MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries

Mech Combat

Mercenaries is the semi-sequel to Activision's Mechwarrior 2, which was in turn based upon the role playing game BattleTech. And while I've never played BattleTech, it's fairly easy to catch up with the whole scenario. It's some time in the thirtieth century, and humanity has been ravaged by many years of war. Planets have been devastated, and the remainder of the universe is still in conflict. The main weapons in these conflict are the BattleMechs; huge robotic war machines, armed to the teeth with death-dealing weaponry, and piloted by specially trained mech pilots. And guess who's one of these pilots? Yep, you.

Mutant Womble

Strapped into one of these machines, you have to battle your way through a number of mecha-stomping missions. The actual missions vary; you may have to take down an enemy building, defend a base, or make a trip deep into enemy territory, to inspect a secret factory. One thing is for sure; you won't go far before you come into contact with the enemy, who aren't usually that delighted to see you. But you can handle them, can't you? Or can you?

You see, there isn't one single standard type of mech; there are a total of about thirty different mechs, each with different characteristics. And on top of that, there's a variety of different weapons that the mechs carry. You can bet that for the first few missions you'll be outgunned by the enemy; but it's up to you to use your superior piloting skill to even those odds out. In later missions, you'll be accompanied by friendly pilots, who will give you a helping hand, but don't leave all the work to them. As you advance through the game, you'll be equipped with better and better weaponry, and bigger and better mechs. But you've got to get through the earlier missions first. It's a vicious circle.

Gnome

Thing is, that last paragraph could apply as equally to Mechwarrior 2 as it could Mercs, and if you've already got Mechwarrior 2, you'll know the general scenario anyway. Mercs adds a twist. In Mechwarrior 2, you were part of an honourable clan of mechwarriors, taking on mission after mission, with the aim of advancement through the clan. In Mercs, however, you are a mercenary, with the aim of making as much money as you can. Since the untimely demise of your commander, you have been left with a million creds, and a single unimpressive mech. And since money doesn't grow on trees (not that there are any left any more), you've got to earn it.

This is where the missions come in. From your office in Outreach starport, you have to scan the contracts posted upon the computer bulletin-board, and find one that is suitable. These are either single missions, or campaigns of about four or five missions, with various employers, each with a differing level of risk and financial reward. Complete a mission, and you collect your creds, which you can use to repair your mech, or buy new equipment. The latter option includes buying new weaponry, or a new mech; and with each mech only able to carry so much weight, you'll have to buy a new mech sooner or later. You can even hire other mechwarriors to pilot your new mechs. And with the missions getting harder and harder, you'll find things get quite nasty.

Battlestar Galactica

But there's a problem. Activision have attempted to add a Frontier style management side to the whole mech thing, yet it doesn't quite work for me. The thing is, management aspect is pretty flat; it's really nothing more than a collection of missions slung together. What did I expect, you might well ask? Well, quite a few things, which would have added a greater sense of atmosphere to the whole proceedings. For a start, you don't have any reputation to speak of. If you fail your first mission, you're told that your employers were disappointed as you came 'highly recommended'. How come ? Recommended by whom? That was the first mission!

Also, most of the contracts I took put me up against Draconis Combine, a particularly nasty clan. In fact, at one point, I was told a price had been put on my head by said clan. But they were quite happy to hire me, even when I had taken so much action against them. It's up to you to look for contracts; at no point does anyone come to you to offer you a mission, even if you've blown away half the mech units in the galaxy. Then there's salvage. As the box clearly states, you can 'salvage enemy kills from the field'. Except you can't. Any 'salvage' you get is pre-determined by the computer, and totally unrelated to what you do in the mission. You can destroy a mech, to the last part; destroy the legs, and the torso, arms, and all the weapons, and yet still have that mech given to you, complete, as salvage. Earthsiege, Sierra's big stomping robot game allowed you to salvage parts; and therefore, you had to decide if you should just blow away the enemy robots, and lose any salvage you might get, or surgically blow the legs off, but risk exposing yourself to fire. Mercs ignores this, and along with the lack of a reputation, makes a sham of the whole mercenary aspect.

Cyber Hamster

Mercs does add a few extra graphical touches not found in MechWarrior 2. The graphics are now made up of texture mapped polygons, texture mapped floors, and light sourcing has been added. What the latter means is that when you fire a salvo, the resultant flash lights up the area round that projectile. It looks nice, but it isn't going to make a massive difference to how you playing. Hang on a minute, though. 'Texture mapped polygons' ? 'Light sourcing' ? Remember another game that has those? Begins with Q. Yes, Quake**. **And can anyone remember what the minimum spec for that game was? A Pentium. The same is true of Mercs; you'll need a P100 if you want to get all the graphical extras, and that's just running in standard VGA mode. I tried running in SVGA mode on my P133, and it was very jerky, both in DOS, and Windows 95 (the game runs in both). You can turn the various options off, to run on a lesser computer, which will be a relief to those with 486s.

Sonically, Mercs has similar speech effects to Mechwarrior 2; you are helpfully informed , by a disembodied female voice when you have destroyed an enemy mech, or when bits start falling off your mech. Or the heartlifting 'mission terminated'. Unfortunately, you're never told why your mission has been terminated. Even when you're returned to the briefing screen, it's impossible to tell quite what happened to end the mission; an irritating omission.

Talking to Tomatoes

From what I've said so far, you might thing that Mercs is complete rubbish. It's not. The actual mission parts of the game are a lot of fun. It can get quite frantic, weapons and limbs being blown off your mech, as you try to make it back to the pick-up point. And if you haven't got Mechwarrior 2, I suggest you pick up Mercs. However, in my opinion, Mercs is too flawed to make it a worthy purchase for owners of Mechwarrior 2; granted, it comes with a net-play option, but there's a add on option for the original Mechwarrior 2. Good, but Mercs doesn't quite hit the mark.

Review By GamesDomain

Windows

Windows disk image version, contains optional patches in mw2mercs-patch folder. Mount on Windows using MagicDisc or another disk mount software.