The Return of Smoke Jaguar
- Thread starter Shadow Reaper
- Start date
Funnily enough I just played MW5: Mercenaries a couple days ago because a friend was giving it a try and needed some help setting it up.
It turned out he didn't need any help, it's just a trash game.
Graphics suck so hard (look up MW5 shadow dithering to see a horrifying example), nothing is optimized, it runs like absolute crap on my very decent rig, and the gameplay itself is sooooo repetitive, simplified for consoles junk that I just uninstalled it an hour later.
Back when it was new I gave it a fair chance, put lots of hours into it, then modded it to hell to be something closer to being a Mechwarrior game, but sadly it's rotten at it's core. Aweful maps, everything is obscured by 100m high hills or just blurred so consoles don't instantly shit themselves, radar only works with perfectly clear LOS (meaning there isn't even a single 10inch piece of wooden fence in the way) from like less then 400m away, LRMs are totally useless, enemies just spawn in from thin air... it's modern MWO just with bots. And that is the worst Mechwarrior game ever to exist (I played the beta back when, started out as a great sim, then they started changing and removing everything that made it unique and sim-like, by the release it turned into a generic pay2win shooter).
I loved the Mechwarrior games, I put countless hours into 2 and 3 and even 4. I played 3 and 4 with my MS FFB joystick for gods sakes, that was the the most bestest mech experience anyone could ever ask for!
I especially love chicken mechs, who doesn't love the Timberwolf, for me those are the pinnacle of mech design (I know it doesn't make sense, impractical yada yada. I don't care, I just love the looks). But the game is just abysmal, and I'm not paying full price for what should've been a DLC.
I don't think this new one will change anything. Same game with new mechs, probably some even worse progression system tied to gaining XP adn some rare "premium" currency (for which you will have microtransactions to boost it, probably), and that's about it. They want to add grind, that's what I'm seeing in the Steam page description. Same old UE4, same abysmal blurry low-res looking graphics that were dated even on an xbox360, boring effects, and I'm guessing the same arcade combat emphasizing close range dumps into enemy heads, with tons of small enemies spawning out of thin air to keep your monkey brain engaged, so every combat scenario coming down to who has the biggest toughest mech with the highest alpha dmg.
I'm shitting on it so much, because I do really really want a good MW game. But this won't be it I'm afraid.
It turned out he didn't need any help, it's just a trash game.
Graphics suck so hard (look up MW5 shadow dithering to see a horrifying example), nothing is optimized, it runs like absolute crap on my very decent rig, and the gameplay itself is sooooo repetitive, simplified for consoles junk that I just uninstalled it an hour later.
Back when it was new I gave it a fair chance, put lots of hours into it, then modded it to hell to be something closer to being a Mechwarrior game, but sadly it's rotten at it's core. Aweful maps, everything is obscured by 100m high hills or just blurred so consoles don't instantly shit themselves, radar only works with perfectly clear LOS (meaning there isn't even a single 10inch piece of wooden fence in the way) from like less then 400m away, LRMs are totally useless, enemies just spawn in from thin air... it's modern MWO just with bots. And that is the worst Mechwarrior game ever to exist (I played the beta back when, started out as a great sim, then they started changing and removing everything that made it unique and sim-like, by the release it turned into a generic pay2win shooter).
I loved the Mechwarrior games, I put countless hours into 2 and 3 and even 4. I played 3 and 4 with my MS FFB joystick for gods sakes, that was the the most bestest mech experience anyone could ever ask for!
I especially love chicken mechs, who doesn't love the Timberwolf, for me those are the pinnacle of mech design (I know it doesn't make sense, impractical yada yada. I don't care, I just love the looks). But the game is just abysmal, and I'm not paying full price for what should've been a DLC.
I don't think this new one will change anything. Same game with new mechs, probably some even worse progression system tied to gaining XP adn some rare "premium" currency (for which you will have microtransactions to boost it, probably), and that's about it. They want to add grind, that's what I'm seeing in the Steam page description. Same old UE4, same abysmal blurry low-res looking graphics that were dated even on an xbox360, boring effects, and I'm guessing the same arcade combat emphasizing close range dumps into enemy heads, with tons of small enemies spawning out of thin air to keep your monkey brain engaged, so every combat scenario coming down to who has the biggest toughest mech with the highest alpha dmg.
I'm shitting on it so much, because I do really really want a good MW game. But this won't be it I'm afraid.
Those are mostly fair criticisms. I've played the story and expansions over the years. I love the settings and I found it an easy game to jump in and out of, I also played MWO for a while and it's similar and made by the same folks. I very much enjoyed myself despite it being mediocre. I do think it captured the feel of a slow and ponderous mechs slowly blasting each other to bits. For strategy, the battle tech game is quite good but that style is not for everyone.
I'll be buying this on special, sadly October has other games that I'll jump into beforehand.
I'll be buying this on special, sadly October has other games that I'll jump into beforehand.
My issue was that it felt slow but mindless. Once you get into it a bit, gather some decent mechs and weapons, it's point and click, wait, point and click, wait...
Once I added some mods, tons of lore accurate weapons that were missing, slightly better AI (improved friendly AI is a must have), spawns that somewhat make sense (w/ a minimal distance limit/edge of map) and so on, it did turn into something I enjoyed a more. The combat didn't get more intense by much but at least the looter-shooter my-dress up-mecha parts improved a lot! I do love messing around with setups.
I enjoyed the strategy game version, but it got too slow after a while. As you said it's not for everyone, me among them. I only can invest myself into a slow rpg like pathfinders or strategy game like that battletech for a certain amount of time. Strangely enough fallout is something I always go back to and play for weeks. F1-2 that is, not the new ones. Maybe NV being the exception...
Anyways, I'll await the reviews when this is out, if it truly improves on the previous one.
Once I added some mods, tons of lore accurate weapons that were missing, slightly better AI (improved friendly AI is a must have), spawns that somewhat make sense (w/ a minimal distance limit/edge of map) and so on, it did turn into something I enjoyed a more. The combat didn't get more intense by much but at least the looter-shooter my-dress up-mecha parts improved a lot! I do love messing around with setups.
I enjoyed the strategy game version, but it got too slow after a while. As you said it's not for everyone, me among them. I only can invest myself into a slow rpg like pathfinders or strategy game like that battletech for a certain amount of time. Strangely enough fallout is something I always go back to and play for weeks. F1-2 that is, not the new ones. Maybe NV being the exception...
Anyways, I'll await the reviews when this is out, if it truly improves on the previous one.
Waiting for the review is a solid choice. The first game did feel bare bones as you point out. If they expand quite a bit on this version I'll be happy.
I played 30+ years ago with paper maps and cardboard figurines. Had fun. Played about 25 years ago. My twin sent me a copy (was it Ghost Bear mercenaries?) and a joystick I plugged into my 80386 machine. Worked fine. Had a great time and loved building the Mechs.
The only other experience after that has been watching the vids of Baradul on YouTube. He seems to have made a living off playing.
So, I’ll take the complaints at face value. I will just say, I bought into the SC promise because it reminded me of that old experience, building Mechs out of thousands of components. If you watch Baradul build a Mech, it’s fun; and SC has never come close to that experience. We can’t even change engines.
I really hope this is going to change with 4.0. Wouldn’t it be great to have more choices than you know what to do with, and feel you do have control and the ability to create a unique build no one else has yet considered? To not know what you’re facing when an Aurora flies up. . .that’s what I signed up for.
The only other experience after that has been watching the vids of Baradul on YouTube. He seems to have made a living off playing.
So, I’ll take the complaints at face value. I will just say, I bought into the SC promise because it reminded me of that old experience, building Mechs out of thousands of components. If you watch Baradul build a Mech, it’s fun; and SC has never come close to that experience. We can’t even change engines.
I really hope this is going to change with 4.0. Wouldn’t it be great to have more choices than you know what to do with, and feel you do have control and the ability to create a unique build no one else has yet considered? To not know what you’re facing when an Aurora flies up. . .that’s what I signed up for.