Review of BATTLETECH

The distant future is not always an advanced society. It may also happen that huge robots and warships will be piloted by people who are infinitely far from some galactic republic or confederation; people ruled not by elected politicians, but by monarchs and noble families. About how life is in the world of BattleTech on the periphery of interstellar civilization – my story today.

I must say, I don’t understand people who are fans of the aesthetics of huge fighting humanoid robots. Watching masterpieces of engineering turn each other into piles of twisted metal is a strange hobby. What’s worse is that many media professionals, unable to separate their passion and work, give points to the project they are reviewing simply for the presence of majestic anthropomorphic cars in the frame. But don’t worry, Shin is objectivity’s best friend. Even more, Shin is objectivity. I won’t let some mechs with gauss cannons and rocket launchers on board skew my judgment. Just hide already..

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Many people know the MechWarrior series. But not everyone knows that she is just part of the BattleTech franchise. Star League, Inner Sphere, Great Houses – all from it. So today’s heroine is not a rootless craft, but a continuator of a franchise with history. Be respectful.

The third millennium is coming. People have long settled throughout space thanks to the technology of superluminal travel. But they came to new planets with old problems. Intrigue, ambition, xenophobia, cruelty and mistrust. That is why the giant formation known as the Star League lasted only two centuries, leaving behind a pile of military equipment and several powerful families who began to fight for the title of the most important. Due to unhealthy enthusiasm, in the process they completely destroyed research and industrial facilities (along with their employees), thereby rolling back the general technological level several centuries ago, and some planets – to the pre-space era.

Befitting its lore, the game turned out to be of unexpectedly serious proportions, which you wouldn’t expect from a modest-looking product for seven hundred rubles. Mechanics and nuances in it – from Everest. The amazing thing is that they all work.

A bright future immediately makes it clear that it thinks about humanism.

BATTLETECH starts with a generator… character portrait and backstory, quite rich I must say, and continues with the most useless tutorial in video game history that doesn’t even explain a tenth of the rules of the game. Gameplay is divided into two halves: management and battles. Both are screwed.

Our avatar is the head of a small group of mercenaries. The team is deeply in debt, but with furs and their own ship, on which the “management” part takes place. It includes the distribution of experience gained, plotting a course, random events, choosing and negotiating contracts, hiring and purchasing equipment and, most importantly, customizing ‘Mechs. Later, another modification of the vessel will be added to this list.

Mercenaries are not philanthropists, they work for coin. Maintaining equipment also requires money. Therefore, contracts, skirmishes in essence, are vital to keep the team afloat. The game, by the way, will end early if the bank account is empty. The ruthless realities of capitalism are true for the distant future.

All rooms of the ship are accessible via a menu on the left side of the screen. It looks solid, but once you figure it out, you’ll have to open each bookmark for a minute, update your research, and take an order. Except one. Mech Bay. Our main weapon setup screen. It is necessary to dwell on it in detail so that you feel all the… solidity of the game.

The contracts window, while simple, provides enough https://ezcash-casino.co.uk/withdrawal/ information to prepare for battle.

This room gives access to all currently available mechanisms. Here you can familiarize yourself with their device and change it, if necessary. I’m even scared to start. Adjustment of front and rear armor, balance between weapons, cooling systems and mobility, tonnage, different model ranges of the same mech, capable of carrying different weapons and, accordingly, playing different roles in battle – there are enough customization options to stick for tens of minutes each time, adjusting the equipment to specific strategies.

The number of mechs ready for battle is limited. To use another hull, you must first get it from the warehouse and then equip it with weapons. Both require money and time. Old things don’t always change to new. Some missions favor the use of mobile vehicles, while in others large models with heavy weapons are more useful. At first it is impossible to be prepared for everything, but over time the compartment expands, which allows you to keep a flexible combat fleet ready. True, everything that is pulled out of the warehouse also requires a monthly maintenance fee. The price of comfort.

Repairs take place here. Stripped external armor is restored automatically for free, but for everything else (surprise!) have to pay. At first, the amounts are quite modest, but in the future, restoring one severed arm can cost a quarter of the reward received for the mission. But if for destroyed limbs it is enough to simply pay for them to return to their place, then the weapons and support modules lost along with them cannot be returned, only new ones must be installed. Even if the order is successfully completed, eliminating the consequences of a complex battle has every chance of costing more than the payment received.

For the full combat equipment of this vehicle we had to pay with cut off armor.

Briefly about two more rooms. Personnel are being trained in the barracks. The system is simple: four linear specializations, two skills each. Everything is pumped up, if you had experience, but you can only take three skills: two abilities of the first level and one of the second. The resulting combination determines what type of vehicle is best suited to the fighter. In addition to skills, leveling up branches improves speed, accuracy, heat resistance and other characteristics of characters.

The latter is a command center where orders are accepted and negotiations are conducted with the employer. You can get three things from a mission: money, trophies and reputation. Money is clear. Trophies – equipment from defeated enemies and, in fact, the mechs themselves. Reputation determines the complexity of missions from a given client (yes, there are several of them) and the payment above the agreed upon. We are free to choose what we want more or less of. This is negotiation. By the way, it can take weeks to get to your destination.

The plot also moves on board the ship. Mostly dialogues, although there are also cinematics collected – I promise – from concept art. Origins compiled at the beginning in some cases open up unique dialogue options. They don’t change the course of history, but they play into the protagonist’s image.

As you can tell from the introduction, the game has quite a lot of lore. Instead of creating an in-game knowledge base, the developers have provided the most important terms, names and events of the universe encountered through the replica with separate descriptions that are called up by hovering the cursor. Comfortable. And you need.

That’s all I wanted to say about the management part of "BATTLETECH". It begins why we gathered here in the first place. Battles.

Maybe “Unity” doesn’t have a fancy picture, but the artists of “BATTLETECH” clearly have a sense of taste.

What do you need to do on missions?? From one to four people are landed on a given map and need to take out enemy soldiers. There are several combat scenarios: attack and defense of the base, the same for convoys, elimination of a specific target, capture of a VIP, battle. But in fact it’s always easier to kill everyone. The game has a retreat system with its own rules, and it would even be useful if the developers added an “Iron Man” mode. Unfortunately, the ability to save in battle devalues ​​the mechanics.

So, the landing took place. The next step is progress towards the stated goal. The enemy is hiding behind the fog of war, but sooner or later the sensors will detect him. At this stage you cannot attack, visual contact is needed, but you can already plan your formation. Forests and hills, for example, provide advantages.

And then the enemy appeared. From this point on, you have to take into account a dozen factors: maintaining the optimal distance for maximum shooting accuracy; space to retreat when unexpected problems arise; enemy reinforcements; angles of attack, which determine which parts will be hit; overheat; morality! Lord God, I put a bolt to list everything. Seriously, if the game didn’t have an economic and role-playing part, I would easily classify it as a wargame, there are so many rules in it.

Energy and missile modules make the mech very hot, and the latter also consume ammunition. Ballistic weapons also consume ammo and produce virtually no heat, but after each shot they receive an accuracy penalty from recoil. Ammunition may detonate. Mechs fall not only after their legs are smashed into rubbish, but also upon reaching the stability threshold. Pilots get injured. Defense gives a defensive advantage, which, however, is instantly broken by any melee attack. Even your own moves can be delayed, provoking the enemy to aggression. And the training tells you how to cool down and dodge. Ha. Ha. Ha.

The cards are also crazy. In fifty-two orders I only got three repeats. By the way. Each mission has its own biome, which directly affects the speed of heat dissipation of the mech. And if the tundra favors colored pew-pews, then in deserts and vacuum such combat platforms will fry. Biomes costs take into account when confirming the order.

Despite all disagreements, pilots from both sides enjoy taking polar baths together.

And this, gentlemen, is wonderful. Jokes aside, I haven’t left the game since its release, and the end of the day smoothly shifted from midnight to four in the morning. And it’s not just about robots, which have been in short supply lately. “BATTLETECH” also turned out to be a worthy tactical role-playing game in all respects, which are not exactly rare these days, but are still much less common than we would like. Comprehensive rules plus plenty of squad customization make the end result more than the sum of its parts.

Of course, the game is not without its flaws. Two of them loomed before your eyes all the way: optimization and Russian language. What unites these different things is that they are not in the game. However, the team assures that performance and localizations, including Russian, are their priority. There is also a problem with cards. Although there are many of them, there is no variety. There are not enough normal, full-sized bases, cities, infrastructure facilities, such as dams and bridges. Clear forests and hills. Well, I would like more weapons.

About the plot, I will only say one thing: what began as a typical Western fairy tale about the struggle between good democracy and bad tyranny, quickly slipped into what a war with politics should be – dirt. I approve.

I’d rather burn the mech than let the only remaining truck get away.
Last but not least – multiplayer. Select up to four fighters from a small pool, collect furs for them for a certain amount – and off you go. You already know that the combat mechanics in the game are rich in detail. Imagine that instead of a limited “aischnik”, the height of tactical thought for which is to pile on one in a crowd, you are opposed by an enemy capable of planning and predicting.

"BATTLETECH" is a great thing. And if on the first evening I strongly regretted that I preferred it to “Frostpunk”, which was released on the same day, the next morning there was no trace of this feeling left. There can never be too many tactics, especially at this level. The only thing is that starting to get acquainted with the genre with this game may be difficult.

So I thought, why not start a column with analyzes of complex games. But whether this happens or not is not up to me alone to decide. Tell us in the comments if you are interested in similar content on “BATTLETECH” in particular and games with complex rules in general.

That’s all. Spring is ending, summer is coming. Monitor the temperature, do not overheat your reactors. Shin – off.