Matthew Chrzanowski

I am disappointed after 12 hours played. Falls far short of my hopes of a mercenaries Battletech game. Nothing here is making me want to play that extra mission before I find out what happens next before I go to bed. Positives: 1. Its Battletech! Big stompy mechs with weapons to blow up other mechs, tanks, VTOLs, buildings, etc. 2. Graphics are good due to unreal engine. 3. Price is only $49.99 4. Coop gameplay. Overall issues: 1. Received fatal error to crash game. I also received the patch unsuccessful after couple tries to restart game. There is no support page or forum on mw5 website, just a technical support email under the FAQ section. 2. Generic unimaginative reused battletech plot/storyline, if you can call it a plot so far. Yes I’ve read the novellas and every book and dark age books. 3. Horrible voice acting. Story, characters, and acting (and lack there of) so far makes me cringe. 4. Boring repetitive generic missions so far, mission grinding starts to feel like a chore almost instantly. So much so I’ve been playing hour or so then taking multi-hour breaks in between playing to watch tv/movie, read a book, or even take a nap. There just is no added incentive to grind: no story, no cool salvage/loot drops and even if a weapon (with only minuscule benefits over weapon in place) that fits your mech it’s not worth the money and time it takes to put it on if you wanna stay above red and keep the merc group expanding. 5. Pilot characters have same 5 repeat bios, as opposed to Battletech turn based game. 6. No real control over pilot leveling / focus abilities. Skill rate advancement toward each of the 6 skills is controlled by AI and I assume what weapons/loadout you have in the mech you have them in. 7. Severely limited in the ability to customize of mechs so far. Both financially (monetarily and time cost) and just mechanics of customization. ie. lack of weapon hard points and limiting based on size of weapon in that hard point (small, medium, large). Spoiled with MWO I guess. Also do not see a way to preview the mechs weapon hardpoint placements (where they are, what size they are, etc.) and used/free slots of mech before buying. My issues with gameplay: 1. Blow leg off enemy mech and it slows for few seconds, then goes back to full speed as if nothing happened. 2. No knockdown of mechs or melee attacks implemented. 3. Enemies spawn in your blind spots all the time. Clear area proceed towards objective then enemies spawn behind you and do not show up on map/radar even if only 90m away while your team AI is not an effective early radar. If you are gonna spawn lance of enemies within enemy weapons range behind us, or a massive dropship dropping enemies behind us, omnidirectional sensors just seems fair. Just had an urbie spawn in front of me. 4. Team AI stupid do more damage to defending base than enemy. Hopefully the AI gets an intelligence upgrade as the pilots level up / skill up. 5. Only can have a single Lance 4 mechs total on a mission unlike mw4mercs 8 mechs, and no aerospace assets can be hired like mw2mercs. 6. Something seems odd about hitboxes for helicopters and tanks. Seems inconsistent. 7. The missions with enemy jamming where the HUD starts flickering and bright flashing gave me headache and is totally unnecessary. 8. Mech movement, response, feel just feels off to me. Going to have to mess with settings and break out the old throttle and joysticks like I used with mw2 and mw4. In summary, the game is missing that special something that makes me want to play that extra mission or explore the current region of space (ie. customize that mech or look for new equipment or pilots) before I find out what happens next before I go to bed.