Forget all of that touchy-feely stuff you hear about a "kinder, gentler world" and "can't we all just get along." The long awaited king of vaporware, MechWarrior 2, has finally come out and proven that, while safe, peace just isn't any fun.
MechWarrior 2 is a vision of a future in which different clans fight for dominance with huge walking robots called mechs, which are armed with everything from machine guns to electromagnetic weapons. The hugely popular FASA pencil-and-paper RPG was a perfect concept for crossover to the PC. The original MechWarrior was a good game but Activision decided to go one better and make MechWarrior 2, a fateful decision that has been marked with more setbacks than anyone could imagine. After two long years of waiting, MechWarrior 2 has finally arrived. Whether or not the gaming public will consider it worth the wait, but right now, it definitely stands as the definitive game in the market.
The game's storyline is a long and intricate one, in which a group of mechwarriors leave Earth and head for the stars. After many years and many battles, two of the clans which comprise the different legions of mechwarriors, specifically Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Wolf, have taken to fighting each other in order to settle their differences. An enormous amount of information is included in the game detailing the history of the clans, the technology that is used, and the personalities in the storylines.
In campaign mode, MechWarrior 2 puts the player in the role of a mech pilot who, through the successful completion of missions, can be promoted from the lowly rank of Mechwarrior to the ultimate level of Khan (leader of a clan). Due to the storyline behind MechWarrior 2, of the 17 different clans in the Mechwarrior universe, the player is only allowed to be in the Jade Falcon or the Wolf Clan. The missions are very linear in that they're pre-designed to go along with a pre-written storyline. I was really wanting to play something where I was shown an overall map, then allowed to oversee the deployment of my mechs against the enemy. MechWarrior 2 is more of a strict shooter with mission goals. Nevertheless, the missions are very well designed, ranging from search-and-destroy assignments to tactical in-and-out jobs.
The arcade mode allows the player to play mech after mech in many different environments. The player battles enemy after enemy with no mission except to survive. In a contrast to the campaign mode, the player can choose from a variety of different clans in the arcade mode, although it doesn't seem to matter one bit which side is chosen - the mechs and weapons are the same and the fighting style seems to be the same. That aside, the player can choose which mech to take into action, which mechs to go against, and, in most areas, is able to take a couple of wingmen along. There is also an area included which is just the one player against one mech. This arcade mode is an excellent way to get in some practice or just to try out differently types of mechs without worrying about the outcome affecting the pilot's career.
Even though Mech2 is primarily a shooter, there is a small amount of strategy involved. Before each mission the player gets to choose which mech to take on the assignment (only within certain parameters since some mechs aren't allowed on some missions). The player also gets to take wingmen on certain missions. Before each mission, the player chooses how many wingmen are going and in what formation they'll travel in. Giving orders to wingmen is the basic "attack my target" style in which a menu pops up and you can order all or just one of your wingmen to do whatever you want them to. The wingmen seem to fight very well and don't get blown away very easily.
There is also strategy involved in customizing your mech. Folks who play the miniatures game are very familiar with designing their own mech, and those who haven't will quickly want to replace that missile pod with a laser and develop their own machine. MechWarrior 2 lets the player do all of this, and then some. Every little thing about each mech can be customized, from the number and placement of the 20 different weapons down to each individual heat sink. With all of the available equipment, outfitting a mech can itself be a large endeavor. But the designers came through again and included pre-designed versions of each mech. So for one style of mech, like the Mad Dog, there are already different configurations waiting to be used. One config may have lots of weapons but is slow, while another config may be faster but more vulnerable. The biggest drawback in this area, perhaps the biggest fault in the whole game, is that each clan has access to the exact same mechs. It would have been much better if each clan had their own specialized mechs.
The one thing that distinguishes MechWarrior 2 from its competition is simply the way it looks, sounds and plays. The mechs look just like the ones in the miniatures game that MechWarrior 2 comes from, and they move very, very realistically. When a mech - or anything else for that matter - gets toasted, it looks just like a real explosion instead of a hokey bright light. The lowest resolution mode, which ran super-smooth on my P60, looks absolutely beautiful. If you move up into the higher resolution modes, you'll definitely need some power to make it run smooth, but if you've got the power you simply won't believe the graphics that Mech 2 is capable of. But the great graphics extend far beyond just game play. The looks of the clan halls are very impressive, and when the player accesses things like the holographic library and the mech lab, little animations occur which add a nice little touch. The only real deficit in the graphics is the landscape. There are mountains, buildings and other obstacles, but the land itself is extremely bland. This really isn't a problem since you'll be concentrating so hard on surviving that you probably won't even notice the land.
I was especially impressed with the sound quality. The sounds of the weapons firing and hitting are great but, as in most great games, it's the small stuff that really pulls it ahead. When you punch your mech to top speed you can hear the servos and other gizmos really kicking in, and if there's a fire outside your cockpit you can hear it burn on the correct side as you move past. And if you move your head or turret, the sound rotates around you accordingly. It's a very involving experience.
Actually playing the game is an absolute blast. In other mech-style and tank action games - anything which lets you fire in a different direction than you're moving - it's often difficult actually trying to play because of all the different stuff to do and keep track of. MechWarrior 2 is certainly no exception to this problem because this is just something that's inherent in these types of games. But honestly, Mech2 actually plays easier and smoother than I expected it to. One of the features which makes this happen is that the mech doesn't really move forward or backwards according to directional input from a joystick or the arrow keys. What the designers have done is to give the mech two gears, forward and reverse, and the throttle input controls how fast in either direction your mech moves. It may seem like a small thing, but in the past there has been a conflict in how to configure these functions. Do you make forward on the joystick mean go faster or tilt down? MechWarrior 2 has eliminated this problem and streamlined the design in the process. There's an absolute ton of functions available to the user -don't kid yourself, it'll be a while before you learn everything - but Mech2's design is very efficient and very smart.
The designers have included a nice hands-on tutorial to help the player learn how to use and control their mechs. The player is put inside an actual mech, then listens to the instructor talking them through some basic missions which acquaints them with the controls. Things like steering, firing and hunting are all covered in a humorous and informative boot-camp style. The only real problem with this tutorial is that if the player fails in a lesson, the game dumps out into the main screen and the player has to load up the tutorial and start all over again. It would have been much easier just to have been given the option to start the lesson again from within the tutorial.
It may not be to everyone's expectations after the long wait, but in the end, MechWarrior 2 has got it where it counts. It was designed for maximum action, keeping an overall strategic element minimized. There is a lots of tactical combat, and you'll soon be adopting your own style of combat for each type of mech. Although not included in the initial release, multiplayer capabilities will be added through a patch to be available in September which will allow cooperative and competitive play. Going against another human in MechWarrior 2 will definitely be the ultimate. In the end, MechWarrior 2 is a great shooter with a believable amount of simulation added. It's a great game with great features that will definitely hook any action gamer for a long time.
