Back in Time: The Mechwarrior Franchise (Part 1)

Anybody that knows about my gaming history also knows that I come from the Mechwarrior/Battletech community. These games are the reason why I have come to love gaming so much today. Since the industry hasn’t had anything too explosive this week, I thought this would be a good time to take a dropship down Memory Avenue.

Mechwarrior 2: 31^st Century Combat (also referred to as The Clans) is the first video game I ever played. The entire Mechwarrior franchise is a mech-simulator in (optional) first person. You take control of various Battlemechs of all different weights and sizes. You must use your skills as mech pilot to complete objectives and not get blown up by your enemies.

The thing makes this game so fun is how awesome it feels to blow stuff up. Even with 8-bit MS-DOS visuals, destroying an enemy mech is so satisfying. Also, I still think the sound design in that game is spectacular.

If you want to watch this game in action, you can click here.

Other games running the Mechwarrior 2 name are Ghost Bear Legacy and Mercenaries. GBL is an expansion pack on-top of The Clans. Personally, I don’t think GBL is as good as its predecessor. I find the missions to be bland at times and it doesn’t have quite the same feel as The Clans.

Mercenaries, on the other hand, is debatably the best Mechwarrior game ever made. And understandably so, it is one of the most complex campaigns in the Mechwarrior franchise with the largest selection of mechs straight out of the box. Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries is a game way ahead of its time.

Featuring new sound design, visuals and soundtrack, Mercenaries pushes the limits of MS-DOS at the time. It’s also worth noting that no other Mechwarrior game is like Mercenaries. It’s the cherished black sheep of the bunch.

What makes Mercenaries so interesting is that you can fail or dodge missions and continue on in the game. If you don’t want to play a mini-campaign of missions for a client, you can pick specialized single missions until the next mini-campaign shows up. Also, if you fail a mission during a mini-campaign, you can actually play a different instance of a similar mission.

A good example is early on in the campaign. You have to protect these armored cars from enemies inside a city. If you succeed, you take part in a backstab siege in the next mission, which is much easier and the rewards are exceptional. However, if you fail, then you lead the assault head-on and the rewards are pretty trash.

Because of this structure, the game has this life-like feeling to it that not many campaign-based games today have.

Mercenaries is my most played Mechwarrior game if you consider my playthroughs in the single player campaign. The game has a different taste than The Clans, but it is still a fantastic experience. I still prefer The Clans to Mercenaries.

So these are the games that started my gaming hobby. I think it is important that people should recognize their past because a part of that makes you who you are today.

Next time, Part 2 will focus on the Mechwarrior games that actually made my gaming career explode.