Recent reviews by Speerit

A review of Battletech for Steam.


Background: Set in the year 3025 in a galaxy ripe with the fruits of a rapid expansion by an intrepid and bold humanity, the age is flush with all the products of rapid colonialism: corporate competition, feudalistic sovereignty, and naturally, war. The galaxy is recovering from a massive conflict in which the previously united galaxy was shattered and divided, and the technology of the "Star League" lost to the ire of near Armageddon. The lions share of the explored milky way is dubbed the "Inner Sphere", with major nations dubbed "houses" or "successor states" dividing up the territory upon unclear and at times heavily contested lines. Outside of this established territory is known as the "periphery", where civilization is far more antediluvian. This periphery is where your story takes place as a mercenary on a path of reclamation.

Graphics: 8/10
In terms of eye candy, Battletech did not disappoint. The textures are crisp and the colors are sharp. The PPC (Particle Projector Cannons) do justice to their thunderous inspirations and the visual effect of armor literally slagging off under arcing heat. When your mech is running hot, the heat sinks billow steam and your chassis glows with displeasure. When a component is destroyed, you are rewarded (or punished) with a satisfying shower of sparks and residual arcs of energy from liberated wires and pulverized gyros. All this takes little toll on my humble laptop (a 700$ price point barely qualifies as entry level gaming), with medium graphics yielding impressive framerates with little lag. Still, I get the impression that Im missing out. Certain elements are a bit out of whack, with structures as large as your mech ragdolling into oblivion at a slight nudge from your 20 ton spider.

Gameplay: 7/10
Technically speaking, this game is every bit as satisfying as expected and demanded by fans. Tabletop players will be pleased with the formula of the game relatively closely matching the ruleset and "roll system" taking place behind the scenes with difficulty ratings for shots based on a variety of factors. At times, the bugs that plague new releases show their ugly faces, with some bringing your skirmish to a halt in a fashion that can even mean reloading the last save, possibly cancelling a meticulously played match and frustrating the player. Im looking at you, eject-bug. There is also an issue with the games timing, leading to benign but irritating pauses between actions that disrupts the gameflow and makes the game feel a bit TOO much like tabletop. There are fixes for this, but still.

Story/Content: 7/10
Taking place in the year 3025 is an inconvenient, yet intentional decision, a mere 3 years before the Battletech universe unveils the discovery of the fabled "Helm Memory Core", a drive of Star-League era data that largely reverses the technological dark-age the galaxy is mired in, leading to the revival of many impressive weapons and battlemech systems. Placing the game before this mark leads to veteran players being a bit disappointed, as their favorite mechs from the series are still considered "lostech"- literally meaning "lost Technology"- and mostly absent from the game. Old favorites such as the Gauss Rifle, UAC (clan tech, but shut up), and Pulse Laser are treated like the stuff of legend, only appearing in extremely sparse supply and being nearly irreplaceable when lost to an unlucky crit.
Aside from that complaint, the storyline is engaging and emotionally investing. You have numerous choices in dialogue which have little effect on the flow of the game, netting you unique responses only. You also encounter random events in space demanding a choice on your part with possible premium choices if you have progressed in the game enough to posses a certain tech.
One of my main hangups on this game lies in the redundancy of the missions. It becomes clear early on that there is little to no reason not to field the largest and heaviest lance of mechs possible. The flexibility of light mechs and the benefit of evasion bonuses becomes swiftly outweighed by the threat of being destroyed by a single alpha-strike and the allure of simply lumbering over the mountain with four assault mechs and pressing "Fire" until nothing is moving and your mechs are boiling with overheated rage. Capture mission? Let me just kill everything, then cap the base and have Sumire swing by and pick me up in the Leopard-Minivan. Assassinate? YOu mean kill all the things and rip the wings off the butterfly that is the intended target in hopes of securing some lucrative salvage. Escort? Well, lets just queue up another mission there, Darius, because im not taking responsibility for an APC that set a brick on the gas pedal and fell asleep. Still, lets kill all the things.

All in all, I give Battletech a solid 7.5/10. It is an immensely satisfying turn-based game that takes me back to the tabletop. It is surprisingly stable, and beautiful to play, even on a modest machine. For a fan of the series, there are MANY Ah-Ha-I-Totally-Remember-That moments. For newcomers, there is plenty of robot fighting action and strategic coordination to please a gamer who likes that. I do wish the missions had meaningful differentiation, and the locked-in 4 mech lance size honestly devastated me. Finally, the omission of co-operative multiplayer for the afformentioned reason is a disappointment. But it is a worthy addition to your collection, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

For an "In Lapha" game, it is incredibly well developed and constantly updated.