be a pain to do tabletop. Environments that change your heat disspiation. The hit mechanism has been changed so that movement still counts against your opponent, but the more fire you take from multiple targets, the less evasive you become. Direct and indirect missile fire is more common-sense than the wonky tabletop rules. There is room for improvement. I'd like to see fire and smoke - especially since this is the 3025 Battletech, so heat is a serious issue. Vehicles are a welcome sight, but I'd like to see infantry eventually. And enemy scaling is a bit too fast - I'm early in the campaign and suddenly facing 2:1 odds, and not with the kind of tonnage a House unit could muster. I'm not happy that pilot ejection is only manual, and as a result I've been seeing casualty rates approaching X-COM. I mean, they're only 30 grand to replace - thats, what, a jump-jet replacement? Still, that's 30 grand of my money! Graphics are pretty, clear, and mostly smooth. The decision to make the mechs more boxy than anime works well, all the while avoiding the convoluted legal issues the original game (still) has. The still art pieces are in the style of HBS's Shadowrun releases, and works well in this setting. Havent seen any bugs yet, which in this day and age is pretty amazing. There are some nice references to older games; Wolf's Dragoons showing up one day, out of the black, with mint-condition mechs. Hmmm. A quote from your psychotic old mentor in MW:Mercs. Still angry about porting everything over to Paradox. Very unhappy that multiplayer MUST go through them - its a minor point, but a point aginst them never the less. Overall, however, I'd have to say that HBS has outdone themselves, both in terms of bringing Battletech to the PC, and in comparison to their earlier games. A high bar, but they cleared it. Addendum: ...its not...wholy without bugs. One of the maps on Mekdur has a spawn error where one of your 'Mechs gets stuck in a rock. There's a freeze error where the game didnt progress after one of my Mechwarriors ejected (her 'Mech being held together with wishful thinking and armed with harsh language). Still, as of this edit, the game's only a week out of release - we'll see what they do with the first patch.