Read this reviews before You buy..."Just played the game over again.", I recenlty got a new video card for my computer that let me view stuff at a 1024 x 768 resolution on my tv using the s-video cable so i stuck my computer in my living room and hooked it up to my tv and my surround receiver just to see what it would look like.
THIS GAME IS BEST WHEN USED WITH A REALLY BIG WOOFER.
Oh my god it was awesome. I loved this game when i played it the first time (by first time i mean completing it with all three allegences) but when you play it on a 600 watt system you can feel 1/8th of a mile away and on a 36 inch screen that makes big mechs feel big you add a whole different dimension of reality to it. If you have a s-video output on your video card go set your computer up in the living room.
"The ultimate 3063 action packed mech game!!!!!!!!!!!", I downloaded the trial version of MW4M. Here is what I thought of the game. Good grahpics, bizzar combat, play over 4? mechs. Including the longbow, owens, hellhound, hellspawn, uziel, raven, and the flea. fight in the jungle book-like arena, fight in a factory, or fight in the Roman Coliseum. Or do a mission and lead your mechs to victory. But I'll experience the action in the full version. In the demo you can try out two missions, the arena jungle game, and play with humans using the LAN. You get for Multiplayer maps is the jungle arena, and the oilspill. But thats my review.
"It's all about the C-bills", Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries (MW4:M) is a stand alone expansion to Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance (MW4:V). Why is that so? Well, if you played MW4:V before, you'll automatically feel accustomed to the this game. The game engine, graphic, control, mechs, weapons, AI, and even multiplayer are based on the first game. However, the storyline doesn't follow. In the first series, you are a young noble fighting for revenge. This time you are a mercenary starting up your own company. The time period between the two games is the same, which is during the civil war between House Davion and House Steiner.
For those of you completely clueless, Mechwarrior is a game where you choose and pilot mechs (or large robots) with various speed, size and firepower to out-gun your opponents. There are no other PC game similar to Mechwarrior. On the other hand, there are a zillion games on real-time strategy (RTS) and even more on first person shooters (FPS). Mechwarrior stands out because even though it is like a FPS, the variation of mechs, battle strategy and firepower makes it unique.
In this game, the focus is C-bill (the cosmic form of currency). You need it to travel, buy and repair mechs, and hire lancemates. You travel around the universe seeking jobs for hire (and crushing those who stand in your way, obviously). Eventually, you might need to pick between the Davion or the Steiner House. Here are my conclusions.
Pros:
1) Battles are even bigger than before. For over half of your campaign missions, you have the option to command 2 lances (8 mechs total). That spells for large battles with a huge amount of chaos and fire power. If you like that, then that's a big plus.
2) More mechs, there are about 8 or so new mechs on top of the first game (I'm not including the Clan/IS mech packs). Most of the addition is in the assault (ultra-big) mechs. This added firepower allows even more mayhem on top of Pro #1.
3) Graphic, although a bit dated, is still pretty good. There are subtle touches added. For example, when using ballistic cannons, you can see the spent shells exhausting out of the torso/arms after firing. The larger the cannon, the larger the shells. That's a very realistic touch.
4) Solaris. This is a part of the campaign mode where you play first-person shooter, except in a robot. You enter an arena solo and you have to out-gun and out-last 7 or more opponents. Be careful, you could be disqualified if you're not careful.
5) Multiplayer, if you are a big fan of Mech Warrior multiplayer, then this is a plus. Connection is pretty good and stable.
Cons.
1) Because of the larger battles, you need a pretty beefy computer to handle the graphic smoothly. I occassionally get choppy gameplay on large battles and it really puts a hamper on my aiming.
2) Although there are some new weapons, I don't think it is enough. I still end up using the same weapons I used from the first Vengeance, which are the PPC's, Guass's, Scatterboxes, and Clan LRMs. The only new weapon that I occassionally use is the Arrow T-bolts missiles. That's not good enough.
3) Lancemate AI can be a pain. When you are paying 7 other lancemates to help, you want them to follow orders! I have countless time got mobbed by computer opponents because my lancemates refuses to follow me and cover my flank.
4) More variation. At the start of this game, you choose one of four different mercenary sponsors. I wish there could be some more differences aside from starting equipment. I end up with pratically the same thing regardless of who I choose.
Overall, a great game and I highly recommend. This is more of a action/FPS game than a simulation, but I think that helps appeal to more people.
"MechWarrior", There's nothing quite like configuring your mech, adding three guass rifles, making an Atlas go 96 kph, then bringing them into battle against hoardes of clanners. The best mechwarrior games are the mercenaries series, and although not everything is perfect in here, it is still the leading battle mech game out. One problem they have is not enough mechs. Although there sure are a lot, more than Mechwarrior 4: Vengance, it isn't as many as mechwarrior 2: mercenaries, which is by far the best of the mech games. This would be the second best.
"Welcome back Merc", Make sure you check in at Outreach and equip your mech with only the best equipment ripped from your enemies dead bodies. Ahh...its good to be back.
Naturally this game is not the first to claim the title mercenary, nor is it the first Mechwarrior game to do so. It is also not the best Merc game so don't buy it because someone says so. However, it is a great game that is worth its now reduced price. Let me detail...
In Merc, you must earn money and buy mechs, something different from Mechwarrior 4. You also have the option of not only picking the missions you play but also the worlds you play them on. Near the end players can also choose to whom they give their alliance, a fun if questionable ability. I personally would have liked a third option to choose neither side. So ultimetly the player now has control over the direction of the game.
The mechs themselves are again the main feature and main drawback. Running around in a fifty foot tall death machine never gets old. Taking that same death machine and slapping all the best equipment on it is without compare. This is fun stuff. Now the negaitves.
These fifty foot death machines are damn near indestructable. I don't claim to understand physics at the level of Archimedes but if a hyper sonic guass slug impacts a solid object traveling at many times the speed of sound, anything under fifty tons is likely to be blown off its little feet. However the light and medium mechs shrug off repeated attacks of this sort. They actually barely even notice when you hit them with multiple such attacks, something I find unconchanable. I also felt that the idea of salvage was a little weak. No matter what mechs you kill and how you kill them, the salvage is always the same. Also, throughout the game vast numbers of chassis will come your way and unless you are getting brutalized every mission you can end the game with about 50 different mechs. YOu can also expect to run out of all the major weapon systems if you do not covet them and buy them whenever they are in shop. Its an interesting combe...too many mechs and not enough of the major weapons.
This problem is exasperbated by the Mech Warrior 4 customization system, where only certain weapons can go in certain slots. So a laser heavy mech must remain so. For a player like me, who grew up on the Nova clan mech(12 medium lasers) this is a little less fun. I also miss the ability to repair my mehc at the well placed depots in the mission. I thought this went a long ways towards making the game fun and challegning while letting less skilled players get through. In this game, where players face more enemies than ever before and have even more near worthless squad mates to protect, not being able to repair your mech is a serious handicap.
There is more but I am beggining to ramble and loss my focus so I will wrap this up. Great game, some handicaps, not as good as the origional Mechwarrior Mercenary. But it works on XP machines so...
