BattleTech (2018) Review

For any fan of  Battletech, it’s all good news, because the genre in recent years almost did not give signs of life.

And that he does not again fall into a coma, the creators should be taken not by quantity, but by quality (and can be combined, but it does not happen).

The new game Harebrained Schemes, if you consider all of the above, it is quite possible to call it “the first pancake.” Yes, BattleTech is able to give players more than a dozen exciting hours of gameplay.

The main thing that you need to know about BattleTech is that developers have been able to adapt the rules of nichet not just a simple desktop wargame.

And adapt them so that the uninitiated did not explode the brain. All the key features of the board game authors carefully transferred to the screens of monitors.

In combat, you need to monitor the degree of overheating of machines, carefully look at the state of the armor and in case of what tuck the bellows “unbitten” side to the enemy, and also think about whether to sacrifice armor for the installation of a new laser gun.

And at first it all seems like something very complicated and overloaded. But this at first. After a couple of successful (though, rather, not very successful) battles, you will already know what you need to do to win with little blood.

In short, yes – with the main part of the game, with battles and management of the furs, Harebrained handled perfectly. But about the whole game as a whole can not be said.

At some point I came to the conclusion that BattleTech reminds me of Harvey Dent of DC comic books.

Dent, if anyone does not remember, half of the face was disfigured with acid. BattleTech is also half disfigured – but not acid, but a storyline.

Everything, what the local plot is capable of – gradually to lead you forward, lulling it with unreal boring dialogs and a shaft of templates.

The story revolves around Princess Kamei Arano, who one day lost her throne and was forced to flee.

Three years after the coup, she returned, declared war on her uncle, who made the coup, and began a liberation campaign.

The protagonist of the game is not Camea herself, but a simple fur pilot who helped the princess to escape from the army of the evil uncle.

To admit, I would not say anything against such a plot – yes, it’s simple, but in general it’s a worker.

And in the course of the plot you will have to restrain many times, so as not to start laughing at the predictability (and stupidity) of the script.

Then you and the ancient ship, in which the coordinates of a secret military base with a bunch of relics are utterly EXTREMELY.

And the characters popping up in the middle of the game, burning with a desire to REALLY CRASH. To restrain himself and not to laugh, seriously, very difficult.

Trying to catch up on the drama does not really work. “Oh my God, they tortured them here!” – exclaims the character, appearing in the prison of Blood ™ Mode. “You killed my son – now I’m going to kill you!” The hero, whom we see (and hear) for the first time in a game, hisses at the microphone.

And then, like in this spirit, the whole story goes. Even you can not feel the spirit of civil war, if only because you are almost not involved in it.

The flights themselves take time, when you have nothing to do.

Sometimes the game offers small random events, in which you only need to read a couple of paragraphs of the text and click on one button.

Although, of course, I admit that in my team there were only some sly gamblers.

With contracts it’s easy – choose the one you like in complexity / payment, take it and choose the desired reward.

You need money for two things (not counting the flights between systems).

For the issue of wages at the end of the month and in order to repair (or alter) the battles of the fights.

However, if you want to rebuild the furs, rearranging the weapon or adding jumping engines, you will have to pay for it. And wait until the engineers will not collect this monster Frankenstein in pieces.

To shorten the waiting time, you can improve the ship.

There is an option – to have at your fingertips two or three tasks at a time, but this will also require money.

The base hangar of Argo holds only six cans at a time.

Fortunately, you can attach two more hangars, and have up to 18 normal fighters for all occasions.

The process of arming the bellows is one of the key elements of the game.

Therefore, we constantly have to look for the golden mean between the reservation and the firepower.

You can, of course, make a fur or a “glass cannon,”.

Or an impenetrable wall, but that only adds to your headache.

When equipment is worth considering a lot of factors. Are there many expensive guns in terms of energy?

Place heat sinks. Do furs have little armor by default?

Rockets and long-range lasers are your choice.

Do you want to deal with enemies in close combat? Take the flamethrower, it will not be superfluous.

Fur in the game a lot, and most of them also have several models.

On some more laser pylons, on some rocket ones.

A competent combination of all this in battle is a pledge of victory.

So it is important to have several specializations in the fur hut at once.

Although, again, no one prevents you from running to missions solely with missile furs.

As a result, BattleTech causes conflicting emotions.

If you close your eyes to the plot and the gift is not necessary to the open world.

Then you will get a wonderful tactical strategy in which a detachment.

Of four fighting humanoid robots diligently knocks out dope from other orders of fighting humanoid robots.

Interrupting sometimes for maintenance, trips to the infirmary and playing poker.

In this form, the game is almost perfect, and there is almost nothing superfluous in it.

But if you suddenly wanted a good cosmopolitan.

The development of the history of the universe of BattleTech or well-written characters.

Then you definitely made a mistake with the door.

In the scenario plan, the game can not offer anything of interest.

Constantly drowning the player in the pathos lake and trying to depict the drama.

Fortunately, all these story insertions are mercifully short.

And after them usually there is a regular mission where again.

It is possible to plunge into the sea of ​​numbers and tactics.

There are only two things that can prevent even those who do not care about the plot.

It’s localization (it’s not there) and optimization (it’s a surprise! -no too).

On a computer that is more powerful than what is indicated in the recommended requirements, BattleTech arranges two-minute downloads, eats a huge amount of RAM and loads the video card in the way  Final Fantasy did not always work. Well, at least it does not crash – and thanks for that!