MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat Arcade Combat Edition

"The closest thing a console will see to true 'Mech action..."

If you've read any of my other reviews for action/sims, you know that I love this genre. I love the though I flying a fighter in space, or being strapped into a giant robot fighting a war on planets far from Earth. I guess I'm a kid like that. I love Star Wars, I love Star Trek, and I love Macross. I love science fiction in general. The more fantastic the story, the better. Thus my admiration for the MechWarrior series, for nothing is more exhilarating than the thought of piloting giant robotic weapon platforms in remote and distant places.

This particular incarnation of the MechWarrior series involves two clans called the Jade-Falcon and the Wolf. All clans originate from the Inner Sphere, though they have wholly different views on life. This group of people left the Inner Sphere some time back, hoping to form a new society free of political squabbling. Instead of peace, they found war among themselves as the splintered off to form their own societies. When they tried to spread influence, conflict arose. Wars were fought not only against the Inner Sphere, but also against themselves. This is but a chapter in that story.

Graphically, MechWarrior II: Arcade Combat Edition is better than the original MechWarrior II on the PC (being that the original had flat-color shading), but not better than MechWarrior II: Plutonium Edition on the PC. Still, the graphics aren't too bad for the PSX. Though some detail is missing and the Playstation is a little jagged around the edges, it still has a lot going for it that shouldn't be over-looked.

I have mixed emotions about the sound. For some reason, I remember the PC version kicking ass. When I played the Playstation version, I was wholly unimpressed. The weapons didn't have the sound they need to actually feel powerful and the music that I did hear did nothing to impress me. Maybe the Playstation's sound processor just mangled the PC version, but I still think they should have tried a little harder to make it sound a better.

MechWarrior II's controls are where we encounter our first problem. Though they give you a wide variety of control options to choose from, nothing quite feels comfortable. You'll find yourself fumbling quite a bit in the heat of battle. Plus, they decided to make the game more of an action/shooter than the sim that it is. So there are a few elements needed that are missing from the control scheme. Though it's not unforgivable, it's still a pain to work around the controls.

MechWarrior II is a very well designed game...for the PC. But trying to fit something as complex as this game on to the Playstation is insane. The people responsible for this idea must have realized that, thus they shifted the game into arcade mode (which I guess they felt was the lesser of two evils). Not only do we get these wonderful newly revamped controls, but also power-ups are littered throughout each stage. What kind of game do they think MechWarrior is? I don't know either, but this is defiantly another black mark against the game.

There are actually two things offered in the PSX version of MechWarrior II that the PC version doesn't have: new 'Mechs. Two of them. Unfortunately, neither of these new 'Mechs look like anything else in the BattleTech universe, so some fans might not like them. In fact, one of the new 'Mechs looks like a spider! Kinda cool but where the hell did this idea come from?!? Other than that, there are no other bonuses that I could find playing through the game.

Okay, unless you just love the thought of piloting a giant robot or you have no access to the computer version of MechWarrior II (and have never even played it to see how it was butchered on the Playstation), you should check this game out. Fans should steer as far clear from this game as possible.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 07/05/02