MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries

MECHWARRIOR 2: MERCENARIES
Activision
PC-Compatible
Combat Simulator

-- by Kenneth Jin-ho Cho

Minimum System Requirements
100% IBM PC-Compatible Computer
Double-Speed CD-ROM
62 MB of Uncompressed Hard Drive Space
VESA Local Bus or PCI Video Card
256-Color SVGA
100% Microsoft-compatible mouse
100% Sound Blaster-compatible sound card

MECHWARRIOR 2: MERCENARIES (Mercs) marks the latest and last computer simulation entry by Activision in the universe of FASA's Battletech. With the torch now passed on to Spectrum Holobyte, hopes are that Activision has made a successful last hurrah with MERCENARIES. With their impressive debut of the "original" MECHWARRIOR 2 (MW2) and the sequel, Ghost Bear Legacy (GBL), Activision had some high expectations for Mercs.

Mercenaries makes a departure from both MW2 and GBL in that it takes place within the Inner Sphere and that you are a mercenary not specifically tied to any one allegiance. MW2 and GBL took place within the Clans universe, which meant all repairs and modifications were paid for by the Clans. Mercs, within the Inner Sphere universe, makes you pay for everything... finance majors are welcome. A throwback to the original MW game, you are in charge of everything: which mechs to buy and modify, which contracts (missions) to choose and who to hire and fire. It's a welcome change from MW2 and GBL. Control freaks will definitely welcome Mercs.

The meat and potatoes of Mercs are the mecha and the combat that takes place within them. Folks who were looking forward to fighting again with Inner Sphere mecha from the original MW game will be sorely disappointed, especially anime fans. Gone are all of the original Inner Sphere mecha that originated from anime shows; the Marauder, War Hammer, Archer, and Rifleman (all from the television show SUPER DIMENSIONAL FORTRESS MACROSS) are just a few of the favorites that have been erased from Inner Sphere history. Instead, the player is allowed to choose from many of FASA's own designs, most of them anemic, fragile looking things. This is most likely the aftermath of FASA's attempt to ween fans off of the original mecha designs to avoid having to pay the license fees for their usage. A couple nice designs do stand out, however: the Atlas and the Zeus are two good examples.

[SCREENSHOT 1]
[SCREENSHOT 2]
Scenes from the actual game.

Combat within Mercs is pretty much the same as MW2 and GBL, as are the controls. With Mercs, Activision has added some nice features that the previous games did not have. Eye candy like everything-textured graphics and shadows are included and look nice. Probably the greatest graphic enhancement is the lighting. Sunset and sunrise are more graphically impressive and missle salvos and laser pulses emit their own light sources! This is totally exhilarating at night, especially with your "night vision" knocked out. Think of the scene from Macross: Do You Remember Love with the combat sequence between Max and Milia in the darkened corridor and that's what you have. A combat feature that improves realism is that mechs that lose a leg no longer defy the law of gravity and now fall over. If this happens to you, you're screwed, to say the least.

All these features do come at a price, though. Activision says that this program can run on a 486 machine. My recommendation is to not play this game on anything less than a Pentium 90 and 16 megs of RAM... and that's with lots of features turned off. It's of course ridiculous that computer games continually force users to keep up with hardware technology in order to play them, but that's the way the industry is: Those who can, upgrade. Those who can't, buy a new computer.

Mercs' last notable feature is the multi-player mode. Whether it be over a LAN, through a modem or null-modem, or even over the Internet, Mercs offers players the chance to tangle with live opponents through Mercnet, just like NetMech for MW2. One difference is that to play over the Internet, you can use your own PPP connection through your current Internet Service Provider. Setup is easy (know your modem settings,though) and within a few minutes, you too can be playing Mercs with others. One complaint about Mercnet is that, again like NetMech, there is no option to play cooperative in a campaign... trite but true.

A game of this magnitude is never without flaws. There are enough little quirky bugs within the game to drive one nuts. But to Activision's credit, they are on top of things. Mercs and its faults are already being raked over the coals in alt.games.mechwarrior2, but Activision has a strong presence there with producer Tim Morten and programmer Dan Kegel. A patch has already been announced and both are more than nice enough to answer any posting directed towards them or Activision.

Out with a bang or a whimper? Activision has given Battletech fans a great parting gift with MERCENARIES: it has lots of features that MECHWARRIOR 2 should've had and covers all the bases enough so that fans will miss Activision once Spectrum Holobyte takes over with MechWarrior 3. Although they have a proven track record in combat simulators, most notably Falcon 3.0, it'll be tough for Spectrum Holobyte to erase Activision's lasting memory.