["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
SYSTEM VOICE: “Reactor: online. Sensors: online. Weapons: online.” ["Pacific Rim" theme playing] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
SYSTEM VOICE: “All systems nominal.” ["Pacific Rim" theme playing] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
[warning whir of the release hatch] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
SYSTEM VOICE: “Target destroyed.” ["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
[*cha-ching*] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
[*cha-ching*] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
[police sirens] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing]
[*cha-ching*] ["Pacific Rim" theme playing] [slot machine sounds] I think they want me to buy something… Ever since its inception in the mid-80s, “Battletech” has had a dedicated fan following. It was a combined arms wargame, with walking battle mechs at the center of all of it. The first “MechWarrior” RPG came out in 86, followed by the first videogame in 88. Since then, there have been nearly two dozen other games. It’s enjoyed success on PC and consoles, though some clearly did better than others. So, there was some excitement when “MechWarrior Online” was announced. I played during the open beta, and also after launch in 2013, but I didn’t stick around. I’ll get into those reasons a little bit later. But it’s been almost exactly 4 years since then. A game can change a lot in that time. I’ve been getting a ton of requests to cover this game. At first, I thought people didn’t want me to miss out. But then I started noticing a theme in the mail. People hated it, but also praised it. Usually in the same sentence. That got me curious again. So let’s take it from the top. As usual, I’m gonna start with the presentation. “MechWarrior Online” is gorgeous. This is a CryEngine game, and it looks how you expect it to. The game tries to look realistic on the technical level, and I think it pulls it off. All the effects really help sell the setting. The environment reacts to you with little details like knocking over trees or setting up clouds of dust when you move. You might even leave footprints. These effects shine on some maps and don’t look so good on others, but it succeeds in what it’s set out to do. And besides, the mechs are the real star. Damage is great. Debris will fly off of mechs when they take damage. Sometimes, you could see an entire part fall off. Combined with the stellar weapon effects, the combat looks and feels really satisfying. However, I still have a few technical issues with the game. Video games have a spectrum for pop-in. On the good side, it’s unnoticeable. This is where the environment just naturally fades into view, and you don’t notice a thing. Then there is the bad side of the spectrum. I’m gonna call it “Jackie Chan Adventures intro”. Some of the maps lean towards Jackie, and I don’t know why. It’s only CERTAIN maps. This doesn’t affect the mechs at all, from what I’ve seen, so you don’t have enemies materialize in front of you, like in other game, but it can be a bit distracting at times, even if you set the environmental effects to very high. It’s also worth noting that it’s very CPU-bound. This is due to the way the mechs work. Compared to a regular FPS game, the mechs have a lot more hitboxes on them. The health of each individual arm, leg and torso part needs to be tracked. It seems to mainly be relying on one or two threads, so if you have an AMD CPU or an older Intel one, you might have issues. Cranking down particles and shadow quality in the menu can help you out there. Now let’s talk about the art style. Well… What can I say? It’s “Battletech”. I think I’ll give some backstory here. When “Battletech” was being crafted, it had quite a few legal issues. It was originally gonna be called “BattleDroids”, until someone got mad about that. So, then it became “Battletech”, but it didn’t stop there either. They bought the rights to use some mecha designs in their tabletop game, but they’d have to have different names and classes and all that stuff. It’s like how they’re “Super Sentai” in Japan, but in America they became “Power Rangers”. Anyways, it turned out the people who sold them the rights might not have been able to do so legally. They did settle out of court. The stipulation was: they didn’t have to remove mention of the mechs, but they just couldn’t show them anymore. So, these became known as “unseen mechs”, though, some became “reseen” after they underwent a redesign. With all that in mind, combine that in a setting about technology stagnating. It’s all led to an interesting design evolution. The mecha influence is still there, but it’s a lot bulkier and more industrial. The game captures this perfectly. In fact, they might have gone with the original spirit a little bit too well. Oh, look at that – they have new mechs available for preor… The mechs all look fantastic. There is a big roster, and a lot of fan favorites are there. The “Mad Cat”, the “Atlas”, the “Battlemaster”, the “Uziel”, “Master Chief”… They’re all here. I love the “Battletech” art style. It’s like Caterpillar bought a Gundam factory. Besides looking great, the mechs also sound good. Each one has a unique sound pallet. [punchy steps] [fast, clanky steps] [steps sound muted from the cockpit] [various consoles quietly beep and boop] This helps each battle mech feel unique. I do think that the quality of weapon sounds is a bit all over the place. [rockets launch loudly] SYSTEM VOICE: “New target acquired.” [cannons sound meh, while lasers are nigh silent]
SYSTEM VOICE: “New target acquired.” SYSTEM VOICE: “New target acquired.” [lasers produce barely audible hum]
SYSTEM VOICE: “New target acquired.” [lasers produce barely audible hum]
SYSTEM VOICE: “Target destroyed.” [an array of underwhelming weapon sounds] There is a lack of basey punch to them. It’s serviceable, but not outstanding. Same goes for the music. [generic, unengaging "guitar and drums" tune] Eh-h-h-h… Overall, the presentation is great, but gameplay matters most. Let’s start with the basics. The tutorial teaches you all about piloting your battle mech. That might be a little more complicated than it sounds. It’s mainly learning some of the game systems and UI elements. I’d say it looks more complicated than it actually is. The mechs use tank controls, rather than feeling like a first person shooter. Torso-mounted weapons are fixed in your center, but some mechs have arm weapons, which swing independently. That’s represented by that little blue square, compared to the crosshair. This system means you can strafe and be very mobile while firing. Learning how to compensate for your own movement and your enemy’s movement is a big skill to master. Your movement also carries momentum, so in most mechs you can’t just stop on a dime. So, if you’ll walk into the bad part town, that means that will take you awhile to reverse out of that situation. There’s also a heat mechanic, and certain weapons will generate more heat than others. If you overheat, the entire mech will shut down. This can be worth doing in some situations – just keep in mind: you’re gonna remain vulnerable for a few seconds, and someone could get some really good hits on you. SYSTEM VOICE: “Heat level: critical.” You can also override your heat safety, but that gives you a chance of instant death. Pretty risky. It’s also worth noting that some maps will generate a lot more heat than others. Some map hazards will not only increase your heat, but probably melt your legs off, too. There’s a good variety of weapons in the game. Along with damaging weapons, some mechs can equip ECM or anti-missile systems. They each have their own strengths and drawbacks. Lasers generate a lot of heat, ballistic weapons can jam, and some types of missile launchers can only fire past a certain range, so, a small enemy getting in their face can be a problem. You can customize the weapons of mechs you own. But I’m not gonna do that just yet. That part’s coming… First, I wanna get into the game modes and the community. SHADOW2001: “Once more into the breach, fellow warriors!” The matches in “MechWarrior Online” are team-based. There is the standard Team Death Match, but there are a few other modes. Incursion has you destroying your opponent’s base, which has turrets and other defenses. It’s pretty good, but close matches can drag on. Even if an entire team is wiped, you need to wait for them to destroy the base, or wait out the timer. So you can end up sitting there for a few minutes, waiting for them to clean up. Still going… Domination is your classic King Of The Hill mode. No problems there. Escort has one team protecting a VIP mech, while the other team tries to kill him. The path the AI takes is random, which is good, but… it’s also kind of awful. Sometimes, it will take a bizarre long way around, and run into the enemy team. PLAYER: “…the VIP is in trouble – he’s an idiot!” Yeah, that sums it up… Don’t let your eye off Mr. President. Conquest has you fighting over map control points for ticket gain. This is also fairly standard, but it works really well in “MechWarrior”. The same goes for the Assault mode, where you just try to capture the enemy base or wipe out the team. You don’t respawn in any of these modes – you get one life and that’s it. So it makes positioning and coordinating with your team very important. So it’s a shame so many maps are confined. Games were a lot more interesting on larger maps, where teams had room to maneuver. These confined maps feel like you’re being railroaded into a slug fest. For a game with so many options and team compositions, that seems like a waste. There are also a few game modes and maps exclusive to faction play. Faction play is, basically, the Universal War meta game. There’s a 4v4 scouting match that can affect a mode called Siege, but I can never get a game of it going. That will just have to remain a mystery… Siege is about attacking or defending a large stronghold. If you play Siege, you get 4 different respawns. For the faction games, you make a deck of 4 mechs you can use. These deck-a-'mechs do have a tonnage limit, so you can’t just pile in with assault mechs. Because you have to break through gates to get into the base, Siege does have a ton of player-funneling in it, so that can drag on. Even then, just playing the normal game modes in faction play is some of the best stuff the game has to offer. The teams are a lot more coordinated. There’s some territorial tug of war as each side gets its mechs replaced by fresh spawns. So, here’s where I can get into the community. PLAYER 1: “Alright, let’s make a decision.” PLAYER 2: “Swing through 6… H5 and 6. Kinda go around it.” PLAYER 1: “Which, right side or left?” PLAYER 2: “On the right side of M.” PLAYER 1: “Alright, let’s do it.” PLAYER 3: “Yep, they’re rushing you, guys, on the flank. We’re getting a firing line set up, we’re gonna pick them off from the hill.” It’s been a few years since I saw a game community that was this good. People were talking and coordinating in nearly every match. It’s… kind of surreal. It’s a team-based game, where people actually work as a team! ["Shogo" theme playing]
I think we’re finally gonna make it together! That being said, I suspect the Australian servers aren’t very good. There’s a lot on the North America's servers. [heavily-accented Australian speech] [burst of laughter] AUSTRALIAN PLAYER: “Anyway, that’s it for me. Big Dick One, over and out.” [uncontrollable snickering] Australians bring fun and banter to servers. They’re great, as long as their ping doesn’t make them look like something from “Jacob’s Ladder”. So, if I stopped here, I could probably give “MechWarrior Online” a glowing “recommend”. But I can’t. Now I need to show you how this game completely sabotages itself. This game has an absurd amount of technical problems. An example: at the end of the match, a player will be chosen to get a supply cache (basically, a little cosmetic lootbox that games all have now). So, here’s an abridged experience of me winning one. TIM: “Oh my God, Mandalore, this is the time! You got it free!” MANDALORE: “Oh, that’s great!” MANDALORE: “I got an error when I loaded in… wh… oh? Oh, it said I win a supply cache!” [suppressed snickering] MANDALORE: “Okay, so I’m gonna claim that… Okay, it didn’t work… Let me try it again…” [snickering intensifies]
MANDALORE: “Okay, so I’m gonna claim that… Okay, it didn’t work… Let me try it again…” MANDALORE: “Okay, the error came back…” [suppressed laughter] MANDALORE: "Hah hah!" MANDALORE: “Eh… Hey, Tim?” TIM: “Mm?” MANDALORE: “I looked in the inventory, and it’s empty.” TIM: “Yeah?” MANDALORE: “No, like, it's… There’s no cache in there.” TIM: “What?” MANDALORE: “Yeah, there’s nothing in here! It’s empty!” MANDALORE: “I didn’t get anything!” TIM: “Oh my God, dude, the game bugged out so hard it gave it to me!” MANDALORE: “Whaht?” [suppressed laughing and wheezing] MANDALORE: “Okay, I’m... I'm gonna relog…” MANDALORE: “Okay, so now I’m getting the same error trying to log into the game.” [laughter] MANDALORE: “Okay, it’s saying I won it now. It showed up, with, like, all these… ehh… the cadet bonuses, I guess, popped off at once.” RUSH: “There you go!” TIM: "So good..." MANDALORE: “I don’t think it should be taking this long to load.” MANDALORE: “Yeah, this isn’t right…” MANDALORE: “Okay, now it says I have a key to the cache, but no cache is in there…” [laughter] MANDALORE: “I checked back in the inventory… Now there are two supply caches…” [laughter] MANDALORE: “Yeah, I can’t join the group! You’re, like… You’re out of my list! No one’s there!” TIM: “You’ve been living in the dream world, Neo…” There was a pretty ridiculous amount of networking bugs. Not just for me, but for the people I was playing with, too. Sometimes, starting a match, I’d see multiple players time out, and they’d just be sitting there. It wasn’t on my end either, because other players were still moving. MANDALORE: “Op… I think my game just crashed…” TIM: “Yeah, my game crashed too, man.” MANDALORE: “I think we lost the whole group.” NOOTKIN: “My game crashed too.” I went ahead and got a standalone launcher to make sure it wasn’t Steam having issues. There was something not quite right about it… When I launched it for the first time, it told me it didn’t download the .exe, then it crashed. It turned out the launcher hadn’t downloaded a ton of files, for some reason. This wasn’t just happening to me – people who downloaded it with me had similar issues. From my experience, this game seems crazy unpolished. I can tolerate a buggy game if it’s good, but here’s where things get really bad. This is a Free-to-Play game at some of its worst. I’ve heard the phrase “golden mechs” used a lot to describe this game. This is referring to a pre-release deal, where they were selling $500 golden mech skins. That alone should be a warning sign. But now there are Champion and Hero mechs you can only buy with gold, so I guess it can apply to that too now. The “Locust” here has more weapon hard points than anything else in its class. A lot of people argue these are side-grades, but I have to wonder why you can only buy them with real money then. Maybe it’s the income bonus. Besides the gold, there are blue C-bills (which are the in-game cash) and experience points. C-bills can buy equipment, consumables and certain mechs. You can get a decent amount per match, but you could get more with premium time. You can only buy and put equipment on a mech you own. You do get some trial mechs though. You get 4 per weight class, and, theoretically, they get switched out sometimes. Trial mechs can’t be customized – you need to use exactly what they give you. But if you go back to that screen, you don’t just gain C-bills for matches – you earn experience. But not in the trial mech. I don’t know how to describe the skill system. It’s like a forest of them. And these are in multiple categories! Each mech has about 200-300 skills! This looks like padding to me. These skills aren’t very remarkable on their own. But there are also two KINDS of experience: general experience and mech experience. Then you need to convert one or both of these into skill points. And then it still costs more C-bills on top of that. This is a tedious progression system. Look at all these +1% range skills! If you fill out the whole web, it’s substantial, but like this, it’s just a waste of your time. So, even if you find a trial mech you like, playing it a lot won’t add any progression to this system – you’ll have to start from scratch when you buy it. Remember: it’s like this for every mech in the game. You CAN convert mech experience into general experience, if you didn’t like the mech you were in. Wow, it’s a 1-1 exchange rate, too! Oh, wait, but you need real money to do that… Now, you could be a high roller and win a supply cache and a key for it in an event, and maybe win some money, or get some if you do a lot of faction play, but it’s not gonna be a lot. You’ll have a long way to go to catch up. The grind won’t be as bad in faction play (that’s assuming you get games in it). I’ve been in a lot of game lobbies where a 10 minute timer ran down to zero, and you didn’t get a lot. I guess, I should have just done some quick plays. “MechWarrior Online” is also one of those games where you can’t do anything when you’re searching for a match. You can’t look at weapon groups, mech lab, or even your settings. Maybe you’d rather shell out some cash than grind. Let’s check out the exchange rate. They’re not very subtle about this, are they? You can pre-order three variants of the same mech for $20, where you get some upgrades. Do they have some add-ons to this? Let’s see… Oh… Oh, yeah, look at that – you get some Hero and Champion mech add-ons. Only $15 a pop! Ehh, but I want a mech now. How about an “Atlas”? Those are iconic. They’re between about 4000 and 7500 at the most. They sell it in some kind of odd increments. The cheapest “Atlas” is 3800, so I could buy a 3000 pack and a 1250 pack for $21, but… *sigh* 6500 for $30 is right there! Or I could just buy a Hero “Atlas” for $37. That sounds expensive, right? Well, they’re fair about it. Smaller mechs don’t cost as much real money. See? It scales. Larger, more powerful mechs cost more money. Wait… Why would it work like that? There’s an extensive amount of cosmetics you can buy on top of all of this. So extensive that I kind of wonder why they’re selling all that other shit. But if you still don’t wanna pay for that, you might get something you like in a supply cache. I don’t really have a problem with the cosmetics, but all that other stuff – that rubs me the wrong way. The community is really passionate, and they’re probably buying stuff just to keep the game afloat. Like, a person not into “Battletech” isn’t gonna blow $15 to buy a single mech. Or, you know, a pack of mechs they don’t even like on a 20% off sale. It seem like this system works this way purely to milk fans of the series. They did stop selling the golden mechs after getting enough bad press, but all this other stuff is still here. I don’t know, I just… don’t get a good mental image thinking of this. [*screech*] “Fucking slaves!” [screams of agony] “Get your ass down from here, now, boy!” The title may say “MechWarrior Online”, but I thought we should talk about a different game too. A game that spurred interest in the series and the engine and everything about it, and probably is the only reason this game was made. This may seem irrelevant, but it’s important to understanding the company. I’m talking about the “Crysis Wars” mod – “MechWarrior: Living Legends”. “Living Legends” was a completely free “MechWarrior” game on the same engine. And I mean COMPLETELY free. They had a non-commercial license, so I don’t even think they were allowed to take donations. But what made it so interesting is that it wasn’t just mechs in the game. Like I said earlier, “Battletech” was a combined arms wargame. Sure, it had mechs that “MechWarrior Online” didn’t have yet, but it also had the “Battletech” tanks. It had jets and other air support units. People could dogfight in a “Battletech” game. It was all there and it was great! The maps were huge and not closed off at all. It was necessary – with combined arms warfare you needed a bigger map. They were big and they were gorgeous. Mechs, tanks, aircraft and battle armor could all fight on one map. This was the height of fan passion, and it won tons of awards. So it died. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was murdered. In January 2013, “MechWarrior Online” was still in beta. The “Living Legends” team posted onto their website that version 0.7.0 would be their final. There’s a lot of regret in the message. They seem to wanna keep working on it, but are unable to “due to recent events”. The lead artist posted incomplete assets. He noted that some were mere weeks or days away from completion. He also wanted to work on it more, but wasn’t able to. Rumors were already flying, but mod staff said there was no formal C&D. Remember that wording. Ex staff members claimed that PGI had been sending threatening emails to the team. The “MechWarrior Online” playerbase wasn’t happy. It was pretty barren, compared to “Living Legends”. The founders posted that they received no legal threats at all. They sincerely apologized to all parties affected. Russ Bullock – the CEO of Piranha Games – came onto the forums to explain himself. He said that they never sent a C&D letter to them – it was decided when they met at a convention. Russ said he met the mod leadership there, and decided to (in his words) “ask them in casual, unscripted conversation why they were splitting the playrbase up”. You’d think a combined arms tactical game wouldn’t be as compared to a mech deathmatch game as that, but… whatever. The “Living Legends” team decided that was a good idea, and the solution would be to shut down their mod completely. Did Russ leave any clues that this might not be entirely accurate? Well, after a lot of digging, I found it: in the next paragraph, he mentions how the “Living Legends” team sent them a final presentation – to show what their final patch would be. Though, for some strange reason, they asked if it would be okay with his company. Well, either way, Mr. Bullock was very pleased by this. Some developers contested this story a little bit. The mod founders were working at CryTek – they had a partnership with Piranha Games, because they were having them use the CryEngine for their “MechWarrior” game, but their own employees made what they saw as a competing product. So, if other team members decided to leak out what happened, it would be possible that the founders and their friends would lose their jobs. That’s not even counting all the legal hurdles they’d go through. One developer speculated that the only reason they had a non-commercial license in the first place was that they had been allowed to. If the mod was successful, they can make their own game based off of it. It would prove to investors that it was viable, and that there was interest, and money should be spent on the IP. So the question is: why wouldn’t they just outright C&D them? Well, their business practices hadn’t exactly been getting a lot of good PR, had they? This is speculation based off of public posts, but it seems possible that PGI was threatening the “Living Legends” team. Maybe indirectly. There might have been a condition that leaking out the truth would hurt sales of “MechWarrior Online”. So, everyone had to remain silent, and can’t speak about it to this day. But there’s a bit of a happy ending. A new team took over the project, and “Living Legends” is back to life. I talked to the team, and they have an update coming in a month or so. They’ve been pretty busy. Some of the unfinished assets are already back in. The playerbase is dedicated, but small, since not everyone knows it’s back. Maybe this will change that a bit. But this is about “MechWarrior Online”, so I’ll wrap this up. The combat in “MechWarrior Online” is solid. It’s everything else around it… It lacks a lot of polish, and it lacks a sense of progression. The mech gameplay itself is good though, so… it’s kind of hard to explain… It’s like being on a fun rollercoaster. But it’s in a swamp. And a bunch a bugs fly up to bite you. Whenever you make a hard turn, you feel your change about to fly out of your pocket. Also, you’re pretty sure the guy who let you on the rollercoaster shot a good friend of yours in the face and said he did it to himself. But it’s still a rollercoaster... So, if you can handle the grind, it might be worth checking out. You could also try “Legends” too, because that’s COMPLETELY free. Either way, thanks for watching! Next time I’m gonna look at a game that you might get a kick out of… PLAYER 1: ♥ “Hello-o-ow!” ♥ PLAYER 2: "Aim for legs!" PLAYER 3: "Just get some!" PLAYER 1: ♥ “Goodby-ye!” ♥ MANDALORE: “Are you kidding me?” PLAYER: ♂ “Boy next door…” ♂ [mandalorly chuckle]
While Mandalore isn't necessarily the best Mechwarrior out there (he's mostly playing trial mechs in the video and shoots weapons outside of range multiple times) but everything else he says is spot on. MWO is a game with great mechanics and great customization but it's hampered by severe technical issues, performance, and a need to insert microtransactions that makes grinding new mechs and customization pain. A small mech might cost a few million CBills which can be grinded in a few days, but if you don't already have a ton of equipment stockpiled from playing for years you'll easily end up paying 10 million CBills or more for an optimized fit. The Skill Tree is also designed to suck up all your CBills when you're playing a mech if you want all those small bonuses.
Speaking of the skill tree, it might seem to be only useless junk made out of inconsequential improvements but there are a few nodes that drastically improve a mech's performance, like the bonuses to laser duration, increased ammo, or the double stacked artillery. It's a marked improvement over the previous iteration where you had to get three variants of the same mech in order to unlock all the skill nodes, which also happened to be incredibly substantial stat bonuses too.
While all the flaws make it hard to recommend MWO, it's still an active and fun game, though Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries and MW:LL are just as fun with a lot less BS.
Wait, Living Legends is back?
Absolutely love Mandalore's channel. I am giddy everytime I see a new video, great voice and amazing dedication to research and editing.
My biggest problem with this game isn't the grindiness, microtransactions, and skill unlocks. It's the fact that if you want to play a quick play game with friends, you will be thrown into a lobby at where everyone else is significantly higher skilled than you with optimized mech builds. Playing solo will generally be OK in terms of skill balancing, but the devs seem to think that if you group with friends you should face people with many more hours on the game.
This makes playing with friends a terrible experience where you will get stomped 9/10 times. It's really hard to have newer players pick up MWO with this ridiculously stupid group play system since playing in a group leads to a terrible, unbalanced experience.
Man I love Mandalore. If you're not entirely sold on his channel, check out the video he did on E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy, which looks like the best game I'll never play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScCVzENcjs&feature=youtu.be
As much as I love MWO I freely admit it has problems. The UI in the hangar is clunky, fps drops at random, etc. Apparently a lot of this is due to the game running on the cry engine of all things which is basically defunct now. Iirc, each mech component is considered a player by the engine. So 8 'players' per mech, 24 mechs in a match... Suffice to say that's gotta be inefficient as fuck when it comes to networking and calculation.
Oh wow, I didn't know this game was still alive.
I played it back on release, and it felt really weird. The graphics were outdated even back then (and really did not age well at all), and the business model just seemed to want to push you out of the game. Which it successfully did, for me.
This game is definitely my gaming albatross. The monetization is awful, the game can be abit buggy at times, the cosmetic customisation could do with an overhaul and there hasn't been a new map in forever. I still love it though, the core gameplay is fantastic and engaging, it's battletech and the community is one of the best (in game at least).