BattleTech

 PC
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 396 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 241 out of 396
  2. Mixed: 58 out of 396
  3. Negative: 97 out of 396

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  1. tutike2000
    Apr 25, 2018
    5
    There is a lot of potential here, just needs a layer of polish.
    Battles are *incredibly* slow, even if you turn down all special animations.
    Whenever an action happens, it seems to not lock out your UI for the correct amount of time: you either see the entire animation happen, and then wait 2-3 seconds for no reason until you get control back, or the animation starts, then doesn't have    There is a lot of potential here, just needs a layer of polish.
    Battles are *incredibly* slow, even if you turn down all special animations.
    Whenever an action happens, it seems to not lock out your UI for the correct amount of time: you either see the entire animation happen, and then wait 2-3 seconds for no reason until you get control back, or the animation starts, then doesn't have time to complete and it just skips the last bit.
    (If you're familiar with XCOM and the 'Stop Wasting My Time' mod, this is exactly the same problem, only much worse)
    When a special camera is used, you often find that your view is obstructed by terrain, other mechs, building, etc, or simply not framed properly, with the effects of your enemy's shots being off-screen (so it won't show how much damage you've taken).
    Another problem is the EXTREMELY long loading times. If you've ever played Kerbal Space Program, you'll be familiar with how Battletech handles scene changes when out of combat. You click on something, the screen goes black for 4 or more seconds, then you get your UI back.
    Some missions require escorting allied vehicles. They move very, very slowly. One at a time. The game doesn't let you fast-fowrard.

    All of these types of artificial slowdowns take a huge amount of time when you add them together, making a pretty good game into only slightly above average.

    Then there's the UI:
    Hello, this is 2018. My mouse has a right mouse button as well as a left. Perhaps you can do something with that right mouse button, such as cancel a planned order? Instead I need to hit ESC or one of the other orders in order to cancel a move.
    Scrapping a mech is an option... but why not let the user know that they could sell it for more money? All I need is a "get rid of mech" option, give me the max money I can get out of it. Or at least mention that scrapping a mech gets you less money than selling it?
    When preparing for a mission, I constantly get reminded that my mech is 0.01 tonnes underweight. Yeah. I know. Stop pestering me about it.
    When exiting a mission, I constantly get reminded that I can't use my mechs until I repair them again (even though they took 0 structural damage, and are instanly available again)
    When moving your ship between systems, there's lots of unskippable video. I realize it's 'cool', but I don't want to see a jump anymore.

    When outfitting your mech, you need to create a kind of 'shopping list' of changes, and then your mechanic will proceed with those changes. If 90% way through designing your refit you realize you'd like to add another laser, you need to *cancel the entire refit* (5s loading time), go to the shop (5-10s loading time), buy a laser, go back to the refit screen (5-10s loading time), *re-do your entire refit from the top*, and then add the laser. They could have just added store items to the refit screen, and have them add to the cost of the refit, but no...

    Also, if you cancel a refit order - even seconds after you made it, you lose 50% of the money it cost to place. WTH, the game is paused, let me cancel refit orders if they're not started yet.

    Also, there's a queue of refit work - meaning only one mech can be worked on at any given time. However if you schedule any work for your mechs they are unavailable for combat even if they're not being worked on - WTH ?    … Expand
  2. Nemyue
    May 5, 2018
    6
    This game deserves neither 0 nor 10.

    It is fairly fun but it needs a lot of improvements.

    Pros:
    Interesting background story
    Addictive battle system for turn-based game fans.
    Good soundtracks

    Cons:
    Weak storytelling.
    Slow-paced battle
    (the playtime for battles can be significantly reduced if you cut out battle cutscenes in the options menu.)
    Poor optimization.
  3. WillGamer
    Apr 30, 2018
    6
    I do like this game but... it is in need of some serious patching and was probably released a couple of weeks too early. Its slow. Everything from the animations to loading a list of save games.
    My top QOL changes for now:
    1. Give us an option to multi select save games to delete. I have hundreds and I wanted to delete some of the older ones to try speed up the wait on the load save game    I do like this game but... it is in need of some serious patching and was probably released a couple of weeks too early. Its slow. Everything from the animations to loading a list of save games.
    My top QOL changes for now:
    1. Give us an option to multi select save games to delete. I have hundreds and I wanted to delete some of the older ones to try speed up the wait on the load save game screen.
    2. Fix the memory leak. looks like the game gets slower the longer you play.
    3. Bind keys to a quick save and quick load option.
    4. Add a manual or something. There are still icons on the screen that assume I know what they mean through trial and error.    … Expand
  4. StalagCrack
    Apr 27, 2018
    6
    Fun gameplay experience for enthusiasts of tactical turn based games, which is unfortunately bogged down by a very poor performance, glitches and overall lack of polish - the game could have used a month in an oven to get all things run smoothly.
    It does suffer from a big narrative problem, where the story front-loads the ending in first intro sequence to the campaign. We work for the    Fun gameplay experience for enthusiasts of tactical turn based games, which is unfortunately bogged down by a very poor performance, glitches and overall lack of polish - the game could have used a month in an oven to get all things run smoothly.
    It does suffer from a big narrative problem, where the story front-loads the ending in first intro sequence to the campaign. We work for the good guys and there is no other option. Unlike some games like venerable Merceneries series for Mechwarrior, where you could opt who do you support, we are railroaded from the very first moment. It is somewhat of a disappointment, but overall not a huge negative.

    Now for the mechanics. I really liked the new initiative system, divided into phases which make more sense, giving an option to run forth and cease the moment or react to the surrounding. However there are also mechanics so easy to cheese out most encounters I'm puzzled still how are they considered a thing and feature in current state, namely: stability and concentrated fire. Instead of spreading fire over couple enemies, making the combat even, make the whole team pound one enemy at the time. The penalties they'll get will mean in most cases, either a crit will be scored, a pilot shaken and loose action, or they'll fall due to impact. It is sometimes hilarious to see a huge and mighty Assault mech drop like a sack of potatoes after a round of combined fire, in essence, eliminating him from taking action that round, which is way better then spreading the damage evenly. Not sure if that was an intent, but it is a cheesy tactic which makes encounters look rather silly.

    If this game improves it's performance down the line I'll be al for giving it a boost in score, however as of now, it runs terribly.    … Expand
  5. Anreww
    Apr 25, 2018
    5
    When the game works, and it does, sometimes - it's a thrill, with visceral combat full of interesting tactical options and small (5-10) but fairly varied roster of mission types & maps. Weapons have a weight to them and it's incredibly satisfying to bring an enemy mech down. The mercenary tactial/command portion (which you need to get through an hour or two of middling intro gameplay andWhen the game works, and it does, sometimes - it's a thrill, with visceral combat full of interesting tactical options and small (5-10) but fairly varied roster of mission types & maps. Weapons have a weight to them and it's incredibly satisfying to bring an enemy mech down. The mercenary tactial/command portion (which you need to get through an hour or two of middling intro gameplay and story exposition to reach) is great, with much more depth than is explained by the tutorials. Watching your c-bills drain and deciding whether to jump in to a contract and risk losing a pilot or wait until repairs are done and field a stronger lance give some gravity to your command decisions as bankruptcy can be just around the corner.

    When it doesn't work, though - you'll find:
    - GPU-melting bad optimization which has already destroyed people's graphic cards - a unity game is running GTX1080s at 100% load?
    - progress wiped by corrupted saves
    - strange graphical glitches (screen-wide motion blur when selecting a specific mech, weapons and mechs clipping through the environment, screen going dark/bright )
    - LONG load times (regardless of pc spec)
    - odd unit behaviour (walking backwards to a point and then abrubtly swivelling instead of turning while walking, melee attacks not actually connecting)

    Verdict:
    Wait for a patch - there is a great mech game under the hood but not worth buying yet.    … Expand
  6. Muramas
    Jun 11, 2018
    5
    I think this game had a lot going for it but it messed up in the end. When you first start playing the idea of sending out mechs of missions is fun, new and exciting and you are able to build out your squad from downed mechs but what eventually happens is that you do the same tactics in every mission and there is no way around it.

    You find a spot of forest, put all your guys in it, let    I think this game had a lot going for it but it messed up in the end. When you first start playing the idea of sending out mechs of missions is fun, new and exciting and you are able to build out your squad from downed mechs but what eventually happens is that you do the same tactics in every mission and there is no way around it.

    You find a spot of forest, put all your guys in it, let the enemy come to you while you shoot at them.

    Since you get a defensive bonus in the forest there is no reason not to do this and it is the only thing that grants any real bonuses that make it worthwhile. So in my option they could of done a bit more like xcom remake and make a lot more cover over the map (like ruined cities) or they could of made no/little forest cover and made it more mobile tactical.    … Expand
  7. AstroCat
    Apr 25, 2018
    7
    I had issues with my account/call sign but support was able to resolve the issue.

    So far some of the VO work is weak and the character customization is very limited, but I'm getting into the story and I've been enjoying the combat and depth of the systems. So I've reached a thumbs "middle" for now and for the sake of wishful optimism I'll mark it recommended, with an asterisk next to    I had issues with my account/call sign but support was able to resolve the issue.

    So far some of the VO work is weak and the character customization is very limited, but I'm getting into the story and I've been enjoying the combat and depth of the systems.

    So I've reached a thumbs "middle" for now and for the sake of wishful optimism I'll mark it recommended, with an asterisk next to it for the issues.

    I can see this gaming growing from my "7" to and "8" or "9" with some patches. I'll re-review as the game evolves.    … Expand
  8. glebiuskv
    Apr 25, 2018
    5
    Average game.
    * Boring fight system.
    * Average graphics
    * Average atmosphere (honestly it is good, but spoiled by long-no-action game-play)
  9. shadowpoker
    Apr 25, 2018
    7
    I have been a long time fan of both the Battletech board game (since slightly before Maximum Tech) and the MechWarrior rpg. I also played quite a few of the computer games and really enjoyed MechWarrior II and III and quite enjoyed the MechCommander games. I tell this to give a general feeling about what kind of player I am.
    I enjoyed the game, but not as much as I wanted to. As you    I have been a long time fan of both the Battletech board game (since slightly before Maximum Tech) and the MechWarrior rpg. I also played quite a few of the computer games and really enjoyed MechWarrior II and III and quite enjoyed the MechCommander games. I tell this to give a general feeling about what kind of player I am.
    I enjoyed the game, but not as much as I wanted to. As you create a Battletech game I think you could go in two different direction, you could try to get close to the original board game or try to make it more like a computer game (as MechCommander did). For me, the new Battletech game did not find a good spot in-between. I get a slight irritation from how much is not as the board game and I always compare it to the board game because it not enough of a computer game on it's own. Still I enjoy it and would enjoy it so much more if I could play the campaign in Coop.
    Sadly, The Mech design is not advanced enough to give me a thrill, the game interface is not informative enough to give me the information I want and the game play is too much of a board game to make me accept this as a computer game adaptation.    … Expand
  10. Zugs
    May 7, 2018
    6
    If you are a fan of battletech then this game will scratch that itch. The story is ok but no ground moving shockers. The combat is great for TT fans, but some will find it difficult and to slow for their tastes. There is good company management system in place which puts you in control of your finances and is great if you like the merc feel!

    Now on to the reason of a 6 out of 10 I    If you are a fan of battletech then this game will scratch that itch. The story is ok but no ground moving shockers. The combat is great for TT fans, but some will find it difficult and to slow for their tastes. There is good company management system in place which puts you in control of your finances and is great if you like the merc feel!

    Now on to the reason of a 6 out of 10

    I was on the steam forums and a user asked if there was alot of SJW crap in the game. I said roughly
    "well if you think that 1/3 of the population is gay or trans, and there are no blond, blue eye people in the future than no."
    Now what the political agenda of the company is I don't care. Nor do I care what someone does in their private life. However I was ban for hate speech.... I crap you not. Companies need to focus on products and stop focusing on social issues. The people can make up their own minds.    … Expand
  11. Namessar
    May 11, 2018
    7
    This is a good turn based game, but does have some flaws. Positioning mechs, turning them, choosing which side should be exposed to who are not easy to control at the moment. From twitch and YouTube, I have seen that nobody manages the weapons, turning them on and off due to their range. Got overheated? well, pass a turn, your mech can get some beating, The main reason for this, imo, isThis is a good turn based game, but does have some flaws. Positioning mechs, turning them, choosing which side should be exposed to who are not easy to control at the moment. From twitch and YouTube, I have seen that nobody manages the weapons, turning them on and off due to their range. Got overheated? well, pass a turn, your mech can get some beating, The main reason for this, imo, is the interface that does not really explain details about enemy positioning, distance etc. I even have hard time to spot objectives' position during a mission. Pilots get wounded very easily, one hit to the head, and boom, even with armor, you have an injured pilot out for at least 10+ days, even with a good amount of "Gut" skill. Most of the side missions do look like lazy work. Side objectives being near the main one? come on! I see a lot of micromanagement potential here but who cares? If you refit a mech... well, good luck with that. A simple gun and your mech will be out of commission for days if not weeks. Tweaking your firepower depending on mech combinations for each mission? well, due to the refit time, good luck with that. Also no animated faces/mouths during the cut-scenes. I do not care much about it, but I know someone will.

    I was thirsty for an isometric tactical game these days and I love mechas. It is a solid game for me, but I should also express that my expectations were not really high on this one.    … Expand
  12. MortalManny
    May 16, 2018
    7
    Cons: Game is too easy mid-late game. Time consuming in a bad way (you'll know it when you play it). Story is just bad. The game hogs your system at 100% all the time.

    Pros: Gameplay is good (just a bit time consuming). Cutscenes look good (why didn't they just use that instead of realtime bad graphics.
  13. Sinatra
    Apr 26, 2018
    7
    I think I´ve never seen a game with so many unjust ratings as this one. Giving Battletech a rating above 8 or below 3 is, from my point of view, just unfair.

    If you read through all the 10 and 0 ratings, most of what people say is true (they just decide to ignore the rest). Is the game bad? Well, from the technical side... absolutely! The very poor performance, loading times, the    I think I´ve never seen a game with so many unjust ratings as this one. Giving Battletech a rating above 8 or below 3 is, from my point of view, just unfair.

    If you read through all the 10 and 0 ratings, most of what people say is true (they just decide to ignore the rest).

    Is the game bad? Well, from the technical side... absolutely! The very poor performance, loading times, the amount of bugs, glitches, sound errors, save game issues ... wow... this is not an early access game, it´s a full release! I have to wonder if the devs ever played their game before releasing it?
    Is the game good? Well, actually it is. Being a fan of the xcom series (but not expecting as much), I really was surprised by the strategic depth of the game. You have a ton of options outfitting your mechs. Unleashing hell on your enemies and blowing up their mechs is very satisfying.

    But let me tell you about specific issues people seem to have with game:

    The story:
    The story is not that bad, it´s the presentation that ruins it. What breaks the mood is f.e. that talking to your crew will reward you with textboxes, more textboxes and even more textboxes.... sigh...

    the graphics:
    I´ve seen worse.

    the balancing:
    this really is an issue. Here the game could have used some more tweaking before release. Most of the missions are good, but suddenly you´ll tumble into one that is either really hard or just pathetic.
    Let me tell you about my experience with my "protect the convoy missions":
    1st mission: Escort convoy to the city. City is located to the left (as are my mechs), convoy in the middle and enemies to the right. First turn, convoy turns around and drives into the enemies and dies.
    2nd mission: Escort the convoy to it´s destination. I start at the same location as the convoy, there´s a road with blockades, behind them, the goal. Convoy drives so fast, that non of my mechs could keep up with it. I managed to save one truck (from 8).
    3rd mission: Protect... and so on. Convoy starts next to the enemies and dies in the first turn.
    I guess that the missions are random gen. Some are bad, but most of them are really good.

    Tutorial:
    Really? No one here had an issue with that? I watched two tutorials on youtube on how the mechs and tactics work, as the game does barely explain the depths of the combat.

    What is Battletech?
    I have no clue, what it is supposed to be. But I thought it was funny to read reviews with a rating of 0, because it was nothing like battletech and others with 10 because it is exactly like batlletech. Ok... I guess...

    Overall rating:
    It´s a really good turn based strategy game, with a lot of depth, but it suffers from so many technical issues. If you have not yet played Battletech, then wait for A LOT of patches, before playing it.    … Expand
  14. Pier
    May 25, 2018
    6
    There is a great game in there, but it still needed 6 months of work. Hopefully HBS will keep on polishing it and solving bugs and performance problems.
  15. Ming120
    Oct 21, 2018
    7
    After doing a full playthrough and a couple of partial playthroughs, my takeaway from Battletech is that it is an ok game with untapped potential. I quite enjoyed the story for it's narrative was strong, albeit a bit shallow. The game mechanics are alright too, as you do need to use your brain a little to manage your mercenary company and to triumph on the battlefield.

    However, the    After doing a full playthrough and a couple of partial playthroughs, my takeaway from Battletech is that it is an ok game with untapped potential. I quite enjoyed the story for it's narrative was strong, albeit a bit shallow. The game mechanics are alright too, as you do need to use your brain a little to manage your mercenary company and to triumph on the battlefield.

    However, the game does get incredibly boring after a while, for practically every battle is same. You move your mechs for a couple rounds, then you encounter a lance of mechs or vehicles. Then you probably encounter a second lance of mechs or vehicles depending on a dice roll, and if you survive that, you either shoot a few buildings, escort a few vehicles, and then rinse and repeat. It's ok for the first little bit, but then it gets incredibly, painfully, dull.

    I feel that if you had more options to field equipment such as vehicles, or even being able to field more than 4 mechs at a time, would break the monotony a little bit. A bit better mission design with a bit more variety would also be a benefit.    … Expand
  16. cylentstorm
    Jul 14, 2023
    7
    There's a lot to like in HBS's Mecha manager, but the uneven presentation, poor explanation, heavy use of RNG in combat, and underwhelming basic structure shove Battletech a bit too far into "hardcore franchise/genre fans only" territory.
  17. TheWaffle
    Feb 9, 2020
    6
    There is a lot of wonderful stuff in Battletech. The art direction is great, the scene setting, all the intricate details of managing your merc company are fun, outfitting and refitting mechs feels very involved. If you want to swap in a rocket launcher in place of laser, you need to pay for ammo/upgrades it'll take time, and you need to worry about weight/heat buildup, and it all feelsThere is a lot of wonderful stuff in Battletech. The art direction is great, the scene setting, all the intricate details of managing your merc company are fun, outfitting and refitting mechs feels very involved. If you want to swap in a rocket launcher in place of laser, you need to pay for ammo/upgrades it'll take time, and you need to worry about weight/heat buildup, and it all feels great. There's so much detail that goes into building the world, and there are lots of small gameplay elements that help to build on that. The problem is that all of the scene-setting, music, and atmosphere are in service of weak core gameplay. Everything feels good until you drop into actual combat. The combat sequences are repetitive, and not much fun. The mechs are total bullet sponges, and you will waste 3-4 turns with four mechs just blasting away at a single enemy. Because of that, the tactical options are pretty limited: it's hard to execute a decisive ambush, hit-and-run isn't really viable, and usually it's best just to post up in an elevated position or a forest and out-shoot the enemy. Mechwarriors have few abilities, and they seem like pure buffs, so I don't know why you wouldn't use them. And there's no trade-off between moving or staying still. Like so many strategy games, there isn't much strategy in Battletech, and it's a shame that all the great elements serve such weak core gameplay.… Expand
  18. RMDsilva
    Nov 14, 2019
    6
    Entertaining, but all the game mechanics are fairly mediocre. I was definitely bored by the time I finished the campaign, with a constant tactic of strong mechs + long range weaponry + defensiveness and taking out enemies one by one.
  19. marc5477
    Aug 15, 2019
    7
    Its not a bad game, but it is also far from perfect. Does not deserve any of the 0's and 10's in the reviews. I would say that at best, its a 7 and at its worst its a 4. Which means that overall, its actually not bad. Slightly above the 5 average.

    The good. If you love mechs, and strategic use of weapons and turn based strategy, you will probably get some enjoyment from this game. In my    Its not a bad game, but it is also far from perfect. Does not deserve any of the 0's and 10's in the reviews. I would say that at best, its a 7 and at its worst its a 4. Which means that overall, its actually not bad. Slightly above the 5 average.

    The good. If you love mechs, and strategic use of weapons and turn based strategy, you will probably get some enjoyment from this game. In my 1st play through, I enjoyed collecting the different mechs and trying different loadouts. it was fun trying to create a perfect team and some battles were really exciting. The story is linear but it wasnt bad or good. It just didnt pull me in nor did I feel attached to the characters in any way. This is not an RPG by any stretch of the imagination although you can level up pilots and assign skills from a very limited set of options. Still, it was good enough for me to finish the game and if you read my other reviews, you will know just rare that is. I dont finish games I dont like.

    The bad. As mentioned above, the story is detached and not immersive. Side missions are very repetitive and uninteresting. Clearly they are randomly generated. Battles take far too long to complete making the game drag far more than it should. A speed option for mech movement in combat would be nice to speed things up. Despite all the different mechs, variety is actually an illusion. There are only a few different effective ways to load out a mech and the only difference between classes is how much you can load onto it. Smaller mechs are far inferior to their larger counterparts and each mech does have a larger version. They might have different names, but its really just a change in mass. At least that is how it feels. Even though there might be 100 different mechs, there are really only 3 with an upgrade in each weight class. Its just a matter of finding the heavier one. There is no balance in favor of smaller mechs. They also need to add more depth to the characters more unique missions and a lot more weapon variety.

    Again, its not great game nor a bad game. Its above average. Fun for a while but drags about half way through with no improvement made towards end game except getting heavier mechs... Give it a shot if you are a mech fanatic and like TBS games.    … Expand
  20. supercagan
    Dec 27, 2018
    5
    I learned not to trust paid reviewers, 100/100, 10/10 best game ever!
    So i got this, played a few hours and then uninstalled and refunded.
    -Tactics are bad, AI is bad, story is bad... -Mech animations look good for the first 1 hr of the game and then it gets old and the camera angles are horrible. -did i mention horrible camera angles? Cant even see your units moving. -takes 1 month    I learned not to trust paid reviewers, 100/100, 10/10 best game ever!
    So i got this, played a few hours and then uninstalled and refunded.
    -Tactics are bad, AI is bad, story is bad...
    -Mech animations look good for the first 1 hr of the game and then it gets old and the camera angles are horrible.
    -did i mention horrible camera angles? Cant even see your units moving.
    -takes 1 month to fix a mech but cant hire more technicians? maybe you can in the future but i uninstalled before that.
    -at least they tried, go buy and play shadowrun from this dev, a much better game....    … Expand
  21. LordTiger
    Oct 2, 2020
    7
    overall it's a good turn-based strategy game.
    pros:
    + more than 30 h playtime
    + innovative gameplay and combat mechanisms.
    cons:
    -long loading between gameplay.
    -repetitive side missions.

Awards & Rankings

74
#74 Best PC Game of 2018
30
#30 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
14
#14 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 62 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 51 out of 62
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 62
  3. Negative: 0 out of 62
  1. RPG Fan
    Mar 5, 2020
    84
    BattleTech is a special kind of experience that doesn't come around too often. As much as it demands from you, it offers equal or greater reward in return. As I said before, this property is very dear to my heart, so it brings me joy to see this game achieve what it sets out to accomplish with so much success.
    Read full review
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 13, 2018
    80
    Return to the future to tin monster wars has its flaws, but even so Battletech grabs your attention and does not let go. Lovers of robotic battles will be definitely intrigued. [Issue#286]
  3. CD-Action
    Jul 6, 2018
    80
    MechCommanders’ beautiful dream finally came true in a form of a couple dozen hours of excellent tactical gameplay underpinned by good visuals and superb music. [06/2018, p.46]
See all critic reviews »