Having never really played a proper Mechwarrior title I find this game... somewhat odd. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I find it interesting and, surprisingly, a bit anachronistic (more or that later).

First, let me get the bad things out of the way first. The management UI feels a bit wonky. It's extremely far from being unusable, but it just doesn't feel smooth or intuitive, and it took me quite a while to figure out how and where I can slot stuff. Even now, with 6h under my belt (enough to learn the UI at least, right?) I occasionally fumble and don't remember if I need to double-click or drag the components and I end up having to re-do little actions. None of this is critical, but it's... there.

Secondly, the game seems a bit unoptimized. The visual fidelity on display isn't anything to write home about, yet and the game struggled with FPS on my 3070Ti until I turned DLSS on and RTX off. Granted, RTX is an FPS killed and DLSS is an FPS booster, but the visuals really didn't blow me away. If I didn't know any better I'd say I was playing a game from 2012.

Finally, and this is just my personal feeling and it's probably because I knew NOTHING of the Mechwarrior franchise, I can't shake the feeling that enemies are a bit spongy. I have this huge cannon strapped to my mech's right arm, and it sounds great, and feels great to fire... but then enemies take so many hits to take down... And the AI ain't anything to write home either. Basic enemy tanks will zig-zag towards you, air enemies will fly in a straight line at you and I'm yet to see any smart behavior from the mech enemies (they seem to only have a "run towards and around the player and shoot" mode).

But it's not visual fidelity alone that makes or breaks games, it's the gameplay. And here I quite like it! Despite the aforementioned "spongyness" of enemies - because it works both ways, it seems, as my own armor takes quite a long bit to break off. And that anachronistic bit? Well, it's probably because I've seen the gameplay of Armoured Core and those mechs in there just feel "that" much more futuristic and slick. This feels like a I'm piloting a literal tank on legs - slow and cumbersome (even if it's a "light" mech). Does it make it bad? No! Not at all. But it did make me go "huh" a couple of times. But then any time a map starts from inside the dropship I get a little shiver because it's fun to go through the boot sequence. And it's quite fun to manage a mercenary outfit, traveling around and building up reputation, picking contracts whilst trying to optimize a route through the galaxy.

Another thing I like about this game is that this is a nice, complete game. No BS MX, MP modes or anything of the sort. There's some DLCs, but those are "side content" - get 'em or don't the core game doesn't really change. There's co-op, as a bonus, but I've yet to engage with it. I suspect it can help with more difficult missions (since the friendly AIs are just as simple as the enemy ones), but thus far I didn't really need this help (at least not whilst playing on "normal" difficulty).

Having never really played a proper Mechwarrior title I find this game... somewhat odd. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I find it interesting and, surprisingly, a bit anachronistic (more or that later). First, let me get the bad things out of the way first. The management UI feels a bit wonky. It's extremely far from being unusable, but it just doesn't feel smooth or intuitive, and it took me quite a while to figure out how and where I can slot stuff. Even now, with 6h under my belt (enough to learn the UI at least, right?) I occasionally fumble and don't remember if I need to double-click or drag the components and I end up having to re-do little actions. None of this is critical, but it's... there. Secondly, the game seems a bit unoptimized. The visual fidelity on display isn't anything to write home about, yet and the game struggled with FPS on my 3070Ti until I turned DLSS on and RTX off. Granted, RTX is an FPS killed and DLSS is an FPS booster, but the visuals really didn't blow me away. If I didn't know any better I'd say I was playing a game from 2012. Finally, and this is just my personal feeling and it's probably because I knew NOTHING of the Mechwarrior franchise, I can't shake the feeling that enemies are a bit spongy. I have this huge cannon strapped to my mech's right arm, and it sounds great, and feels great to fire... but then enemies take so many hits to take down... And the AI ain't anything to write home either. Basic enemy tanks will zig-zag towards you, air enemies will fly in a straight line at you and I'm yet to see any smart behavior from the mech enemies (they seem to only have a "run towards and around the player and shoot" mode). But it's not visual fidelity alone that makes or breaks games, it's the gameplay. And here I quite like it! Despite the aforementioned "spongyness" of enemies - because it works both ways, it seems, as my own armor takes quite a long bit to break off. And that anachronistic bit? Well, it's probably because I've seen the gameplay of Armoured Core and those mechs in there just feel "that" much more futuristic and slick. This feels like a I'm piloting a literal tank on legs - slow and cumbersome (even if it's a "light" mech). Does it make it bad? No! Not at all. But it did make me go "huh" a couple of times. But then any time a map starts from inside the dropship I get a little shiver because it's fun to go through the boot sequence. And it's quite fun to manage a mercenary outfit, traveling around and building up reputation, picking contracts whilst trying to optimize a route through the galaxy. Another thing I like about this game is that this is a nice, complete game. No BS MX, MP modes or anything of the sort. There's some DLCs, but those are "side content" - get 'em or don't the core game doesn't really change. There's co-op, as a bonus, but I've yet to engage with it. I suspect it can help with more difficult missions (since the friendly AIs are just as simple as the enemy ones), but thus far I didn't really need this help (at least not whilst playing on "normal" difficulty).