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Definitely worthy of the name

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 84 / 88
Date: December 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The short: Great gameplay, great engine, excellent interface, awful story and acting. A fine addition to the Mech series of games. A solid, stable, fun game that doesn't require that you played any of the previous three to have a complete blast with it.

The long: I respectfully disagree with the review that gave this title one star because you can't make any Mech into a supermachine. That is precisely what makes this game better than all the ones that came before it. I have played ALL of the MW games, including the Virtual World cockpit sims, and this is the best yet. The game has been totally changed (and by the FASA guys themselves) from being just a computerized version of the paper game into a solid computer game that more accurately conveys what it should be like to be in one of these machines.

The shortcoming of the previous games was that Mech models didn't matter. You could take any one of them and put in any weapons, any equipment, any armor. You were limited only by total weight, so what was the difference?

Now there IS a difference. The missile racks on a Mech now really do have missiles in them (or nothing), and you can really hit those racks and blow them up. In the prior games you could hit a Mech in the waist and it would count as a "torso side" hit, regardless of what the structure of the machine was supposed to be. Now it plays far more like you'd think the real deal should. Two 75-ton Mechs are now completely different if they're different models, and you can play them with different tactics. You can use your knowledge of their structures to hit them where it hurts. Shouldn't it have been this way all along?

Game balance is totally different: Legs are way tougher to hit and to damage, so you can't cheap out as easily with leg or even head shots. Mechs accelerate, decelerate, and reverse faster, so if you crash into somebody, you don't ballroom dance with them at close range until somebody dies (and the meltdown from a death at close range is now greatly to be avoided--very cool); you can break off easily and continue to run and gun. Every Mech battle is now the extended duel it should be--no easy way out, and no cheap argument-ending superweapons like the Ultra AC/20. Now you've got to actually fight. If you don't like solid tactical fighting, then go play any first-person shooter, ninnies.

Weapon select and grouping is now totally different; the HUD is much simpler and more effective to use, and the Mech lab is equally simplified and effective. Wingman command is perhaps the best such game interface yet invented; very quick and it works.

Missile play also is done right this time; long-range missiles launch in an arc to the target, short-ranges are dumbfire and Streaks always hit without needing a lock. Other toys like AMS and BAP really work now, and have a noticeable effect and advantage during play. The new way that the missiles launch in a ripple-shower (instead of all at once) is more fun. This means that evasive action works. Now rather than either getting hit with the full load or totally missed, you can do things like dodge some and try to let AMS handle some, and everything in between. It also means that you need skill and strategy as a missile marksman, which wasn't really the case before.

The Mechs themselves have never looked better. They're highly detailed, distinctively blacken on damage, limp, stagger, run, walk, recoil, fall, and DIE awesomely. The graphics look great. Weapon effects are intense and the sounds are rich and throaty. You feel like you're dealing out some hurting even if you're only scratching paint when you unleash a machine gun. The AI is no longer dirt-stupid, puts up a great fight and won't sit there while you snipe from long range or pull other tricks that used to work. It's much more equivalent to the great bot AI that you see in first-person shooters like Unreal Tournament or Quake.

The single-player campaign is 25 full missions, far longer in play time than MW3. Unfortunately the story is as awful as most other computer games. Starcraft or Half-Life this is not. I can't remember seeing worse acting since high school, so I can't give this five stars. It's solid in just about every other way, though. I look forward to any expansions that may be on the way.

Excellent! Well Balanced.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 27 / 33
Date: December 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

... I think this game is an excellent, well balanced game! The only real beef I have with it is that it seems too short and I wish you could play the single player missions in Multi-player games. Other than that, the game is excellent! The storyline is good and the actors don't suck. I don't know about you, but I like seeing weapons come out of places they are supposed to come from. It's kind of weird and unrealistic to see a beam weapon, or ballistic weapon coming from a missile rack don't you think? Also, I would imagine it makes Multi player a little more balanced and fun. You have to work for your victory, using combat tactics and strategy! No more Cheapo, no talent mechwarriors stocking up on Ultra AC's and taking everyone out with a couple shots! I say bravo to Microsoft for making the game beautiful, and fun for everyone! I also should note that the animation in the game is wonderful! The Mechs move and take weapon hits as you would expect them to in the real world! Very fluid! Again I say Bravo Microsoft!

Sweet Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: December 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Mechwarrior 4 is an excellent game. The graphics are crisp and the sound is awesome. The smoke from missiles looks much better than in Mechwarrior 3. I also think the new weapons that are included in the game are great (for example MRM 40 missiles). The mechs even start on fire and get charred from taking hits.The mechlab is confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy to use. The biggest downside of the game is the large file size (maximum installation is 1045 megs). The instant action is great because you can use it to practice missions. Another big downside is the long video sequences before a lot of the levels that you can't skip. They're cool at first but after like 20 times its annoying. The controls are very similar to Mechwarrior 3 so that cuts down much of the learning time (though i still suggest you do the training mission). Firing different weapon groups is much easier because each group has a designated firing button so there is no toggeling betweeen groups any more. If you plan on buying Mechwarrior 4 I suggest you get a joystick if you don't already have one. So, in the end i think Mechwarrior 4 is a great game and worth the money.

Actually worth 4.5

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: December 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I've always been a fan of the 'big robot' games and the Mechwarrior series (including Mechcommander) have been the best of that genre. This continues with MechWarrior IV. The special effects are better, the missions are better, the PLOT (yep--there is one this time!), the AI, the cutscenes, the combat, etc. etc. Only two things kept me from giving this 5 stars: first, this game handles almost as if it was designed for Playstation rather than a PC. Maybe I'm uncoordinated (this is entirely possible), but the default keyboard configuration was extremely hard to manage. After a few hours of randomly blazing away at trees, rocks and the occasional unfortunate building (and not the Steiner Mech who was reducing my Daishi to scrap metal) I reconfigured the torso controls to automatically track with my mouse. You'll probably want to do this as well and save yourself some frustration. Secondly, although the mechlab is now much easier to use, you do lose some of the customability that you had with the older mech games. Call me crazy, but one of my favorite mech configurations was loading down an Atlas with small, extra-range pulse lasers and reducing enemy knee-joints to slag. Now each slot is limited to either ballistic, energy or missile weapons which, although it is easier, does limit you. I can see why they did this--I just wish Microsoft had included an option to use the older mechlab controls. Other than those two niggling details, this is an incredible game. If you want experience the feel of piloting a 100 ton robot, the satisfaction of unloading two gauss rifles into the back of a gargantuan enemy mech a point-blank range (without the blood-n-guts you'd get from a Doom-type game) and have the machine to handle intense 3-D graphics, this is definitely the game for you.

I think the series has finally run out of steam

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 22
Date: January 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Having played each MW game in the series including mechcommander, I am disappointed so far in the first 6 missions.

The terrain does look better than MW3, but I think some little touches are missing. I don't get the sense of piloting a heavy mech, it feel to much like an arcade. In MW3 you could blow off a leg or arm of an opponent, but in this game I have tried numerous times to blow off parts and nothing happens. You cannot blow up people that are running around, like in MW3.

Before each combat, a video will give you info about the mission, sorta like mechcommander did. Also pilots and techs will stop by between mission to give you advice about tactics and weapons, etc. This seems out of place. You are a decorated mechwarrior veteran of the clan wars. I find it hard to believe you would need any advise from less seasoned mechcommaders.

It seems to me they tried to make it easier or simplified for new players. By doing so I think it has lost the feeling of the other MW games.

I would still buy this game because of the subject, but I would wait a couple of months for the price to drop.

great Mech fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: November 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I've you love the MechWarrior feel of gaming, here you have the ultimate in Meching around. The graphics are great, the gameplay top-notch, and the Mech configurations are far easier to manipulate in this new version. Better character control has made it easier to manuever through campaigns, as well. As an individual who's seen a lot of games, I highly recommend this one.

A good gaming experience

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: March 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I finally got to sit down and install then play Mechwarrior 4:Vengeance.

I liked playing the last two incarnations of this game, Mechwarriors 2 and 3, and this game is a lot of fun too. The game play is pretty much the same: You pilot a 40 ft. tall walking tank, called a "Battlemech", where you stomp through different environments, blowing away anything that gets in your way in order to complete different missions. This whole concept started off as a board game, believe it or not, by a company called FASA (now out of business - boo-hoo) a long time ago.

Now you get the full sensory effect. Published by Microsoft, this version of Mechwarrior is more plot driven than the others. You play the nephew of a powerful duke, who returns to his home world from the Clan Wars to find it occupied by a rival noble family. Your hop back into your BattleMech and fight to free your home world. The graphics are great and the game is loaded with decent cut-scenes that help move the plot along. Your mech no longer lumbers along but really boogies down the road at a good clip. This makes piloting the mech a daunting task at times but it is a little easier thanks to the re-worked user interface. Also, you can interact with your environment in different ways: stomping people, tanks and small buildings instead of shooting them up all the time. I am able to play the game enjoyably using a joystick-keyboard combination but you can also use a mouse if desired. I found it to be a pretty good BattleMech simulation experience; playing this game does require a good amount of concentration.

However, it is a Microsoft game so it took a long time to install, and you need a decent machine to play Mechwarrior 4. It hasn't crashed on me but it does lag in spots.

An all-around quality gaming experience

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: February 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I get on kicks every now and again. Early last year it was D&D games, before that it was first person sneakers (Deus Ex, Thief, No One Lives Forever, etc.). Right now it's Giant Death Robots.

MechWarrior 4 fits firmly into the tradition established by its predecessors: you're given a mission and a selection of 'Mechs (40-foot-tall, vaguely anthropomorphic walking tanks) and lancemates to execute it with. Completing missions successfully and nailing the secondary and tertiary objectives nets you more weapons, equipment, and 'Mechs to employ in future missions. Gameplay feels like a slowed-down, cerebral first-person shooter - it's not so simulation-like that it takes half an hour to learn to walk your 'Mech out of the hangar, but even the nimblest, most trigger-happy player will be quickly stymied unless he learns how to think tactically.

Also, as is to be expected, the game inherits many of its various quirks from its granddaddy, the dice-and-miniatures BATTLETECH game. There's the overriding concern with managing your robot's heat disposal - do you spend those extra five tons on more lasers and missiles, or do you add more heat sinks to keep the machine running longer without stalling out? There's the endless indecipherable acronyms for everything - a term like "Clan Ultra LBX AC 20" may accurately represent the real-life military's preoccupation with senseless acronyms, but the term does little to inform players that it refers to what amounts to a really big gun. And then there's the dauntingly large and impossibly convoluted BATTLETECH backstory, which while entertaining to those with the will to suss it all out, leaves everyone else benumbed and without a frame of reference to appreciate most of the goings-on (aside from Stuff Blows Up Real Good, anyway).

So yeah, MW4 carries a lot of baggage. But that's okay, because, all other considerations aside, it's a great big hoot of a game. Graphics this time out are lovely, even given that the game was released in late 2000. Weapon effects are tops - lasers generate groovy light-sourcing, impacting missiles leave obscuring gouts of thick smoke around their targets (which can be useful to effect a quick getaway), and PPC blasts cause your opponent to spark and trail electric arcs. There's a big selection of gorgeously-rendered environments to stomp around in, from lunar wasteland to snowy peaks to swamps to coastal harbor towns. (A welcome addition: the coastal levels let you wade your 'Mech a couple miles out into the water to do battle with enormous oceangoing battleships and cruisers.) Particularly well-done this time are the urban levels, which are finally done correctly to scale and give a nice tingly feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia (you never know when a 100-ton Atlas might come stomping out from behind a building).

Enemy AI this time is generally very good, with enemies using the right weapons at the right ranges, taking cover behind buildings and hills, grabbing the high ground to pound you with long-range missiles and Gauss rounds, etc. Your lancemates are actually people of value this time around, and they really do behave according to their skill profile (the guy who's a crack shot actually opts to snipe, and the girl with a huge score in piloting actually runs rings around her targets, etc.)

What came as a surprise to me was the quality of MW4's story. Previous MechWarrior games too often felt like abstract military exercises, with mission briefings coming to you in blocks of jargon-filled text that too often failed not only to convey a story, but even to be understandable to people not steeped in BATTLETECH lore. While it's true that MW4 employs dodgy full-motion video backed by even dodgier 'actors', the narrative is clean, focused, and perfectly sensible - your lancemates become actual characters rather than collections of statistics, and your enemies are hissable villains rather than abstract bullseyes under your target reticle. It's admirably supported by a lovely musical score that veers between violent, pounding guitar riffs (like most of the music in MW2 and Mercenaries) and swelling orchestral themes.

It's a great game and I give it an unqualified recommendation to anyone with a muscular enough PC.

Steiner mechs on the North Ridge - (4½ Stars)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: December 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Once again the Mechwarrior torch has been passed on, once in the hands of Activision for three games-Mechwarrior 2, then Ghost Bear Legacy and finally Mercenaries, it was handed off to Microprose who bumbled Mechwarrior 3 on a rather grand scale. Now that Fasa has swallowed by Microsoft as yet another franchise under their banner. That said, "Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance" is a worthy successor to Mechwarrior 2, and pigeon holes into the overall Battletech story line perfectly. Though that story line is degenerating thanks to bad writing in the form of Battletech novels and RPG source material in the Federated Commonwealth of House Steiner and House Davion has been shattered, pretty much guaranteeing that everything will return to the same old boring status quo of five Successor Houses squabbling over territory.

While Mechwarrior 4 uses the basis of the split of the Federated Commonwealth, the ignore the lunacy of lost technology and the inability to build new mechs. Instead, Melissa Steiner has ordered the execution of Duke Dressari of Kentares IV, and in a stunning opening cinematic which uses real actors and not CGI graphics, we see the 5th Donegal Regiment lay waste to the defending forces. The only survivor, of course, is your character, young Ian Dressari who was off world at the time who comes home to reclaim his birthright and to force Steiner's puppet dictator off the planet. Ian is joined by a motley crew of freedom fighters-from engineers to mechwarriors who aid him in his quest.

The single planet campaign is handled far better in Vengeance than Mechwarrior 3, because it really gives a sense of advancement as your loyalist forces move across the planet from region to region liberating key areas and securing resources. As time progresses you gain additional pilots with which to form a decent lance, weapons, and more battlemechs. Mech design is also superior over Mechwarrior 3, the 3D artists obviously taking their time to provide the best designs Battletech has to offer, (let's face it, many of the mechs in the Technical Readout volumes have been less than inspired.) Units themselves run the gamut from light recon all the way up 100-ton heavy and assault mechs, including some of my favorites like the Mad Cat (Timber Wolf), Nova Cat, and the Daishi. Once I got the Mad Cat, I pretty much stayed with it for the duration of the campaign.

Missions are fun and varied, ranging from straight out mech melees, capturing supply caravans, even defending a coastal village from an sea strike from naval vessels. Even grudge matches from villains that you meet via intercepted communications, including your evil cousin who you must face in the last mission in a fight to death. And by the end of the campaign you have over 20 mechs to play with and hundreds of weapons, including some weird creations that I have never heard of before, like 40-racks of medium range missiles, light gauss cannons and something called a bombast laser. Where I think it falls apart slightly is when you outfit your mechs.

In standard Battletech, any critical location big enough to hold a weapon can hold any weapon, not so in Vengeance. Instead, locations are assigned color codes and spaces. Red for Energy weapons, Green for Missiles, and Yellow for Ballistic weapons like machine guns and auto-cannons. Plus Grey for Clan Omni-mechs, which can hold any type of armament. Additionally, their method for grouping weapons is a little arbitrary, and unless you have an advance joystick means you'll be fingering repeatedly for the keyboard to fire other than your primary weapons groups. Also, recycle times on weapons is perhaps a little too long 5 seconds before you can re-fire a PPC, up to 6 or 7 seconds for auto-cannons, which plays up the importance of adding secondary and tertiary fire capabilities to your mech. I completed the game with a 90 ton Daishi with twin Clan LBX-AC20s and a triple punch of Clan LRM-15s. This 1-2 punch combination meant I was smoking heavies and assaults in 2-4 shots. And because they're very heat efficient weapons, I could drop the number of heat sinks to increase armor and engine power.

3D graphics are a mix bag. A lot of terrain bit maps are quite good, but trees look like cardboard cut outs, seams can be seen where they laid down their textures for the ground, and lighting effects are so-so. The mechs themselves are beautiful, have gorgeous movement that convey an awesome sense of power and weight. Shadow effects of your mech seemed to be an afterthought-looking more like a dark "T" on the ground. Your mech's search lights are next to useless, shining `under' water terrain, but not across it, not that they help you see any better in night missions. The light amplification function also seems like an afterthought, turning your field of vision into an eye-splitting green, so save yourself a ton of equipment and avoid it. Mech explosions, missile con trails and weapons fire are first-rate. But don't get into the trap I fell into-stay away from exploding mechs, the backwash is a pain.

All in all a solid effort from the folks at Microsoft and Fasa Corp. The solid game play backed up by a good story, firt rate cut scenes all combine into a wonderful Battletech experience. The full motion video cut scenes and briefings, plus interplay between you and your lance-mates only add to its success as a video game. If you like Battletech and have at least enjoyed Mechwarrior 2, then give this a try, you won't be disappointed.

MechWarrior Light

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: May 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

As far as BattleTech games are concerned this one is the latest in a long line. By far the best looking BattleTech game yet created it suffers not from bad game play as much as it does from bad mission design.

Gripes: The mechs are faster in this game, but there is not a single mission in the game that emphasizes speed or manuverability over firepower. There are a variety of mech types in the game, but not a single mission that is not best undertaken with the largest heaviest (and slowest) mechs available.

The single player game is wrapped around a "Wing Commander" type story line. You must win every mission, only 1 time in the game will you get to pick between 2 missions. There is only a victory path to go down. Your lance-mates never die (if they did they would miss the victory party), your mechs that are nearly destroyed in a mission are completely repaired for the next mission. All this so the game doesn't diverge from the canned story line. (does anybody remember the orignal WingCommander where you could lose, where when a wingmate died you simply buried them and went on with the game?)

The Bad: The controls are not particularly customizable, which is annoying at times. The mech torso seems to auto-center on the direction of travel. This makes the traditional "circle of death" tactic difficult to use. You quickly salvage so much equipment and so many mechs that you wish you could give some of the stuff back. The AI for both enemy and freindly mech centers on the "rush in" approach. AI mechs don't seem to more than accidentally get locks on for their LRMs. The artillery is useless, as are a number of the mech weapons included. It makes nice splash on the box cover to say "x new weapons and y new mechs", but it doesn't add anything to the game. You can't shoot anyones legs off, if you are standing to close to a mech when it is destroyed your own mech suffers massive damage, always, regardless of how the mech was destroyed.

The good: This game looks great. The new mechlab seems like an improvement, and harkens back to the original BattleTech mech designs were critical spaces on mechs were limited, and played a real part in mech customization. The games is played on "real" terrain, with rolling hills, valleys etc... The weather effects are nice. With patches the games seems pretty stable (without them its not playable).

In many ways the game is a good introduction to the BattleTech universe. Its sort of MechWarrior light. If you are into the mech games already, then you probably have this one, if you always wondered what the fuss was about the Mechwarrior series or haven't tried a Mechwarrior game in a while you will probably like this one.

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