Know what it is to command mechs-Again (MechCommander 2 (PS))

Member Name: zpyder

Product:	MechCommander 2 (PS)
Date:	10/02/02 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good graphics, lots of options in and out of the game, Lots of new things not found in the original MC

Disadvantages: Needs a PC that can handle the Graphics, Camera can be Awkward, Plot may confuse some people

MechCommander 2 is the sequel to the semi-acclaimed MechCommander.

I have included below 2 brief descriptions of the plot/scenario of the game, one for people who know the timeline of the BattleTech universe, and another for people who don’t. The description for the fans comes first. Please note that the Non-BattleTech fan storyline synopsis is quite long, so please skip down the review if you don’t want to read it, a description of the game’s own scenario comes after, titled ~~the game~~.

~~For the Battletech Fans~~
The game follows the Battletech storyline, and joins in the timeline with the civil war between the Steiner-Davion’s. You take the place of a mercenary commander who has been bought to help in a war that has broken out on the planet “Carver 5”. This time there are three sides, and you fight for each in turn, first House Steiner, second House Liao, and third but not least House Davion.

~~For the Non-BattleTech fans~~

The BattleTech universe centres around the inner-sphere. This is basically the groups of solar systems that are closest to earth (Normally called Terra).

Some time several hundred years into the future hyperspace jump technology was developed, which lead to the population of other worlds. These worlds soon formed alliances, which in turn became the great houses of the above-mentioned “Inner Sphere”.

BattleMechs are giant 40-foot tall robots that can weigh between 30 and 100 tons, and carry a blistering array of weaponry. These ‘mechs were originally designed for mining, but later on as warfare became more and more frequent their chassis were modified to carry weapons.

Some time in the future a Scientist Called Kerensky developed hyperspace jump technology that would allow for much larger jumps to previously unreached galaxies, and he gathered together all the leading scientific and military minds of the world, he then we
nt out into unknown space, to never be heard of again, or at least for a while.

As you may have guessed, these guys returned, saying they are of the clans. These “Clanners” claim the birthright to terra, and all the rest of the human occupied worlds.

The first alliance of all the Great houses ensues, resulting in the beating back of the Clan invasion.

There’s an inter-house marriage uniting 2 of the strongest houses, that of House Steiner and House Davion, to create the federated Commonwealth.

Of course there’s treachery, and Hanse Davion, the leader of House Davion is assassinated. Some time later, Melissa Steiner, leader of House Steiner, is assassinated. Victor Steiner-Davion, one of the ex-monarchs sons, the eldest, is crowned as the new ruler of the Fed Comm’s, and a little while later he goes off to lead an attack on some of the clan’s home worlds. While he’s gone, His sister, Katherine Steiner-Davion, claims the throne. Of course this leads to outcry as the 2 halves of the Federated Commonwealth fight over who should rule.

~~The Game scenario~~
Basically you are hired by a Steiner-Davion garrison force to help quench a rebel force that is on Carver 5. A little Later on in the game the leader of the Steiner half goes a little mad when He learns House Liao is helping the rebels, and so you are then fighting House Liao. After several missions your contract for House Steiner expires and you are hired by House Liao. You are asked to help fight back the Steiner-Davion forces to gain control of what used to be a House Liao Occupied planet. Several missions later you are betrayed, and join another group of rebels/Davion Forces, and help fight to clear the planet of all armed forces.

~~Graphics~~
Graphically, MC2 is awesome, and is a great improvement over the graphics of the original MechCommander. The Special effects are really good, especially the illuminati
on in night-missions.

The most noticeable difference between MC1 and MC2 is that MC2 has been given a 3D view camera, instead of a Command and Conquer style overhead 2D Camera. Now, before you go thinking that this is brilliant, it’ll be just like Ground Control, I must point out how annoying the camera is. The camera is in no way as smooth as the Ground control camera. Because of the Graphics load on the PC, the graphics will run a little jittery and even get bogged down at points with a PIII 500 MHz, 512 Mb Ram PC. Because of this the camera moves quite slowly, and the difference between zooming in all the way and zooming out all the way isn’t all that much.

Another point is that the camera can only ever point downwards; you can’t angle it above the horizon. This gets annoying when you’ve completed a mission, and have sent your units to their pick up point and have decided to zoom in for a little eye-candy, as you can’t see them coming from the distance until they’ve nearly gone past you.

As mentioned above, the graphics strain an awful lot. My pc was on the lowest graphics setting, and still strained, I really only recommend this game for people with powerful machines. I’m building my own pc, and so when that’s finished, I’ll try the game and hopefully have some other things to say about the graphics.

Other things which slow the PC down but are nice little niggles are pilot movies, when a pilot talks during the game they can have a movie play, this is cool, IF your pc can run it. There’s also the standard shading and resolution options which’ll make the game look better, but run slower.

~~Sound~~
The sound isn’t as good as MW4, but obviously it wouldn’t be in surround as you’re not in first person. I think it’s safe to safe the Sound quality is medium-high, and what you’d expect from portraying a battle scene from above
.

~~Controls~~
The controls in my eyes are OK. They aren’t the best, most easy to use and intuitive controls I’ve used, but they aren’t the worst, you get used to them after playing the first 2-3 missions. This said I have to warn you that the camera controls require a lot of mouse use for angling, and keyboard cursor keys to move the camera, you’ll also need a mouse with a scroll wheel to get the most out of zooming in.

Game controls are simply a matter of Point and click. You simply have to select your units, move the cursor to where you want them to move, what you want them to shoot, etc, and click, and they’ll do it. Holding other shortcut keys down on the keyboard whilst clicking makes units do different things, like run or use jump jets. This saves a lot of time rather than clicking on the unit, the action you want them to do (List of icons is displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen) and where you want them to do it.

~~Customising your mechs~~
I have to say that the customisation of mechs in this game has been left out quite a bit. You can still customise the mechs, but it uses a completely different system to say MechWarrior 3 or 4. It basically allows you to put whatever you want on a Mech, regardless of the weight, but within the Mechs Heat limit. This leads to some Configurations that are very different to what should be allowed in the chassis. You can even complete the game easily by just using standard configurations.

~~Other things~~
Like in MC1, pilots get more skilled the more missions they take part in. you get to choose specialist skills for the pilot each time they get promoted. If you put the settings on easy so that they don’t die much, and always use the lowest ranking Pilots, by the end of the game most of them will have been promoted at least twice, and most will be on the third ranking. I’d have to say it’s very useful to use pilots with
certain skills in certain mechs to make the most out of it.

The missions are also a little more dynamic than MW4, or at least they are towards the end. You get presented with several opportunities on multiple missions to take. This way you can play the game a few times with different missions each time.

You can also salvage mechs and call in support during missions with resource points. This isn’t money, and so it doesn’t cost anything. Normally you are allocated a certain number of points, and opportunities are presented throughout the mission to capture resource buildings and trucks to gain more. With the points you can salvage mechs, call in repair trucks, sensor probes, fixed artillery, scout planes, and a few other things. The best thing to do with them however are to salvage as many expensive mechs at the end of the mission as possible, so that they can be sold for extra money later on, when you need it.

~~Overall Rating~~
I’d have to say that this game will most likely lose quite a few players with the storyline and excessive graphics overload. I’d really only recommend it to MechWarrior or BattleTech fans, and out of those the fans that have decent pc’s that can run it well. It might suit other players that like SCI-FI strategy games, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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