MechWarrior Online Client

Huge robots are always going to attract a lot of attention, whether they are for real or merely 3D models in a video game. As such, even the actual games do not make too much of an impression, people usually get pretty hyped about anything containing mechs. On the other hand, very few actually managed to create a decent fan base for themselves over the years.

MechWarrior Online is part of the MechWarrior franchise, although it wasn’t developed by the same studio who made the original first few titles. In fact, this was started by a long-time fan of the franchise, who managed to mobilize a team of developers and get the rights from Microsoft, in order to continue the saga. However, instead of the usual single-player experience featuring lengthy campaigns and the like, this turned out to be a massively multiplayer online game.

Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, it’s for you to decide, although the signs are not good. Although the game features most of the things you would expect to see in a MechWarrior title, the fact that you are forced to play online is not always pleasant. The gameplay mechanics have been somewhat overhauled to keep up with current technology, but they didn’t turn out exactly as planned.

Probably the most annoying thing in the game is the fact that there are so few modes to choose from, none of which is particularly exciting anyway. Hence, whether you have to assault the enemy base, or capture interest points and hold them for a certain period of time, things quickly get very repetitive. Sure, the action itself is pretty exciting, but knowing that you can only enjoy the same game modes ad infinitum severely undermines the experience.

Thankfully, the game sits pretty well from a technical point of view, especially when it comes to graphics. While the engine is not exactly top of the line, it can render beautiful environments and quite the detailed mechs. Speaking of which, the giant robots hold a lot of detailed and they are different from each other, which at least provides you with the opportunity to try out new things whenever you switch mechs.

When it’s all said and done, MechWarrior Online could have done a much better job with the elements it had at its disposal, but it chose to gamble it all on an online component. Hence, this feels rather unfinished and a bit rushed, although it’s quite obvious that the developers had good intentions throughout the process.