Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance

Additional Screenshots

Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance is a great game from the makers at Microsoft. You can control 100 ton Mechwarriors and wreck havoc over tons of different maps while destroying a wide variety of enemies and commanding your teammates. The detail put into the game will give you a great overall experience.

The Campaign and AI

Most of the game is played through the detailed campaign mode. The story line revolves around the death of your family, and your fight for justice. You will overcome obstacles in different types of terrains: from lush green forests to forlorn winter sceneries. You will fight through all different types of enemy troops: different Mechs, turrets, long/short range missiles, and Peregrines. Most of the time, the enemy AI is excellent. When Mech gets to close to a Bulldog (roving missile launcher) it will try and get as far away from you as possible while still turning back and firing at you. Missile turrets will always fire at you, no matter how close you are. Peregrines are very accurate, and while you are engaging in melee combat with enemy Mechs, they will open fire right at you and deal immense damage. The enemy Mechs themselves also generally have good AI. They will use appropriate weapon choices when fighting, and have varied attacks. One thing I noticed was that none of the Mechs I dealt with ever used their jump jets. Jump jets are boosters that lift your Mech into the air and enable you to fly out of combat if the damage of your Mech gets critical. Another AI problem I encountered was when fighting against other Mechs, they would sometimes turn around and run away from me even at perfect health. I could just follow them and open fire, and they would take the damage while running away. Small problems like this need a patch to fix.

Fiddling Around in the Mech Lab

Another big part of the game is the Mech Lab. In here, you will spend a ton of time tweaking your Mechs to perfection. You can edit your armor, option of having jump jets, weapon selection, and number of heat sinks your Mech has. Heat sinks help the air flow in your Mech so they don't get too hot. If they overheat, the Mech will shut down temporarily until it cools down. The Mech Lab may look very complicated, but you can master it with practice. The options I mentioned above are just a few of the things you can toy around with in the Lab. Microsoft created this interface very intuitively because of the different ways in which you can use the Mech Lab. You can spend a lot of time in here adjusting all of your Mech's specifications or you can not even enter this area of the game and simply trust the stock specifications of the Mechs. With this ease of use, hard core players can enjoy a strategic aspect of the game, and casual players don't even have to think about the specific Mech options available for tweaking.

Different Types of Mechs and Weapons

The game comes with multiple Mech chassis' that you can fight in. As you advance through the campaign part of the game, your team will salvage enemy Mechs and be able to use them for your side. Just to name a few Mechs; Atlas, Raven, Bushwacker, Cougar, Nova Cat, and Shadow Cat. Each Mech has a different amount of weapon slots, max amount of tonnage, and top speeds.

Another detailed aspect of the game are all of the available weapons. You can equip your Mechs with pulse lasers, LRM's, SRM's, MRM's, machine guns, PCP's, and a variety of other interesting weapons. Based on the available weapon slots and amount of tonnage your Mech has, you will be able to equip one or two powerful heavy weapons, or 5 or 6 small light weight weapons. The best strategy usually lies in a combination of light weight and heavy weapons.

Gameplay

When you can command a team of Mechs in battle, it's a lot of fun. Using your F keys, you can command your team to victory with commands like ‘attack my target,' ‘defend my target,' ‘go to my nav point,' and ‘attack nearest threat.' Instant Action is another option available in the game, and it is just as the name implies. You can just pick your Mech or a team of Mechs, a map, and then head into battle.

Overall

Multiplayer is also included. This mode is a lot of fun because if you think about it, what's more fun then beating your friend's asses in 100 ton Mechs? That's right, nothing. Overall, Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance is an excellent game, and just has a few AI issues it has to work out.