MegaMek

The BattleTech universe is rather vast and complex, since it features a lot of rules and units you need to get acquainted with before you can enjoy it properly. However, once you get the hang of it and you manage to grasp the underlying concept, things start to get very fun. There are virtually countless ways for a match to evolve, depending on the armies and the scenario in question.

MegaMek is basically a video game that features all the rules of the BattleTech board game, but it leaves out the trademark complications in order to be distributed as open source software. Hence, although it’s more or less the same thing as the original product, this can be played on your computer and online with other people from all over the world, as opposed to the board game itself.

To begin with, the application is about as complex as the rules of the game, because you need a bit of experience before you are able to figure out how to use everything. Thus, the first step is to give the documentation a read, at least in case you are not familiar with the board game. After that, you can head and start a match against a bot to test your skills, although you must build an army to fight with first.

Armies can also be automatically generated by the computer, in case you do not have the patience to do so every time. Once the match begins, on the other hand, things get even more complicated, because the action takes place in turns. Hence, you get to deploy your units on the battlefield, after which every player gets his turn to make a move. This means that you get plenty of time to think and come up with the proper strategy for every situation.

From a technical point of view, the game can be a bit too cluttered for most people, but that shouldn’t make you give up. In essence, despite the multitude of buttons, windows, and settings, everything sort of makes sense after a while, especially after you learn the rules by heart. Things get much more exciting when you have the ability to think ahead and know what you need without checking the documentation.

Even if this is addressed to a rather small number of fans, MegaMek is still a wonderful achievement and quite the hefty strategy title. Hence, BattleTech fans should rejoice at the possibility to enjoy their favorite board game in a much more modern and accessible environment.