Okay, So I wanted to hate this game because of how bad my initial run went but I'm gonna be fair and recommend it because I ended up having a good time in the long run.
TL;DR Good story aspects, BAD mechwarrior/Battletech game.
This game is a linear shooter wearing the skin of Battletech.
that being said.... holy ♥♥♥♥♥ this game has some issues in balance, like SERIOUS balance issues. I came in fresh off a MW5 mercs playthrough and boy oh boy was that a HUGE mistake. Take all that MW5 knowledge and throw it out the window because these games arn't even related.
Some observations and annoyances in no particular order.
First, the almost pointless mechlab and resource management in the game. Money is worthless because you will always have plenty and you will almost never need to spend it in large amounts. The "market" is also pointless because you buy equipment in the mechlab when you create a load out, so the extra market page has no actual use. Said Loadout setup is also kind of annoying, instead of individually customizing your mech you have to create a loadout, save it, then apply it. It's a bit confusing if you're used to literally any other Battletech/Mechwarrior game. Mechs CAN be bought but you also "buy" mechs with honor which is the only resource that matters. You use said honor to unlock mechs, which you also get a free one with each unlock, so you WILL have a few dozen mechs without ever spending a dime of your money, granted you WILL buy some mechs, but not until the mid/end game when you buy 4 extra direwolves to roflstomp all enemies. Those will be the last mechs you ever use because any other mech becomes suicidal in later missions. Each mission raises you tonnage limit and also the average tonnage of your enemies so its ALWAYS go big or go home tonnage wise.
This leads to the pointless upgrade systems, the mech upgrades are just you unnerfing your own mechs, because yes, they are hugely nerfed, most weapons have almost half the actual max range they should, fire slower than they should, and don't do nearly enough damage for what they are. So all upgrades are just you making your stuff NOT suck. That being said, inner sphere enemies are way too strong and the game is designed to always remove any advantage your clan mech would normally have. Clan stuff is lighter, longer range, and harder hitting at the expense of heat, which they have better heat sinks so that's moot. Every single map has you engaging mechs in tight canyons, urban sprawls, or semi underground tunnels. These forced tunnel runs boils every fight into making a firing line and slow walking your way to victory. You rarely get any room to maneuver and nearly every single fight STARTS at under 500 meters. You are basically always inside AC20 ranges for everything. Your superior range doesn't exist, your weapons are trash until late game, and your AI pilots are nothing more than additional walking guns. As a single player you have no reason to EVER use the battle map because your AI pilots WILL NOT USE MECHS CORRECTLY. They have some insanely unbalanced timer for firing weapons so they will largely only shoot 1 weapon at a time once every 10-15 seconds max. Because of this YOU the player will ALWAYS be the primary target for the enemy AI, a carry over from MW5.
I havn't proved this in any way but I strongly suspect that inner sphere mechs are better armored or at least have some sort of passive buffs that lowers my damage as some lighter mechs can take 6-10 AC 20's to the CT and not even touch structure. In the lore this isn't an issue because I can engage IS mechs from twice the distance...except for this game, again, almost all engagements are point blank hallway fights by design and unless this is luthien your weapons probably cant reach past 800 meters anyways.
The Character traits are stupid, the ONLY skill that matters is evasion, that's it. And for whatever reason each pilot can only gain affinity for seemingly random mechs, insead of, idk, gaining affinity by USING a mech? guess I am asking for the moon there. luckily almost everyone can be trained for Direwolves and as ive stated thats the only worthwhile mech.
So yeah, all that stuff above is pointless, and doesn't need to exist. you can play stock mechs with no issue, your AI's dont get much better than what they start as and all rewards are almost pointless.
Another gripe is the difficulty curve, it's jacked, it starts off easy, becomes insanely difficult because most clan medium and light mechs SUCK, your tonnage limit is arbitrarily low for most of the game, and then it becomes a turkey shoot when you can finally have a full star of assaults. There is NO REASON TO EVER BRING LIGHTER MECHS ONCE YOU UNLOCK HEAVIER MECHS. If you do they will absolutely die after the 4th-5th wave of IS assault mechs gets dropped on you. But don't worry, they will also send dozens of tanks and choppers with larger health pools than some light mechs. The game devs KNOW this, otherwise they wouldn't give you repair stations literally every single mission, often less than 1000 meters apart. Ammo is also kind of stupid issue, stock clan mechs have very small ammo pools so you will find yourself running dry constantly if you try to run a stock missile build ( some stock autocannon builds as well). You CAN add more ammo but this is VERY restricted because of the oddball mechlab mechanics that really limit your ability to edit mechs. ( the devs know this as well because you literally find ammo lying around the map in the form of scan spots ). Omipods are locked behind progression so you have to use the stock mechs regardless to be able to unlock the better omnipods, but that doesn't matter because, just like the mech skills, by the time you actually start to upgrade your mech you'll get a bigger better mech and never touch the old one ever again.
I hate FAKE PROGRESSION. and this game has it in spades, nearly everything about the progression is pointless. Just play in story mode and treat it like a walking simulator (with giant stompy robots) and enjoy the story, which is actually decently done and helps flesh out the rather sparse Clan lore (RIP HBS Battletech and its never produced Clan DLC). Just really wish they'd found some way to tie this into MW5 so you could at least sandbox a little with your clanners in any way.
I'm sure i'm missing all sorts of other weird annoying things but this has gone on for too long already.
Love the story, Hate the Game.
