MechWarrior Online

 PC
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 874 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 323 out of 874
  2. Mixed: 177 out of 874
  3. Negative: 374 out of 874

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  1. Blodpaatann
    Sep 20, 2013
    2
    MechWarrior Online, at the core, has very solid and cool gameplay, with pretty decent graphics. However, it is not very engaging, as it has no narrative to keep people interested for role-playing reasons, or good balance and support for a competitive scene. In the end you're left grinding for the sake of buying new bits rather than because you actually enjoy or care for what you're doing,MechWarrior Online, at the core, has very solid and cool gameplay, with pretty decent graphics. However, it is not very engaging, as it has no narrative to keep people interested for role-playing reasons, or good balance and support for a competitive scene. In the end you're left grinding for the sake of buying new bits rather than because you actually enjoy or care for what you're doing, which is a shame because the concept is quite cool and the basics are well done.

    Pros:
    - Cool gameplay, interesting take on old school MechWarrior.
    - Good graphics, cool designs, pretty good sound effects as well.
    - Free, and initial monetary boost helps you get into it enough to form an opinion.

    Cons:
    - Somewhat dodgy balance.
    - Little variation in game modes.
    - Many bugs and glitches, freezing and crashing to desktop is uncommon but still happens way too often.
    - VERY expensive cash shop, easily up towards 30 dollars for a single chassis.
    - If you have more than three or less than 11 friends you won't be able to play with them all at once. :(
    - Very bad user interface.    … Expand
  2. groovy4life
    Sep 19, 2013
    4
    The game with really great potential and dedicated playerbase ends up being mediocre due to slow developement and poor decisions of money hungry developer/publisher teams.

    I'll start with positive things: - real, licensed 'Mechs, most of them done nicely (size is off for some chassis though) - big variety of 'Mechs, all very customizable (developers tend to limit that freedom lately    The game with really great potential and dedicated playerbase ends up being mediocre due to slow developement and poor decisions of money hungry developer/publisher teams.

    I'll start with positive things:
    - real, licensed 'Mechs, most of them done nicely (size is off for some chassis though)
    - big variety of 'Mechs, all very customizable (developers tend to limit that freedom lately though with weird balance mechanics)
    - good graphics
    - nice maps
    - awesome sound effects (I think it is the strongest part of the game)
    - really great and helpful playerbase. Whether you want to immerse yourself into roleplaying aspect of Mechwarrior or just seek a group of people to play together, you will find something for you.

    Now, bad things.

    Biggest flaws I noticed that I cannot forgive because fixes to *all of them* were suggested (and ignored) numerous times on forums during beta period:

    - no proper tutorial for new players (which should be a priority in such a complex game). Simple movement tutorial is not enough. There is no tutorial for Mechlab.

    - no campaign or single player mode. While it's not 100% necessity, even short single player campaign would help new players.

    - no spectator mode until you die in match. There's no option to join match just to spectate other players. It could be delayed 3 minutes to prevent cheating and make it viable option for new players to learn how to play or for competitive players ("judges" in match)

    - no private game lobbies, makes it impossible for competitive teams to fight each other at will. No community-driven tournaments. No e-sports support.

    - still no "Reconnect to server" option (when you get random DC or crash, you screw over your team; there are 1-2 DC players at beginning of every 2-3 matches). Given how buggy the game still is and how often it crashes, it's unacceptable.

    - terrible interface (especially true for Mechlab, where you spend a lot of time customizing your 'Mech. There are fan-created sites that are easier to use and give more information than in-game system. Tragic.). You can't add players to friends during match. Making pre-made group is harder than it should be, for some reason.

    - no in-game voice communication. Sorry but this is standard in teamwork oriented games for years

    - no in-game music soundtrack. Even in menu.

    - no proper game modes. No primary, secondary objectives on maps, no deeper strategy other than "go to the middle of map and hope enemy team went there too so you get to shoot people instead of standing on square in enemy base until you win/enemy wins". There could be AI-controlled tanks, airplanes and other units that we could shoot. Nope. There could be secondary objectives in various places on map so you would have to split up a bit, play it smart, use terrain, use tactics. Nope. There could be at least some defence in bases you need to capture. Nope, you just stand on square.

    - overcomplicating some things; in order to balance some builds they added "ghost heat", a feature that is NOT explained at all in-game but affects everyone who tries certain builds. Instead of balancing weapons they prefer to add "behind the curtains" mechanic that punishes you hard for trying "wrong" builds, up to the point that those builds are unplayable.

    - at the same time they dumb down the gameplay: with the addition of third person view (which no one actually asked for in beta forums) they gave free wallhack to every player, in a game that is supposed to be a mech simulator and where gaining information about enemy might be more crucial than good aim; they nerf every specialist build (snipers, LRM boats, SRM boats, etc.) to the point where almost everyone uses the same mixed loadout or is put at disadvantage.

    - empty promises: they promised DirectX 11 support, UI 2.0 (which was supposed to make interface more user friendly), Community Warfare (I dream of something like Planetside 2 feel, that would make this game so epic). Instead we get 'Mech sales, camouflage sales, paint sales and little balance patches that are mostly fixes of what they messed up in previous balance patch.

    - grind. Free trial mechs are underpowered to the point of being barely playable. To get your first own 'Mech you need to play ~25 games. After that you earn very little money, making it just plain grind to get other variants or chassis.
    That wouldn't be a problem if the game had variety of fun game modes. All we got is same deathmatch which starts to get repetitive fast. You can't even see global players' ratings, no table or ladder, nothing (except for rare, short events)

    Summary: 4/10 for regular gamer. 5-6/10 for Mechwarrior fan. Not worth spending cash on until developers fulfill promises they give all the time. F2P it's OK game.

    Thanks for reading, good luck and have fun    … Expand
  3. Ghostwolfe1
    Sep 19, 2013
    3
    Simply put, the game is not finished yet has been released. There is nothing allowing players to plan matches between friends or groups, a lobby is non existent. The long promised community warfare which would give some solid backstory to fighting in the MWO universe is nowhere on the horizon, the list of incomplete things goes on. There is a general consensus the devs ignore theirSimply put, the game is not finished yet has been released. There is nothing allowing players to plan matches between friends or groups, a lobby is non existent. The long promised community warfare which would give some solid backstory to fighting in the MWO universe is nowhere on the horizon, the list of incomplete things goes on. There is a general consensus the devs ignore their playerbase or quote a "silent majority" backs their choices which sounds like BS. There is a great deal of potential but as of late it seems the Devs spend more time on ways to get players to spend real money in game instead of finishing the product with things that would not cost players real money.… Expand
  4. NARCoMAN
    Sep 19, 2013
    4
    I still play this game because it is mechwarrior, and not mechwarrior online. It delivers on gameplay for a while but gets old after 100 matches. You can really get in to the fights sometimes, and that's why it gets a 4.

    At best, the game is a deathmatch style with little substance outside of trying to get more 'mechs to fight more deathmatches with. There is no meaningful    I still play this game because it is mechwarrior, and not mechwarrior online. It delivers on gameplay for a while but gets old after 100 matches. You can really get in to the fights sometimes, and that's why it gets a 4.

    At best, the game is a deathmatch style with little substance outside of trying to get more 'mechs to fight more deathmatches with. There is no meaningful progression outside of collecting more 'mechs and leveling them up so you can play more matches. Launch was a pathetic whimper of business as usual. If you're interested come back later.

    For the price of free to play I would say try it, but save your money until it gets to be where it should have been.    … Expand
  5. MrIgor
    Sep 19, 2013
    3
    So this is my second time submitting a review for MWO, as apparently my attempts to be honest were not what the copious masses wanted. So instead of rehashing the large post I put up yesterday, let me summarize it for you.

    MechWarrior Online is sub-average in gameplay. Updates arbitrarily change how weapons in-game function. There are only two forms of matches to play, after fourteen    So this is my second time submitting a review for MWO, as apparently my attempts to be honest were not what the copious masses wanted. So instead of rehashing the large post I put up yesterday, let me summarize it for you.

    MechWarrior Online is sub-average in gameplay. Updates arbitrarily change how weapons in-game function. There are only two forms of matches to play, after fourteen months of beta testing, and both are simply derivatives of the team deathmatch game. The recent economy changes, meant to spur the purchasing of MC for real world cash, have made the grind painful and long for anyone other than a new player. New players get to ride a "Cadet Bonus" for the first 20 to 25 matches that ensures they can buy a single 'Mech, but are unaware of how drastic the dip in payouts is after those first matches are over. They are also thrown head-first against seasoned veterans in customized 'Mechs, forced to survive in the stock Trial 'Mechs that have subpar loadouts to learn and earn on. The official forums are toxic, and information pertinent to the game is disseminated across other sites, rendering them effectively moot.

    I stand by my recommendation that only those who are fans of BattleTech or MechWarrior play this, as well as my admonition to keep your wallet closed until you've played the game enough to decide if it's what you want it to be. My score, as posted yesterday before being deleted, stands at a 3 out of 10.    … Expand
  6. GaussDragon
    Sep 18, 2013
    2
    Where to begin with this? My team and I were fanatical about the MechWarrior IP and there was much elation in the early days on the forums (nearly two years now). How things change. Players prioritize different things but I'll explain what were my major gripes with this game.

    Balance This was easily the most frustrating thing for me as a player. The developers let plainly broken    Where to begin with this? My team and I were fanatical about the MechWarrior IP and there was much elation in the early days on the forums (nearly two years now). How things change. Players prioritize different things but I'll explain what were my major gripes with this game.

    Balance
    This was easily the most frustrating thing for me as a player. The developers let plainly broken meta game languish for months after a thoughtless 'fix' (repeatedly) and then routinely over-shoot the mark in fixing the very problem they had created. Instead of revisiting all the weapon values/properties that lead to game imbalances in the first place, they'd create the most enormously convoluted game mechanics in order to 'fix' a problem, which in turn led to a whole host of knock-on effects. What's worse is that there's no way for a new player to know these things without going to some post buried deep within the forums.

    Communication/Trust issues
    As reasonable frustrations mounted in the playerbase, PGI bunkered instead of actually attempting to release the pressure building up the in the community. What could have been partially alleviated by genuinely listening was instead approached with mockery and derision; the president of the company making sarcastic remarks to users on twitter, the community manager mocking people on Reddit and the forum moderators trolling threads just to give themselves reason to lock or move threads they disagreed with. Another major gripe that has been repeated on here is the promises they backtracked on when initially getting Founders funding. I was always rather ambivalent about 3rd person view but a lot people kicked in money in what was essentially a crowdfunding project based on promises that were explicitly stated on to be reneged upon. Generally, instead of actually trying to manage the community, they opted to go into a recursive spiral of antagonism until the forums melted down, only to issue poor apologies and/or explanations long after they should have been made. There was never really any proactive commitment to addressing problems as they started developing, their communication and balance process has been almost entirely reactionary.

    Repetitive system
    A lobby system or even a simple ability for two teams to challenge one-another without having to leave it up to chance by virtue of the the matchmaking system would have relieved a lot of the pressure from the players (temporarily) for one of their biggest demands: community warfare. Simply being able to choose your opponent would have allowed the creation of leagues to tide teams over until community warfare and would have distracted the player base from some of the game's notorious problems yet the developers (or publishers) buried their heads once more.

    The fundamental base of the game is there for something to be great but the laundry-list of actively made mistakes (as opposed to inadvertent ones, though there were tons of those too) makes me have very little faith that anything good will be made out of this game.

    The base system alone merits a 4 and with really good game balance that made use of most of the mechs and weapons this game would go all the way to a 7, lobbies and/or well-implemented community warfare could have shot this game straight up to a 9 or a 10 for me. But, in absence of these qualities and starting with that base of 4, I have to deduct points for gameplay balance that actively makes the game more convoluted and LESS fun. I therefore give this game a 2.

    I put up with a lot of failures and not just stale progression on this game, but active regression, it's hard to come to terms with the fact that a game was better 8 months ago than it is now. I was diehard fan and even I can't stand playing the game anymore so consumer beware.    … Expand
  7. Snowflake
    Sep 18, 2013
    4
    Hi All.

    Sorry for the low score.

    The Game is good, but its lacking a lot that Mechwarrior 2-4 had (Splash Damage where have you gone?). I had a lot of problems adjusting my joystick and in game there were a lot of bugs( Delays in firing weapons) And although the game looks Mechwarrior it does not feel Mechwarrior.

    My money is going to stay in my pocket for now.
  8. CTJ
    Sep 19, 2013
    3
    I am a BTech fan from childhood. I played MechWarrior titles since MW2. This is an abomination of both.

    The good: It looks *slick*. It has recognizable Mechs. It has potential. The community is (currently) vibrant and full of great ideas and analysis. The bad: The developers don't listen or utilize the brilliant ideas. The developers lie, lie and lie. The game is nothing near as good    I am a BTech fan from childhood. I played MechWarrior titles since MW2. This is an abomination of both.

    The good: It looks *slick*. It has recognizable Mechs. It has potential. The community is (currently) vibrant and full of great ideas and analysis.

    The bad: The developers don't listen or utilize the brilliant ideas. The developers lie, lie and lie. The game is nothing near as good as BT3025 was in Alpha. There is no balance. It feels like CoD or other FPS more than a sim or Mech title. It caters to the largest demographic, rather than trying to develop a fantastic title that would draw people in to learn a more complex, interesting game. All in all, it feels like some CoD players wanted to make a game with big stompy robots, acquired a title that would get them immediate recognition and player base, and then because they have no actual love for the origins of the title gutted its heart with a rusty spoon.    … Expand
  9. GuineaRabbit
    Sep 19, 2013
    3
    The game is no where ready for release. The only two game modes are death match while standing in a glowing box. The game is still rife with bugs and missing features:

    The promised persistent universe affected by your victories or losses in battle which was dubbed Community Warfare is still vaporware with no ETA. Roughly 50% of all matches are lopsided from the get-go, on average it    The game is no where ready for release. The only two game modes are death match while standing in a glowing box. The game is still rife with bugs and missing features:

    The promised persistent universe affected by your victories or losses in battle which was dubbed Community Warfare is still vaporware with no ETA.

    Roughly 50% of all matches are lopsided from the get-go, on average it is a coin toss to whether your team will actually have a full roster of 12 players. Very often if your team does get assigned 12 players one or more will immediately disconnect from a crashed client. There is no way to reconnect to your mech after a crash, even though it is still stuck inert in the match. The team that starts the game missing players will most likely be steamrolled with no chance of winning.

    There is no lobby where players can communicate with one another to meet friends or form teams. There is no in-game voice communication system. There are no team command hotkeys to issue quick commands to your teammates such as 'Target this enemy', 'Charge!', 'Take cover!', etc... These features are standard fare for team based FPS type games, but sadly lacking from MWO.

    The new player experience is horrific to put it mildly. There is no real tutorial demonstrating how to drive your mech while controlling your torso and your arms independently. Nor is there any explanation on how to use your weapons to damage opponents. No where is it mentioned that Long-Range Missiles need a lock-on maintained for the entire flight time, laser weapons must be focused on the same aiming point for maximum damage, or the team crippling effects that ECM has. The new player must figure this out all on his/her own, thrown into the same pool against veterans who have been playing since Closed Beta with thousands of games under their belts.

    That's right, there is no 'Newbie Zone'. New players immediately face opponents with the most expensive and powerful Mechs fully upgraded with hundreds of games experience.

    Overall I rate the game a 3, due to the technical issues which have plagued the game since Closed Beta testing, the terrible new player experience, and lack of compelling content to keep you playing. The only reason it didn't get a lower score is because it is loosely based on BattleTech.    … Expand
  10. Lord_Banshee
    Sep 20, 2013
    5
    Slow-Paced gaming, piecemeal-destructible battlemechs are back. Worth a try, if only to understand why all these old guys love them so much.

    Mechs are cool, don't usually die in one shot like squishy soldiers, and can be sorely messed up but still functional. Wonderfully rendered by artist Flying Debris, they make awesome sounds with their weapons and when hit by effects. To some, the    Slow-Paced gaming, piecemeal-destructible battlemechs are back. Worth a try, if only to understand why all these old guys love them so much.

    Mechs are cool, don't usually die in one shot like squishy soldiers, and can be sorely messed up but still functional. Wonderfully rendered by artist Flying Debris, they make awesome sounds with their weapons and when hit by effects. To some, the pace of the gaming, like baseball, is a plus. If you find it too slow, hop in a Light Mech and double-time it.

    I got more value out of my $60 Founder's pack than I did with Skyrim or Starcraft2. However, getting that value is Fraught With Peril and best attempted with a masochistic streak or Asperger's or both.

    Allegedly there are over 1 million MWO accounts. Read before you download and have a chance to be one of the 2-4% of accounts that actually still play.

    1) Buddies!

    You'll enjoy the game more, and be able to use all of its drop modes, only after you meet others who play and drop into games with them. Solo players operate under multiple disadvantages:

    A) you'll never drop as a group, and can never play premade 12v12
    B) other groups will drop against you in a coordinated fashion, making it more likely that you face 2-1 or worse tactical engagements
    C) less likely to learn tips of gameplay, mech loadouts, or gain cbills/experience
    D) "win" a match is either kill all enemies or occupy the most bases. There are two similar flavors of base occupation. This is the way it has been since first day of closed beta, and there is no concrete assurance of expansion. You will face this realization alone, with no one to inspire you or challenge you.

    Dropping with others helps alleviate these conditions. Once the repetitive aspects of the game take hold, you show up more for your drop buddies than the "same-old, same-old" gameplay.

    Therefore, your first download should be TEAMSPEAK. Grab it, set it up, use it. Meet peops at the NGNG or ComStar TS servers. Find a group that mirrors your personality and gaming experience. Look for experienced helpful pilots while you conduct...

    2) the Learning Curve

    No one you met completely turned you off to this game? Good, now it's the game's turn to try that. Install MWO and ignore all attempts that this FtP game tries to remove your money from you.

    Pick a trial mech and then activate a Training session on a map of your choice.

    Get familiar with the options menu and assign keys as you see fit. Get used to third person view, then turn it off and enjoy the minimap.
    Get used to movement, targeting, firing, managing heat, then doing them all simultaneously.
    Learn the maps: what you can see, where you can/can't go, timings. Boring, I know, but less boring than spectator mode or the seat-sulk after a ragequit.

    3) the Constant is Change

    Being alpha/beta and unfinished, it'll change, early and often. Sometimes ridiculously so, as PGI can't balance weaponry to save our lives, and they don't ask the oldschool elite players for help.

    So, in the case of LRM missiles, we were treated to multiple waves of LRMageddon, where misses rained from the sky in wildly OP batches, only to be nerfed into oblivion. Rinse, repeat. Mech variants were not immune either.

    4) Promises, Promises

    Entice the old-schoolers who start the word-of-mouth for you and then change your mind for business reasons.

    This was to be first-person view, no coolant used, never pay-to-win, with a slick UI, new mechs/maps regularly, timeline-accurate, and all leading up to backing your favorite faction/merc corps/clan and live out Mike Stackpole novels during Community Warfare.

    Hated third-person view crept in under cover of darkness.
    Hated coolant was initially added with pay-to-win overtones until the hue and cry reached epic levels.
    Influx of new mechs gradually slowed, maps appear sporadically and some are environmental rehashes of existing maps.
    No lobby at all.
    Timeline was junked once it was obvious that the Dev team fell behind for good.
    Clan mechs and weapons? Dream on.
    UIv2.0 for Launch? Nope. You may look upon the clumsy current UI and frown, but I assure you it was worse in Closed Beta.
    Community Warfare? No guarantee this company will be alive to implement it, and I'm leery of what it will look like if they do. The Launch amounted to nothing more than a typical bimonthly update. No new concept was instantiated that hadn't been tried before. PGI in their Launch gave thousands of online gamer guys a glimpse of what it's like to be the hot girl who finally gets the stud of her dreams in bed, only to find he consistently cums in 3 seconds. Is MWO fun? Yes. Hard to learn? Can be. Boredom sooner than later? Yes. Is it the only MechWarrior genre game that will have future updates? Yes. Could be great and actually implement its vision? Maybe, 20% chance.    … Expand
  11. voxterra
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    Where to start? The list of broken promises, unattained potentials, and disregard to the paid customer base is so long that I am forced to review in generalities. Not because I want to, but because there is little other choice... who has that much time?
    MechWarrior Online has such potential, but it has been unfulfilled for the year plus that I have been beta-testing and playing.
    They    Where to start? The list of broken promises, unattained potentials, and disregard to the paid customer base is so long that I am forced to review in generalities. Not because I want to, but because there is little other choice... who has that much time?
    MechWarrior Online has such potential, but it has been unfulfilled for the year plus that I have been beta-testing and playing.
    They are not shy about asking for cash payments, but...
    We are still stuck with only two play modes, both of which are strangely similar.
    We still have only 8 maps (and some of them are merely night/day versions of pre-existing maps).
    The long promised and undelivered Community Warfare is still a far away dream. That is, unless you count the ongoing state of war between the community and the devs taking place in the forums.
    Game play itself goes through massive balance swings, with vastly overpowered weapons meeting draconian nerfs, only to be replaced with new, more egregious game balance issues... all in an endless cycle.
    We seem to be going nowhere fast.
    As much as I (and many others) paid out early on in the development cycle, I really wish I could be more optimistic, but it seems like we were suckered with empty promises and the ole vaporware switcheroo.
    Still, I hold out hope. I hate to spend that sort of cash and expend so much effort for a game that even the devs don't take seriously any longer.
    Pray for MechWarrior Online. It may yet recover from its glacial development and anemic offerings... with divine intervention.    … Expand
  12. DeadLikeRev
    Sep 25, 2013
    1
    When this game launched it was full of home and wonder. It promised a lot and then, delivered very little. Launching with no major update, literally just removing the beta tag, the game still has only 2 game modes. Has a unexplained and very complicated system for heat if you have more than 2 types of a weapon, and new players have no way of knowing about this system. The long announcedWhen this game launched it was full of home and wonder. It promised a lot and then, delivered very little. Launching with no major update, literally just removing the beta tag, the game still has only 2 game modes. Has a unexplained and very complicated system for heat if you have more than 2 types of a weapon, and new players have no way of knowing about this system. The long announced Community Warfare and heralded UI 2.0 have been "in the works" since closed beta and theres still no promise of them ever happening.

    To make matters worse the lead developers have sadly, very publicly stated that community feedback doesn't matter. A game that won't listen to feed back? Its solution to EVERYTHING is complicated hidden systems instead of simple balancing? Stay far far far away from this game.    … Expand
  13. PinguReviews
    Sep 19, 2013
    2
    False advertising once again to steal sales. Developers are filled with lies to take all the loyal Mechwarrior Fans money and then switch to another demographic, "casuals". All past promises and information about this game was just the "position at the time" the developers say and completed to form this game into a mech game that's inbetween Mechwarrior and Mechassault. Released articlesFalse advertising once again to steal sales. Developers are filled with lies to take all the loyal Mechwarrior Fans money and then switch to another demographic, "casuals". All past promises and information about this game was just the "position at the time" the developers say and completed to form this game into a mech game that's inbetween Mechwarrior and Mechassault. Released articles in magazines from them say that the game isn't just "walk to capture point and win or kill all the mechs" but that's literally what this game has been the whole time. Same article says the new gamemode will have bases to capture with automated turrets, this gamemode turns out to be exactly like the first one but now you have 5 or so points to capture to a reach capture score first. No turrets, no bases, and pretty mindless gameplay as well. Developers then try to sneak P2W features in the game to see if the forum backlash would be enough to keep it in. Luckily the forum community has stopped them from continuing and had them adjust there new feature system of consumables. Community Warfare, the feature we are all looking forward to, still has almost no information out and had it's release date constantly pushed back. Honestly at the rate this company works and how much they lie, I'd expect "CW" to be nothing but the same arena mode gameplay with a leaderboard and little bonuses at the end of the match. There is no way they can make enough maps within a couple years to make it so you actual play on a map and capture zones ingame. Speaking of slow paced, obvious balancing and content come out at a snail pace as well. Content I can let slip since they are a small team but simple balancing that is blatantly there staring at you, not so much. Finally one of my big concerns is that the game would stay "immersive" and stay a first person shooter. This was said by the devs MULTIPLE times out before and after the founders program was going on. After the developers have squeezed the money out of the core fanbase that loves mechwarrior, they turned there backs on them and are now looking to make this game as simplistic it can be to get more money out of a new fanbase. They are willing to do this at the cost of breaking immersion and ruining the chance of having this game a complex shooter that involves thinking and strategy. By the way, they weren't even aware that there third-person mode doesn't even help much in the "seeing your torso and legs" department but rather gave a new tool for users that know what they are doing to exploit the camera over corners and hills. This was warned to them the whole time but even when this feature is out, they are in denial saying it is "balanced" and does not give a advantage. This is not a "thinkings man shooter" nor a "mech sim". Just another arcade shooter that caters to apparently people who don't have the patience to learn torso/leg alignment (and yet they say they want a thinking shooter? makes no sense since it's lie for original fanbase). I could also say that this product is just simply a money grab for future projects since they simply don't care about there reputation nor there Mechwarrior game with all the lies.… Expand
  14. giant_snark
    Sep 20, 2013
    4
    MechWarrior Online is the skeletal shadow of the good game it might have been, lacking almost every promised feature over a year after open beta, over which time period almost no progress has been made. DirectX 11 support, lobbies, hit registration and netcode fixes, mech scaling problems, even the much-played-up Community Warfare and UI 2.0 updates are nowhere to be found, and are now aMechWarrior Online is the skeletal shadow of the good game it might have been, lacking almost every promised feature over a year after open beta, over which time period almost no progress has been made. DirectX 11 support, lobbies, hit registration and netcode fixes, mech scaling problems, even the much-played-up Community Warfare and UI 2.0 updates are nowhere to be found, and are now a year overdue. And in this state, Piranha Games has chosen to say the game is now "launched" instead of "beta".

    Currently, MWO is a 12v12 deathmatch with two flavors of capturing squares thrown in. In Assault you can capture the other base by sitting in the square, and in Conquest you can capture various squares around the map. And this is after explicit promises that base capturing would not just be sitting in squares, but rather would involve disabling defenses and systems in an actual base. All you can do is queue to be thrown into 12v12 deathmatches. The game has been in this state for over a year.

    In fact, in some ways the game has gotten worse. Graphics have been scaled back in an attempt to make the game more accessible to low-end hardware, but performance has not actually improved. Instead all the pretty features on weapons effects and textures have been removed, and a film grain has been added to cover it up.

    The weapons balancing has been a bewildering and incompetently managed mess. Fixes are slow to come, even many months after they are obvious issues, and what fixes are made demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of their own mechanics, and often create new problems. Flamers for the longest time did more heat to YOUR mech than to your target a problem that would only take a simple database tweak to fix, and which did not happen for over half a year. Now, the flamers are merely useless, rather than suicidal, as they still do not do much more heat to the target than to yourself. In response to a meta dominated by long-range weapons, PGI misinterpreted the problem as being about boating (using many of the same weapon), and introduced a nebulous undocumented feature called Ghost Heat, which adds extra heat when too many of the same weapon are fired within a short period. There is no way for a new player to know about this in the game it is nowhere mentioned or explained. So instead of directly rebalancing long-ranged weapons, PGI introduced complex and hamfisted "solutions" that didn't actually solve the problem. This kind of behavior has consistently been PGI's pattern. They are not competent.

    Piranha Games has not merely failed to implement most of what would make this a finished game they have instead implemented features that are entirely against what the playerbase wants and what the early supporters paid for. Despite promises that this game would be first-person-only, they broke that promise by then saying there would be 3PV, but with separate queues so you would not be forced to play with people using 3PV to peek from behind cover. Then they broke THAT promise by having no separate queues. The same went for promises that there would be no consumable coolant items, which provide a distinct in-game advantage to those who use them by reducing the heat that limits your firing rate.

    The promised features that would make MWO a good game are all in the future as they have been for over a year, after deadline after deadline has come and gone, and we have now reached launch with none of these features (Community Warfare, UI 2.0, lobbies, etc.) being in sight. The game as it stands today is barely worth of being called a beta demo, and as a launched game it completely fails to deliver. Playing this deathmatch arena can be fun for a while, but it does not have the features required to make it last, and PGI's history is strong evidence that those promised features will not be coming anytime soon.

    Mechwarrior is a great franchise. It's so sad what Piranha Games has done to it.    … Expand
  15. CakeBandit
    Sep 19, 2013
    1
    The development of MWO has been pockmarked by cashgrabs, unfulfilled promises, and a remarkable lack of remorse from the folks at the helm of it all. The people who bought into the founders package have been delivered a product that isn't anything like what was promised. Several have also been banned for requesting refunds, in addition to having their request refused. If you hold to theThe development of MWO has been pockmarked by cashgrabs, unfulfilled promises, and a remarkable lack of remorse from the folks at the helm of it all. The people who bought into the founders package have been delivered a product that isn't anything like what was promised. Several have also been banned for requesting refunds, in addition to having their request refused. If you hold to the idea that businesses should deliver the features they market, this game already doesn't deserve your attention, and certainly not your money.

    The game itself is an unbalanced, buggy mess that makes absolutely no effort to educate the uninitiated as to its labyrinthine mechanics. Some of which are completely glossed over and never mentioned in the mechlab. They punish you as a new player by forcing you to play using units configured around some horrifically un-optimized variant chained to the tabletop game from which this game is supposedly based. If you don't already know how mechwarrior works, the game isn't about to fix that. It's going to punish you for your ignorance and not let you do anything about it via its much touted customization.

    If by some miraculous chance you actually do figure something out, you're going to have to grind until you can purchase a chassis you can customize. I sure hope you know the differences between the different chassis variants, too, because they are most certainly not equals. After that, you grind to purchase equipment for it to do the things you want. This is when you're allowed to have "fun." "Fun" consists of playing a remarkably slow arena shooter against other poor folks stuck in trial mechs or people who have been living and breathing Battletech for decades. Of course, you can always pay them money to get past the part where you lose a lot in a bad unit. I don't think I really have to explain what's wrong with that.

    As a parting shot and general measure of quality, I'll just mention that there is no integrated VOIP. The game fully expects you to drop with random people as allies and coordinate like you've just dialed up the internet through your 56k modem and logged onto your favorite DooM server.

    There are dozens of other free to play arena shooters that you could spend your time and money on. Give this one a pass and go play some of those.    … Expand
  16. Jestun
    Sep 20, 2013
    3
    Sadly MWO is a shadow of the game it should be.

    First, lets look at what it is, ignoring what it was promised to be. Gameplay 6/10 Fairly solid core gameplay. The feel of the mech controls is good, the difference between torso aiming and arm aiming works well. However when you look beyond the basic core features it's not so good. One example would be the ghost heat system.    Sadly MWO is a shadow of the game it should be.

    First, lets look at what it is, ignoring what it was promised to be.

    Gameplay 6/10

    Fairly solid core gameplay. The feel of the mech controls is good, the difference between torso aiming and arm aiming works well. However when you look beyond the basic core features it's not so good.

    One example would be the ghost heat system. There is not a single part of the game which explains, or even acknowledges the existence of this system that adds additional heat which appears from nowhere when you fire too many of the same weapon types. But the only way to know what effect it will have on your build is to search the forums (a chore in itself given the search functionality), find the actual figures and do the math yourself. Although some of the fansite build calculators may now account for this.

    Graphics 5/10

    The CryEngine 3 is an engine that can really look good. And earlier in the beta it did look quite good. But as time went on they lowered the graphics to allow people with lower spec machines to play. While this in itself is a good thing, it should only be the *low* graphics settings that are decreased. Instead the maxed graphics settings have steadily decreased in quality.

    The graphics options themselves are very limited. Depth of Field (blur for distances not being focused on) can only be disabled by turning off all post processin and, film grain (digital blurryness over the entire screen) is forced on for example.

    On top of that everything from buildings to trees to abandoned vehicles are completely indestructible.

    Content 2/10

    2 game modes, both of which are team deathmatch with "stand in this spot to capture a seemingly randomly placed oil derrick" added in. Each battle effects 3 things your c-bills (ingame currency), your mech xp and your pilot xp. It is essentially one meaningless battle after another.

    Sound 5/10

    The weapon sound effects are quite good, but there is no soundtrack whatsoever and walking my 100 ton mech through a city seems like a very quiet affair.

    Features 1/10

    It has a friends list. That's about it.

    It doesn't have any way to chat other than within a match (and even there only via text, no VOIP integration). It doesn't have a lobby system to select a server to join. It doesn't have any "big picture" objectives the kind of thing community warfare was supposed to provide. You can only play solo or in teams of 2, 3, 4 or 12. It doesn't have any achievements.

    You can't even change the order that your mechs are displayed in the garage, and once you have a few you may well want to.

    Developer community interaction 1/10

    Regardless of what some people have posted in other reviews, this matters. Unlike in a single player game you are required to deal with the developers, even if that interaction is limited to downloading whatever patch they put out (something that is optional in a single player game, so understandably has less importance there).

    Unfortunately this is the biggest issue the game has. A quick Google search will find various gaming press articles if you want to read more about the developer community interaction, so I'll just say that they (specifically Russ) troll people on Twitter for critisism, write off the "core" playerbase (their words) as being the vocal minority, they announce changes, get dozens of pages of feedback showing exactly what is wrong with it and then implement it with exactly the flaws that the community repeatedly told them about, and much, much more.

    So that's what the game is, but what it's not is much more interesting and gives a real insight into the developers (who, as mentioned above, you will have to deal with if you play the game).

    What it's not is true to PGI's self-announced design pillars of the game. The core design pillars included no coolant flush, 1st person only simulation, role warfare and community warfare. Every one of these design pillars has been broken or delayed with little to no information given to the community about them.

    MWO was a kickstarter, and some people may well dispute that but a quick Google search will show the developers (PGI) and the publishers (IGP) both stating that it was, as well as various media outlets agreeing. While the founders packs never explicitly stated that the above design pillars would be met, the implication when you say "we are going to include these things, give us your money" is that you are paying money to support the development of the game as described to you.

    Sadly the end result is that the meaningless battle after battle make the game feel like nothing more than a low rate MOBA. And even judges against other MOBAs it's extremely lacking in content and basic features.    … Expand
  17. Crais
    Sep 17, 2013
    5
    MWO is fun for a while then it becomes a tedious grindfest. There are only 2 types of matches available at launch and a handful of maps. Numerous features are missing (DX 11 support, UI2.0, net code optimization) and community warfare, a large scale battle galaxy wide type that was sold as a core feature of the game, has no set deadline for being added.

    The developers of the game also    MWO is fun for a while then it becomes a tedious grindfest. There are only 2 types of matches available at launch and a handful of maps. Numerous features are missing (DX 11 support, UI2.0, net code optimization) and community warfare, a large scale battle galaxy wide type that was sold as a core feature of the game, has no set deadline for being added.

    The developers of the game also have a very poor track record of communication with the community and are often arrogant and rude to players who question balance issues or proposed features, such as the inclusion of the 3rd person camera mode (that was originally promised to not be included in the game).    … Expand
  18. eudaimonean
    Sep 22, 2013
    4
    A "Free to Play" title, MWO is the only game in town if you like oldschool stompy robots, and the developers know it. As a free game, the experience is enormously grindy, and as a paid game, the content is massively overpriced. MWO does deliver a unique experience, but ultimately the provided content is rather thin and still quite rough; as a competitive multiplayer game it lacks the depthA "Free to Play" title, MWO is the only game in town if you like oldschool stompy robots, and the developers know it. As a free game, the experience is enormously grindy, and as a paid game, the content is massively overpriced. MWO does deliver a unique experience, but ultimately the provided content is rather thin and still quite rough; as a competitive multiplayer game it lacks the depth and balance to sustain long-term interest despite how novel the mechanics are in the current shooter landscape.

    MWO seems designed to deliver the minimum needed to extract as much as possible from fanboy "whales" starved for a Mechwarrior experience. If that description does not apply to you, then MWO probably isn't the game for you either as there are far better values out there in the multiplayer shooter genre.    … Expand
  19. LordVishenka
    Sep 22, 2013
    4
    While the gameplay is pretty good and catchy, there is nothing more to look for in this game, especially is you are a Battletech fan, as in this case you are not the target audience, by the words of developers. The game is never going to be what it promised to be from the start a thought-out mech simulator in BT universe, with role warfare and massive faction war over the star map withWhile the gameplay is pretty good and catchy, there is nothing more to look for in this game, especially is you are a Battletech fan, as in this case you are not the target audience, by the words of developers. The game is never going to be what it promised to be from the start a thought-out mech simulator in BT universe, with role warfare and massive faction war over the star map with hundreds of planets, all made in CryEngine3. The game lacks not only stunning graphics promised in the early days and comparable at least to Crysis 1 on CryEngine1, it lacks any vital gameplay content, except for grinding over and over on the setting of just 6 maps and 2 game modes. And it is more than clear, that it is not going to change in the nearest decades, we'll just have some more mechs to grind in, and a couple more maps to grind on. Well, this game is not even a simulator! Not only the development of sim features ceased a long time ago, some of already implemented features were cut from the game in the early stages, since then several casual features have been imported to make the game more arcade. And the devs are doing it right in the eyes of protesting community, ignoring the core fans over and over again.
    Verdict: MWO had some potential and is still playable and even enjoyable in small doses, but it is already clear that destination of this game is, sadly, nowhere. Lack of interesting content, grinding, horrible UI, unwanted innovations, cancellation of promised features, bugs, pretty high prices and lots of disregard to community.
    Have to wait another 10 years for someone competent to pick up the franchise and give us a proper MechWarrior game.    … Expand
  20. Xianyu
    Sep 20, 2013
    4
    I give this game a 5 at most. A 4 for a really, really, really terrible development team.

    Right now, the game, from a gaming standpoint, is below average. Simply put, features are broken. The main one 'host state rewind' touted to fix the lag issue that causes your weapons to do no damage, is doing the exact opposite. As someone with a few hundred games, I can honestly say that many of    I give this game a 5 at most. A 4 for a really, really, really terrible development team.

    Right now, the game, from a gaming standpoint, is below average. Simply put, features are broken. The main one 'host state rewind' touted to fix the lag issue that causes your weapons to do no damage, is doing the exact opposite. As someone with a few hundred games, I can honestly say that many of my attacks simply do not land. Ever.

    Whether or not a weapon remains effective or not is completely at the whim of the Piranha Games employees who change their mind as often as they change as their clothes. They nerf this, buff that, and quite frequently either make a weapon completely useless, or so overpowered that two days after a patch it's all anyone will use. And there are no 'hotfixes'. These changes stay in for months at a time, leading to heavily biased weapon/mech metagames that migrate to new choices every few weeks.

    To date, the development team has gone back on foundimg principles, belittled those who complain about the changes, and outright ignore the vocal portion of their playerbase citing that they are 'a small portion of the demographic'. That's right. Founders are a 'small portion' and should be completely ignored.

    A short list of things they changed their minds about: Consumables. Said they'd never be in the game. They are. Thankfully, most of them are completely, utterly useless.
    3PV: If you haven't heard of this one, you don't know this game. The first documentation for this game said that it would NOT contain third-person in any way, shape or form.
    The c-bill nerf coming into launch: Several months ago, the patch notes claim that the nerf to earnings (somewhere in the realm of a 40-50% decrease for most players), was to 'balance' the amount of income because of the change to 24-player battlefields rather than 16. When this proved to be a massive nerf rather than a 'balance', PGI refused to comment on anything, until an 'ask the devs' and a podcast revealed that they did it deliberately to force people to grind longer. Agree with the nerf or not (85% of players don't), it was still placed in the PATCH NOTES as a 'balance'. And it follows a common vein of PGI outright lying to their customers.
    Hero Mechs: Only available to purchase for MC, the 'real life currency' of MWO. Many argue they are no better than normal mechs, but these mechs have a C-bill earnings bonus attached to them, and often have hardpoints and abilities that heavily follow the current 'metagame' trends. IE: Releasing a jump jet sniper mech when the jump-jetting sniper meta was prevalent. While not strictly pay-to-win, these mechs are often superior to common mechs of the same chassis, and can NOT be purchased with normal currency. This rings alarm bells.

    New players are lulled into a false sense of security with the 'cadet bonus'. You get near eight-million credits for your first twenty five games. After that many credits are accrued, your cadet bonus is gone. The heaviest mechs, the stalkers and atlas', cost 10 million credits. You will be lucky to be earning ten thousand credits a minute.

    In other words, an assault mech will cost you 20 hours of playing to earn. In an arena-based shooter with only two game modes.

    Weapons can cost anywhere from 10000 for a machine gun, to 700,000, or more.

    DHS, a 'required' upgrade for mechs, costs millions of dollars. Engines cost millions of dollars. Swapping armor or ARTEMIS costs millions. The different modules cost millions.

    In short, the game is too grindy, too samey, and too meta-gamey. Though don't worry, the veterans of MWO will be happy to tell you to 'ignore the grind' while they sit on their accounts with literally hundreds of millions of credits in them, gathered up from times when earnings weren't so cripplingly small.

    So, to summarize. The game is decently fun for a while. But any casual gamer will be turned off by the huge grind and exorbitant prices on the 'pay real money' function. Hardcore gamers willing to put up with the grind will be scared away by the incompetence of a team that balances on a LOWER SKILL LEVEL, instead of UPPER SKILL LEVEL. That's right. They perform balance on the low-skill gamers, not by observing the elite.

    PGI are either incompetent and honestly believe that their changes are for the betterment of the game and just can't see what they're doing wrong. Or they've got their heads so far up their collective asses that they don't even care what their core demographic is saying.

    I don't know which possibility bothers me more.

    I honestly think that, at this point, PGI are beyond help. They've alienated their once-hardcore fans and corrupted MWO with features attempting to pander towards 'casual' audiences, in spite of all protests.

    Clearly, PGI is on an island.

    Maybe this game should be, too.

    An island without you.    … Expand
  21. Shaddock
    Sep 21, 2013
    4
    Bottom line MWO was not ready to launch. On the surface you a presented with giant stompy robots online and that is all that should matter. However, lack of promised features, poor community relations, balance issues, and a lack of additional game modes or maps quickly turn what should be an amazing game into at best half a product.

    When the UI gets much needed changes, community    Bottom line MWO was not ready to launch. On the surface you a presented with giant stompy robots online and that is all that should matter. However, lack of promised features, poor community relations, balance issues, and a lack of additional game modes or maps quickly turn what should be an amazing game into at best half a product.

    When the UI gets much needed changes, community warfare is implemented, Direct X 11 is working, collisions are added, terrain stoppage is fixed, ghost heat is eliminated or clearly explained, etc this may be an amazing game. In the meantime there are other products worth your time, and certainly others that are more worth your money.    … Expand
  22. Oriius
    Sep 18, 2013
    4
    It pains me that I must give this game a 4 out of 10, however in it's current state it would be dishonest to give it anything more.

    the game lacks many of it's promised core game play such as community warfare (the end-game driving force of the game no less), role warfare, game modes(only 2 currently), factions and sadly a fair few other things. Many core design features have been    It pains me that I must give this game a 4 out of 10, however in it's current state it would be dishonest to give it anything more.

    the game lacks many of it's promised core game play such as community warfare (the end-game driving force of the game no less), role warfare, game modes(only 2 currently), factions and sadly a fair few other things.

    Many core design features have been dropped along the way too, such as a 1:1 timeline of the clan invasion, the game being first person only, the game not having a "coolant flush".

    The current UI is a mess, seemingly left over from the alpha stage, oddly running only in a windowed mode by design (as stated by the dev's themselves) causing issues with some resolutions.

    The games balance is similar to most starting games, swings back and forth of weapon systems being too strong or too weak, it would be unfair to mark down too much based on this currently as this is always a tough thing to get right at the best of times.

    Graphically the game at max settings looks very nice, though for it being the cry engine it does seem somewhat underwhelming, with the overall graphic level being lowered to allow for a larger range of computer levels to run the game (which is fair enough).

    The games art direction is very good, the new designs of old mechs is impressive, Alex Iglesias (the artist responsible) has done himself and battletech proud.

    As it stands the game basically plays and feels like an early beta, only stuffed with more monetization, such as oddly overpriced colours, camo patterns, and items. All mechs may also be bought for real money, with "hero mechs" a unique variant coming with a C-bill bonus (in-game money) being only available for real money, the prices of which can climb very high based on the weight of the mech.

    The game play can become somewhat repetitive due to lack of end-game content but at it's core is solid assuming one can overlook things such as hit reg issues.

    The initial game experience is also lacking for new players, with very little in the way of tutorials (a movement one was finally added), also lacking is an explanation of some systems such as "ghost heat" (a way to stop too many of a certain weapon being used at a time), one needs to dredge through the forums to find this information as it is not even mentioned in-game. Along with throwing the new player into a "trial mech" (which are for the most part taken from battle tech cannon), putting you against people in fully customized mechs, (makes for a harsh and quick death), combined with the matchmaking system that will drop newer players against the best players around, can leave a bad taste in the new players mouth.

    As it stands I would say if you like mechwarrior games or battletech, by all means give it a go, if not I'd say give it 6 months to a year. Either way I would suggest keeping your money firmly in your wallet/purse.

    Has potential, only question being can the developers rise to the task?    … Expand
  23. Ashiel
    Sep 19, 2013
    1
    Do you know what phrase is killing this game and enabling a snail's pace development cycle from PGI?

    "Just give it time." I've heard these words uttered since closed beta. Even before the founder's program. That was a YEAR ago. We have issues that were problems then and still are now. -Hit detection: Started out as slight netcode problem where you had to anticipate a mech's    Do you know what phrase is killing this game and enabling a snail's pace development cycle from PGI?

    "Just give it time."

    I've heard these words uttered since closed beta. Even before the founder's program. That was a YEAR ago. We have issues that were problems then and still are now.

    -Hit detection: Started out as slight netcode problem where you had to anticipate a mech's path and shoot a little ahead. Then got to the point that light mechs going 100+ km/h could never reliably be hit with a projectile weapon unless they were standing still (even that was a crap shoot at times).

    -C-bill grind: Every single time the income started to get a little better and that you didn't have to play literally a hundred matches to buy the cheapest stock assault mech? It gets "adjusted" so that it becomes a grind akin to everquest's poopsock events back in the day. There's incentivizing your player base to spend money on your premium time. And then there's putting the thumb screws on and only loosening them slightly when you pay for premium time.

    -Weapon balance: This has become a problem just like it was in previous Mechwarrior games. Most matches devolve into "poptarting" where whoever has the highest pinpoint alpha damage with long range weapons ends up winning in a lot of matches.

    -Scale: Mechs are too large for their size category and are too slow compared to their bigger cousins. So they get ripped apart. You only really see the extremes in matches now. Smaller and faster mechs versus bigger and chunkier assaults/heavies. The medium mech class is underutilized to an almost tragic degree. Part of it is the speed issue. The game's capped out at a rather low speed compared to previous games and the lore of the setting. (Note: this is because of netcode/hit detection issues bleeding over into balance).

    -Outright lying about core concepts/stances: The game was never supposed to have third person view. Then when it was going to have it. It was supposed to have split queues. But then even -that- wasn't brought in. We've had UI 2.0 on the "soon" time table for months now. We've had directx 11 supposedly being worked on since last year. When criticized for the supposed promise made to people who had crowd funded their game? "That was our position at the time." That's a rather funny way to say we changed our minds/lied to you.

    The only pros about this game are the lore and the intellectual property as a whole. Which they are doing their damndest it seems to milk as hard as they can because after only a few days of play, that's all this game really has going for it.

    It's a pity that we get this digital abomination to be the next game in the line of the mechwarrior franchise. Congrats PGI/IGP. What a stellar track record of exemplary performance you've shown yourself to have.

    Broken promises to people who paid you money, in some cases ludicrous sums. A release of content so abysmally slow that you had to break your core idea of locking yourself to a 1:1 time scale. An obvious mismanagement so extremely bad that multiple individuals in the forums who are veterans of the game industry were able to call out not only the exact development model you're using, but the most likely reasons why it's failing (hint: it's the people calling the shots combined with a team too small to get it done the right way).

    No surprise those posts got removed for "rules violations" despite having not a single rule violation in them even after the draconian bull that is being pulled there now. Hell, even posting reviews on metacritic that don't praise the game hard enough can result in your account being banned. Regardless of money being spent on it or not.    … Expand
  24. Keldor
    Sep 21, 2013
    4
    This game had so much potential. Giant robots shooting at each other? Sign me up. And while it certainly began to meet that potential early on, nearly everything that made it a great game has been watered down in an attempt to make the game more popular for a broad audience. Without that lost depth, the game doesn't have any true staying power... even with the eventual promise of anThis game had so much potential. Giant robots shooting at each other? Sign me up. And while it certainly began to meet that potential early on, nearly everything that made it a great game has been watered down in an attempt to make the game more popular for a broad audience. Without that lost depth, the game doesn't have any true staying power... even with the eventual promise of an extensive Community Warfare system (which as of launch, is not present).

    MWO will never be a sandbox game for people looking to carve out a robot empire with their friends and be part of a living, breathing community. It will be fun for a few months, until you realize all the mechs are just slight variations on a theme, and that all you're doing is playing a weak version of Call of Duty with robots.

    It's a shame that, yet again, the MechWarrior franchise is visited by a substandard game. There's so much lost potential in this series... maybe someday an independent developer (like Mechwarrior: Living Legends) will build something really solid that will stick. I had hoped MWO would be that game, but alas, it is not.    … Expand
  25. Flunkie
    Sep 20, 2013
    1
    Mechwarrior Online is a Battletech game in name only. It has the intellectual property, a few of the dozens of possible weapon systems, and the feel of piloting a mech. The graphics are OK for a game in this era. The main problem is that the game-play itself boils down to nothing more than a bigger and slower version of multi-player Call of Duty. The developer has repeatedly tweaked weaponMechwarrior Online is a Battletech game in name only. It has the intellectual property, a few of the dozens of possible weapon systems, and the feel of piloting a mech. The graphics are OK for a game in this era. The main problem is that the game-play itself boils down to nothing more than a bigger and slower version of multi-player Call of Duty. The developer has repeatedly tweaked weapon systems in a vain attempt at stopping players from finding and using the most lethal mech configurations possible. If their telemetry tells them that 60% of the players are employing the ERPPC successfully, and winning more matches with them than not winning, then the ERPPC will be altered so that nobody wants to use it any longer. When the herd of players then alter their mech designs to utilize the Gauss Rifle, because it has now become the weapon of choice, the developer will step in and nerf the Gauss Rifle. Then the players switch to heavily using Long Range Missiles because the developers decided that they weren't being used at all and doubled their damage. Well, you can guess what happens. There has been an endless cycle of this weapon “balancing”, and it has led to nowhere. The players always gravitate to what calculates out to be the best build; alpha strike, DPS, speed, and range. The developer is like a puppy chasing its tail in this regard.

    When you consider Mechwarrior as a game, you think of completing missions with some greater goal; a story arc, capturing planets, controlling a region of the galaxy, etc. The developers promised something called Community Warfare, which was supposed to have some kind grand strategy that would allow the MWO community to do more than fight in 12 on 12 matches. In theory, the 12 on 12 matches would mean more than just another win/loss in the player’s personal profile, there would be benefits or consequences to success or failure. This was not only never delivered, it seems to have simply disappeared from the table! Community Warfare is what the vast majority of core audience wants to be a part of, even if only a very small part-time role in. Not only has the developer failed to deliver, they simply have failed to understand the game and it audience, and seem to be focused on the minutia related to weapon specifics and bell curves for matching players. They are also very focused on bringing in a broader audience and have told their community that they don't really matter any more.

    The biggest failure developer has made is in its communication to its community or core audience. The developer has made numerous promises, both big and small that it has not kept, and as far as its community is concerned, probably never intended to keep. In short, they have broken their promises, or simply outright lied. They then had the audacity to tell the community that is upset by the broken promises that the community was not its target audience. It is hard to say what exactly the developer’s target audience is, but it apparently is not the following:

    Original founders that paid money to fund the development
    Players since the beginning of beta that paid money based on the promises that were made
    Anyone with a complaint about virtually any aspect of any promise that was broken
    Players that don’t want to play in or with 3rd person perspective players
    Players interested in Community Warfare
    Players wanting more than Assault or Conquest victory conditions for matches
    Players wanting more weapon systems than the set that was released during beta
    Players wanting something of a physics system that doesn't allow playing bumper cars in a match

    The developer appears to be targeting the following as its preferred audience:

    Players with little or no knowledge of Mechwarrior/Battletech
    Players so fascinated by package deals that they impulse buy
    Players more interested in paying money for decorations and paint than achieving any kind of goal
    Players with such a short attention span that they could not be bothered to learn anything complex
    Players that drop in for a few matches and have just enough fun to spend some money converting XP
    Players that are loners and don’t care about team coordination or communication
    Players uninterested in any kind of strategy, tactics, realism, physics, fire, water, or the wheel

    This review could go on and on, but the bottom line is that Mechwarrior is a one-third baked cake that came out tasting like something from the sewer. The developer’s condescending, and frankly insulting, communications to its core supporters about it’s broken promises and lies should be enough to make anyone wary of this game. If it is not, then you are a member of their target audience and they will be expecting to see you logging on soon.    … Expand
  26. Sullus
    Sep 19, 2013
    1
    Das Game ist die reinste verarsche so gut wie kein Inhalt.Ständig werde Features nach hinten verschoben
    seit locker 1 Jahr wartet man auf CW und es kommt gar nix selbst keine neuen infos.seit den c-bill nerf (Ingame geld) lohnt es sich auch nicht ein Premium Account oder Premium Mech zu kaufen.
  27. Ronner
    Sep 19, 2013
    1
    There is nothing to the game of MechWarrior Online.

    A stand up shooting game with no depth, but the one to your wallet.

    Overpriced and simple graphics, walk shot build walk shot.

    I am a fan of shooting games. However, MechWarrior is not worth the money or investment of time.
  28. heywhynot
    Sep 19, 2013
    3
    The word that sums up this game is "disappointment". The art team is amazing, and at its base it could be a fun game. But the development team has managed to push out an incoherent under-documented repetitive mess. There's no variety in game play and the devs have shown that they would rather spend their days on no value added features then tweak XML for the sake of balance.
  29. Kolimar
    Sep 21, 2013
    3
    Very disappointing. This game hold many promises, and failed to deliver them.
    First off, players were told by the developers that Community Warfare and an improved UI, which are two essential features for an online multiplayer game would come in first quarter 2013. Then they pushed it to Summer 2013. Then to launch. Now here we are, with still nothing but two gamemodes that are    Very disappointing. This game hold many promises, and failed to deliver them.
    First off, players were told by the developers that Community Warfare and an improved UI, which are two essential features for an online multiplayer game would come in first quarter 2013. Then they pushed it to Summer 2013. Then to launch. Now here we are, with still nothing but two gamemodes that are essentially the same, and a dozen of maps. There is literally NOTHING ELSE.
    Oh yes there is :
    - Third person view, which players did not want, but was implemented anyway.
    - Consumables which again players did not want, but were implemented anyway.
    - Hero mechs, which are basically improved variants of the standard 21 mechs of the game. They are just here to make players spend real money on it and gain an advantage with XP and money boost.
    - Poorly balanced weapons, and an atrocious hardpoint system that allows any absurd loadout that you can think of, and basically makes some mechs irrelevant (example the Stalker has similar hardpoints to the Awesome, but with more weight capacity.)

    To sum up, this game smells like straight amateurism, and should not be considered a triple A game by any means. Hell I would even have preferred a good indie game. But after all, what would you expect from the guys who made Duke Nukem Forever     … Expand
  30. Stormwolf
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    This game had a lot of potential that was wasted. I'm a long running Mechwarrior and Battletech fan and I'm incredibly disappointed with this release.

    The games of old had multiplayer tacked on as an afterthought, but they still had a better setup for running games. In MWO you can only run 12 vs 12 matches, there are no options for smaller teams or creating a stock only game. New    This game had a lot of potential that was wasted. I'm a long running Mechwarrior and Battletech fan and I'm incredibly disappointed with this release.

    The games of old had multiplayer tacked on as an afterthought, but they still had a better setup for running games. In MWO you can only run 12 vs 12 matches, there are no options for smaller teams or creating a stock only game. New players are forced to face min maxed designs piloted by veterans with only non-optimized stock designs. The result of this is that the grind is unbearable for newbies.

    Mechwarrior is set in the Battletech universe, a universe with a ton of lore and fluff, unfortunately nothing is done with this to enhance the game. There are no faction mechs, no maps of iconic locations and worst of all it's set in 3050 and nothing is done with the Clan Invasion.

    There are only two modes, assault and conquest. These are rather horribly out of place for a Mechwarrior game and belong in a bread and butter shooter. Mechwarrior is supposed to be a simulator, it's about capturing factories, defending convoys, withdrawing to dropships,etc, not sitting next to a mining platform for points.

    A large problem here is that the devs are incapable of properly developing this game due to their initial unfamiliarity with Cryengine. Another problem is that they outright ignored any and all feedback from their Beta testers to properly balance the game.

    The devs are rather prone to including unwanted items ingame. Early in development we were promised that we would get a decent Mechwarrior sim with 1pv, now we have a 3pv game with coolant flush consumables. Rather immersion breaking for the people who backed this project with their money. It is ofcourse impossible to get a Founders refund at this point.

    The only positive thing about this game are the mechs and their designs. I really have to hand it to the concept artist and the 3D modellers, they did a good job at updating the classic designs.

    Check it out if you are a casual Mechwarrior fan and judge for yourself. Hardcore Battletech fans will be deeply disappointed with this shallow underdeveloped game.    … Expand
  31. andybird123
    Sep 19, 2013
    0
    started with great promise, however the lack of content and features means that this game is far from being viable as a stand alone product
    there is little to no documentation on anything there is a simple video tutorial that explains a small section of the gameplay, the key map listed on the website only shows about half of the keys needed (as can be seen by looking in the options menu    started with great promise, however the lack of content and features means that this game is far from being viable as a stand alone product
    there is little to no documentation on anything there is a simple video tutorial that explains a small section of the gameplay, the key map listed on the website only shows about half of the keys needed (as can be seen by looking in the options menu at the key map there), the game starts in 3rd person view for new players with no explanation of how to switch to first person or start in first person, and when in 3rd person view you are at a severe disadvantage not being able to move your arms or see the minimap

    on top of this, new players are just thrown in the deep end with experienced players with no chance to play against only other new players, so most matches are completely one sided if you are lucky enough to have a few experienced players on your side you can tuck in behind them and ride their coat tails, otherwise your team is liable to wander off alone and get picked off one by one

    the developers originally said that they would have "community warfare", one of the games main and most important features for longevity, ready around 90 days after they went open beta... since then they've just said "when it's ready", but everyone took it to mean that Launch would equal CW... but here we are at Launch and the game is ostensibly the same as it was a year ago, with no real weight to it beyond a a grind for in game money to collect more mechs    … Expand
  32. StoneMason
    Sep 19, 2013
    5
    tl:dr Great game, terrible experience. Right now this is a f2p team deathmatch game with no greater meta or community features on the immediate horizon. The inconsistency of communication implies a serious divergence of goals between the developers and producers. You'll probably have a great time playing it but I wouldn't spend a single cent because you can't trust it'll feel the same intl:dr Great game, terrible experience. Right now this is a f2p team deathmatch game with no greater meta or community features on the immediate horizon. The inconsistency of communication implies a serious divergence of goals between the developers and producers. You'll probably have a great time playing it but I wouldn't spend a single cent because you can't trust it'll feel the same in six months, or be around at all.

    I'm a long time Mechwarrior/Battletech fan who has been captivated by the universe since Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. I've really enjoyed playing in the closed and open beta for MWO but the overall experience has been very conflicted.

    The Good: Imo this is the best interpretation of both Mechwarrior and the Battletech tabletop game we have ever seen. You might disagree with a choice here and there, but the art, animations, weapon and damage effects all work together to capture the punchy feel of Mech combat like never before. Despite some radical changes from patch to patch, the balance is good and each match feels relatively consistent. You can be confident that the developers making the game love the franchise and have a very coherent view of how the basic mechanics should work. I've played thousands of games and on balance, enjoyed them immensely.

    The Bad: Despite what the Founders program may have suggested, this title is not crowd funded. The developers are responsible to their producers and investors rather than the player base. Features are missing from the game that should have been in over a year ago and if we extrapolate the process, we probably won't see true mid or late game content for another year at least. The current maps and game modes are badly underdeveloped and basic community enablement systems like game lobbies and communication tools are non-existent. This in itself is not the issue, especially given the inexperience and the small size of the development team but it does point to some larger problems.

    The Ugly: Communications between the developers and the community have broken down badly in the last six months, with major backpedals on design decisions being very poorly managed. The flow of information between the developers and community is uneven and external sources, like the NGNG podcast and Twitter receive far more attention that the games frontpage or the forums. Recently highly restrictive moderation powers were updated and are being enforced, often developers will openly troll community members posting well thought out and reasoned responses. This is probably symptomatic of two things:

    1) The developers are brutally overworked, and have been for some time. They simply cannot be responsible for managing the communities expectations because they are so flat out and behind schedule. The recent 'Launch' trailer hosted by the official Mechwarrior youtube channel, is actually fan made and includes footage from over a year ago, also gameplay that is not planned to exist for at least two years.

    2) The investors are pushing to grow the game in a particular way and the producers are enforcing that vision, at the expense of both the developers and the community. Often we see certain Mech's released (at high cost) along with meta changes that make them very attractive, only to be superseded by others a few months down the line. This feels like a cashgrab because it is, especially given that any mech you buy might not work in a weeks time.    … Expand
  33. Shael
    Sep 18, 2013
    5
    I wont give this game a 0 score or a 10 score.

    Overall the game play as it currently is decent. The graphics are beautiful, the mech designs and artwork are amazing. There are unfortunately many major issues of this game: 1. Hit Registration is atrocious and PGI have been trying to fix this for over 6 months and still hasn’t been fixed. At times you can poor multiple shots onto a    I wont give this game a 0 score or a 10 score.

    Overall the game play as it currently is decent. The graphics are beautiful, the mech designs and artwork are amazing.

    There are unfortunately many major issues of this game:
    1. Hit Registration is atrocious and PGI have been trying to fix this for over 6 months and still hasn’t been fixed. At times you can poor multiple shots onto a mech and do minimal damage i.e. Ravens, Spiders or you can shoot at a mech aiming for an arm/ leg side torso and core out the mech stupidly fast i.e. Awesome’s, Dragons and then finally there are mechs that just wont die i.e. Zombie Centurion (its nicknamed the Zombie for a reason)
    2. The bi monthly patches release new mechs, fix bugs and "fine tune" the game play and mechanics.
    a. Unfortunately after each patch, more bugs show up, weapon balancing is at times hit and miss and can break a previous good weapon I.E. Gauss Rifle shot delay.
    3. "Ghost Heat" that has been implemented to stop the "high alpha" builds which has been poorly implemented,
    a. "cannon" mechs like the Hunchback HBK-4p which are designed to Boat Lasers or the Awesome AWS-88 which was designed to Boat PPC's cannot do so due to the Ghost Heat Penalty.
    4. Every patch there is another tweak to the weapons heat that can break a previously good mech configuration.
    a. Shooting delay on the Gauss Rifle is the latest “fix” that has in my opinion broken the weapon.

    GAMEPLAY:
    When it comes to game play, well it’s pretty damn boring now.
    1. It’s the same two game modes that have been available for almost a year i.e.
    a. “Team Death Match” or “Conquest which usually results in “Team Death match” anyway,.
    2. There is no Community Warfare or Role Warfare and while it has been stated information is forthcoming, many older players in the community have heard this too many times before.
    3. New maps get released but you cannot choose which map to play on and at times you can get the same map 10- 20 times in an evening with maybe a couple of different maps thrown in.

    For a new player running a trial mech coming into these sort of battles is going to leave a very sour taste in your mouth as you won’t survive for very long.
    • The only way to get anywhere in the Game is grind out the CBills to buy a semi decent mech and just keep grinding (if you can manage to do this as a PUG congratulations because it is very tough),
    • The alternative is to your fork out real money “MC” to buy a better mech or a hero Mech. This isn’t “Pay to win?”
    • Or join a organised unit so they can help you improve and help your survivability and win/loss ration

    Most games now degenerate into sniping battles and this meta has been prevalent for over 6 months in MWO (Why “ghost Heat” was introduced to attempt to combat this)
    • You will find the majority of the experienced players running almost exactly the same builds across different mech chassis as the weapon load out is the only way to win i.e.
    • 2 x PPC/ERPPC and Gauss rifle or
    • Triple UAC 5 mechs, or
    • DUAL AC20 Mechs.... you get the picture.

    The learning curve for new players is atrocious, the new movement tutorial barely even touches what a new player needs to learn to pilot a Mech effectively.
    There are no tutorials on Weapons, mech configuration customization as yet.

    Overall I do love this game and I want it to succeed but at this moment in time the game is not even “polished” in my opinion and does nothing to help the new players in learning the game and also does not provide any substance for the competitive players who need more that a “Big Stompy robot Shooter” .

    In closing the game is not a MechWarrior Simulation, there is no substance to the game currently and there are major technical issues with the game itself and in my opinion the development of the game.
    So I will be watching and waiting over the next three months to see if a lot of the current issues are fixed with DX11, UI2.0 and Community Warfare as it has been stated they should be released over the next three months but i don’t have any hope of this time frame being stuck too.

    Play and enjoy the game but don’t expect too much from it.    … Expand
  34. MrBlonde
    Sep 19, 2013
    5
    I am a hardcore BT fan, and have waited long for a game like this. I find the graphics to be excellent and gameplay to be pretty decent, there are issues but nothing not fixable. The downsides...numerous missed deadlines for content, namely Community Warfare, which should be the heart of the game. Also, the 3rd person view issue was badly mishandled, and the community was in my opinionI am a hardcore BT fan, and have waited long for a game like this. I find the graphics to be excellent and gameplay to be pretty decent, there are issues but nothing not fixable. The downsides...numerous missed deadlines for content, namely Community Warfare, which should be the heart of the game. Also, the 3rd person view issue was badly mishandled, and the community was in my opinion disrespected by the developers (that probably went both ways). Hopefully the addition of Community Warfare will cause former players to give it a second look. That should be priorities #1,2, and 3 for the developers until complete. It should have pushed all other new features (ahem...3rd person...) to the back burner until completed. Everything else is irrelevant without it, although still fun to play.… Expand
  35. woundedslug
    Sep 17, 2013
    4
    So much wasted potential. While the core of the game can still be fun, it's sorely lacking some of even the most basic of features. No lobbies, bare minimum tutorial, placeholder UI, an item that does literally nothing, and overly complicated game mechanics that aren't explained even in the slightest are just some of the problems this game has, not to mention developers who have provenSo much wasted potential. While the core of the game can still be fun, it's sorely lacking some of even the most basic of features. No lobbies, bare minimum tutorial, placeholder UI, an item that does literally nothing, and overly complicated game mechanics that aren't explained even in the slightest are just some of the problems this game has, not to mention developers who have proven themselves untrustworthy time and again. Anyone who's not a hardcore dedicated Mechwarrior fan, and even some who are, should steer clear.… Expand
  36. Zmechman
    Sep 24, 2013
    2
    This game had potential early on. It has steadily gone down hill. It is not a simulator anymore... it has become an arcade shooter with mechs.
    You might find it fun for a little while but it grows old very quickly.
    The game has no content to speak of... one game mode (they claim two but realistically they have Deathmatch with 1 base... or deathmatch with several bases) In addition, the    This game had potential early on. It has steadily gone down hill. It is not a simulator anymore... it has become an arcade shooter with mechs.
    You might find it fun for a little while but it grows old very quickly.
    The game has no content to speak of... one game mode (they claim two but realistically they have Deathmatch with 1 base... or deathmatch with several bases)
    In addition, the addition of 3pv into the game removed its simulator qualities and the Devs have consistently "dumbed down" the game.
    This game is designed for consoles in my opinion... that is all it is... a console shooter game.    … Expand
  37. sarkun
    Sep 24, 2013
    1
    If you are a huge mechwarrior/battletech fan... then give it a go after all it's free to play. Otherwise stay clear while the game has it's merits: it looks good, the weapons look and feel good, the mechs look fantastic, it has some irredeemable major flaws:

    The gameplay is very stale and repeatable, there is nothing but an endless grind towards... nothing really? If you are not the    If you are a huge mechwarrior/battletech fan... then give it a go after all it's free to play. Otherwise stay clear while the game has it's merits: it looks good, the weapons look and feel good, the mechs look fantastic, it has some irredeemable major flaws:

    The gameplay is very stale and repeatable, there is nothing but an endless grind towards... nothing really? If you are not the "must collect them all" type, then I don't really know what can you play for all the mechs are available from the start (providing you grind or buy them with real cash),

    there are just a few maps, with most of them being so small that the game turns into a slaughter immediately.

    But worst of all are the hit-detection issues, which mean that sometimes you just don't deal damage when you hit someone this is just plain inexcusable in a game in 2013.    … Expand
  38. bobthebomb
    Sep 25, 2013
    5
    This is mechwarrior so this is a good game !!

    But on the other hand we have no game room, no matchmaking, no way to balance different mech (no battle value, no tonnage), no visibility of your level (ELO, rating..) In itself the game is not bad, but the way we play it is terrible "Click the play button and hope you be in a good game". 30% of time you get pug stomped, 30% of time you    This is mechwarrior so this is a good game !!

    But on the other hand we have no game room, no matchmaking, no way to balance different mech (no battle value, no tonnage), no visibility of your level (ELO, rating..)

    In itself the game is not bad, but the way we play it is terrible "Click the play button and hope you be in a good game". 30% of time you get pug stomped, 30% of time you pug stomp, 30% of time you get a 900 tons vs 700 tons battles, 10% of time you get a good game.

    12vs12 game are terrible, and are forced, it's impossible to challenge an enemy lance to do a 4vs4 vs friend....heck we don't even have chatroom "Do you really want chat rooms?" ;)

    It's a good game but very far from completion, it's only alive because of the battletech fan base.    … Expand
  39. Toxiccandy
    Sep 28, 2013
    0
    Want a no BS review without the flowers and rainbows being shot out of someones butt at you? Here you go:

    The game isn't done, not by a long range missile shot. It has bugs, and not just a few, many. Worse, quite a few have been in the game for half a YEAR and have not been fixed. MORE worse, they haven't even been acknowledged and aren't even given an ETA on being fixed. Much MORE    Want a no BS review without the flowers and rainbows being shot out of someones butt at you? Here you go:

    The game isn't done, not by a long range missile shot. It has bugs, and not just a few, many. Worse, quite a few have been in the game for half a YEAR and have not been fixed. MORE worse, they haven't even been acknowledged and aren't even given an ETA on being fixed. Much MORE worse, they've outright lied to the players and the people who invested REAL eash to fund the game. They made FIVE MILLION DOLLARS since July of last year, but did they hire some serious programers or coders? Nope, kept it all in-house and just kept riding the "Battletech" fame that OTHER developers, writers and games have built over the last 30 years.
    You want lots of promises with no serious game play, sign up, but bring your own lube because they don't use any when they stick it to you.    … Expand
  40. xvart
    Sep 19, 2013
    0
    The game might be worth more than a 0 if the dev team actually delivers what is promised in a timely manner. The game is "launched" in an early beta form. It has limited modes and not meta game at all. The dev team, which is a vital component in a successful F2P is in over their heads but won't admit it. Look for disasterous critic reviews and just wait and see how they react. RememberThe game might be worth more than a 0 if the dev team actually delivers what is promised in a timely manner. The game is "launched" in an early beta form. It has limited modes and not meta game at all. The dev team, which is a vital component in a successful F2P is in over their heads but won't admit it. Look for disasterous critic reviews and just wait and see how they react. Remember it's free to try but why bother if the game is going nowhere. If the team smartens up this game could be worth it, until then Stay away. Just look at how the community is at war here. White knights have to post 10s to balance out the hate for the team. Do you want to play a game with a toxic environment? F2P doesn't mean it costs you nothing. Don't waste your time until you see some progress.… Expand
  41. Mopar63
    Sep 19, 2013
    3
    While the game is a decent basic shooter game to call it a MechWarrior game is an outright lie. The only thing MechWarrior is the robots looks. In the beta we where told this would be a true MechWarrior game and many of us thrust our money at them. Once they had our money the truth became apparent that making a game that was truly MechWarrior was never their goal.

    We where lied to and    While the game is a decent basic shooter game to call it a MechWarrior game is an outright lie. The only thing MechWarrior is the robots looks. In the beta we where told this would be a true MechWarrior game and many of us thrust our money at them. Once they had our money the truth became apparent that making a game that was truly MechWarrior was never their goal.

    We where lied to and in my opinion openly stolen from. One of the greatest IPs in computer gaming history has been butchered and when we, the founders, the core complained we are told our opinions do not count.

    If you just want robots stomping around like an oversized arcade game then this is the game for you, if you wanted MechWarrior then this will just make you cry over the death of a game many of us loved.    … Expand
  42. Fuzzbox
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    Summary: Very good game play, but lacks everything else.
    The game play is great 'Mechs look amazing and weapons sound and look right, albeit the 'Mech scaling needs some work. Unfortunately it is only a Solaris Arena games at the moment, so it get boring after a few matches as there are not enough game modes or maps to keep interest up.
    There is no hint of any meta game, it has been    Summary: Very good game play, but lacks everything else.
    The game play is great 'Mechs look amazing and weapons sound and look right, albeit the 'Mech scaling needs some work. Unfortunately it is only a Solaris Arena games at the moment, so it get boring after a few matches as there are not enough game modes or maps to keep interest up.

    There is no hint of any meta game, it has been postponed for over a year already, and it still shows no progress. The direction of the game is currently moving towards simplifying and faster pace, so the future does not look too good.

    Had it been closer to the vision stated in the dev diaries this game should have a 8/10 or higher, but the current game is not finished and lasting long    … Expand
  43. winterchill
    Sep 18, 2013
    2
    This is an honest review from a die hard BattleTech Universe fan.

    I've been playing MWO ever since Open Beta went live. That time there were a few game breaking bugs and numerous Major and Minor ones. Despite that, the core gameplay was fun. It was even much better when you join a team and play coordinated battles. Numerous patches followed after that broke the game in much ways that    This is an honest review from a die hard BattleTech Universe fan.

    I've been playing MWO ever since Open Beta went live. That time there were a few game breaking bugs and numerous Major and Minor ones. Despite that, the core gameplay was fun. It was even much better when you join a team and play coordinated battles.

    Numerous patches followed after that broke the game in much ways that one can imagine.One patch a certain setup works, then after another patch it is completely unplayable. One feature is added, but 2 more gets broken. This has to be one of top most bugged games. The quality of the patches are horrible. I am being nice with my words by th way.

    So much promises and expectations were made by the developers but sadly, I can't even remember 1 of those that really was accomplished.

    Numerous hard core players including myself tried to change the direction the game was heading by pointing out obvious stuff but in spite of this, without even decent communication to the community, the developers continuously did what they thought was best and ignored us. Much like what happened to Diablo 3. Except, there is no J*Y W****N to decide on what should and what shouldn't be.

    I really tried to like this game but honestly, at the hands of the wrong developers/company, this game which could have been epic was burned to ashes. To make it worse, because of how this game was handled, I now find it hard to try out other F2P games.

    Feel free to try out this game but DON'T buy it. You'll just be giving out free cash to the greedy.    … Expand
  44. amceagle
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    If you enjoy big, stompy robots shooting at other big, stompy robots with no pretense of story or setting, then this is the game for you. That, and the potential for what is achievable are what keeps me coming back to MWO. I rated the game a 3 because it has some incredibly significant hurdles to overcome before it is the game it was advertised as when I became a Founder.
  45. Monocle
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    I have never seen such utter contempt from developers poor communication, censorship (with threats of bans for speaking negatively about the game) and outright lying to the player base. I don't know what happened over the last years, but whoever is calling the shots now needs to be fired. What started as the promising multi-player Mechwarrior with community warfare has turned into aI have never seen such utter contempt from developers poor communication, censorship (with threats of bans for speaking negatively about the game) and outright lying to the player base. I don't know what happened over the last years, but whoever is calling the shots now needs to be fired. What started as the promising multi-player Mechwarrior with community warfare has turned into a grinding, repetitive shooter. Instead of spending the last year working on game mechanics the development team has been more concerned about churning out new mechs so they are able to provide another new hero mech.

    There is no purpose to play other than to get another mech that you probably don't need because only a handful of mechs are even useful. I wish the developers would go back and look at the concepts that they sold to us in the closed beta phase (information warfare, role warfare, etc.)

    There is no point to play anything but an assault mech with the 'flavor of the week' weapon that is given advantage by their broken method of weapon balancing (trial and error) where they randomly pick a weapon and tweak the values and wait for the tears on the forum to start.

    if you want to try the game go ahead but beware before you spend your hard earned money. This game may not be around this time next year with the direction the Dev team is taking it.    … Expand
  46. Ymirok
    Sep 24, 2013
    3
    I learned of this game just before its supposed "launch" which did not really add or change anything. The game can still be considered to be in beta. It's not complete. As I played a few matches and read the forums, I started to learn about how disgruntled and jaded the loyal customers are. It would appear that PGI have been doing some very shady and questionable acts, such as ignoring (orI learned of this game just before its supposed "launch" which did not really add or change anything. The game can still be considered to be in beta. It's not complete. As I played a few matches and read the forums, I started to learn about how disgruntled and jaded the loyal customers are. It would appear that PGI have been doing some very shady and questionable acts, such as ignoring (or outright deleting) perfectly legitimate questions and criticism on a certain type of topic called "Ask the Devs".

    Another significant event was when the third person camera view was implemented without the consent of almost the entire playerbase. It ended up with PGI's CEO, Russ Bullock apologizing for their incompetence. The problem was never entirely resolved as development in general is remarkably slow.

    I haven't spent a single dime on this game because it's such a liability. And might I add, the currency purchasable with real money is very expensive. Also, you can buy "Hero" mechs, which are basically variants of regular mechs with unique hardpoints. While it isn't straight-up pay to win, it's certainly a feature impossible to acquire using regular in-game currency. Paintjobs are also only acquired using real money currency.    … Expand
  47. mwofan
    Sep 25, 2013
    3
    Decent attempt at a multiplayer game but it lacks focus and has been plagued with problems by developers not having a clear vision. Communications issues along with the developers insulting those who crowd-funded the game to make it possible are also an issue. The graphics are not bad but there are UI issues and constant promises of "improvements are on the way" but little has been made onDecent attempt at a multiplayer game but it lacks focus and has been plagued with problems by developers not having a clear vision. Communications issues along with the developers insulting those who crowd-funded the game to make it possible are also an issue. The graphics are not bad but there are UI issues and constant promises of "improvements are on the way" but little has been made on that front for the past 7 months. Controls are also not bad, but mechanics in the game have caused more issues and the solutions have not resolved the problems those issues represented. The game is just not good and should have been managed better by a more experienced staff..… Expand
  48. Barantor
    Sep 17, 2013
    4
    Not going into the publishers problems. The game is a pretty but rather bland lobby shooter that would appeal to battletech enthusiasts but probably not to a more general audience. Lack of more grouping options, game bugs, balance issues and a complete lack of a new user experience beyond a fledgling movement tutorial makes it a hard game to play; especially new.

    Feels like a beta    Not going into the publishers problems. The game is a pretty but rather bland lobby shooter that would appeal to battletech enthusiasts but probably not to a more general audience. Lack of more grouping options, game bugs, balance issues and a complete lack of a new user experience beyond a fledgling movement tutorial makes it a hard game to play; especially new.

    Feels like a beta because without some of the features that are supposedly in the works, it is and admittedly so by the staff. I would only try it if you loved the mechwarrior experience in the past.    … Expand
  49. gavilatius
    Sep 17, 2013
    5
    yes, for this I shall use my real username, "Gavilatius"

    lets start with a 5, that's middle ground for any game, now let's do the math +1 for Mechwarrior being brought to the masses (6) +1 for Alex Iglesias being such a great artist (7) +1 for a great community full of great artists and players (8) -1 for the lackluster mechanics (7) -1 for the lackluster launch (6) -1 for a    yes, for this I shall use my real username, "Gavilatius"

    lets start with a 5, that's middle ground for any game, now let's do the math

    +1 for Mechwarrior being brought to the masses (6)
    +1 for Alex Iglesias being such a great artist (7)
    +1 for a great community full of great artists and players (8)
    -1 for the lackluster mechanics (7)
    -1 for the lackluster launch (6)
    -1 for a DevTeam that doesn't listen to the community (5)
    -1 for their lack of community created content (4)
    -1 for the lack of vision in PGI (3)
    -1 for the lack of drive from PGI (2)
    -1 for the lack of responsibility from PGI (1)
    +1 for their great IT department (2)
    +1 for their wonderful customer support (2)
    -1 for a clunky game User Interface (2)
    -1 for a horrible netcode (1)
    -1 for missing mechanics (0)
    -1 for cashgrab "hero mechs" (-1)
    -1 for the extreme censorship in both their forums and in game(-2)
    -1 for the blatant disregard for the Battletech Franshise (-3)
    -1 for Community Warfare turning into a color coded progress bar (-4)
    -1 for lack of gameplay diversity (-5)
    -1 because it's unfriendly to new players (-6)
    +5 because of the Atlas... Atlas (-1)
    +6 because I'm trying to dig up some nostalgia towards Mechwarrior (5)

    yeah... the last 11 points added to MWO's score is because of it's legacy... you heard me, the only reason I'm giving any points is because of the games that came before it.    … Expand
  50. xMWHOx
    Sep 20, 2013
    2
    Waited 10 years for this game. PGI started out amazing, talk of many game pillars, and great concepts, but forced to rush out the game by IGP. A lot of us gave a lot of money in the founders program to fund the game, and IGP takes it and puts into there other projects, thus delay many important game features.

    This game has a lot of potential, great looking game, but its so bare bone,    Waited 10 years for this game. PGI started out amazing, talk of many game pillars, and great concepts, but forced to rush out the game by IGP. A lot of us gave a lot of money in the founders program to fund the game, and IGP takes it and puts into there other projects, thus delay many important game features.

    This game has a lot of potential, great looking game, but its so bare bone, and not much has changed since closed beta. There is a couple of maps, 2 game types, and no real reason to play but to grind Cbills to pokemon collect them all. After 1year doing the exact same thing it gets boring. Any other franchise I would of stopped playing after 1-2 months. Only thing that kept me going was Community Run tournaments. But IGP does not want to support that community.

    Terrible balance, no lobbies, no CW, really bad new user experience and should have not launched. It should still be in an alpha stage.

    I may take another look at this game in a year, but if IGP continues to ruin this franchise, it might not last too long. Really sad as PGI seems like they have their heart in the right place, but just seem to continue to disappoint everyone. With IGP's Gestapo forum mods censoring anyone who says anything bad about the game, and banning players because they are posting without playing the game in 1-2 months is the last straw. They should be trying to win the player base back and not throwing them to the curb.

    Without IGP I'd say 5/10. With IGP its 2/10.    … Expand
  51. Ward_
    Sep 18, 2013
    1
    I actually paid $100 and backed this absolute garbage game. I was lucky enough to be able to get my money back after having to threaten PGI (the developers of MWO) with a charge back, but many others weren't so lucky.

    Game-play for MWO is mediocre at best. Shoddy, low resolution textures (because who needs to optimize games properly? Not PGI) with constantly fluctuating weapon balances    I actually paid $100 and backed this absolute garbage game. I was lucky enough to be able to get my money back after having to threaten PGI (the developers of MWO) with a charge back, but many others weren't so lucky.

    Game-play for MWO is mediocre at best. Shoddy, low resolution textures (because who needs to optimize games properly? Not PGI) with constantly fluctuating weapon balances (because PGI can't decide on how powerful guns are actually supposed to be after years of development) and only 2 game modes, also after years of development, make this game maybe a 5/10 if we're only considering game play. But I'm not.

    Now onto the developers. In all my years I have never seen such a more money-grubbing, incompetent, flat out rude set of developers as PGI. My personal experiences aside, I've seen them be extremely rude to paying customers, I've seen them flat out LIE to the community, and when that fails I've seen them flat out BAN whoever they don't agree with. It's absolutely mind-boggling how unprofessional PGI has been with their community and fans, and it's a shame that the franchise they had to drag through the mud with them was such a storied one as MechWarrior. Don't believe me? Go check out their new forum rules, because it's now a bannable offense to speak ill of MWO or PGI.

    The bottom line here is stay as far away from this game as possible. No matter what little possible enjoyment you could eke out of the game itself, the developers (I'm looking at you Russ Bullock and Bryan Ekman) are scum, and deserve none of your money.    … Expand
  52. Valk
    Sep 17, 2013
    2
    This is a painful review for me to write.

    I love the BattleTech universe. I spent an awful lot of time in middle school and high school reading the novels, playing MechWarrior 4 and MechCommander, and slinging dice at the local game store with guys two or three times as old as I was rather than doing typical teenager things, and frankly, I don't regret it. I love this setting that much.    This is a painful review for me to write.

    I love the BattleTech universe. I spent an awful lot of time in middle school and high school reading the novels, playing MechWarrior 4 and MechCommander, and slinging dice at the local game store with guys two or three times as old as I was rather than doing typical teenager things, and frankly, I don't regret it. I love this setting that much.

    The last few years have been less than kind to the BattleTech and MechWarrior franchise, so I got excited when I heard about MechWarrior Online real excited. Finally, all the stuff I'd wanted back in the day (dynamic community warfare with unique mission parameters, role warfare, and photorealistic graphics) was being promised, along with a promise to keep out certain things that made the old games stale (MW vets will doubtlessly remember "poptarting", a boring tactic that turned games into campfests facilitated by third person camera views). I gave PGI $60, built a new PC, and waited.

    A little over a year and half later, I'm still waiting. Yes, I got a playable game, but it's far from what was promised. In a way, it's worse than what we started with.

    To go into detail explaining all the things wrong with the game and why they're bad would likely make a great thesis paper for someone when the game fully falls apart, so I'll provide a short list (bear in mind this is just the things I can -remember- at 1AM and is by no means complete):

    -No DX11 support, with graphics that have degraded almost monthly since August 2012. For a game that prides itself as being "achieved with CryEngine 3" this is unacceptable.
    -Poor server-side hit registration that allows small, fast 'Mechs to absorb hits that would utterly decimate larger 'Mechs and keep going as if nothing happened. This was fixed temporarily, then broken again, then slightly patched up to a still-kinda-sorta broken state, where it remains today.
    -Community Warfare, a key pillar of development, is not only completely missing, but has minimal information on it anywhere. What was once envisioned as planetary conquest on a persistent map still has yet to materialize.
    -Horrific grind. Most competitive builds of any weight class cost upwards of 10,000,000 C-Bills (the in-game currency) to buy and outfit. You currently make about 80,000-90,000 C-Bills per -win-, and far less on a loss. You do the math. Bear in mind that you must buy and grind out experience in no less than 3 variants of the same 'Mech to use it to its fullest potential. Oh, and you only can own 4 'Mechs at once unless you pay money.
    -Nightmarish new player experience. While a barebones tutorial was recently added, many of the game's most important systems such as building a 'Mech or the infamous "ghost heat" that will quickly kill you for using multiples of one weapon system (such as those found on some stock 'Mechs) are never explained outside of the forums and a few hastily made videos. Trial 'Mechs the "free" starters you are expected to learn the game on, are almost universally worthless against custom 'Mechs and make new players into the equivalent of farmable NPCs by others. Controls are also set to defaults which gimp play abilities (such as the ability to aim arms independently of the body).
    -Poor game modes and maps. When the most efficient way of winning a game with giant war machines is to avoid them entirely and go stand on a square, there is a serious issue. It's somehow worse here than in World of Tanks.
    -Reintroduction of 3rd person view bringing it back broke a huge promise made early in development that allows players to "peek" around corners and ridges without exposing themselves. Coolant Flu-, I mean, Cool Shot was also brought back despite a similar promise (again, MW veterans know why this is an issue). Meanwhile, MW staples such as charging, knockdowns, and death from above have been removed with no intention of ever being returned.
    -No role warfare. 'Mechs are supposed to each have a niche, but in MWO it has been refined down to "fast guys to sit on squares and fat guys to shoot at one another." Medium 'Mechs are all but extinct and have no real place in the game's meta, while also being hilariously out of scale in many cases (the 55t Centurion is nearly as tall as and WIDER than the 85t Stalker)

    Again, this is just a short list, and it doesn't even begin to address the sheer amount of contempt with which paying players are treated, the utter censorship of any dissent on the official forums, etc., etc. I've tried being patient, and I've tried having trust throughout the Beta, and yet little has changed in a year. My trust and patience is now gone, despite my love for BT/MW. While there's a fun game deep within MWO, it's buried by an ocean of poor design and developer arrogance. Good luck with your sinking ship, PGI. I'll be playing games by devs who listen to their fans like Eugen Systems (Wargame: AirLand Battle) and Cloud Imperium Games (Star Citizen).    … Expand
  53. Pigger
    Sep 18, 2013
    4
    The developer seems to think since the development team is telling them it's great, the game must be great, to hell with the hundreds of people saying otherwise in the forums, they are on a lonely island. Weapons balance does complete reversals every month with each weapon having a turn being horridly OP, and another being UP. The maps are mostly uninteresting, with several being huge longThe developer seems to think since the development team is telling them it's great, the game must be great, to hell with the hundreds of people saying otherwise in the forums, they are on a lonely island. Weapons balance does complete reversals every month with each weapon having a turn being horridly OP, and another being UP. The maps are mostly uninteresting, with several being huge long range maps and almost no close combat maps meaning most have to run a long range focused mech. Several Mechs are rendered useless by another mech which can do everything better. Larger assault mechs are quite often outright better then mediums and heavy mechs, with lights having their uses and a few good heavy/mediums. The size scale seems quite off as the supposedly huge and awesome Atlas is around the same size as most mediums, everything has 2 sizes, small or big, take your pick. Most patches create just as many issues as they fix. To top it all off the game is poorly optimized and requires a very solid internet connection if you don't want to lag to death every match. I hope it improves but unless the developers get their heads out of their collective asses, it won't.… Expand
  54. Malora
    Sep 17, 2013
    4
    This game has such potential, if only the Devs would listen to the community.
    They say they do. But they do not. And it shows. That's this games biggest failing (Other than poor gameplay mechanics, lack of promised features from over a year ago, horrible implementation of new tweaks, and an incredible delay on fixing even basic bugs), the fact that PGI *refuse* to acknowledge the    This game has such potential, if only the Devs would listen to the community.
    They say they do. But they do not. And it shows. That's this games biggest failing (Other than poor gameplay mechanics, lack of promised features from over a year ago, horrible implementation of new tweaks, and an incredible delay on fixing even basic bugs), the fact that PGI *refuse* to acknowledge the communities pleas, regardless of how well reasoned or argued (or POPULAR) they are.

    Every time the community comes out in force, PGI's official response is always "You guys are a vocal minority, the vast majority is quite happy!"

    This is a lie, and this dev team deserves to fail (as they currently are) unless they reverse course and come to understand that communication BOTH WAYS with their players is essential.    … Expand
  55. wombat13
    Sep 25, 2013
    0
    The game play isn't so bad, but in a F2P you need to trust the team. This game was released with a place holder UI, no meta game to speak of. It has limited replay s there are only 2 very similar modes and few maps. It may get better but the issues have been known for a while but are you willing to take that chance?
  56. JoachVil
    Sep 20, 2013
    5
    Faction warfare nowhere in sight at launch (despite it being a "design pillar" from day 1). Small selection of maps, and very unimaginative game modes.

    Incredibly poor communication between devs and the community. Hostility from the company president towards fans who were critical of his design decisions...

    Give it a pass. it just isn't worth committing cash into at this stage.
  57. Morgoth139
    Sep 19, 2013
    4
    This is a mechwarrior/battle tech game in name only. It’s trying really hard to be CS or MW but fails. The only similarities to MW and BT are the names of the mechs and weapons. Everything else is a perversion of all that is classic BT. Magical levels of weapon accuracy. heat system is fundamentally wrong. The Dev team doesn't understand basic TT rules. Ghost heat- when you fire more thanThis is a mechwarrior/battle tech game in name only. It’s trying really hard to be CS or MW but fails. The only similarities to MW and BT are the names of the mechs and weapons. Everything else is a perversion of all that is classic BT. Magical levels of weapon accuracy. heat system is fundamentally wrong. The Dev team doesn't understand basic TT rules. Ghost heat- when you fire more than the arbitrary number of weapons you get penalty heat. You can only fire one ac20 at a time. then what’s the point of customization...
    MG's are critical hit seeking weapons. very limited game modes 2 types.... it’s all just team death match anyway, no strategy needed, just blob up and start ganking. the game is just a grind for credits. mech customization is lack luster. interface is not very good.

    The game is really not ready for launch it's more of a highly polished alpha.
    graphics and sound are nice....

    if you’re looking for some BT MW action you’re better off reloading a old copy from years ago.
    This game is really just a reskined MW4 with only multi player…. No campaign…..
    but if you think BT crossed with counter strike and modern warfare and type of people and game play that brings then go for it. the game can be fun at times. I’d give it 50/50 it all comes down to who you drop with.

    I gave it a 4 because this game has the potential to rival EVE in depth of complexity and game play, but in the hands of the PGI development team all your gona get is a reskined FPS. it’s worth a look but not for investing in any money what so ever,

    Any one giving this game a 10 either works for PGI or is fan boy trying to counter the influx of 0's from people who have poured their hearts, money into beta hoping to finally get the BT game we have all been wanting since we first saw a war hammer your favorite looking mech and got burned. The dev team is making a game for the FPS counter strike crowd. I keep referencing CS because the dev team has made direct comparisons with CS in terms of game balance for weapons. It’s broken and they are in denial.

    The game started out as an awesome mech sim but somewhere along the way it mutated into a bad FPS.

    Try it but don’t spend any money for a month or so cause I think you will regret it like I do.    … Expand
  58. Drain
    Aug 18, 2014
    0
    PGI is a horrible developer; one of the worst I've seen. They go back on every promise. They miss every deadline. They make fake pipedream promises that'll never come. They censor or ignore their own community. They totally wreck things that were already working fine beforehand. They put in garbage no one wanted like ECM, ghost heat, 3PV, and UI 2.0. These things only hurt the game, notPGI is a horrible developer; one of the worst I've seen. They go back on every promise. They miss every deadline. They make fake pipedream promises that'll never come. They censor or ignore their own community. They totally wreck things that were already working fine beforehand. They put in garbage no one wanted like ECM, ghost heat, 3PV, and UI 2.0. These things only hurt the game, not help. But any attempt to tell them this is met with a ban hammer, assuming you get read at all. MechWarrior Online as a whole has only gotten worse since closed beta, not better. Despite being a huge fan of the MechWarrior franchise and old games, I'm not one of the many fanboys that are going to stick up for this crap of a game or developer.

    The most pathetic part of this game is the money grubbing. This isn't just incompetence of "not" knowing how to do... well... anything properly, it's shameless greed. Originally promised with no hero mechs/variants, no consumables, they did exactly that as soon as Founders refund period ended, basically saying "shove it" to everyone that supported them. They then made the cash shop their # 1 priority, filling it out every month with stuff to sell while features the game actually needs continue to go long over due. The stuff they did waste their time on was stuff no one wanted, like 3PV. They'd waste half a year of Dev time for 3PV. Ya, thanks, that worthless feature that shouldn't be in the game that no one wanted nor supported at any point. You wasted all that time just to shove it down everyone's throat. They didn't even deliver it with the option to queue without it as promised. They went back on a big promise by putting in something they originally promised they'd NEVER do, made a new one to do it a certain way, then didn't even bother to deliver on that one either. It also took them well over a YEAR just to put in a no-base TDM. That should have been a day 1 release mode. All that time just to copy/paste a previous mode and take the bases out. That's the level of talent we're talking about here.

    "Community Warfare" is slowly becoming just an obvious pipedream. It's like being on a ship and the captain promises you that he knows where he's going and will soon hit land. Surprise, there's no land coming. It's just an inevitable sinking ship. Instead of deliver on promised features, they just make more Mech packages to milk this dying cow for all its worth before it sinks. They now offer 500$ Mech skins. Not even League of Legends did this when they made that ridiculous Ezreal skin. Blizzard doesn't even charge this much for mounts or pets. How much is the newest Blizzard title with all DLCs/optional paid content? Not 500$. You could build a gaming computer with that. The only "Community Warfare" for this game was on the forums, where everyone voiced their complaints to the betrayals, but was met only with deaf ears or ban hammers. During the Founder period, PGI pretended to give a crap about its community and its feedback, but as soon as the refund period ended, they stopped acting, and very obviously so. Well, unfortunately for them, they can't censor Metacritic.

    Please do not support this game. I'm honestly asking you because I'm a true MechWarrior fan, and this game is just one big slap in the face to us. It's an insult and abuse of the license. Worse yet is that for as long as it remains active; the longer we'll have to wait to get a true MechWarrior game again. If you support this game, you're hurting the franchise and every real fan of the series. Please let the game go bust, the sooner the better, so that the long wait for the next MechWarrior game won't be as long. PGI is a terrible company that I can only hope gets shutdown as they deserve. They belong at a Mcdonalds flipping burgers, not trying to make video games. They flat out scammed everyone and continue to try to leech as much as they can from this license's rotting corpse. This was not the revival anyone was hoping for, not even close. The license was better off in retirement. I'd rather it remain dormant and continue waiting for the next game than have a parasite dig it up just to feed on it like a vulture while ripping everyone off in the progress.

    I leave you with these articles if you want more evidence as to just why you shouldn't even consider giving these shameless people money. While I can't directly link, a single copy/paste into Google will find them.
    "What Happened to Mechwarrior Online?"
    "Underwhelming ‘MechWarrior Online’ Launch Falls Short of Expectations"
    "A Cautionary Tale: The Rage of the Mechwarrior Online Community"
    "Free-to-Play MechWarrior Online Offends Players With $500 Golden Mechs"
    "Shutdown imminent: MechWarrior Online is beyond salvaging"
    -Drain (Steam)    … Expand
  59. Seddrik
    Sep 18, 2013
    1
    I have played MWO for a while, even investing over $130 into the game. When I first started it was a first person only mech-sim. It ran very well, matches were exciting 8v8 teams ranging from sniping to brawling matches with a real different feel to every mech.

    Overtime they increased the battles to 12v12 which increased the overall sluggishness of the game for many people. They also    I have played MWO for a while, even investing over $130 into the game. When I first started it was a first person only mech-sim. It ran very well, matches were exciting 8v8 teams ranging from sniping to brawling matches with a real different feel to every mech.

    Overtime they increased the battles to 12v12 which increased the overall sluggishness of the game for many people. They also "balanced" a lot of weapons that were used effectively.. slowing practically all weapons down with increased heat penalties, stacked on even more combined heat penalties. They promised clan wars, and promised, and promised... now they released and guess what... STILL no clan wars. They took the time to add third person view, which resulted in a huge protest in the forums by founders and invested players alike.

    They also claim an active membership of 1.3 mil... but that's ridiculous. They barely have over 500k registered in the forums and you must register to play. And again, they have lost many active players due to "balancing" and adjustments that players did not want. In fact, you can often log on, look for a match and find "No Match Found" or end up playing the same people repeatedly... as if no one else is online but you and those few people.

    Their shining release is mostly hype. If I could get my money back I would. Don't spend anything on it as it is. Wait a year to see if they will even survive that long and prosper.    … Expand
  60. mimimi
    Sep 18, 2013
    4
    positive:
    good franchise,
    free 2 play,
    pretty graphics

    negative:
    really high system requirements,
    long grinds force you to pay,
    bad balance "patches",
    bad matchmaking,
    you cant choose your map (every time random),
    missing announced features,
    promised: no 3rd person view lie,
    promised: no consumable items lie,
    promised: more game modes lie,
  61. 7cNickel
    Sep 18, 2013
    2
    It's amazing to think this game has gone downhill since closed beta, but it's true. The dev team has revealed themselves to be complete incompetents who stood on the shoulders of giants to achieve mediocrity.

    The low score reflects not just that mediocrity, but the fact that the devs have set up incredibly high hurdles in front of themselves, with ample evidence that they can't meet    It's amazing to think this game has gone downhill since closed beta, but it's true. The dev team has revealed themselves to be complete incompetents who stood on the shoulders of giants to achieve mediocrity.

    The low score reflects not just that mediocrity, but the fact that the devs have set up incredibly high hurdles in front of themselves, with ample evidence that they can't meet them. There are features that we were supposed to be testing over a year ago that still haven't materialized. What has materialized are several overly complicated systems that only make the game worse, and a stubborn reluctance to remove those failing systems.

    Play if you really need a mech fix, but don't give them money and give future promises the same credibility you would a used car salesman.    … Expand
  62. eliteturbo
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    Positives:
    - Game is free
    - Lots of mechs to collect - Ability to set controls for various game input devices - Good Server Availability Negatives: - No DirectX 11 Graphical Support - User Interface difficult to navigate and use - Heat System difficult to understand - Client crashes often - Poor hit detection - No player progression end game content - No lobby system to    Positives:
    - Game is free
    - Lots of mechs to collect
    - Ability to set controls for various game input devices
    - Good Server Availability

    Negatives:
    - No DirectX 11 Graphical Support
    - User Interface difficult to navigate and use
    - Heat System difficult to understand
    - Client crashes often
    - Poor hit detection
    - No player progression end game content
    - No lobby system to organize team vs. team matches, choose maps, etc
    - Only 2 game modes
    - No voice communication with teammates
    - No guild/clan support
    - Confusing website and forum layout

    - Billing system unreliable and sometimes double-bills, technical support tickets often left unaddressed, accidental purchases can happen due to user interface issues.

    Other thoughts:

    Excellent fast paced FPS for mech combat. While there are a lot of mechs to collect and unlock skills for, there simply isn't anything else to do. The combat is great but tends to grow stale due to the low number of maps and game modes. Game development is slow and has frequently had issues with communicating changes to players. Patch notes are often incomplete and inaccurate.    … Expand
  63. JackGallows
    Sep 17, 2013
    1
    Mechwarrior: Online is a prime example of a game with extreme potential that falls far short of what it could truly achieve. Shoddy weapons balancing, a gleaming example of how not to handle your community, a dire lack of communication, and horrible design decisions mire what could have been a really great forward step not just for Free 2 Play games but for competitive online gaming asMechwarrior: Online is a prime example of a game with extreme potential that falls far short of what it could truly achieve. Shoddy weapons balancing, a gleaming example of how not to handle your community, a dire lack of communication, and horrible design decisions mire what could have been a really great forward step not just for Free 2 Play games but for competitive online gaming as well.

    During it's early beta phases the game showed great promise, many faults and bugs as well but it was to be expected of something so early shown to the public. Multiple steps backwards with very few forward were made and MW:O has become a game not worth your time nor your money. Early Founder's package money (a then record of 5 million,) was shunted away to other games made by MW:O's publisher, leading to long delays for multiple promoted game modules. Mechwarrior Credit (paid money credit) to real world cash ratio is prohibitive and their cash shop is rather lacking as it gives you no real reason to buy anything.

    Customer feedback is largely ignored even when they ask for direct feedback in the forms of polls or constructive posts about planned or already implemented features. Multiple unpopular features are added without consideration to what it does to the game at large and helps to only alienate their player base and ruin the overall game experience. Many core design features aren't finished and have no clear launch in site as Community Warfare and other key features which were slated for release over half a year to a year ago remain empty promises.

    The best part of Mechwarrior: Online is it's art direction, but amazing looks for the 'mechs themselves and well textured maps don't make for a fun game. Convoluted weapon balancing, bad netcode, and incredibly lacking information warfare systems bring down what would otherwise be a mostly enjoyable game if other core features weren't missing.

    Adding to all it's issues is their reversal on promised game vision and direction as multiple features that were promised to NEVER be placed in game and many features being pushed farther and farther off into the horizon and Mechwarrior: Online is a horrible game that really should have been far more profitable for PGI and a better game for many years to come.    … Expand
  64. GrumpyCritic
    Sep 19, 2013
    0
    I have played MWO since November 2012 during the 'open beta'. My experience over that time has led me to conclude that Mechwarrior Online is a cash grab.

    The Game: The game has 2 modes, assault and conquest. In assault you have to either capture your enemies base or kill all the enemies. Conquest is a resource collection race where you hold up to five bases and collect resources    I have played MWO since November 2012 during the 'open beta'. My experience over that time has led me to conclude that Mechwarrior Online is a cash grab.

    The Game:

    The game has 2 modes, assault and conquest. In assault you have to either capture your enemies base or kill all the enemies. Conquest is a resource collection race where you hold up to five bases and collect resources based on how many you hold over time. You can also win conquest by killing all enemies. There are roughly 7 maps in the game. The way it plays is that you select a mech, select a game mode, and then either group with others in a pre-made group or launch solo. When you launch a random map is selected and off you go. There is no mechanism to organize matches between premade teams. If you win a match you get a certain amount of C-Bills and XP that you can then use to improve or buy new mechs. If you lose you get lesser amounts. The game (at launch) has no weight limits on drops or any consequences for your choice of mech beyond the gameplay. The result is that matches tend to be filled with assault mechs and FOTM builds.

    In a typical match you might earn around 80k C-bills for an 8 minute match. Mechs tend to cost in the millions (depending on the weight of the mech.) You can expect a reasonably lengthy grind to get the mechs you want. After you get the mechs you want, you then have to grind C-Bills to customize them with better engines, weapons, and ability modules. The net result is that you have to earn a significant amount of C-Bills to get the mechs you want. Expect to spend many hours/days dropping to earn enough to build the next mech you want. The cash shop has a conversion rate of about 200MC per US dollar. There are three kinds of mechs: regular, Champion, and Hero mechs. Champion mechs earn a bonus to XP. Hero mechs earn a bonus to C-Bill generation. Hero mechs cost about 75MC per ton. So an 90 ton hero mech will cost around $30 US. Champion and regular mechs cost roughly half as much MC. There are sales periodically which sell the less popular mechs at a slight discount. The game also offers 'premium time' which gives you a bonus to C-Bills and XP earned per drop. The relative value of premium time is subject to change as it is measured as a percentage of what you earn in a match. PGI changes the value of what is earned whenever they feel it is getting too high.

    Why I think the game is bad:

    The game is currently implemented as a treadmill for building mechs to use in deathmatch. There is no overarching story or persistent world. The result is that the game is very shallow. You grind out your mechs and deal with the changing meta-game based on whatever FOTM builds are. I got bored with it. PGI (the developer) has added a few maps over the course of the last year, and many more new mechs. They haven't materially changed the way the game plays. Most of the content they have put out has been geared toward their cash shop (new mechs.) Gameplay elements seem to have a lower priority in their development queue. That means the game grows/changes very slowly if at all. Many people invested in this game during the 'Founders' package offer (a year before launch) based on promises of a deep meta-game with community warfare and persistent galactic conquest (real goals.) None of this has materialized in the year up to launch.

    So I say again: Mechwarrior Online is a cash grab. It is a mech building treadmill arena shooter with a cash shop. And the developer really only cares about the cash shop. Spend yours wisely.    … Expand
  65. Vivicector
    Sep 18, 2013
    2
    Game is awful. The most important concern is game balance, which is done is some very very strange ways. Game meta-balance and weapon balance is so broken, that when some IMBA gets fixed, the other appears. There is just a number of unbalanced weapons and configurations. When one is fixed, the next-effective will be used, as it becomes the most effective one.

    Graphics. Well, it could    Game is awful. The most important concern is game balance, which is done is some very very strange ways. Game meta-balance and weapon balance is so broken, that when some IMBA gets fixed, the other appears. There is just a number of unbalanced weapons and configurations. When one is fixed, the next-effective will be used, as it becomes the most effective one.

    Graphics. Well, it could have been good 5 years before. I do not understand, what can one do with the CryEngine 3 to make it look a bit better then MechWarrior 4. Mech models are very simple, no details. Animations looks like it was done for 1 mech, then copy-pasted on the other mechs. So, on many of them it is awful.

    Devs way to talk to the community is to say: "Screw you" and ban all who disagree. They last forum rules make it impossible to say ANY critics about the game. Or they will be banned. They never listen to anything the community says, but when the becomes waay to nasty.

    Take a look, BTW. They have hired quite a lot of people to write positive words about the game here. Be careful.    … Expand
  66. Veliah
    Sep 18, 2013
    2
    Mechwarrior. Battle Tech.

    One of the most awe-inspiring, jaw-droppingly awesome IP's out there. From its long, celebrated history as a table top action combat game, to its long and varied history in video games old and new, who doesn't want to hop into the of a massive marching death machine and lay waste to your enemies? Let's go back in time, to the beginning of the closed beta    Mechwarrior. Battle Tech.

    One of the most awe-inspiring, jaw-droppingly awesome IP's out there. From its long, celebrated history as a table top action combat game, to its long and varied history in video games old and new, who doesn't want to hop into the of a massive marching death machine and lay waste to your enemies?

    Let's go back in time, to the beginning of the closed beta of this game and talk about what was going on, what was being developed, and what was being balanced.

    I was inducted into the closed beta with the very first wave of Founders Invites. To say I was excited when I saw there there was finally going to be an up-to-date game in the MechWarrior franchise would have been a dramatic understatement. I was the nerd equivalent to a glee-stricken school girl.
    I quickly dropped $120 dollars on the top tier founders package, which gave me access to 4 mechs of all size and functionality.

    What I didn't know was what I would find out over the course of this game's Beta life.

    I recall dropping into my first dozen matches in awe. The graphics were good, and they were purportedly working on DX11 engine support, so that would make them even better. The game-play had its bugs, but they were being worked on.
    Weapon balance tweaks, while frustrating in their swing, we understood was necessary to create a good game balance. New mechs were rolling off the presses in a semi-timely fashion. And the play-ability of the game slowly began to improve with things like host state rewind and map quality passes.

    This all sounds fine and dandy. The problem is that more than a YEAR into development, and they are still doing exactly those things, and nothing else! Mechs still roll of the presses in a semi-timely fashion, but that is the only thing out of those that remains a good thing! More than a year into development, you should not STILL be working on game balance. The combat in this game is not so diversified as to allot for more than a years worth of time wasted on tweaking things like weapon damage and heat scale.

    Things that made the game unique, like being able to knock down enemy mechs if you plowed through them with a heavier mech, were removed from the game because they were not conducive to the new player environment of their 'target audience', which largely seems to be aimed at Call of Duty players.

    And please don't grab your pitchforks, I play Call of Duty too. Not nearly as much as some, but I do. All I am saying is that if you've spent more than ten minutes playing in online matches in CoD, then you have run into plenty of zero-skill players that seem to only want to be there to troll the game experience.

    All that aside, everything I have already said wouldn't be a huge deal if it were the only problem. I mean, they are STILL working on balancing the game, and no, they shouldn't be wasting that much of their resources STILL balancing this far into the testing period. No, it is their large, gross, and inexcusable mistake they have made with their player-base and their promised content which drives the final nails into the game for players like myself.

    Russ Bullock once said, "Third person View has never been on our design table, it has always been our intent to immerse you into the mechwarrior universe, and to do that we envisioned a first-person view"

    I may have paraphrased a bit, but that is exactly the spirit in which he said it.
    Needless to say, the dev decision to bring a third person view into the game caused the player-base to revolt. Their response? Cut a dry, pre-written apology letter that throws Garth Elam under the bus, one of the few well-liked developers involved in the MWO community. In the end, the apology letter was more like a softly worded, "Sorry, deal with it." than it was a true apology.

    Forum censorship is the rule, not the exception with their moderation of their community. Post containing less-than flatter views and opinions on the state of the game are redacted, moderated, and deleted with zealous intent. Whole Threads have been moved and dumped in the Jettisoned Communications section of the forums where searches for the thread in question return no results.

    Remember the 47% fiasco with the last election? MWO has its own version, wherein the Vocal Community on the forums voiced their confusion as to why their input didn't seem to be taken into account. Why was it that founders, people who had helped fund the game, had given PGI the ability to develop it in the first place, were seemingly no longer being taken into consideration.

    The answer? The forum users (founders included) represented a 'vocal minority' and did not accurately represent the demographic of their target audience. That's right, we had become Russ Bullock's 47%, and it was no longer his job to worry about us.

    Bottom line? The game has its moments where it is fun, but with so little of the promised content in the game, it is not the game people paid for it to be.    … Expand
  67. NiknudStunod
    Sep 19, 2013
    0
    The best place for me to start this review is with broken promises. Over a year ago when I purchased the 3 mech founders pack I was under the impression that community warfare was only about a year away. Now a year later it is no where in sight. Around that same time there was a interview with the leader dev and a question was asked about 3rd person view. The answer he gave was aThe best place for me to start this review is with broken promises. Over a year ago when I purchased the 3 mech founders pack I was under the impression that community warfare was only about a year away. Now a year later it is no where in sight. Around that same time there was a interview with the leader dev and a question was asked about 3rd person view. The answer he gave was a simple "It will never be in MWO". That also turned out to be a lie. Now lets talk about the meta game. At first glance it looks like you have a lot of choices in terms of mechs. The truth is with the games current balance if you want to compete you will be running nothing but assaults and heavy mechs. The game is even less playable now that it has launched then it was a year and a half ago in closed beta. So to wrap everything up stay away from this game.… Expand
  68. BlastrMastr
    Sep 18, 2013
    5
    MechWarrior Online brings BattleTech back to the forefront of digital gaming once again.
    Anyone familiar with the series will recognize much of the content here.
    Pros: 1)Battlefield simulation is excellent. 2)Player versus Player is satisfying. 3)Graphics are very good. 4)No expenditure required to play! 5)Multiplayer appears to be fairly well balanced at the moment, although many    MechWarrior Online brings BattleTech back to the forefront of digital gaming once again.
    Anyone familiar with the series will recognize much of the content here.

    Pros:
    1)Battlefield simulation is excellent.
    2)Player versus Player is satisfying.
    3)Graphics are very good.
    4)No expenditure required to play!
    5)Multiplayer appears to be fairly well balanced at the moment, although many players will dispute this.
    6)Lots of vanity items, paint jobs, and camouflage available for players who are willing to spend real $$.
    7)"Hero" 'Mechs available for real $$.

    Cons:
    1)Aside from the beginners' "cadet" bonus, which grants new players a boon for their first 25 matches, the game is largely a grind, at least for the first ~30 hours of gameplay. This is due to the nature of the billing. It's "Free to Play", so there's got to be a strong incentive for players to purchase MechWarrior Credits(MC) in order to shortcut much of the game's more boring content.
    2)The learning curve for players new to the MechWarrior universe is very steep. There is a tutorial, but it does not explain anything beyond basic battlefield movement at this time.
    3)The 'Mech Lab, which is where players customize their 'Mechs, is unforgiving, at best. Most changes result in high CBill(in-game currency) penalties, and tinkering with new load outs in-game simply isn't feasible for newer players, who are the ones most likely to be experimenting to find their preferred 'Mech and load out. Testing a load out requires the player to purchase all the modifications they want to test, and then take the new load out into the "Testing Grounds". Most players will find they are better off tinkering in a 3rd party 'Mech Lab known as Smurfy's; a player created 'Mech Lab simulator which accurately displays custom load outs along with cost-to-own in CBills. Unfortunately, there is currently no way for players to experiment with any custom load out in-game without grinding out the CBills necessary to buy it, or injecting some MC into their account, straight from their wallet. The only other option for players to run in 'Mechs they don't own is a set of four Trial 'Mechs, which change regularly, and typically are not worth piloting, because most of them do not make optimal use of the options available to them.
    4)The real money aspect at this point does, unfortunately, still have "Pay-to-Win" aspects to it. Battlefield consumables like CoolShot, and Artillery Strikes are available for purchase for CBills(not real money equivalent), and each one has a bigger, badder cousin which is purchasable for MC(real money equivalent). This equates to consistent bonus damage for the player who can throw the most money at the game, which pretty much defines "Pay-to-Win".
    5)Another grind aspect entirely, the Pilot Lab allows pilots to spend accumulated per-chassis Exp, and General Exp on perks. Some perks only affect specific 'Mech variants, and some affect all. Players can convert excess per-chassis Exp into GXP for a small MC(real money equivalent) fee. Otherwise, new players have only another long grind to look forward to before they become truly competitive with other players. The only saving grace is that the CBill grind and the Exp grind can be completed simultaneously.

    All in all, while the game has solid multiplayer offerings, the in-game menu and the system put together for modifying and testing new 'Mechs is clumsy and unforgiving. If User Interface 2.0 proves to be what the developers are saying it will be, I would wait to spend any money on this game at least until we see what that brings.

    Also, as of this writing, one of the core features of the game, known as Community Warfare has still not been implemented. Presumably, this will bring the game to a whole new level, but again, I'd wait to spend money on this game until the planned features prove to be worth it.    … Expand
  69. Boyinleaves
    Sep 18, 2013
    5
    I have never bothered writing a review on Metacritic before, because I've never beofe cared enough about a game to bother. However, I care enough about Mechwarrior Online(MWO) to make a statement, so take it as you will.

    MWO has amazing potential. It derives from source material with a wealth of history, a long and iterative development process, and a bunch of tie ins, and it enjoys a    I have never bothered writing a review on Metacritic before, because I've never beofe cared enough about a game to bother. However, I care enough about Mechwarrior Online(MWO) to make a statement, so take it as you will.

    MWO has amazing potential. It derives from source material with a wealth of history, a long and iterative development process, and a bunch of tie ins, and it enjoys a decently sized (though not huge) but very dedicated fanbase. Anyone attempting to reboot the franchise was almost guaranteed success, if they could just recapture some of the magic of previous titles, and give even only the long-time fans what was wanted.

    MWO could have been amazing (at launch, today, September 17th). Sadly, after nearly 2 years of 'BETA', the game looks to be a long way from the promised magic that led its founders to pledge $5,000,000 or more to its development, and myself to spend more on it than any other game in my life (almost $500 in the last 5 months). It could still be amazing, but it lacks most of the features that are standard in most multiplayer games, such as player lobbies and competitive brackets.

    It has a steep learning curve, and though it can be played sufficiently well without even spending a cent on it, new players will feel that MWO is somewhat unapproachable if they do not already have a vested interest in playing it, due to a love of the IP or friends that already play.

    Given that I absolutely love the franchise, I would simply encourage people to go and play it, and spend money on it, in the hope that more money would fuel more development, and thus make the game better, but unfortunately, the developers/publishers do not seem to have any insight as to what they should do to improve the game, so I don't think more money would actually help.

    MWO is not terrible, and given that it costs nothing, I can't score it too badly. There is just not enough there to make it worth investing any time or money into it at the moment, and the developer's track record wouldn't give anyone any faith that it will get better. Take it for what it's worth.

    Sorry guys.    … Expand
  70. Thatdamngamer
    Sep 17, 2013
    5
    Ok lets see where to begin.
    Promises of no 3PV..Lies
    Promises of no Coolant Flushes...Lies
    Community Warfare (unless you count actual warfare on your community)
    Horrible Hit Detection
    Ghost Heat
    UI 2.0
    Russ's half assed apology
    Unkillable Spiders
    2 game modes
  71. oldhasu
    Sep 20, 2013
    2
    It's just a voice of "vocal minority". I liked the game the way it was promised to be. Spent a whole lot of money and time on it. But. Well, to be honest, currently im playing this game by inertia, cant drop it cause I spent too much on it.. Developers keep pumping the money by selling 'mechs and trinkets. Still no community warfare. People are trying to entertain themselves by makingIt's just a voice of "vocal minority". I liked the game the way it was promised to be. Spent a whole lot of money and time on it. But. Well, to be honest, currently im playing this game by inertia, cant drop it cause I spent too much on it.. Developers keep pumping the money by selling 'mechs and trinkets. Still no community warfare. People are trying to entertain themselves by making leagues and tourneys. But leagues and all other stuff made by community itself are not supported by developers. You cant even drop with another group of other players by choice, you have to sync-drop and hope to get in the same game. For all other people who do not organize in units, trying to compete between each other, this game is Counter Strike on robots.… Expand
  72. StandingCow
    Sep 17, 2013
    5
    Look, the game is fun, and since it is a F2P title (without P2W in it, thank god) you should at least give it a try. But let me make one thing very clear, it is NOT ready to come out of beta, not by a long shot.
  73. IceGryphon
    Sep 18, 2013
    0
    Community warfare. NOPE.
    Fixing Hitboxes. NOPE.
    Fixing Balance. NOPE.
    Lobby System. NOPE.
    Sure as heck have time to add Coolant and 3PV.
    Oh and this is only my position at the time.
  74. Hydramatic
    Sep 17, 2013
    4
    Oh MWO, where to begin....after having the Mechwarrior Living Legends community ripped from my fingers by this shoddy excuse for a mechwarrior game, I decided to join the bandwagon with my friends and play MWO. It is (other than a few new mechs and a pair of maps) almost no different from the game I started playing last year in 2012.

    I didn't like this game at first, mostly because it    Oh MWO, where to begin....after having the Mechwarrior Living Legends community ripped from my fingers by this shoddy excuse for a mechwarrior game, I decided to join the bandwagon with my friends and play MWO. It is (other than a few new mechs and a pair of maps) almost no different from the game I started playing last year in 2012.

    I didn't like this game at first, mostly because it seemed to lack ANY of the typical depth that one expects in a quality Battletech product. As much as the devs/pubs want to seemingly believe, this community overwhelmingly comes from an RPG and tabletop background that wants ALL the fluff, and ALL the content, even if mainstream gamers see it as boring or worthless. There is NO immersion other than the startup sequence. You heard me. NO IMMERSION in a game that is supposed to be a VIRTUAL IMMERSION SIMULATOR of a tabletop game. You don't feel like you are in the universe AT ALL. There is no music, no real feel of the universe, no feel of making an impact, no CULTURE to the game. It feels like an FPS with hitboxes slowed way down. THIS ISN'T MECHWARRIOR.

    This game is very much like a multiplayer mode gutted from a single player game, minus any sort of matchmaker or clan/group based online play. This isn't what we were promised, or what was advertised. That would all be fine if this was JUST a multiplayer mode from a singleplayer game. But it's not. It is ONLY multiplayer, and doesn't have the strength, content or flavor that it needs to survive in its current form. The Devs promised some cool stuff, and we've seen none of it to date. I would love to see this stuff.

    The game thrives off of grind. I hate grind, so this is painful to me, but I keep playing, as its pretty much the only MW game out now and I've been playing since MW2 in the 90's, and I love the franchise.

    The gameplay itself is fun, though it gets very repetitive and feels less and less fun as you play, as the rewards are paltry, almost nonexistent. Once again, I'm playing for my love of the franchise.

    Developer PR is AWFUL. Don't even get me started. They operate in a bubble, ignored their beta testers who PAY them to make the game WE wanted. On top of that they put out press releases and videos and blogs that are borderline criminal in their optimism.

    You might be asking, "Well all that said, you still play it, right?" The answer is yes, but I'm certainly NOT in love with it and would play it a whole lot more if it had the content and features it was originally advertised and touted to have. That's the honest answer, really. This is a case of a small developer biting off more than they can chew, and NOT EXPANDING THEIR TEAM to meet the demands of their own deadlines. If you can't put out content on your OWN deadlines, hire some more people, seriously.

    All in all, I really wish I could give a more positive review for this game, but at the moment it sits here, half-baked pretending it's fully cooked. I hope people play it, but it really isn't even close to what I would call "launch ready."

    Half a game gets half a score, minus some for infuriating developer "communication."
    4/10

    (Score subject to change as content is released. This is as of "launch.")    … Expand
  75. ZnA1209
    Sep 17, 2013
    4
    Wanted to like this game, and honestly, its kind of fun if you dont get too invested in the game. The money grind is terrible, there are a very, very limited number of maps, cash prices are ridiculously over priced (A full set of camo that is limited to one mech will cost you $15)

    PGI is terrible at communicating and has yet to implement half of anything they promised would be available    Wanted to like this game, and honestly, its kind of fun if you dont get too invested in the game. The money grind is terrible, there are a very, very limited number of maps, cash prices are ridiculously over priced (A full set of camo that is limited to one mech will cost you $15)

    PGI is terrible at communicating and has yet to implement half of anything they promised would be available at launch.    … Expand
  76. dmastri
    Jan 26, 2014
    1
    Revising my score from a 3 to a 1 after the huge misstep that was the clan mech cash grab. This was further compounded by the "state of the inner sphere" post where the devs reveal that they've essentially been treading water, and lying to us, about feature development while they worked on getting the Mechwarrior license extended by Microsoft. CW, a feature that should have been presentRevising my score from a 3 to a 1 after the huge misstep that was the clan mech cash grab. This was further compounded by the "state of the inner sphere" post where the devs reveal that they've essentially been treading water, and lying to us, about feature development while they worked on getting the Mechwarrior license extended by Microsoft. CW, a feature that should have been present at launch, is now estimated as coming in Oct 2014. Who wants to spend another year mindlessly grinding cbills? Not this guy. PGI is an amateur outfit and they aren't capable of executing this game properly.

    Don't get your hopes up or waste your money. This game will never be anything more than mindless grind. So much wasted opportunity.    … Expand
  77. Garingo41
    Sep 18, 2013
    1
    Its like Unreal Torunament with only 1 mode and nothing else. Sad that i downloaded that much for this game, my traffic is limited here. Too bad that i was blended by the fake youtube video yesterday on launch.
  78. Grendel3100
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    Have been playing this game for over a year now since open Beta began. Granted, it has been and still is a work in progress, but the game still lacks much of what previous titles in the series had to offer (for now anyway). The lack of a single player campaign has hindered the introduction of new players to the game by preventing players from learning the game mechanics OFFLINE beforeHave been playing this game for over a year now since open Beta began. Granted, it has been and still is a work in progress, but the game still lacks much of what previous titles in the series had to offer (for now anyway). The lack of a single player campaign has hindered the introduction of new players to the game by preventing players from learning the game mechanics OFFLINE before taking part in mulitplayer and getting stomped on by players more familiar with the game. The developers attempts at rectifying this by providing sandbox testing grounds for new players is not a very entertaining way for new players to learn the game.

    The graphics and textures are excellent, though the game still has issues loading some textures on certain game maps which detracts from the experience at times. Something that has been a problem for months and still hasn't been fixed.

    Audio quality is reasonably good, however, the c3 voice VOIP software included for multiplayer use is horrible to use, and most players still utilize outside 3rd party software like Teamspeak for in game communications.

    Multiplayer game mechanics are a mixed bag. On the one hand, the game provides an opportunity for full 12 vs. 12 matches, something not often seen in past titles of the series due to network limitations in the past. This can lead to some very dramatic and intense games when played with other pilots of similar skill levels as the player, or when playing in a premade team against another premade team.
    Unfortunately, it was decided by the developers to limit the sizing of premade teams. You can only play with 3 other people on a team or more than 8 on a team. No in between. So if you have 5,6, or 7 pilots that want to play together.... too bad. Originally this was done to prevent solo pick up gamers from being abused by organized teams, now its created a limiting factor on enjoying the game with a group of friends or regular team mates. Having game lobbies available that are restricted to solo gamers would have been a better option.

    The lack of multiplayer game modes is also a major detractor. Currently there are only two. Considering this game is entirely multiplayer, it needs way more options than that. More are promised down the road, but there's no way of knowing when at this point. Selecting maps to play on is also missing. Maps are randomly selected by the server.

    The network coding, though not as horrible as some here have stated, is still pretty bad. Hit detection can get a bit odd at times, but then again previous MW titles had similar problems. In recent months, after certain patches were pushed out by the devs, there also seemed to have been problems with players maintaining connections to the PGI servers that host the game. I've seen this myself, and still run into this issue fairly regularly, though its improved slightly in recent weeks. Tech support emails sent to the devs about this issue have been less than helpful, asking me to jump through hoops for them pretty much, and left me with the impression they don't want to be bothered with helping a paying customer or just admit that it IS an ongoing problem with their game that they are working on (I hope).

    The User Interface and pregame lobby is not well organized once you've played the game for a while, having to scroll through a list of purchased mechs to find the one you want to use gets tedious once you have a stable of 16 or more mechs. The UI is scheduled to be improved in the future though, so can't fully pass judgment on it just yet.

    The in game customization of weapons and equipment on mechs is extensive, but some options do not stay true to how they worked in previous games from the series or to the original board game workings for that equipment (something originally promised by the developers and then rescinded much later in the development cycle).

    Overall, this game should still be considered in Beta, regardless of what is claimed on the website. It is still very much a work in progress. One that is probably going to take quite a while to fully fix at this rate. It is still a good way to have fun for a little while, but still lacks the qualities it needs to retain gamers in the long run.    … Expand
  79. ChihayaKisaragi
    Sep 17, 2013
    0
    Well, I wanted to like Mechwarrior Online. Even with all the glaring issues, problems, bugs, passive aggressive developers, severe lack of modern features, I enjoyed it. But then they went and decided to make the game as punitive as possible for both NEW and EXISTING players by increasing the grind to ridiculous levels and trying to make you pay 60$ for a standard mech, THAT DOES NOTWell, I wanted to like Mechwarrior Online. Even with all the glaring issues, problems, bugs, passive aggressive developers, severe lack of modern features, I enjoyed it. But then they went and decided to make the game as punitive as possible for both NEW and EXISTING players by increasing the grind to ridiculous levels and trying to make you pay 60$ for a standard mech, THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE THE UPGRADES YOU WILL HAVE TO GRIND FOR FOR IT TO EVEN BE PLAYABLE AT ALL IN MATCHES. And that's PER MECH.

    Avoid Mechwarrior Online at all cost, what little fun there is is not worth the multitude and multitude of problems, trust me.

    Don't believe me? Try it yourself, it is f2p after all, but good luck, the game is extremely unfriendly toward new players and severely lacking in any sort of information or documentation to explain anything to you other than very basic controls, good luck figuring out what weapons are good and DHS, FF, Heat Eff, Double Basics, and a million other acronyms and systems names mean! And that's only if they don't arbitrary decide to change up everything on a whim based on year old feedback.

    Again, I wanted to love this game, I did, I still do, but it's all but a lost cause now that it's been "released" without as much as a single change in over a year other than more things to buy.

    Overall

    Pro's
    - Ok immersion, not great but better than any other mech game out today
    - Good sound effects for weapons, they really feel powerful
    - Great mech art and design, Alex Inglesias really modernized Battletech mechs beautifully
    - Combat is fun, when you can find it.
    - Lots of customization, both cosmetic and to the mechs themselves in terms of weapons

    Cons
    - Bugs, lots and lots of bugs
    - Horrible optimization (the game has actually gotten WORSE graphically since launch, don't believe me? Compare videos from 2012 to 2013 on youtube of this game and see for yourself)
    - Horrible game balance
    - Absolutely no documentation for new players
    - INACCURATE IN-GAME DESCRIPTIONS FOR ITEMS (HALF OF WHICH ARE NON-FUNCTIONAL PLACE HOLDERS, IN A RELEASED GAME!)
    - Terrible cash items that are of poor value (Premium time practically does nothing for 14$ a month, 7$ items that YOU CANT EVEN SEE BY DEFAULT UNLESS YOU EDIT THE GAMES FILES TO INCREASE YOUR HORRIBLE FOV)
    - Extremely unfriendly to new players in terms of default settings (you start off by default in a horrible camera view, with your mechs arms "locked" putting you at an extreme disadvantage, the game does NOT explain this to you as a new player)

    You know what? I could go on and on but I'm just going to stop there, it isn't worth my time bothering, avoid this game.    … Expand
  80. CalebLee
    Sep 18, 2013
    4
    Long time Battletech/Mechwarrior fan here. I've read the books, played all the games and was quite excited for this game and that someone was finally bringing the title back from the dump Microsoft put it in. At the start, it was a love relationship and felt good to pilot a mech again and have a thinking man's game where strategy mattered.

    Over a year later and I could care less if they    Long time Battletech/Mechwarrior fan here. I've read the books, played all the games and was quite excited for this game and that someone was finally bringing the title back from the dump Microsoft put it in. At the start, it was a love relationship and felt good to pilot a mech again and have a thinking man's game where strategy mattered.

    Over a year later and I could care less if they tank and can't recommend the game to anyone. They've broken promises multiple times regarding 1st person view which completely ruined the meta game, no more surprise flanks or strategy which was the final straw. All my friends have quite playing and while the 12v12 queues don't have 3rd person forced on them I can't get anyone to play with me let alone 11 others.

    As for game balance and features, if you know anything about Battletech then you'll understand how badly they broke/deviated table top and prior games:

    1) Hardpoints They basically made most Inner Sphere mechs into Omni-mechs (Clan) similar to Mechwarrior 3, as they can fit whatever weapons they want. I.E. A Catapult K2 ever since beta can mount 2 Gauss Rifles where the model only allowed Machine Guns. This breaks gameplay and forced them to implement gimmick fixes like...

    2) Ghost Heat As a result of point #1, people were boating insane loadouts like 6xPPC Stalkers that could insta kill most mechs. So they 'fixed it', and now If you fire more than X number of a particular weapon, i.e. you can only fire one AC20 and not two in an Alpha strike or you suffer huge heat penalties. The problem is, some mechs were boat mechs with PPC or Gauss Rifle loadout, especially among the clans. I.E. Hunchback 4P can't fire it's 'stock' medium laser loadout in an Alpha strike.

    3) Game Balance If you don't get the trend so far, they've so deviated from BT/TT rules they can never go back. They deviated weapon specs so much they have to keep yo-yoing them around to try and balance them. Streaks for example are auto-lock and never miss pulling off 180 degree shots etc.., they had to do this to counter light mechs cause hit detection was bad. They introduced game breakers like ECM where they combined three separate systems in one and then spent months coming up with gimmick fixes like PPC EMP disruption for 3 seconds. Ever tried hitting a light mech consistently with a PPC in a game where the hit code keeps breaking?

    4) Game Play The game has 2, get it, 2 modes of game play. A capture and deathmatch system that still boils down to the same thing, destroy the enemy team and you win. Or you can do a quick base capture on the large maps where all you have to do is stand in a square. They haven't changed gameplay at all in over a year of beta in any meaningful sense of the word so it's rather boring.

    All in all, it had potential but the devs stopped listening to their core fan base and tried to compete with World of Tanks and ended up serving them the same bad customer service, pushing a huge portion of the community away. They've turned it into the same point and shoot 3rd person shooter with very limited gameplay as there's no such thing as tactics any longer thanks to 3rd person view.

    In a nutshell, this may carry the Mechwarrior title but it's no closer to Mecharrior than Hawken or any other armored, shooter.    … Expand
  81. SolarNova
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    The game has potential. But the current balance and overall size/features of the game is rather poor. The game also uses microtransactions of which include Mechs with different hardpoints that you cannot get ingame any other way, putting it over the line into the Pay2Win category. The Developers also have a bad history so far with this game and their community, breaking promises, lieing,The game has potential. But the current balance and overall size/features of the game is rather poor. The game also uses microtransactions of which include Mechs with different hardpoints that you cannot get ingame any other way, putting it over the line into the Pay2Win category. The Developers also have a bad history so far with this game and their community, breaking promises, lieing, and ignoring their playerbase.

    The game is it stands is not balenced or large enough in content to be considered a 'launched' and ready game for the masses game, dispite the Devolopers declaring it 'launched' as of Septembe 17th.

    My advice would be to avoid this game for another 6 months atleast then check in on the forums to see how the community feels the state of the game is at. As i said, the game has potential so i wouldnt write it off yet Going into the game now will likely end in dissapointment.    … Expand
  82. armyof1
    Sep 20, 2013
    1
    Well what is there to say when a once promising game has been made successively worse by devs insisting on adding features that huge majority of the players that care enough to share their opinion don't care for? I started playing back in Jan 2013 and back then this game showed a lot of promise, despite being quite limited in gameplay and had problems with a bunch of persisting bugs. TheWell what is there to say when a once promising game has been made successively worse by devs insisting on adding features that huge majority of the players that care enough to share their opinion don't care for? I started playing back in Jan 2013 and back then this game showed a lot of promise, despite being quite limited in gameplay and had problems with a bunch of persisting bugs. The core gameplay though was good enough to keep me interested despite the problems. You have a large selections of mechs to fight with against other players and the weapons and ability to outfit your mech the way you see fit kept it interesting.

    But the last few months the devs have progressively made this game worse. going from 8vs8 to more players with 12vs12 looks good on paper. The problem is about half of the maps are so small they don't work well with that many players occupying that little space. But that's not the major problem, it's what they changed about your in-game earnings, called CBills. Suddenly they decreased your earnings by 25-30% with a really bad excuse that now you have more mechs to destroy thus you can make more CBills. Hello?! What about more players that are going to share those rewards? It's done just to try and make people either buy mechs with real money or buy the so-called premium time that will increase your earnings by 50%, which of course also costs real money. Because if you don't buy either, the game has become a real bad grind to earn CBills to afford new mechs and gear.

    So if you've read this far it sounds pretty bad right? Well the worst is yet to come. The last month they put 3rd person view into the game, a feature that really no one asked for except the devs themselves. Originally the lead developers promised we would have split player queues so anyone who wants to keep this game as purely 1st person shooter would not have to play against players that can enable 3rd person view. But suddenly they went 180 on this promise, that they themselves posted in their game forum, and put 3rd person view in the standard player queue, meaning everyone had to deal with 3PV being used as a toggle to peek around and over lots of obstacles you'd never be able to look around/over in 1st person, effectively crippling anyone that want to just play in 1st person. If you read through a lot of the other negative reviews you'll see this mentioned quite a few times so it's something a lot of players are truly disappointed about being deceived in this manner.

    Last but not least due to the uproar and negative posts in the MWO forums from us disappointed players the devs recently saw fit to change the rules to posting. Now if you basically express your opinion that the devs are doing a bad job developing this game, even when done in a calm manner with valid points without the slightest name-calling or insults, you're risking to be banned from the forum whether temporary or permanently as they see fit. What that means is they only keep the yes men (and there are still a bunch of them, just look at the perfect scores given here to a game that is effectively still in beta and still lacking lots of features to make it worthwhile) in the forum and are busy removing anyone with critical opinions. I just got banned from the forum without a single message from whoever banned me with any info why I was banned. So if you visit the forums and you see a lot of posts where people are happy with the game in its' current sad state, be aware that it's simply because they're working hard to censor or ban people that disagree with how they've been ruining this game.

    To sum it all up, Mechwarrior Online was once a game that showed promise, but development took an awful turn despite a huge amount of feedback trying to sway the devs from some of their really poor decisions. A game with problems can be fixed given time, but a dev team that refuse to listen to its' own community and even heavily censor their own players that disagree with the poorly chosen direction the development is moving in, are really beyond any hope of redemption. For a game that is midway in development, how the dev team handle feedback from their players is a crucial part of the game's success or failure. The PGI dev team is frankly the worst I've encountered in their way to handle their players and their game community, which effectively has ruined this game. There are quite a few more blunders I can't even explain due to the 5000 char limit here, just google and you'll without a doubt find more. You have been warned, get involved in this game at your own peril. The only reason I don't give this game a zero is because it hasn't blown up my computer.    … Expand
  83. Fitzbattleaxe
    Sep 17, 2013
    4
    A game that has promise, but promise that sadly will probably never be fulfilled. I've been playing MWO on and off since it was in closed beta, and while its been over a year since MWO opened to the public, the developers have failed to add any meaningful content.

    MWO has two game modes, which are basically a base capture mode, and a resource capture mode. The vast majority of the time    A game that has promise, but promise that sadly will probably never be fulfilled. I've been playing MWO on and off since it was in closed beta, and while its been over a year since MWO opened to the public, the developers have failed to add any meaningful content.

    MWO has two game modes, which are basically a base capture mode, and a resource capture mode. The vast majority of the time these simply degrade into team death match, and so things get repetitive very quickly. There are no pre-match lobbies, so you can't chose your map, or who you fight against (though there is at least a way to choose who fights alongside you), and on the whole I can't help but feel that this multiplayer-only game is less compelling than most of the multiplayer modes that come tacked on to single player games (and yet vastly more expensive if you actually want to unlock all the content).

    Now I'm not saying it isn't fun. If you're looking for a mechwarrior game, and like me you can't get any of the previous incarnations to run well on your computer, then by all means, you should give it a try. But think before you spend any money. The devs have been promising new features and balance fixes from day one, and yet in many ways the gameplay is worse now than it was last year. It's not a complete game, and I genuinely don't hold out much hope for it ever being one. If you've got $20 to spare, you're better off tracking down a copy of Mechwarrior 4.    … Expand
  84. Tapeman
    Sep 21, 2013
    0
    Not a very fun game, absolute grind fest, seems like a total money grab, cant help but get a bad taste after playing it. Dev team seems incompetent to the point of it being almost funny, if only they weren't destroying a classic franchise with a really tight core player base. Basic features are still lacking a year into development. Devs constantly disrespect the community and their coreNot a very fun game, absolute grind fest, seems like a total money grab, cant help but get a bad taste after playing it. Dev team seems incompetent to the point of it being almost funny, if only they weren't destroying a classic franchise with a really tight core player base. Basic features are still lacking a year into development. Devs constantly disrespect the community and their core players (They literally said those who disagree with them are "on an island"). Gone back on their promises many times, constantly delay upcoming features, or rush to implement ill-conceived gameplay mechanics which just decrease the quality of the game.

    In game and metagame economy is an absolute shambles. Their idea of a "micro transaction" is 6.99 USD (the lowest cost MC package). What does a 7 dollar investment get you? Maybe a stock light (crap) mech, a bay to hold it in, and a paint color. Congrats! Even with earning boosting "premium time" and "hero mechs", still takes hours and hours of grinding to unlock a new basic chassis. Devs themselves said they didnt want the game to become an "arms race" to the biggest, heaviest mechs, and then compare the Atlas (currently heaviest mech) to a "top tier avatar" in other games. Grinding for an Atlas is "supposed to take 20 hours". Here's the real kicker: you need to buy 3 different Atlases to make any of them any good, as well as upgrade them. That means you have to do another 4 hours of grinding for the upgrades to the mech itself, and then another 24 hours TWO TIMES to make your first mech combat effective. Buying into it with real money doesnt help much at all, as the rewards per hour were recently about halved with the addition of 8 more players per game (longer matches), an actual direct cut (less money in salvage, damage, kills, assists), and longer wait times (the search queues take up to 5 minutes because population is so sparse.

    BOTTOM LINE/TL;DR: Do not spend money on this F2P game! Its a dull, repetitive, grindy money-grab headed by an absurdly incompetent dev team.    … Expand
  85. cypherhalo
    Sep 18, 2013
    4
    Sorry but put me in the crowd that doesn't like this game. there is some serious promise here but ultimately it simply doesn't work. You might like it, I can see some aspects of it that are good. Unfortunately, the package doesn't work in my opinion. In short, it is a grindy game that is too expensive and needs major overhauls. For a longer explanation, you can see below.

    1 The    Sorry but put me in the crowd that doesn't like this game. there is some serious promise here but ultimately it simply doesn't work. You might like it, I can see some aspects of it that are good. Unfortunately, the package doesn't work in my opinion. In short, it is a grindy game that is too expensive and needs major overhauls. For a longer explanation, you can see below.

    1 The game does not have enough content. It only has two game modes and they're both basically identical. While they have a lot of mechs, this is a double-edged sword as each mech has multiple variants and to unlock all the goodies, you need to buy multiple variants. This involves A LOT of grinding or if you think you can pay, it's going to cost you more then a full-price game most likely. Mind, this is just to purchase all the variants for ONE single mech and there are over 20.

    2 That just leads right into my second gripe, prices are through the roof. We're talking $20-$30 for a single variant of a single mech. In a day and age when I can buy triple A games from Steam for $10, these prices are simply absurd.

    3 Lackluster tutorial. Not an issue for an old mechhead like me but a big issue for new players.

    4 The GRIND, it hurts so much.

    5 No respawns. I don't get this one at all but if you bring it up on the forums, prepare to be flamed by the "true mechwarrior fans". I mean, if they want to have a game mode with no respawns, that's awesome. But in this day and age, to not offer it at all? Just doesn't make much sense and it contributes directly to issue 6.

    6 Completely unbalanced play. One, the no respawns rule means that the first team to destroy 2 or 3 enemy mechs is probably going to win. So, matches become one-sided affairs and are not as fun as say Hawken or League of Legends where a team can pull a come-from-behind victory. Two, the no respawn rule means that even though your "objective" is to "capture" territory, most matches just become team deathmatch as it is far easier and more fun to kill everyone then stand on a spot to "capture" it. Three, premade teams absolutely destroy casual/lone wolf/PUG players ALL THE TIME.

    7 the GRIND, it hurts so much.

    Sorry, I'm repeating myself aren't I? Well, it bears repeating. This game seriously needs respawns, bot matches, reasonable prices, and game modes that are actually different. Then, it might be a fun game. Right now, the biggest pluses it has are that it is very pretty and that the mech designs are absolutely phenomenal.    … Expand
  86. Typhoon2142
    Sep 18, 2013
    7
    PGI made alot of promises that they didn't keep. The game is still beta, despite their efforts to make it look like a full release. Finally the chat is working. Can you imagine? For many months, it was not possible to chat properly in this game, because some words were cut off. Now they fixed it. And that's the best thing about the launch. A proper chat. I wonder how long they will try toPGI made alot of promises that they didn't keep. The game is still beta, despite their efforts to make it look like a full release. Finally the chat is working. Can you imagine? For many months, it was not possible to chat properly in this game, because some words were cut off. Now they fixed it. And that's the best thing about the launch. A proper chat. I wonder how long they will try to fool their customers. The game is pretty nice for a beta, that's why I still give it 4 points, but it gets boring real quick. Not enough weapons and tools to give the game real depth and only two game modes make MWO pretty dull after a while.… Expand
  87. Zolta
    Sep 19, 2013
    8
    MWO is a free to play game, so try it yourself! I played it for half a year together with some friends and I spent money for it not only to have a smother grind, but also because i thought that great features are close to make it into the game and that I want to support that. When I realised that the game doesn´t improve its core I left.
  88. tvaughanx89
    Sep 20, 2013
    0
    Warning this is not a complete product an if you intend to play this game you will end up spending 60-80$ for bays an such. No community warfare 3pv no story or single player mode just drop kill repeat. The only content added on a regular basis is more mech's first the hero for about 15-30$ depending on size. Then a week later the other variants pgi is milking the community for but theWarning this is not a complete product an if you intend to play this game you will end up spending 60-80$ for bays an such. No community warfare 3pv no story or single player mode just drop kill repeat. The only content added on a regular basis is more mech's first the hero for about 15-30$ depending on size. Then a week later the other variants pgi is milking the community for but the community is letting them. Feels more like a cash grab then a video game. Pgi can consistently release things that cost real money while delivering no game adding content occasionally the community complains enough an gets a new map but then its back to making hero mech an campion mechs. If you ask me i say they have no clue on how to do community warfare an don't care to as long as the community keeps lobbing cash at them for new skinned mechs. Again warning this game is clearly a beta it is not complete it does require you to spend money to be good at the game there are no features other than 12v12 combat a clunky mech lab bad hit detection absolutely horrendous chat interface an the constant release of 15-30$ hero mechs.… Expand
  89. AGNJoe
    Sep 17, 2013
    5
    I wanted to write this review of MechWarrior: Online so that the viewing public could see this game for what it really is.

    I gave this game a 5/10, but I want to state that while this is a low score for the game and it's creators at Piranha Games Inc., I want to state factual evidence, both good and bad, to be fair and unbiased. On the plus side, this is the first MechWarrior title    I wanted to write this review of MechWarrior: Online so that the viewing public could see this game for what it really is.

    I gave this game a 5/10, but I want to state that while this is a low score for the game and it's creators at Piranha Games Inc., I want to state factual evidence, both good and bad, to be fair and unbiased.

    On the plus side, this is the first MechWarrior title online in over 10 years, and it's good to see this back in play. Graphicially, the game is a decent improvement to the last MechWarrior title, but that's not saying too much here because this is supposed to use the CryEngine 3.4, and technically the graphics could go up to DX11 standards. However the developers have failed to add in the DX11 graphics update yet, the first of many failed promises that they were supposed to have upon game launch date and failed to deliver today.

    PC Gamer had featured a review of this back in Fall of 2012, in which the developers had stated many additions to the game, like different game modes that were to be featured, Community Warfare, a new user interface called UI 2.0, information warfare, DirectX 11 graphics, and the game's commitment to making this a 1PV game only system.
    Since that time, they introduced Coolant shots, which many people didn't want. They introduced a 3PV system, which they at first had said would never be introduced, then they said they were considering adding 3PV but only for the Training Tutorial, then they changed it again and said that they would introduce 3PV into the game itself but that 1PV player games and 3PV player games would as separate playing queues and that people wanting to play 1PV would never have to play with people wanting to play 3PV players, and then they MIXED them together anyways, and then said that 1PV player only queues were to be scrapped. It was only because the game playing community on their forums had blown up in an overwhelming negative forum response did they concede and as of today you can now play a 1PV only environment, but ONLY if you are on a team of you and 11 other friends in a 12 man formed team.

    Also, because the game has launched today, there is NO:

    Community Warfare
    Information Warfare
    DX11 graphics
    UI 2.0
    collision mechanic system
    MASC (a sort of nitrous like system to increase movement speed for some mechs)
    The Clans (which should have been out already)
    salvage based system to salvage parts
    Repairing and Rearming your mechs

    Now to be fair, PGI has said that they will in the future, add these and many other features over the course of the coming months and commit to new material being added, such as new maps, and new game features (Solaris style arena based combat), and new mechs. As to when that will all happen? Who knows?

    The major overlying problem however is not the game. It's the people making the game, which is Piranha Games Inc. (PGI) and their game publisher, Infinite Games Publishing (IGP). PGI's staff is very small and takes an extremely long time to put out anything and their balancing procedures is to balance the game from a "bottom first on down" system which is opposite from what all other game MMO creators have done, which they normally balance a game from the "Top first on down" in which they balance the game from what the top players are using to properly balance the game, so as to make the game more fair and balanced so that certain weapons are balanced for what they are being used by the top players. Not PGI, however, and it's caused some terrible balancing issues. On top of that, PGI never asked for the Crytek people who created the CryEngine system for help, which has further caused problems, ones that could have solved coding issues for PGI months ago, but never did, which boggles this reviewer. Why? To save money? Isn't the quality of this game more important?
    On top of this is IGP. Rumors have been flying in from some of the developers (who have asked not to be named and kept anonymous) that the Sept. 17th date was rushed because IGP had kept pushing for a launch date so they could say PGI's product is considered as "stable and playable" yet PGI has still had bug issues with the game being stable, and many of the promised features that they said would be included at game launch were put off after launch date. Why? This reviewer suspects that IGP wanted this pushed early so that they could make MONEY, and say it was a viable released product.

    In the end, I have been a Closed Beta tester of this game since June of 2012. Has PGI done some good things with the game? The answer is mixed. I am happy of the rebirth of MechWarrior as a MMO game, and the game is playable, but the constant broken promises PGI has given the community over and over has left a terrible taste in the game community's mouth, and IGP has done nothing to help the situation.

    One can only hope that MW: O can last long enough to recover and turn things around for the better, if they are around long enough to do so.    … Expand
  90. limazulu
    Sep 17, 2013
    4
    The story of Overstated Expectations.

    When the new Mechwarrior game was announced after almost 12 years discontinuation, It drew alot of attention of all fans of the series arcade simulator mech-combat game based on Battletech tabletop game universe along with Battletech's own fans. That's because developer team declared maximum possible proximity to the tabletop game rules as a goal    The story of Overstated Expectations.

    When the new Mechwarrior game was announced after almost 12 years discontinuation, It drew alot of attention of all fans of the series arcade simulator mech-combat game based on Battletech tabletop game universe along with Battletech's own fans. That's because developer team declared maximum possible proximity to the tabletop game rules as a goal for a first time of long (since 1989) Mechwarrior games history.

    In addition, a lot of features were announced: dynamic global map reflecting outcome of every match, multiple game factions and loyalty/reputation system, first person view only, deep combat roles system, day-to-day matching with universe rich and deep history, and a plethora of other things.
    Matched 12 vs.12 combat game mode were chosen as a backbone, with f2p as business model and Cryengine3 for graphics. As a concept it looked near-to-awesome.

    Closed beta started with very limited assets available for players four mechs, one map, one 8x8 game mode. Despite multiple stability issues, UI bugs and optimization issues, it was a solid base for a true Mechwarrior game. It had all core mechanics we all loved in MW series: multiple weapons, twisting torsos, separately armored locations etc. Graphics wasn't bad, even without DX11 support and interactive environment, while still far from Crysis level. But even then first problems emerged some tabletop stuff like ranges and weapon parameters weren't perfect for real-time action game, witch caused a lot of imbalance. Mechlab your battle machine customization system turned out to be another balance issue while giving alot of freedom in customization, it became a clear step back from the previous game Mechwarrior 4 in terms of balance and Battletech rules and lore proximity.

    With addition of new weapons and equipment, balance issues became more and more crucial, but developers decided to not change the core mechanics, adding some very anti-intuitive and complicated solutions instead. And that's not only about combat mechanics for example, economic system, implying repair and rearming your mech after battles, was completely removed as "unbalanceable".

    Combat role system was reduced to a bunch of very simple and totally linear "+N% to something" unlockable perks.

    Day-to-day concept also proved itself insolent, because of slow development process, unable to keep in pace with key universe dates event.

    Alot of improvement and content were added during Closed and Open betas, such as bugfixing and networking, alot of new mechs and maps, but core game wasn't really improved to the release date: it still offers very limited lobby capabilities (only random matchmaking for individual players and groups), only two no-respawn game modes without any match-to-match connections global map and faction system were postponed too and are not included to the 17th September release along with DirectX11 support, destructable environment. With every new patch game comes further from Mechwarrior and Battletech basics, desperately trying to be playable, but still weighted down by unresolved core mechanic issues. Optimization still is not a bright side too even on minimum graphics settings you'll likely need a quad-core CPU and descent graphic card along with 4gb of RAM.

    Now, after game left Beta state, it's very unlikely that small developers team will make a massive overhaul, and a lot of time will be required to achieve announced features, which weren't canceled completely. For now "release" is only a word in the profile.

    The bright side, actually, is business model unlike many f2p games, it's definitely not a pay-to-win. Despite players were able to buy premium subscriptions and mech for real money since closed beta, there is no way to receive any ultimate advantages this way.

    If you aren't hardcore Battletech/Mechwarrior fan, ready to forgive drawbacks just because you're crazy of mechs, you'd better wait for a moment, when game really will have something more than 12x12 15 minutes matches. There is a chance it will happen, after all.
    If you are, you'd better know, that the game world clock stopped just before Clans invasion, so you'll not see some iconic clan mechs of previous games, at least for a while.    … Expand
  91. Wakko
    Sep 17, 2013
    3
    Great graphics, some fun. Totally unbalanced and the more the devs attempt to balance the worse they make the game. Introducing mechs out of date order (after specifically stating they would be doing it timeline accurate), complete disregard of table top rules (after specifically stating they would develop to TT rules), introducing chassis variants that don't exist and are abusive, andGreat graphics, some fun. Totally unbalanced and the more the devs attempt to balance the worse they make the game. Introducing mechs out of date order (after specifically stating they would be doing it timeline accurate), complete disregard of table top rules (after specifically stating they would develop to TT rules), introducing chassis variants that don't exist and are abusive, and consistently ignoring the user community complaining about these issues.

    Do not invest in this game unless your willing to deal with an arcadish version of MechWarrior. You want a faithful game conversion, look to any other product. Even the terrible versions of Mech Warrior from Microsoft did better than this game.

    Devs are constantly investing heavily in customization gear that you pay for instead of correcting game bugs. PGI is more concerned with generating revenue and less about making a good game.    … Expand
  92. Khobai
    Sep 17, 2013
    5
    The good: MWO is free to play and fun when played in moderation. The mechs look great, the weapons look and sound great, and the mech combat is truly convincing.

    The bad: MWO lacks the immersion factor of previous mechwarrior titles. The gamemodes are boring and make no sense. The game lacks the compulsory ambient/techno/industrial soundtrack of other mechwarrior games. Game is also    The good: MWO is free to play and fun when played in moderation. The mechs look great, the weapons look and sound great, and the mech combat is truly convincing.

    The bad: MWO lacks the immersion factor of previous mechwarrior titles. The gamemodes are boring and make no sense. The game lacks the compulsory ambient/techno/industrial soundtrack of other mechwarrior games. Game is also plagued with balance issues and devs making false promises. Anyone looking for something "more" than just a barebones game isnt going to find it.    … Expand
  93. Jerimiah
    Sep 17, 2013
    3
    Their launch should really be open beta:

    - No collision detection light mechs run rampant into larger mechs with no consequences for bump and grind - Poor heat system and weapons balancing. Instead of small changes, they paint with broad strokes and introduce multiple changes at once making it hard to discern the actual impact of said changes - Maps have numerous bugs and catches    Their launch should really be open beta:

    - No collision detection light mechs run rampant into larger mechs with no consequences for bump and grind
    - Poor heat system and weapons balancing. Instead of small changes, they paint with broad strokes and introduce multiple changes at once making it hard to discern the actual impact of said changes
    - Maps have numerous bugs and catches where you get hung up on the smallest of obstacles
    - Weapon mechanics for various weapons render them for the most part useless resulting in FOTM builds
    - 3PV mechanic destroys pillar of recon role of light mechs
    - Minimal map selection
    - Matchmaker and grouping requirements not small group friendly 5-10 man teams
    - Clunky Interface although UI 2.0 is promised...someday
    - No lobby or means to host unit player events
    - Prolonged development cycle for core main features of community warfare missing for launch day

    All in all a stunning visually beautiful game executed in a craptastic development cycle. Todays launch should be open beta as it seems somewhere in the order of 3-6 months development for basic core functionality to be released around its community elements.    … Expand
  94. ZsoSahal
    Sep 17, 2013
    1
    The original vision for this game as promised by the Dev's sounded amazing. I bought the founders pack, and felt good helping a new developer make a new Mechwarrior game for the first time in a decade. That was my mistake.

    Closed beta was fun, and some new quirks kept me interested for a while. Then I realized that I hadn't played the game in 6 months, and hadn't missed it in the    The original vision for this game as promised by the Dev's sounded amazing. I bought the founders pack, and felt good helping a new developer make a new Mechwarrior game for the first time in a decade. That was my mistake.

    Closed beta was fun, and some new quirks kept me interested for a while. Then I realized that I hadn't played the game in 6 months, and hadn't missed it in the least. That was my first warning sign.

    The gameplay gets stale quickly, and the customer support, specifically their knock off online billing system is abysmal. The new user experience is not, as some reviews have claimed, completely non-existent. It exists, and could be accurately compared to using a cheese grater to shave your b@lls.

    New content, in the form of new maps, generally high heat to tempt you to buy consumables with real money, comes at a piddling rate. New mechs generally appear every month, however actual balance of said mechs, and god forbid weapons, is glacially slow. When it does happen, balance is not the term for it, rather a scorched earth policy to nerf into oblivion.

    Finally, the community interaction is awful. Banhammer happy mods, devs and even the President of the company insult their core audience, and the list of broken promises and lies stretches for many, many pages on the forums.

    1/10, would not recommend. Stay away from this for another year and hopefully, once a few people are fired, the game can improve.    … Expand
  95. chiXu
    Sep 18, 2013
    5
    If I was to judge a game purely, in this case, the 5-15 minutes you're sitting down and playing an actual match I'd likely be scoring higher than I am in this review. Anyone that knows anything about this incarnation of a Mechwarrior game will know, however, that there is a lot more to this game than those scant minutes and those are the areas where I feel it starts to fall short.

    On    If I was to judge a game purely, in this case, the 5-15 minutes you're sitting down and playing an actual match I'd likely be scoring higher than I am in this review. Anyone that knows anything about this incarnation of a Mechwarrior game will know, however, that there is a lot more to this game than those scant minutes and those are the areas where I feel it starts to fall short.

    On the face of things, my personal experience has been fairly bug free with minimal crashes and or technical issues. The graphics are pleasant without being too colourful to take away from the grim reality of mech combat and future war on such a destructive scale. For a game that is still optimizing the technical aspects of its graphics setup, notably the current lack of DX11, that's one of the better points.

    The 'mech combat and the matches themselves, when judged match to match, are an enjoyable experience for the most part. A personal grievance of mine, coming from a history of competitive twitch shooters, are the various hit registration lag related issues that have a tendency to rear their ugly head. Playing on state-side servers from the depths of Sweden obviously isn't a great help but, when European servers are finally introduced I'm hopeful that those issues will largely be alleviated. There's nothing more frustrating than watching missiles or shells explode against the armor of a 'mech that's right up in your face only to note that they don't take damage. It's an unfortunate drawback to what is otherwise an experience one might be willing to invest, not only time, but real life money into developing.

    There's various niche's and "meta's" that pop up in terms of the gameplay; jump sniping, high-alpha builds, missile spam etc. but to anyone with enough experience and ability they're not problems that could be classified as game-breakers, nor do I believe any of the methods employed to deal with could be classified as the same.

    The game isn't new-player friendly. For a person coming to it without prior experience of Battletech Mechwarrior or friends that are currently playing and can advise, there are a lot of elements to know which simply aren't documented. The simplest form of a tutorial has basic information regarding movement and weapons fire but there's so much more going on that it's simple a pre-face to what needs to be covered, and what isn't covered. As such, unless a person is willing to delve into the forums and pull as much as possible from numerous different topics and posts, a new-player experience could be a trying and lengthy process. Something of a stipend is in place, however, the first 20 or so games on a new account garnering increased credits to help get a person into a 'mech of their own (The process until that point being a new player uses one of 4 rotated 'mechs called trial mechs which cannot be customized).

    If I was only coming to this game now and had no prior experience of it, my scoring would be higher, of that I have no doubt. My issues, however, come from having played the game since the early days of closed Beta. This doesn't warrant me to any extra attention, I don't claim to know better than anyone else or say my experience is greater than the next guys, I'm speaking purely from what I have personally experienced and what I view to be the shortcomings of the game and why I score it 5/10.

    Once the appeal and glitter of a new, 'mech based shooter is gone, the game very quickly becomes very "samey". What I mean by this is that, due in large to a stale metagame, limited game-modes and a slow development cycle on maps, one game quickly begins to feel like the next which feels like the next and there's very little sense of progressing in any meaningful direction.

    Meta-game end-game is a big deal in games nowadays, to give them life and continuity and in Mechwarrior Online the primary method for offering this is Community Warfare.

    Community Warfare was first slated for release late 2012, then January 2013 then spring and then the official Sept. 17th release and has consistently been pushed back further and further. I believe at the latest mention it was said to have the first stage (Choosing a faction or something similar, it won't effect gameplay or much else other than that until, I believe, stage 2) hopefully landing in November. For anyone that's been playing since April May 2012 this wait has long since passed the point of reasonable acceptance. One of the key reasons I was able to continue playing as much as I did, personally, was that I always had the feeling that community warfare was "just around the corner".

    Similar things have happened with the promise of a new UI and maps and gamemodes gametypes, all of which is pushed back as the developers try and deal with numerous bugs and issues. One can't help but feel PGI has bitten off more than they can chew.

    My rating; 5/10 with the potential to becoming 8/10 or higher when those key features arrive.    … Expand
  96. Wise_is_Loud
    Sep 18, 2013
    3
    The concept of this game is brilliant, you can log many hours completely free un till you need to buy yourself a 5th mech. Even then you don't have to throw much money at this game to get more hours from it.

    However, there are some serious flaws with the game, with only 1 effective game mode your options are limited and new experiences soon vanish. This has been promised to be    The concept of this game is brilliant, you can log many hours completely free un till you need to buy yourself a 5th mech. Even then you don't have to throw much money at this game to get more hours from it.

    However, there are some serious flaws with the game, with only 1 effective game mode your options are limited and new experiences soon vanish. This has been promised to be rectified but with repeated promises things just get pushed further and further into the future with developers focusing on what colour paint to add next.

    The serious concern however that you should consider is "Do I want to join a game where valid concerns are ignored?" The developers continue to make game breaking decisions after the community have 90% voted against. Sadly this is not a one off but developers have the right (and use the right) to ignore their customers and change the game even after promising not to. Developers have also been known to lie outright to avoid dealing with issues.
    MWO developers are notorious for ignoring problems (which means certain weapons won't work in game) for months.

    As a game goes it has the potential to be highly enjoyable but I would seriously hold off on putting any money into the hands of it's current owners who value long term customers so little.    … Expand
  97. MustrumRiduclly
    Sep 18, 2013
    5
    Mechwarrior Online is the newest title in the series of Mechwarrior games. It is a Free To Play Game. Unlike its predecssors, it is a pure online PvP game. There is no campaign or story node and no Player vs Enemey combats.
    As a mechwarrior game, it is based on the Battletech Table Top game and as a mechwarrior title, it puts you in the position of the pilot of a mighty, heavily armed and    Mechwarrior Online is the newest title in the series of Mechwarrior games. It is a Free To Play Game. Unlike its predecssors, it is a pure online PvP game. There is no campaign or story node and no Player vs Enemey combats.
    As a mechwarrior game, it is based on the Battletech Table Top game and as a mechwarrior title, it puts you in the position of the pilot of a mighty, heavily armed and armoured war machine fighting together with 11 team mates against 12 others. In the Mechwarrior business, we like to call this "Big Stompy Robot Fights".

    = Gameplay =
    The gameplay is a mix of an FPS (now also with 3PV camera drone mode) and (walking) tank simulator. The controls are on the more complex side of things. You can twist your torso (similar to a tank's turret) seperately from your legs, and you can also move your arms seperately. Mechs consist of multiple hit locations (like Center Torso, Left Rear Torso, Right Arm etc) with seperate hit points for each location, and each location containing items that will be lost if the hit location is destroyed. The mechs are customizable to some extent in their weapon loadout, armor distrubtion, engine and other equipment, and each mech comes in multiple variants with slight diffferentiation in model or possible loadouts.
    You queue up for a match alone or with friends, and the match-maker tries to pit two equally strong 12 man teams against each other on a randomly selected map and with a randomly selected game mode.
    There is currently no lobby feature, though there is one announced for the future.

    = Character Advancement =
    For each match you pla you earn C-Bills and XP depending on your performance (kills, assists, spotting, win/loss). You spend C-Bills to buy mechs, weapons or other equipment, and you can use XP to unlock mech efficiencies (passive buffs to mech stats, like torso twist range or maximum heat threshold before shutdown) and modules (slottable buffs or even active abilities). You start the game only with access to trial mechs, which cannot be customized. You earn bonus C-Bills for the first 25 matches so you can afford your own mech soon.
    Overall, the advancement is relatively slow and shallow. The mech efficiencies are the same for every mech, there is only a small number of modules, and if you want to gain all mech efficiencies for a mech, you also have to buy variants of the same mech.

    = Long Term Motivation and Metagame =
    When the title was announced, community warfare was intended to act as metagame and provide long-term motivation. Community Warfare means you fight for a faction (be it as part of it, as a merc corp, or as a lone wolf) and gain or lose territory for that faction, and earn loyality.
    This feature is not implemented yet, so currently, there is very little long term motivations or metagame.
    Without any lobbies, there is no easy way to organize player-run tournaments or leagues, though that hasn't stopped players from trying.

    = Game Balance =
    Being a PvP only title, balance becomes a naturally important topic to players. Without game balance, the many mech build choices are quickly narrowed down to the few good options, and the overall enjoyment drops due to lack of variety and surprises. Be warned that this is one of my "favorite" topics and I might be the least subjective here.
    The game balance is still not in a good state.
    Some of the problems arose from underlying systems.
    The heat system (a core component of any Battletech derived game) effectively makes balancing weapon stats much more difficult. The stats for weapons come basically from a game that worked very differently, and so it just won't fit together well. Mech armor values are derived from the table top game, too, ignoring that there is a big difference between randomly rolled hit locaitons and mouse-aimed hit locations (with all FPS typically conceits added in).
    There are also technical issues that affect game balance, like the hit detection still not being reliable (sometimes dependent on mech models) and imbalanced hit box sizes.
    Personally I am having the impression (impression fact) that the development team is not prepared to analyize their own game design well enough, and are also a bit unwilling to accept critique or change certain systems due to their own emotional investment in them. (As I said, this part will be very subjective. Make up your own mind, if you're interested enough in the game.)

    = Advice =
    If you like stompy robot fights, or a battletech fan, check the game out. But the current game is not really worthy a released title, lacking too many features and still having too many shortcomings. There have been many delays and changes of stated goals (some might speak of broken promises and lies).
    I'd carefully consider spending any money on the game in its current state.
    Rating is 5/10. It might improve with future features, depending on their quality. (+1.5 for Community Warfare, +1.5 for Balance, +1 for game modes and +1 for advancement)    … Expand
  98. Erasus
    Sep 18, 2013
    5
    Hi there,

    I am playing the game since closed beta (yes i am a founder) and have roughly 5000 games under my belt. This is my honest opinion about MechWarrior: Online so far: Tech aspects: The Graphics seem to become worse and worse, graphics are sub par, given that this game is using the astonishing good looking Cryengine 3. The game is heavily CPU bound, because it still uses    Hi there,

    I am playing the game since closed beta (yes i am a founder) and have roughly 5000 games under my belt.

    This is my honest opinion about MechWarrior: Online so far:

    Tech aspects:

    The Graphics seem to become worse and worse, graphics are sub par, given that this game is using the astonishing good looking Cryengine 3.
    The game is heavily CPU bound, because it still uses the dated DirectX9 API.
    So if you have an "old" AMD 4 core Processor with 3,8ghz (like i have) and a top of the line graphics card (which should do the brunt of the computing), you will be able to play MWO only at medium graphics settings at HD resolution, with FPS breakdowns under the 25 FPS mark on heavy fights.
    This might change when PGI reintroduces DX11, but as of now they did not deliver and graphics and performance are mediocre at best.

    Netcode issues are plaguing the game since its closed beta days, which were fixed at one time, but then the game made a few steps back and that pretty much sums up the games current state.

    The mech models however are beautiful! From the art standpoint this game elevates the BattleTech franchise to a whole new level.
    For the most part the maps are very well done, too.

    Gameplay:
    Like any other Mechwarrior game, you are sitting in a giant robot and control the mech either via jostick, joypad or Keyboard/mouse.
    The movement pattern is that of tanks in recent tank games like world of tanks (thats a lot of tanks in one sentece!) and requires the unfamiliar getting used to.
    The newly introduced third person view helps with that.

    The gameplay itself is pretty straight forward and a lot of fun in the beginning: you pick your mech, drop in matches, and get experience and money for every game you finish. Of course, wins gain more money and xp as losses.
    With the money you then customize your mech to your likings and with the XP you incrase the efficiency of the mechs` systems.
    But it only carries the game that far. Your drop in, end the game upgrade your mech and repeat until your mech is tricked out, then you take another mech and do it all again, which is the whole meta game MWO currently has to offer.

    By now, the game was promised to have a meaningful metagame aka community warfare. But PGI did not deliver.
    The balance is not quite where it needs to be, but this is a rather moot point, given that even games out there that are almost a decade old struggle to accomplish a good balance.

    The price model of the current game is somewhere between solid and... "outlandish", to say it politely.
    For people that just want to accelerate XP earnings, PGi offers a reasonable price model, however, If you are a collector, this game will eat you alive, because the game itself is free to play, but in order to have everything, you will have to pay literally thousands of dollars. And the game is just out of Beta!

    The frequency in which the game is patched is solid, the patches, for the most part are not, fixing bugs and introducing other, more severe bugs is more or less the rule than the exception.

    The bottom line: This game is a solid game for casual drop ins, while offering no long term motivation

    The technological base is awesome, the implemetation of said base is lackluster at best.
    Prepare yourself that your gaming rig that runs Crysis 3 on VERY HIGH settings, to struggle with MWO on MEDIUM settings!

    Tis game is promising, but PGI has yet to deliver the key features of the game and up the performnce substantially to even be calles a really solid game that has reached GOLD status.
    At this point, this game is a good BETA game, but not a GOLD game .

    A lot could be said aboout the communication and service habits of PGI towards their customers, but i am here to review MWO, not PGI, right? So I leave it at this.    … Expand
  99. Wolfsdragoon
    Sep 17, 2013
    3
    My main issue with PGI is the lack of credibility. Censorship of negative comments abound. Concerns are frequently ignored, even when backed by logical arguments and data. PGI routinely filters out what they do not want to hear, or spins things after the facts.
    As an Example: There was a vote about 3rd Person and 90% of people said they didnt want it like 3500+ people majority against    My main issue with PGI is the lack of credibility. Censorship of negative comments abound. Concerns are frequently ignored, even when backed by logical arguments and data. PGI routinely filters out what they do not want to hear, or spins things after the facts.
    As an Example: There was a vote about 3rd Person and 90% of people said they didnt want it like 3500+ people majority against and this was their response:

    'The analysis on those who voted, showed that the majority of votes came from a very narrow demographic of our player base. And while they represent some of core players, they did not necessarily represent the opinion of the general user base. The majority of our players never visit, post, or read the forum content, so the poll could be considered weighted in favour of a specific demographic.'

    They talk about this mythical 'silent majority' a lot when justifying decisions the players don't agree with.

    Balancing is frequently not based on precedence BattleTech and Mechwarrior) but on appeasing the lowest common denominator, mechanics are invented, and balancing based on nerfing whatever that lowest common denominator is upset about that day.    … Expand
  100. Grindstone
    Sep 21, 2013
    4
    Well, a lot of people love the original game, Mechwarrior... which is why I went into this game with high hopes. I wish I hadn't spent the money. Years into development, and a year into Beta, the game remains broken. The netcode is buggy, the matchmaker is non-existent, (the devs seem intent on pitting experienced teams against inexperienced individuals and weight-balancing appearsWell, a lot of people love the original game, Mechwarrior... which is why I went into this game with high hopes. I wish I hadn't spent the money. Years into development, and a year into Beta, the game remains broken. The netcode is buggy, the matchmaker is non-existent, (the devs seem intent on pitting experienced teams against inexperienced individuals and weight-balancing appears useless), the weapons remain unbalanced, the maps are few and repetitive, the gameplay limited to two modes (which is really just deathmatch), disconnects and player drops are commonplace, and I could go on and on.

    Rather than focus on these issues, PGI has moved the game out of beta and provided a bunch of new mechs to purchase and a 12v12 mode (while 8v8 remains buggy).

    Having said that, the graphics are enjoyable, and it IS MechWarrior... so it does have that going for it. Worth checking out for 5 minutes, but prepare to be underimpressed... AND TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.

    I purchased the game early, and have significant experience in playtime... nevertheless, I will NOT be recommending the game to friends. Which, quite frankly, is sad... MechWarrior is one of my favorite genre/game titles ever. A better bet is to spend your money on Star Citizen, Eve Online, Titanfall, Battlefield 4, WoT, War Thunder, or any of the other upcoming or current games that have been well done.

    Sorry, PGI, no more money to you...    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
96
#96 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. IGN Italia
    Sep 14, 2014
    85
    Nice gameplay and deep strategy for the latest incarnation of Mechwarrior. Too bad it lacks any kind of Single Player content.
    Read full review
  2. PC Gamer
    Nov 4, 2013
    83
    Slightly overpriced, but a more than worthy successor to one of PC gaming’s greatest franchises that nails the important part: combat.
    Read full review
  3. Multiplayer.it
    Oct 22, 2013
    65
    MechWarrior Online does a pretty good job in balancing out the gameplay and gives you lots of BattleMechs, weapons and items to buy, but it's got only two game modes and it's definitely not that fun.
    Read full review
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