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. DangerousDD
    Oct 31, 2022
    0
    The physics and actual gameplay of the game r good due to a quality 3rd party game engine (cryengine i believe). However the nuts and bolts that have been done by the company PGI miss the mark entirely, Firstly instead of random grouping when joining, the game rigs the grouping based on previous individuals game results. This however is deeply flawed resulting in ridiculously one sidedThe physics and actual gameplay of the game r good due to a quality 3rd party game engine (cryengine i believe). However the nuts and bolts that have been done by the company PGI miss the mark entirely, Firstly instead of random grouping when joining, the game rigs the grouping based on previous individuals game results. This however is deeply flawed resulting in ridiculously one sided games very frequently. In regular game play it's 12 men per side, 24 total and far too many games end in 12-0 or similar results. This takes away from the enjoyment and penalizes the veteren players as they are often paired with much lesser accomplished players and end up getting wiped out in a regular pug. Conversely you can join with groups of up to 4 players further rigging the outcomes.
    If a veteren player takes in a new mech robot that hasn't been fully leveled up and or lesser than the robot they had previously had good results with, the game does not take this into account. Making it much more difficult to level the mech up. This has been mentioned constantly since the game was released and they still heven't gotten it right. They would have much better success with random groups. Period. Or at least have a separate option to play entirely random games(no group drops no psr) .
    Next is the Mechlab UI. The place where you do all your robot configurations among other things. It's ridiculously counter intuitive and unnecessarily tedious. For example from the main menu it takes at least 9 to 10 mouse clicks on various tabs and buttons to assign one skill point to a new unleveled mech. Once you click save, it automatically and ridiculously kicks you back to the main menu instead of leaving you in the tab you are in, forcing you to go through the whole routine again if you fogotten something or wanted to continue to evaluate the robot you were working on. Horribly conceived.
    Next is the text chat. Again ridiculously clunky and cryptic. Amateur hour here. You have to press different buttons to talk with either just your team or all players in game. This would be fine except it doesn't work this way if you are dead and want to continue to chat. Then it defaults to all chat. This would probably be acceptable except if you die while texting or are texting in transition between game lobby and game starting your message is cut off resulting in unintelligable portions of messages being sent. Horrible! This hasn't been addressed since day one, near 10years.
    Another thing is the banning of certain names. For some reason this company doesn't like the word "NOOB". If you've been found to have this word in any portion of your player name, for example Noobboy or Canadiannooby etc the company unilaterally bans your name and turns it into its generic "mechwarriorxxxxxx". I can't remember when I've ever seen something more anal or ridiculous with a company.
    The game population has dwindled to a shadow of what it once was due to all of the reasons stated above as well as others. They were and are too slow to respond to the majority of paying customers and the exodus was the result. When people became impatient and discontent the company blamed those individuals for the migration instead of immediatley understanding that people were trying to help. They ended up alienating and making their base estranged. Only themselves to blame.
    With the state of this game now I can only conclude that the people responsible for this company have coddled to a very narrow quirky few that are ridiculously rigid and live in a bubble.
    I would give the game a 7 for gameplay but I give it a 0 due to all the things that detract from it and how quickly they make the game get old. Lastly the game is what 10 years old now...and it still has bugs with players getting randomly disconnected. They try to relog quickly to find that while they were rebooting the game they've been killed. They receive a time penalty because they left the game prematurely and they receive no rewards. There's no excuse for this epic a failure to resolve issues that have been there forever. At least none they've given that rings true.    … Expand
  2. HowardJohnson
    Jan 14, 2019
    0
    Still terrible after all these years, no surprises here!

    Maps are a joke, always have, always will. They are either small and wide open, or large and wide open, and are generally all very flat and poorly segmented, if at all. Little to no thought was put into their design, and they allow for nearly zero movement options. There is no flow to a match because of this, and many matches    Still terrible after all these years, no surprises here!

    Maps are a joke, always have, always will. They are either small and wide open, or large and wide open, and are generally all very flat and poorly segmented, if at all. Little to no thought was put into their design, and they allow for nearly zero movement options. There is no flow to a match because of this, and many matches are just simply Mexican standoffs, or head-on charges, as there is literally no way for anyone to actually move without being seen or covered between map segments, making it almost impossible to properly flank or apply any strategy mobility wise. This is probably the single biggest failing concerning MWO's gameplay, and overall design. 24 Players on these maps is simply absurd, and downright boring. They could really badly use another playlist or 2 with tweaked maps, and lower player counts, to help alleviate these issues. Only problem with that, is it would require a little more work, with some more robust servers, and PGI will never pay for more then the bare minimum to support this game.

    As far as load-outs go, there is literally only a single usable "strategy" available, and that is, "which weapons provide the best DPS", and tends to favor specific ranges, and it all depends on what the dev team deems to be the best at any given time. This is frustrating, as mobility, positioning, and flexibility, don't mean squat in the face of nowhere to run (bad, over-crowded, open maps) and superior DPS (especially using Coolshot items). Gameplay is severely limited, and features downright stupid design, for this so called "thinking person's shooter".

    There are still ways to abuse the quickplay matchmaking, and when population starts to thin out later in the day (or it's just plain dead ), you will suddenly find yourself getting damn near 2 shot, by weak, short ranged weapons, from well beyond their effective ranges. I wonder what that could ever possibly be now. Not cheating, no, never! MWO is just TOO PERFECT for that!

    PGI is downright awful about banning known cheaters and grifers, as in, they never do it, despite having a report system. Most griefers can be seen still playing years later, even after tons of reports, from just about everybody they play with.

    Not to mention, for a game that is strictly a competitive one, the servers are literally the absolute worse I have ever seen in a game. Period. My ping in most games that are well looked after and properly maintained, is around an average of 40 ms, over a pure wireless network, with a generic AC wifi card. Wired, and it's generally 20-40 all day. On MWO, however, the highest I have seen for myself, is between 80-90 ms, but wait! It can, and it does (quite frequently), go as high as 250+ ms, regardless of region. I am definitely no expert, but it is BEYOND clear to me, that something is very, very, VERY wrong, with the netcode and server solutions, that are used by PGI. To say the very, damn, least.

    I remember much less lag and connection issues in games such as Tribes and Unreal. That were over dial-up connections. It's a total joke, and completely pathetic.

    They still lock new releases behind pay-walls, then nerf them.

    They still charge way too much, for far too little.

    They still refuse to fix any of the games actual core issues, or legitimately better (THROW OUT) their absolutely obnoxious f2p (pay2not-grind) model.

    Mechwarrior Online is still just a shameless, money grabbing F2P.

    Nothing has really changed with this game, and it never will.

    The core community is as hilarious, as it is outright horrendous. A decent chunk of the players are completely, 100% clueless old timers, who are WAY behind the times, totally out-of touch, and think this is all A-OK, and every-other game is just as horrible and poorly performing. The other half are people who are knowledgeable of these issues, and take full advantage of them, with PGI's blessing, of course. PGI has a nasty habit of giving preferential treatment to those faithful fans who buy mech packs, spend money every now-and-again, and are sure to rub elbows with admins in the forums, or even customer service staff (maybe tell your idiot players to NOT name drop your staff, especially as threats? Right, Patience?). Those faithful are pretty much allowed free-reign over the game, doing as they wish with utter impunity.

    Long-as-hell story short, MWO is a complete and utter cesspool of an experience. It has the bones of something that could have always been great, but was squandered by incredibly short-sighted greed, pandering to an outspoken, idiotic, toxic minority, and general gross incompetence.

    And there are people still paying into this. That genuinely blows my mind.    … Expand
  3. Hackerbee
    Feb 28, 2018
    2
    Pros.
    1. Its Mechwarrior
    2. Graphics are rather good. 3. The community is surprisingly non toxic these days, it used to be pretty bad, and some top clans are still pure cancer. Cons. 1. very poorly thought out, skill and Mech progression system, encouraging you into spend real money. 2. incredibly bad interface, Overly complex Mech customization interface (MW4:V/BK/M was better)    Pros.
    1. Its Mechwarrior
    2. Graphics are rather good.
    3. The community is surprisingly non toxic these days, it used to be pretty bad, and some top clans are still pure cancer.

    Cons.
    1. very poorly thought out, skill and Mech progression system, encouraging you into spend real money.
    2. incredibly bad interface, Overly complex Mech customization interface (MW4:V/BK/M was better)
    2. Non cosmetic premium items, and golden/premium Mechs, was a blatant milking of the mechwarrior fanbase.
    3. Gameplay is fairly basic and poorly balanced due to addition of the newest premium Mech, and nurffing/rendering useless of previous premium Mechs rendering them Obsolete.
    4. High level Clan wars manipulation with mass accounts, and poor administration of Clan wars activities, by the Developers mean that people who spam alt account clans, to set their clans up for victory dominate the game mode.
    5. Maps are pitifully small and phone booth like considering that you are in a towering war machine.
    6. Underhanded collusion and corporate pressure to get another Mechwarrior project shut down (Legends). you will have to google it, it took a long time for details of what happened to come out (it has been revived recently)
    7. Sound effects are really bad and repetitive, you get really sick and tired of the audio in this game the music is also garbage.
    8. No real exploration of the mechwarrior lore.
    9. Game has always been extraordinarily buggy, It is better now than it has ever been bug wise but wow man where there some major **** ups on the part of the developer.    … Expand
  4. joti123
    May 21, 2017
    0
    The first look into this game is amazing if you like the francise.
    But if you try to point bad things out in the forums, then you get banned pretty fast.
    Unless you are a fanboy stay away from this game and use your time for something else.
  5. SpoiledGamer
    Jan 14, 2017
    4
    It's pay to win.

    Don't let them fool you. All the latest and newest mechs are always more OP than the previous mechs. The people who get access to the new mechs are the people who pay real money for it. If you pre-order a mech with real money you get access to it months before regular players do. With new mechs being released all the time the latest mechs you buy will always be more    It's pay to win.

    Don't let them fool you. All the latest and newest mechs are always more OP than the previous mechs. The people who get access to the new mechs are the people who pay real money for it. If you pre-order a mech with real money you get access to it months before regular players do. With new mechs being released all the time the latest mechs you buy will always be more OP.

    If you do play DONT WASTE REAL MONEY ON IT    … Expand
  6. DillionHarper
    Jul 25, 2016
    0
    Its pretty bad. There are 4 or 5 mechs that you must pilot to have a chance. There are quite a few mechs actually avaliable, but if you aren't piloting one of these "meta" mechs then you dont stand a chance.
  7. GatorGar14
    Jul 11, 2016
    4
    I was a founder for this game, and it has let me down from start to finish for the following reasons:

    1. Devs don't listen to the community, or if they do, it takes them 3-5 months to release a simple patch for something that is horribly broken. To further my point, this game was in open beta for 3 YEARS. They developer SLOW AS HECK! I mean, this is some DayZ-rate development! I'll    I was a founder for this game, and it has let me down from start to finish for the following reasons:

    1. Devs don't listen to the community, or if they do, it takes them 3-5 months to release a simple patch for something that is horribly broken. To further my point, this game was in open beta for 3 YEARS. They developer SLOW AS HECK! I mean, this is some DayZ-rate development! I'll probably be dead before that game is done!

    2. You pay 20$ for a nice mech, and 3 months later a new mech comes out that is designed specifically to kill your mech, and it costs another $20

    3. The maps are absolutely terrible, and not balanced at all.

    4. Heavy-handed attempts at fixing balance serve no other purpose than to break intricate mech builds and render all your hours of effort obsolete every couple of months.

    5. The majority of people playing this game nowadays are apparently not bothered by 1-4 and play all the time. The game has a VERY steep learning curve because of all the time and $ that goes into building proper mechs, and because of this new players are scared off by how expensive and hard it is.

    6. I personally felt insulted by several interactions and comments PGI has made on forums/twitter    … Expand
  8. Strikearrow
    Jul 7, 2016
    0
    I haven't played the game in a year because of how bad it was in 2015 - terrible user interface and awful grind. I decided to download the massive update (took nearly 3hours for the updates) and try it out. It's no better now than it was a year ago - worse actually because they stopped giving away free items (the game is basically pay to win). The game modes are the same and still patheticI haven't played the game in a year because of how bad it was in 2015 - terrible user interface and awful grind. I decided to download the massive update (took nearly 3hours for the updates) and try it out. It's no better now than it was a year ago - worse actually because they stopped giving away free items (the game is basically pay to win). The game modes are the same and still pathetic - just like the game.

    If you've played previous Mech Warrior games, then you will not much like this version. I was top 100 online in MW4 so I know a good game; this game is not worth your time.    … Expand
  9. Sarlic
    Mar 15, 2016
    4
    This game has been in a beta state for over 4 years.

    + Great Community. Lots of mature players with good backgrounds. Had a great time. + Base game is good. Have a try. (Although only 1/4 pillar has been done and that's Mech Warfare.) Cons - 4/4 pillars never been accomplished. Role Warfare is not present. Community Warfare is basic and shallow. Information Warfare is (literally)    This game has been in a beta state for over 4 years.

    + Great Community. Lots of mature players with good backgrounds. Had a great time.
    + Base game is good. Have a try. (Although only 1/4 pillar has been done and that's Mech Warfare.)

    Cons
    - 4/4 pillars never been accomplished. Role Warfare is not present. Community Warfare is basic and shallow. Information Warfare is (literally) not present.
    - A certain guy is still employeed after #auniversetoexplore - Part Deux screw up.
    - Dynamic geometry have destroyed the unique look of all mechs.
    - E-sports will destroy this game. CEO does not care, all he see is dollar signs. If your strategy is not right E-sport will cause like poison.
    - Founders and players supporting PGI's bad habits. They should know better by know.
    - Founders who haven't experienced better development cycles are still spending cash on this game.
    - Learning curve is like a pig with two eyes in the back. Steep learning curve. NPE is still terrible.
    - Increased trash talking and more about tiers. Called and expected it. Was a matter of time.
    - Gamedesigner on board who come up with idea's like 'Ghost heat', 'Laser lock range nerf' and all kind of silly easy canned idea's to ruin mechanics. There's no creativity, original idea's to be found. Simple, easy canned minimum effort is the way to go. PGI will always go for the easiest solution. Hence all the ongoing extreme balance attempts.
    - Maps are wasted resources. Terrible quality and MWO is short on 'good' maps. Game still run on a handfull of maps.
    - Mechwarrior Online became from a beautiful simple yet effective slow paced mech simulator in a generic speedy twitch shooter.
    - Mixed tech is seen in all matches. From IS to Clan. It does not matter if you are from the IS, the Clanners or IIC; there is no depth to be seen. No star lances and so on. Just like the gamemodes: from Assault to Conquest and Skirmish
    - Module and consumables- money sink. Same for the overpriced paints in Mechlab.
    - Most members of the Community gravitates towards one mouse button. Perhaps two with a maximum of three different fire groups. By nature people always go for the easiest option. Boating is still largely present.
    - /Mwo and Outreach. Negative squad brigade versus positive squad brigade. Feels Outreach is full of delusional -happy joy joy- people. Sorry - stating a few observations. Splitted niche Community.
    - No solid competitive scene. I mean a original, real and complete featured competitive enviroment.
    - In-experienced game studio with a terrible management.
    - Official forums is a echo-chamber.
    - One guy actively communicating trough one (capped) channel of 140 characters. The rest of the devs does not communicate at all.
    - Poor quality control. Founders are the testers.
    - PSR is like a sack of potatoes. The 'higher' tiers are flawed. Alot of people do not belong in tier one. Yet it's still a XP bar then a actual challenging tier system (I was a high comp. player around 1999-2005.)
    - (Mech)scaling still inconsistent.
    - Selling mech packs at high prices while you can get any other if not a better game with actual features for the same price. Or even two games. ($80 mechpack for 4-5 mechs with the same look, just different paints.)
    - Stubborn people who are still wasting money on this broken game. False hope is a serial killer.
    - Shallow skills and master trees.
    - Speed of development is astronomically low. Go count each month what this gamestudio has done and convert content, each 'fix' etc. to manhours and days and then you will realise it doesnt match up. For a full month of develop time it's.. well i dont bother. You figure it out. As soon i found out i didnt pay for this no longer.
    - The game does not promote teamwork at all. It's a teambased game. Yet most people are found in the solo que. No basic text shouting or a commo-rose to improve teamwork. No decent comm tools.
    - There. Is. No. Single. Depth. Basically a arena filled with stiff ragdolled mechs.
    - This game is not competitive. It's broken and does not represent comp. play.
    - Twitter followers keep supporting bad habits.
    - Terrible grinding. Has been adjusted alot of times. Stealth nerfs being applied later.
    - Townhalls: Garbage in, garbage out. (Love that line!)
    - You play for a couple of minutes - team scatters around the whole map and you die. Disconnect and try again. Make sure you don't watch the match. Rinse and repeat. Stale and repetitive gameplay.
    - You preorder plain text and a pencilled image up to 6 months ahead.

    MWO screams wasted potential all over the place and will continue to throw potential away in the near future.

    I have retired from the game not too long ago. I have end my support as a long time Founder. Since the NDA was lifted, back in 2012, i have lost over 40 friends i introduced over in this game. Which is the only game i have that lost this many. And when i scroll my friendlist most of them have been offline for years.    … Expand
  10. nik_0xffff
    Feb 18, 2016
    1
    Bad developers, unbalanced meta, boring grind and insane pricing.
    The games development hasn't made any real progress in years and every tiny feature is sold as major milestone. F.e. UI update that destroyed any usability it had before, and so on.
    Hands off, even if the start might be fun, it will be wasted money and time.
  11. xaxivewod
    Feb 13, 2016
    0
    MechWarrior Online was a good game with pretty decent graphics. However, the devs made all they could to make the game not fun at all. random game mode random maps and an endless grind unless you pay hard cash.
  12. hukud
    Jan 26, 2016
    0
    p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w
    p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w
    p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w
    p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w
    p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w p2w
  13. macmech
    Jan 23, 2016
    0
    This game is only alive because of its franchise. The "game" it self is just bad.
    This is the worst kind of f2p game out there.
    It should be renamend to "free 2 grind 4 ever unless you give us your money".
  14. fibinis
    Jan 22, 2016
    1
    the game is really bad. you need to buy stuff or you will be crushed from every one that bought stuff. and that stuff is not cheap at all. 40$ for ONE big robot...
    they try to trick you and give you in your first few matches more ingame currency so you thing you can play it easy for free, but after that starting cash you grind hours just to get 1 mech and after that hours again for the    the game is really bad. you need to buy stuff or you will be crushed from every one that bought stuff. and that stuff is not cheap at all. 40$ for ONE big robot...
    they try to trick you and give you in your first few matches more ingame currency so you thing you can play it easy for free, but after that starting cash you grind hours just to get 1 mech and after that hours again for the loadout.
    stay far away there are better mech games out there.    … Expand
  15. mechfreak6
    Jan 13, 2016
    0
    you are forced to play game modes and maps you dont like.
    grinding XP and ingame currence is a pain in the ass without realmoney premium time.
    stay away from this p2w bull****.
  16. nbrado
    Jan 6, 2016
    1
    backed this for 80 dollars in 2011, was not impressed by initial release and thought i'll see how it develops. tried the new version this year and sorry to say even worse than before. lame graphics boring game play, terrible community and devs. Worst kickstarter I backed ever. only value is for teamkilling going forward.
  17. Inflicted
    Nov 23, 2015
    0
    MechWarrior Online, at the core, was a very solid game with and cool gameplay, and reasonable graphics. Playing since closed beta has seen nothing short of a string of disappointing choices. This has lead to the game being in a worse state now than it was back then. Lets go over what has been removed:
    - Choice of match mode
    - Mech collisions - A logical heat system - Game balance    MechWarrior Online, at the core, was a very solid game with and cool gameplay, and reasonable graphics. Playing since closed beta has seen nothing short of a string of disappointing choices. This has lead to the game being in a worse state now than it was back then. Lets go over what has been removed:
    - Choice of match mode
    - Mech collisions
    - A logical heat system
    - Game balance (ignoring clans IS perks are a joke)
    - A decent target locking system
    - Most disappointingly fun
    It seems like every decision is purposely made to make the system less intuitive and less fun.
    Thankfully the IP (Battletech) is also being developed by HBS who have a great track record for developing games. I would suggest checking that game out instead.    … Expand
  18. choopy
    Aug 7, 2015
    3
    Ive reviewed this game once before, but i feel i need to explain my thoughts on the game further,
    Let me start by saying this, ive supported the game since before closed alpha, and i've played previous Mechwarrior games since i was 3 (being 18 now) i remember back when it was still in the works, there were the so called "founders packages" which you would give either 30, 60 or 120    Ive reviewed this game once before, but i feel i need to explain my thoughts on the game further,
    Let me start by saying this, ive supported the game since before closed alpha, and i've played previous Mechwarrior games since i was 3 (being 18 now) i remember back when it was still in the works, there were the so called "founders packages" which you would give either 30, 60 or 120 dollars to the company to help support the games production. I, (being an eager 15 year old at the time) purchased the "Elite" founders package, i payed $60 and got early access and some in game loot. Now, back then, i believed the game was very good (and to a point, i still enjoy it today) lacking in any form of single player, but it still had the mechwarrior feel.

    Now, fast forward 3ish years to today, and the core gameplay is just about the same (add some new content and fancier physics) and my opinion of the game has very much soured, Not because of the gameplay, i love how the game feels (excluding some easily spamable weapons) but in the fact that the game is becoming more and more of a cash grab. true, the game itself is free, but the content inside the game is not. When you start, you have zero in game currency, and in order to gain currency, you have to use "trial mechs" (mechs with non-customizable loadouts which change every few months) which fortunately, they give you a fair variety, but its still a fraction of the full games content, So you either spend dozens of hours using the trial mechs to purchase your own arsenal OR you can click that shiny "buy MC (mech credits)" button, which for real world money you can buy in game mechs, which, if the prices were more understandable wouldn't be so bad, EXCEPT for the fact that in most cases they aren't. just for one of the bigger, nicer units in the game you can spend 7000 MC, which is approximately 35 USD, thirty five dollars for a single unit in the game, that's enough to buy a another game! at this point ive already spent $60 on this game, but apparently that isn't enough for this game.

    But that's only where it begins, every five or six months they'll come out with another "collection" of new mechs, but they don't come cheap, they normally start at 20-35 dollars, but the bigger collections tend to go upwards to up to one hundred and twenty dollars. I'd think if your paying that much for a game, you should be entitled to everything the game has to offer, but no, just wait, in about half a year, there will be another hundred dollar collection up for sale. and the thing is, people are buying them, and lets not get started on the "Limited edition gold collection" they had about a year back, which you could pay FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for the previously mentioned $120's of content, and a mech with a gold color skin (easily recreated with paint might i add) and it still saddened me that i would actually see people with these Golden cash grabs, as a eternal reminder to everyone that they spend five hundred dollars for a video game.

    And that's really my big angst with this game, the painful amounts of cash grab and pay to win, the fact that no matter how much money you give them, no matter how much you succumb to their demands, it will never be enough they will always ask for more, and to me that really hurts what would've been an amazing game without it, id be happy to give it an 8 or 9, but just the astronomical costs in this game is just so bad, it angers and disgusts me, yet still i play the game, passing by people who more than willingly payed upwards of $100 for what probably is worth a few bucks of gameplay, but it saddens me to say that im not much better.    … Expand
  19. DUnknownCritic
    Jul 25, 2015
    3
    NOT really a FREE Game. The game itself is promising and entertaining, but based on a basic deception.

    Developer PGI, affiliated with Microsoft: · Openly suppresses critics. · Employs a "Bait and Switch" approach to selling in game content, (game mechs/gear,) Current mechs are reduced in effectiveness, (adjusted "quirks" nerf of weaponry, etc.) so you have to purchase new mechs/gear    NOT really a FREE Game. The game itself is promising and entertaining, but based on a basic deception.

    Developer PGI, affiliated with Microsoft:

    · Openly suppresses critics.
    · Employs a "Bait and Switch" approach to selling in game content, (game mechs/gear,) Current mechs are reduced in effectiveness, (adjusted "quirks" nerf of weaponry, etc.) so you have to purchase new mechs/gear to compete and enjoy the game.
    · Ineffective in stopping hacks and cheats.
    · New free content is either recycled maps, or challenges for trinkets, as opposed to real free new competitive mechs/gear.
    · Players must pay hundreds of dollars to be competitive or grind for hundreds of hours to obtain competitive mechs/gear.

    The game has incredible potential in the right hands, unfortunately as long as the developer continues to pay off Microsoft, they have zero interest in letting players who have little money, be competitive. The player base is shrinking and all the $500 (real world dollar) gold mechs in the world cannot stop this.

    Ultimately the game suffers. The developer is hiding behind a "free to play" name but unless you want to lose over and over again for hundreds of games, you pay. That's not free to play, that's a deception.

    What a shame.    … Expand
  20. Demonscream
    Jun 30, 2015
    4
    Giant robots (Battle Mech's) are awesome.

    Battletech lore is awesome. If you want to auto win buy “Clan” Mechs. Twice or three times the fire power for the same size. If you want to auto win with “Inner Sphere” buy light mech with the biggest engines. Go fast. No lie, the smallest mechs can’t be hit because of hit box and latency issues. So at the end of most matches Inner Sphere    Giant robots (Battle Mech's) are awesome.

    Battletech lore is awesome.

    If you want to auto win buy “Clan” Mechs. Twice or three times the fire power for the same size.

    If you want to auto win with “Inner Sphere” buy light mech with the biggest engines. Go fast. No lie, the smallest mechs can’t be hit because of hit box and latency issues. So at the end of most matches Inner Sphere light mechs usually do the most damage, it’s just silly. Some light mech pilots have gotten so blatant about it that they latterly stop moving and just stand there in front of you shooting, knowing that the hit box bug will protect them, and 80% of the time it does.

    No balance.

    Not enough maps.

    Don’t waste your time.    … Expand
  21. Elenaval
    Jun 1, 2015
    0
    horrible game very difficult , there are no manuals will tutorial , if you want the robot competitive you have to pay a lot, and then the staff of the game does not help you never
    game to for
  22. JohnJewtard
    May 30, 2015
    0
    Even midway through 2015 it's STILL little more than a shell of a game with a very rich collection of robots for you to BUY!!!! Very limited scope, kife game modes, few maps that are small, dead, stale, empty, with nothing to do. Looks like they've FINALLY got CW on the go. Should have that sorted kinda sorta not so bad in 5 years time or so. :s Sure it's hard to move forward when youEven midway through 2015 it's STILL little more than a shell of a game with a very rich collection of robots for you to BUY!!!! Very limited scope, kife game modes, few maps that are small, dead, stale, empty, with nothing to do. Looks like they've FINALLY got CW on the go. Should have that sorted kinda sorta not so bad in 5 years time or so. :s Sure it's hard to move forward when you CONTINUALLY have to go back & buff & nerf & buff & nerf weapons & mechs all the time after people have ALREADY BOUGHT THEM!!!! Guess that's what happens when you release unfinished crap by just "wingin' it".

    The very worst part of this is that MWLL shut down because of these PGI douches & for those of you that don't know MWLL, it was a free MW game made by modders using Crysis Wars. It had tanks, elementals, aircraft & all the goodies in huge interactive maps with REAL **** to do. So much broader in scope, so much better than MWO will ever be & all made totally free with no intent to profit for it at all. PGI went to them & said "why are we working against each other?" which is nothing more than tactful introductory speak for "shut down now or we'll legally douche all over you for making a better product than we ever could & doing it with no monetary motivations behind it".

    I wanted to love MWO & yeah I had some fun with it, but it gets a 0 for failing to come through in almost every way & then pullin' a dick move like they did, I'm sorry to see MWO's servers still running. :/    … Expand
  23. meatwrench
    Apr 26, 2015
    0
    Horribly unbalanced, VERY poor programming, glitchy, slow battles, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGG between games for an excessive amount of time. MWO fails.
  24. williamhamblin
    Apr 18, 2015
    0
    MWO was supposed to be Mechwarrior 5 - when that failed for whatever reason they took the bones of a decent mechwarrior game and decided to prostitute them for whatever wampum they could get.

    What this leaves behind is a game with two play modes: Get randomly messed up by others for 15 minutes or 30 minutes. While this wide variety of game types would have satisfied no one, the    MWO was supposed to be Mechwarrior 5 - when that failed for whatever reason they took the bones of a decent mechwarrior game and decided to prostitute them for whatever wampum they could get.

    What this leaves behind is a game with two play modes:

    Get randomly messed up by others for 15 minutes or 30 minutes.

    While this wide variety of game types would have satisfied no one, the pay to win system is especially unwelcome, as the games economy allows you to grind forever for no real result - while paying actual dollars is the only way to get the things you need.

    All that would've been forgivable - if I could have played a single player campaign like MW4 Mercs.

    But as you've read what I have written so far, there's obviously nothing to forgive the crap job they've done of providing a fun Mechwarrior Game.

    If you want to enjoy a game in the Battletech Universe I suggest torrenting one that was released before 2001.    … Expand
  25. beatle1
    Mar 2, 2015
    3
    This game is total and absolute mess. It does not know if it wants to be Call of Duty with mechs or a Mech simulator. You start your "fun" in a trial mech that overheats after 2 shots and get killed within 3 seconds and if that wasn't enough you are matched against veteran players using fully decked out mechs with unlocked skills, pimped out in consumables and modules. A lot of playersThis game is total and absolute mess. It does not know if it wants to be Call of Duty with mechs or a Mech simulator. You start your "fun" in a trial mech that overheats after 2 shots and get killed within 3 seconds and if that wasn't enough you are matched against veteran players using fully decked out mechs with unlocked skills, pimped out in consumables and modules. A lot of players will tell you in their infinite wisdom that it's for your own good to make you better. But it’s a complete lie; you can't learn anything when you don't even know what is going. After some time frustration kicks in and an overwhelming majority of new players just give up.

    Then the UI that’s managed to be more convoluted and idiotic than EVE Online’s one, a game that is Excel tables in space. People ask how to sell a mech, the UI is THAT BAD. Tutorial’s explains absolutely jack squat. In order to learn the basics like heat management, loadouts, or even the difference between Streak SRM and SRM or Pulse Lasers and Lasers you have to go way out of your way and do a research. If I wanted to do research as if I’m was writing a work for MA I wouldn't be playing a game.

    Then there’s "Meta". It’s very hard for new players to learn tactics and keep up with the fast changing meta. I know it's hard to regulate but it is also PGI's fault to an extent. The changes they introduce feel as they aren't well thought out and it’s new players suffering for it. It’s one extreme to another. When a new player builds a particular mech how in hell is he/she supposed to know that this patch weapon A is good and wep B is obsolete but the next one wep C is suddenly the meta and wep A is so passe. The values/statistic should be constant/semi-constant otherwise it can completely ruin some mechs and new players have no idea that what they use might as well be trying to ram others for all the damage he/she does.

    Then there’s the grind. I understand very well the game has to have some progression system that the grind is suppose to be severe enough to nudge players into buying premium stuff. However this game basically twists your arm and smashes your head against a brick wall to force you into buying stuff. An example, A new player starts the game, He gets cadet bonus (new players don’t even notice and believe that this bonus is normal earnings) it’s enough money to buy a Medium mech with some currency to spare. Now apart from EXTREMELY flawed Trial mech system there is no possible way of testing a mech or mech variant. So if he/she buys a mech they don’t like or know how to use well, they are screwed. Again I hear from players and streamers that if you fall into that pit well... "Tough luck" you better make a new account. How can that even be an option!? Only thing i ever connect with making multiple accounts for an MMO is to either scam or be an ingame bot vendor promoting sites selling gold.

    How could have PGI do this? You really think that an average player that isn’t into masochism will start again to grind through Trial mechs to buy a mech that again might or might not be right for him? Im not asking for charity or for PGI giving stuff away like its candy on Haloween night. I’m asking for a system where new players could either Test the mechs they want (withouth waiting for months on end for the possible mech/variant to maybe possibly appear in Trial rotation) or at least let them sell the mech for 75-85% of the price.

    Lastly the community in this game is awful, perhaps even toxic. There are people who will help you to make build a mech, but there are many more who basically invested so much money into this game that they will rather see it crash and burn than change anything. The idea of Matchmaking for Trials always ends up in flame wars. If someone provides a valid point that could benefit the game and or bring new players in it always ends up “Well we don't want screaming kiddies and noobs that don't know what they are doing or would be bad players in this community anyway". This kind of Elitism reeks even from the Streamers on NGNG that are supposed to promote the game. Worse still PGI loves it. So many Mech packs and mad prices. the free versions are always delayed half a year or more just to milk more people. Later those mechs turn out to be overpowered or woefully underpowered because no one tested them. It's like PGI firmly believed this game lives on borrowed time and instead of making some changes that would counter that they carry on milking every nostalgia whale until the game shuts down due to the lack of playerbase. Their way to make money is self damaging. If you catered to a bigger player base, solving then outlined problems, even if only 30% of them buy anything you still earn more money. 3000 regulars are better than a niche 800 at absurd prices.

    I really hope the best for this game, so far I am less ecstatic about stompy mechs and more disheartened with the current state of the game.    … Expand
  26. Werewolf486
    Feb 6, 2015
    2
    What's cool about it? Mechwarrior!! Mechs!! Friends!! and that's about it. I enjoy playing it with my friends because I'm playing a game with my friends. We play it because it's Mechwarrior and we loved Mechwarrior not because it's Mechwarrior Online by PGI. I've been in since "Closed Beta" and at this point 3 years after I joined the game has not been delivered as promised. It's a Free toWhat's cool about it? Mechwarrior!! Mechs!! Friends!! and that's about it. I enjoy playing it with my friends because I'm playing a game with my friends. We play it because it's Mechwarrior and we loved Mechwarrior not because it's Mechwarrior Online by PGI. I've been in since "Closed Beta" and at this point 3 years after I joined the game has not been delivered as promised. It's a Free to Grind your butt off game hell bent on frustrating you with it's grind so that you spend real money to try and get some traction. Graphics have actually gone backwards, game play is stale even after the Beta of Community Warfare has been released. The Dev team started out grateful to it's community, then grew to loath and insult the community, and now seems to be trying to make amends for treating the community so poorly in an effort to keep the product viable. It's a watered down version of what was sold to Founders, full of broken promises and lack of optimization. Bad leadership at the top, lack of progress, and stale game play with a terrible grind. It's a disgrace to the Mechwarrior genre. I'd rather buy a game outright then to have the grind required with this game and the miserable performance it has 3 years after I joined it. Maybe the real Mechwarrior fans will get lucky and PGI will fail so someone else can make a new Mechwarrior.… Expand
  27. GetGud
    Jan 20, 2015
    1
    This has been a seriously disappointing gaming experience.

    1: the game has some serious design flaws, it seemed okay at the start. I felt I could survive in this shooter, but you're not told what half the weapons do and how they work. It’s all trial and error and later you find out that you have to find out how it works because C-BILLS cash is so low after the cadet bonus. You really    This has been a seriously disappointing gaming experience.

    1: the game has some serious design flaws, it seemed okay at the start. I felt I could survive in this shooter, but you're not told what half the weapons do and how they work. It’s all trial and error and later you find out that you have to find out how it works because C-BILLS cash is so low after the cadet bonus. You really need to know what you're using as well as what you're doing, so many newbie traps. It’s mandatory to search on forums about what to do. The stuff in game explains so little, for example only by research did i find i could free my chars arms up to shoot better and a FPV is better to aim too.

    2: not just the lack of tutes to understand different heat {which there is the main heat rules for weapons and some sort of extra "ghost heat" for particular weapon combos, no values just random stuff???} the UI is so poorly laid out, menus and menus with the same icons on everything pushing my mech off the side so half of it is cut off. It’s so ugly and tedious to use. The tiny important writing and tiles of pointless picks takes forever to understand. I don't know maybe there’s something there that tells you what a beagle is or why I can never access and ECM.

    3: the gameplay once in a match is laggy and stuff which is kind of typical of games online but why does my shots miss half the time? I see sparks but the damage doesn't seem to register, the jumping falling mechs are terrible to shoot at, I end up just shooting big slow ones but they are always WAY more powerful and defeat you easy.

    4: the main damning thing which makes this a truly awful game is nerds and cash rule with mechs that cool faster run faster and shoot more than your mechs {trials are basics and most are deathtraps} they have boosters with char mastery and extra modules, some have quirks which undoes the ghost heat stuff, that's how screwed up the design is and the MM distinguishes none of this, the UI gives you little to no hints. i found my trial up against these power creep P2W stables and high competitive players a lot. so awful.

    5: the gameplay is cursed by bugs of mechs getting stuck everywhere, graphic glitches, no terrain destruction in a shooter and 12-0 stomps are common cause 4 players can 1 shoot at a mech and it spirals out of control. for something that's supposed to be strategically, players just jam up behind a wall and poke shoot or run around in circles, it's horribly underwhelming and variety is punished by a stale meta of sniping and many missles raining on you. there's no sense of accomplishment, you don't have to do much and you don't feel like you fight anyone, it's pot shots or face hug, the more ganged up on less players wins. ugh.

    6: so to try and become better you try and get what the vets have. Forget it, unless you pay for it. the game money earnings are sub 100K half the time, you’re lucky if you get 200K. weapons are anywhere from 60K to 600K and guess which everyone is boating? a newbie needs stuff to fight with and the cadet bonus will get you a stock mech equipped with the wrong weapons/equipment and all basic levels. You need several million to even START upgrading. You need 50 mill to get a master cause you need 3 mechs for the char levelling to work and to buy modules. Hundreds of hours with a basic mech, it’s an appauling experience. Salt goes in the wound when they offer freebe challenges, like this weeks 30 wins with a kill and assists gets you a free mech. How am I supposed to find the time and be able to achieve that in a stock mech? People played 12+ hours and still couldn’t do it with half levelled mech let alone people in my position. It’s so insulting. Then after every match the devs taunt you with “if you had premium time you could have more” it’s appalling that they call this free to play. The UI has stores and transaction always buy buy buy. Free to play? Free to be everyone’ piñata for months more likely.

    TL;DR game sets your basic mech against totally elite mechs imagine lvl8's vs lvl 70s that were brought with real money, your team might have those too but it's still grossly pay to win. you win a small weapon's worth of cash each match, a mech can take 20 hours to have, it can take 80's to get close to having the master mech cause you need 3 of a type to do it. i have no idea how people have 100 mastered mechs that they bragged about, must've payed a fourtune in this "free to play" game. the playerbase vary's from helpfull to outright rude and mental and saddly these decided your match outcomes, earnings and fun. cause the game offers no more than shootemup+collect mechs gameplay.

    it boring, it's grinding, it’s scaming such high amounts of cash for a shootem up demo.

    it stinks.    … Expand
  28. DuoDoUrden
    Dec 30, 2014
    4
    Its nice and pretty, amazing detail to the whole world of MechWarrior/Battletech universe. But at the base of it all its just another Free to play arcade game which may hail back to the old days of the IP. Its lacking in what some gamers that liked MechWarrior in the middle of the series of games, was a story and some single player offline action.
  29. High_Inquisitor
    Dec 13, 2014
    0
    The constant source of disappointment for an old BTW and MW series fan. PGI is the worst game developer, IMO. Poor coding, constant money grabs (but to be fair, you don't have to give them money if you don't want it) total lack of respect to the lore and absolutely incompetent game designer (Paul Inouye).
  30. TrentDeRoc
    Dec 10, 2014
    1
    This game has the least consistent player experience and by all indicators one of the least competent development teams whose product I have ever had the displeasure of playing. Over the lifecycle of this product the goals and user-facing feature set have been dramatically altered in unfortunate ways. The developers have not only failed to deliver a coherent product with any level ofThis game has the least consistent player experience and by all indicators one of the least competent development teams whose product I have ever had the displeasure of playing. Over the lifecycle of this product the goals and user-facing feature set have been dramatically altered in unfortunate ways. The developers have not only failed to deliver a coherent product with any level of quality control, but they have also openly mislead and directly insulted their customers over a long two year alpha/beta testing period as well as a "soft launch" period.

    The game promises a foundation of interesting mechanics such as individual avatar customization, a team-based arena combat setting, individual component damage, dynamic and unique weapons with their own situational mechanics, and a large scale persistent universe with separate factions and mercenary corporations all vying for control of a galactic map. Of these things only customization, arena combat, and per-component damage have actually been implemented. Those things which have actually been added to MWO have been implemented with such haphazard and wanton carelessness that basic functions can be expected to misfunction, malfunction, or be so hidden behind convoluted menus and other user interface foibles such that they needn't exist at all.

    By bringing in contractors early into the game's development to design and implement basic systems the developers have been able to produce a partially functional multiplayer game, but after reaching the threshold of minimum viability they have no longer employed competent contractors and have instead relied upon their own spit-and-glue approach to coding and game design and implementation, and the patchwork shows. Simple elements like terrain collision meshes are misplaced, incorrectly sized and scaled to the terrain, or nonexistent, leading to aberrant gameplay and an experience oozing with a sense of low quality. In lieu of optimization the dev team has reduced or completely eliminated graphical effects and high quality rendering options, leaving the game a poorly running mess sure to increase your electric bill beyond any reasonable level regardless of how much you have invested into your PC. While playing the actual game the MechLab function runs in the background, making render calls and tying up system resources otherwise usable for the game client. On top of this, if using a high enough refresh rate monitor, frames of the MechLab will actually *be printed to the monitor* between frames of gameplay, leading to a jarring and unpleasant gaming experience.

    The developers have managed to keep the project floating in two ways: firstly by leveraging the devotion of long-time fans of the "Battletech" and "MechWarrior" franchise through a system of gradually escalating power creep based cash-only content releases, and secondly by appealing to the Canadian government for cash handouts on the basis of creating employment opportunities for Canadians, all the while maintaining a skeleton crew and generating little in the way of actual product. After growing tired of maintaining the charade of continuing to develop MechWarrior Online the developers took development resources and personnel from the title to put toward the creation of another title "Transverse" in an attempt to cash in on the blooming space sim customer base.

    While new players may be drawn in by the promise of flashy robots and deep immersive gameplay, the harsh new player experience in the form of counter-intuitive user interface, obfuscated and poorly implemented game mechanics, a sharp difficulty curve, and the need to pour many hours of gameplay before you have the resources necessary to truly be competitive and "successful" will quickly take the luster out of the game and prove frustrating and unpleasant to even the most sanguine player.

    If given the option to play MechWarrior Online or reinstall the last iteration in the series, MechWarrior 4 (2000), I would surely choose the latter and completely disregard the former.    … 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.
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  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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