Mechs & Mercs: Black Talons

 PC
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 16
  3. Negative: 6 out of 16

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Thrillseeker
    Jan 12, 2015
    3
    I wanted to like this game, i really did. But it keeps... well, being what it is.

    The premise is interesting, but the execution is shoddy at best. The game is hopelessly clunky, units move dreadfully slowly, they react slowly or sometimes not at all. Pathfinding is tragic, i've had soldiers get stuck on trees, turrets and various bits of scenery. Many times i had soldiers leave cover to    I wanted to like this game, i really did. But it keeps... well, being what it is.

    The premise is interesting, but the execution is shoddy at best. The game is hopelessly clunky, units move dreadfully slowly, they react slowly or sometimes not at all. Pathfinding is tragic, i've had soldiers get stuck on trees, turrets and various bits of scenery. Many times i had soldiers leave cover to engage enemies without me specifically ordering them to do it - which of course ends badly for my men.
    Balance - what balance ? Light squads are pointless, medium squads only work when shielded by heavies or in cover. Mechs have poor firepower and are idiotically expensive to fix in the field, which makes using them pointless. Heavy squad can do the same job better in every way. The only use a mech has is to be equipped with longest range weapon possible and staying behind heavies who soak up the punishment. Even then, for the cost and weight the extra firepower isn't worth it, especially since You can only deploy 6 combat units. Medium squad has higher damage output and since You have to use heavies as a shield in both cases, you're just better off. Also, medium squad is a lot cheaper, cheaper to maintain (replacing lost members vs repairing a mech), and when levelled up they might bring unique abilities to the table. Mech pilots don't get that. Similar problem with weapons - missile launchers are end-all be-all weapon, everything else is second tier.
    Graphics are okay i guess, not great but good enough for a game of this type. One issue i had with the looks are the animations - units movements are stiff and ugly, especially mechs which move like they weren't huge hunks of metal. There is simply no weight to them. Not a massive problem but it kept annoying me.
    Music is pretty good, sounds do their job, even tho lots of automatic weapons sound exactly (or almost exactly) the same.
    I liked the ship, ability to specialize squads (even tho they don't level high enough for You to seriously beef up Your squads with skills and extra health/armor/accucuracy and such...), customize their loadouts to some extent (tho it is somewhat limited), and the fact that even within the same armor weight there are differently specialized squads (support, recon, tactical etc) all of which come with their own set of skills. What i didn't like is customization of mechs which was poor i thought. There isn't enough room to play with, not enough equipment choices for them.

    I love the idea of a small but skilled mercenary unit backed up with mechs. It just doesn't deliver. There is not enough 'merc' stuff - weapons aren't bought, You don't have to pay people to stay with You, You don't pay for fuel or deployments. Only thing You pay for are new squads, new mechs and tech upgrades for the ship (and dropship) itself. It doesn't seem to be a merc outfit at all.

    It pains me to do this, but i have to advise caution when considering purchase of this game. It looks good on screens, the premise is very appealing - but it never quite gets there. Big, big shame.    … Expand
  2. blade01
    Jan 9, 2015
    3
    This game lookes promissing at first, but after a short time im bored.Some nice ideas!The game is influenced from many other, older games.You can upgrade your ship, customize your troops and mechs, there are several factions and so on.Nothing of this can save the clunky mechanics.Dont by this game!The RTS part is painfull to watch and so slow, it hurts.Even you scout-units that proballyThis game lookes promissing at first, but after a short time im bored.Some nice ideas!The game is influenced from many other, older games.You can upgrade your ship, customize your troops and mechs, there are several factions and so on.Nothing of this can save the clunky mechanics.Dont by this game!The RTS part is painfull to watch and so slow, it hurts.Even you scout-units that probally should be fast and agile are slow.The mapdesign is bad when you consider the features in the game.You can take cover, get bonus to def.This is contrdicted my the fact that its hard to take cover.You units wander arround, painfully slow and you cant take cover from the side you want.The game tells you where you can take cover.One example:You storm a up a ramp, the enemy is in cover.You need to fight your way up th ramp without cover, thats ok.But when you reach the cover, you cant use it from your side!!!Only from the other side, where the enemy was.What the heck?This is stupid.And in the first mission the game tells you that you can use crossfire.On the first map, the mapdesign is so dumb that you cant use features such as crossfire because the map is designed to give the AI an adavantag.There are chokepoints everywhere.Another problem is the unit selction.Example:Second mission, you get no usefull infos in the briefing.The briefing tell you to escort civilists.So i thought i should bring along some heavy troopers because my other troops die too quickly.Turns out, you dont know where the civilists will go and you dont know where the enemys will spawn.So, because of the fact that EVERY unit is so slow, you need to restart this mission when you know how to approach it(because you can take 4 units with you, which is not enough inthis mission i think).

    This game is bad, im sorry.Sound is bad, visuals are bad too.Everything looks bad and on my PC even the intro is lagging.What the hell?Btw, if you make a game where take you units through the entire campaign you should do everything in your power to make sure all the features are working properly.Like the cover system!And the units die far too quick i think.Plus, i was not be able to heal my units.I could order reinforcements, but the rest of the unit remains in its shape.Bug?Dont know, dont care, dont my this game!Buy Ground Control instead, its much better!!!    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 3 out of 3
  1. Eurogamer Italy
    Jan 28, 2015
    40
    Merchs & Mercs Black Talons is an uninspired RTS that doesn't add anything interesting to the classic formula; instead it falls completely flat because of its simplistic and trivial gameplay.
    Read full review
  2. Softpedia
    Jan 18, 2015
    45
    An overall disappointing experience that could have become at least decent, given enough time to mature and refine its gameplay systems. Instead, Mechs & Mercs: Black Talon seems like a rushed and incomplete product, the way it is right now.
    Read full review
  3. Hooked Gamers
    Jan 18, 2015
    30
    It’s hard to see Mechs & Mercs: Black Talon as anything but a sloppily made game.
    Read full review