"I love the smell of a PPC salvo in the morning"

I'm a mech fan at heart, ever since the original Mechwarrior 2 for PC. Piloting 100-ton warbots armed to the actuators with weapons of destruction firing at other 100-ton warbots...there's nothing better. Things have improved a lot since the first Mechwarrior games, and my passion for rampant mech destruction has yet to wane.

Graphics

A huge step up from previous games, Mechwarrior 4 boasts excellent graphics even on low-budget cards. Considering this game is more than three years old, it boasts considerable quality in mech and texture design and environments. The weapons are impressive to watch in action, as well as the result upon hitting enemy mechs. The game takes place from either an in-the-cockpit view or behind-the-mech-shoulder, which is controlled with a simple keypress.

Sound

Lots of voicework here, and the music is great for battles. Your teammates will talk to you during the missions, making things that much more immersive. The voicework is pretty good, without any corny acting, and much better than a lot of current games in terms of voices. The sound effects are all spot-on, from the crackling of a PPC blowing out your opponent's circuitry to the whoosh of a missile salvo being launched. There's nothing quite like hearing a massive laser salvo followed up by a Gauss round to the cockpit.

Gameplay

The story goes something like this: you're in the middle of a family dispute and have to challenge your uncle for dominance. Along the way you'll meet new teammates and even your long-lost sister, all of whom will help you achieve your goal. That's the single-player campaign, anyway. You can play in multiplayer or go into Instant Action, which lets you drop down into a battle zone filled with enemies. Like the name says, this lets you get into the thick of things in a hurry.

So how does it play? Good with a keyboard, better with a joystick. A MS Sidewinder Precision Pro or something with a lot of buttons and throttle control is ideal for this game. Between the jump jets, weapon groups, torso twisting, and everything in between, you'll need full mastery of whatever you're using to survive.

Combat is simple to learn, and difficult to master. Since you're piloting a big freaking robot, most of them can't turn very well. That's where torso twisting comes in, which lets you swivel your mech's torso and fire to the side while running forward...or turning, or jet-jumping, etc. Jump jets are a staple of the Mechwarrior universe, letting you take to the sky and fly over your opponents, or fly on top of a building for a better vantage point. Some mechs can't equip jump jets, and for others, it adds to the total weight.

Weapons range from missiles to all sorts of lasers to rail guns to, oddly enough, an orbital missile strike. At first you only have the basics in weapons and mechs, then can pick up more as you complete campaign missions and your salvage team goes to work. You have a better chance of capturing weapons and mechs if you shoot out an opponent's legs and refrain from damaging the rest of it, but really, who worries about salvage when there's a laser barrage aimed at your torso?

As for mechs, there's a lot of them. All come with a max weight rating, which ranges from 30 tons to 100. The more tons, the more weapons and armor a mech can hold. The weight rating usually affects speed, but you can upgrade a mech's engine by sacrificing additional weight. Each weapon weighs something, and each weapon falls into one of three categories: beam, missile, or ballistic. Each mech has specialized hard points where you can mount the various weapons. Beam weapons can only be mounted in beam hard points, and the same goes for missile and ballistic. Some mechs have omni-hard points, where any weapon can be mounted. Another thing to consider are heat sinks. Weapons generate heat. Too much heat shuts down your mech. You have coolant you can flush to lower your heat level, but you have a limited amount. More heat sinks means heat will dissipate faster, but at the cost of additional weight. You can even specify the exact amount of armor on individual parts of your mech, such as arms or legs. All this amounts to loads of customization you can perform on any mech. Hell, you can even change the paintjob!

The single-player missions usually end up being 'go here, destroy this,' but there are also defense missions (which I hate, no matter what the game) and missions to simply go from nav point A to nav point B (and make it there in one piece, naturally). The single-player game consists of campaigns on a single planet, usually four to six missions per campaign.

Your allies in this game consist mostly of pilots you'll pick up and can command during missions. Each pilot has individual ratings for their skills, such as piloting, gunnery, and night fighting. These skills improve the more missions they survive, but some pilots are inherently better than others, and start with better stats. You can choose which mechs your teammates will lead into battle, which means you must eventually customize a minimum of four mechs, including your own.

Replay Value

The single-player game consists of around 20 missions, which won't take you too long if you're a decent player. Instant Action and online play make for a lot of hours, and you can always go through the single-player game again with a different customized mech.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/04