This is a MWO review from Ten Ton Hammer.
...MechWarriorOnline is a free-to-play futuristic mech combat game that uses a setting created by FASA back in the early/mid 1980s. Though FASA no longer owns the rights to the intellectual property, the universe they created lives on and has a fanatic following. The IP itself has been used for numerous games, including a series of video games that had MechWarrior in the title. MechWarrior Online is the latest and most ambitious title to date. MechWarrior Online officially launched earlier this week in a whirlwind of accusations against the company, with the hardcore crowd crying foul (since coolant flushes are in the game after it was stated they would not be added, third person view being added, and other complaints), and the casual player base rumbling along as normal.
For the sake of full disclosure, I am one of the game’s Legendary Founders and have been for over a year. Some may feel this means I have an axe to grind, but I’d like to think you’ll find this review objective because despite what some players want to believe, what we Founders purchased were mechs, in-game currency, early access, and a couple other perks – nothing more. We certainly didn’t pay for the vision of MechWarrior Online the developers talked about at the time. In other words, I got what I paid for and that’s that.
With that out of the way, let’s get to it, shall we?
...ProsCons
- Wide variety of mechs available for purchase with currency earned in-game
- Impressive mech customization
- Free trial mech choices are swapped out frequently
- Excellent graphics
- “Authentic” mech combat gameplay
- Free to play
- Does little to no explaining in-game about most gameplay aspects (such as combat)
- Hero mechs are too expensive for their worth
- Heat scaling bugs still plague various weapon configurations
- Lack of a deeper story or faction system
- Gameplay becomes repetitive over time
What more is there to say, really? At the end of the day, the game is what it is and that’s not horrible, but it is average. Looked at face value, MechWarrior Online delivers a convincing mech combat experience. What the game has in single match entertainment, it lacks in overall cohesiveness and reasons for playing long term. It clearly has the potential to be much more than what it currently is, but that potential has yet to be reached. For a free-to-play title, it’s worth the price of admission, but anything beyond that will need to be determined by each individual player.
