Mechwarrior Franchise Part two

Now things start to get interesting. Released in 1999, Mechwarrior 3 gives the Battletech universe a fresh coat of paint. The franchise moves in a cinematic direction full of voice acting, intense situations and spectacular explosions.

That introduction sequence that Mechwarrior 3 has is mind-blowing even by today’s standards. I can’t think of any other game that I have played that sucked you into the universe as quickly and as efficiently as this one. It made the unpredictable nature of the Battletech universe very real.

You can watch the sequence here.

The game also looks gorgeous. The terrain, the particle effects and the mechs look incredible. Some of the mech designs in this game are some of the best the entire franchise has seen and many are eager to become a franchise consultant for this franchise. The Annihilator, the Mad Cat and the Vulture are all scary to look and fight. Just thinking of the MW3 Annihilator causes my heart to skip a couple beats.

Despite all of this, Mechwarrior 3 is a hilariously broken game balance wise. Ballistic weapons are ridiculously strong at short range. Large Lasers in groups can snipe anything bearing any heat build-up. LRMs are meant to be secondary weapon systems; In this game they can straight up kill you.

That’s not all, destroying a leg off of a mech in this game automatically kills them. Legging mechs is incredibly easy to do and it makes dangerous threats way too manageable. Just to top it off, the easiest way to salvage new mechs is to leg them in the first place. So you will be legging every mech you see because it makes your lance so much stronger.

And now, the big one(s).

Mechwarrior 4 was the last set of games that got an official release. There are three in total, Vengeance, Black Knight and Mercenaries. And the Mechwarrior Community cherished these games because it was all we had for almost 10 years.

Vengeance and Black Knight featured campaigns during the Kentaries IV struggle. I find that both of the campaigns aren’t quite as crisp as 3’s. Vengeance had a better campaign overall and Black Knight starts to lose focus about halfway through.

4: Mercenaries had a campaign structure similar to 2: Mercenaries. Players can choose which contracts to take and can participate in Solaris VII, a gladiator arena-style tournament. Just like the others before it, there’s something missing in this campaign that 2 and 3 had.

All 3 games, in my opinion, took a step back in terms of visuals. The games are often hailed or criticized for being “arcade-y.” I let it pass, because I find the balance in these games to be way better than 2 and 3.

Mektek, a modding community for Mechwarrior, breathed new life into the games. They made several huge Mekpaks to 4: Mercenaries that extended the life span of the game. I remember nine years ago, I would be playing on the premium server that everybody played on: NBT-Sunder. That server fostered an entire community of dire-hard Mechwarrior fans that wanted to see this game keep going.

I remember spending entire weekends just sitting on that server all day. I remember typing in the console code “-time” just to see how long I was grinding out games for that day. It would be common to see me playing for 8+ hours straight. At that point, I was essentially playing the game like a professional player.

So let’s take it to the next level.

I discovered the integration mod, Inner Sphere Wars. That would be the battleground were I took my skills to the test. I started as a House Davion pilot and was quickly moved to House Kurita. That switch in houses changed everything for me.

I soared to the top of the charts quickly. I averaged around a 64-66 percent Kill-Death ratio with a 70 percent in successful drops. My absolute peak was close to 72 percent KD and near 80 percent in drops. This means that whenever I was in a PvP drop, we won allthe time.

The House Kurita will always be the best gaming clan I have ever been involved in. Everybody knew everybody in that House. We all got to know each other really well through TeamSpeak and learned to trust each other out on drops. Just to give some names of the guys I was with: Hannibal, Hunter, Sinthrow, SilverWolf, Phantom441, BoxPacker, FlaSh and the famous Mack.

All of these guys taught me so much about life and how to handle everything one step at a time. They were like a family to me, raising me to be the person I am today.

That entire year I was involved in Inner Sphere Wars was some of the finest gaming experiences I ever had, I take all of that with my in everything I do.

Sadly, my exodus into ISW was a short-lived one. Drama hit the community and the game fell apart.

And that right there ended my Mechwarrior career.

I hope this gives a bit of an insight of the kind of person I am and the gaming culture I came from.