MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries

"Lock & Load, its hunting season!"

Story

Hey there fellow gamer, I have done some reviews for gamefaqs.com where I really tore into them. So I decided it was time the old keyboard did some good when it came to games. Now to understand the non-linear story line of Mech Warrior 2: Mercenaries (Yes I said non-linear meaning you pick and choose the missions you do for the most part) you first have to know the story that happened before this game, well at least those of you who don't know about this series of games. A few hundred years before your present game, humanity was united in something called the Star League, which made giant robots for construction, and so forth. Since humanity was alone in the galaxy, we basically controlled everything. Well a man known as General Kerenski saw the fighting that was happening in the space known as the inner sphere and took the best and brightest of the Star League and bid fare well to it as it broke into different governments.
Good Morning and welcome to the year 3043 AD. The Star League did fall apart as Kerenski predicted, and guess what? You're a hard working mercenary who's commanding officer just got blown away escaping from enemy forces, or at least today's enemies, they might be tomorrow's employers for all you know. Now here is where you choose if you want to worry about money or not in the game, the computer will say economy on, or economy off to make it clear on which option you've picked. Personally I go for the option of controlling the funding since I think it gives you that little extra push into making the game feeling more real, but that's just me. Now you start the game off with a light mech, and a million dollars in the bank. The first thing I do is refit the mech so all my weapons are in the torso to insure that enemy mechs can blow away my fire power by blasting off an arm.
Now the reason why I mentioning blasting off an arm since it is possible to capture enemy mechs by destroying the head, or more to the point the ''eyes''. The eyes are where the enemy pilot is (coincidently you're also sitting in the same spot for your own mech), piloting his mech. Now before you goto the pain of trying to blow some poor pilot, and not the mech, remember the salvage rights you have according to the contract. Since if you don't have any salvage rights, then you made yourself a target for a few seconds long then you had to trying to do something that doesn't reward you. If you do have salvage rights, then you can clean up big time with those shooting skills, since I know from personal experience its possible to capture a mech worth 10 million dollars, with only some lasers shots, a few short range missiles, and a dash of luck. Can you imagine how great it feels to go from piloting some light little mech worth maybe 2 million, to piloting a giant 100 Ton Atlas?
By now you have to be asking, does the game have a tutorial? Since I don't want to risk my neck only after reading the manual. The answer to that question is yes, yes the game has a tutorial, your teacher is a mech warrior known as Dead Eye. He'll teach you the basics to piloting a mech in combat, and give you some helpful hints on what advanced pilots do to insure they can capture an enemy mech, which I won't reveal here. He won't teach you how to run a unit, but the system is so simply a child can understand how to hire/fire other mercenaries from your own unit, along with outfitting a mech.
You'll even come to enjoy the comments your character makes after missions that fall more into the story line; (Ex: ''Remember that dinner I was paid to attend with those executives last night. They were so stupid I wished I had brought my field gun to the dining hall, until I remembered that guns weren't allowed in the restaurant'')

Story/Interface 10/10
A grade that is well earned, if I do say so myself.

Graphics

Remember that Mech Warrior 2: Mercenaries. came out originally in 1996, so most machines you find today will be able to play it. This game doesn't give you any of today's graphics, don't expect it, expect something that's just as close to today's graphics but on a slower machine. Activision's engine for running this game is excellent, its one of those engines that is efficient in making those 100 Ton enemy mechs look almost real. However with all honesty compared to the most recent batch of Mechwarrior titles, its not in its league. I have noticed a few flaws ironically with the higher end systems. Guess that is the price of progress, since sometimes the HUD's frame if you would, your windows will seem to fall apart despite no damage.

Graphics 8/10

Multi player

Now this game does have the ability to be played on the net with a minimum of a 14.4 k connection. Activision's software that comes with this game still works, so who knows maybe some day you'll run into another pilot on this site where you can put your skills to the test. It also runs on networks, both these things I haven't had the pleasure of testing. So for Multi player I can not make a fair rating. If you want to test this out, be my guest.

Multi player ?/10

Sound

There were some mistakes made with the sound of this game. It would've been nice to hear the differences in missiles launching. However, like most of this game you can feel the programmers took the time to make the sounds as clear as possible. Which still doesn't make up for the mistake, like not being able to hear when a homing beacon has been deployed.

Sound: 5/10

Closing Comments

In the end this is one of those games that I wish I could find a problem with. However, I can't. I mean it, I'm a picky with the games as I trying to find faults with them, and I can't for some strange reason, I can't find a single problem with this one. The sound is so so good that you almost feel that you can almost hear your mech actually warm up, the interface while simple, gives you all the information you need. It's not overloaded with countless details that you most likely won't need, and if you feel you need some information its just the click of a button away. I give this game an overall rating of 95% because of the excellent replay value, the variety of missions, the easy cheat codes,(Who doesn't use these every now and then?) and finally the story line. As a side note, don't expect the best out of the bots when it comes to helping you, since they are none too bright.
If you're asking if you should rent or buy this game I have but one answer. BUY IT. It's going to set you back somewhere between $15 to $20 CND, and you should be able to find it at some video stores, maybe major retailers will have it, or can order it for you. Otherwise hunt online for this game since it might be an oldie, but it's one of the best ''oldies'' that I've ever played. Even now as I play on a present ''gamers'' machine. Now let's do the final total review.

Story: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Multi player: ?/10 (Unknown)
Sound: 5/10
Averages out to: 8/10

Despite the fact this game has earned 8/10, I still score it a 10/10. Excellent game, and an excellent way to get gamers into this universe we call BattleTech!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/04