MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries

MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries is a bit of an update to MechWarrior 2 instead of a full blown sequel. It uses a tweaked version of the MW2 engine which is pretty good for its time. But instead of loyalty fighting for your clan you are hiring yourself out to the highest bidder. Meanwhile you must manage your money, paying repair bills, buying new ‘mechs and ammo and paying salaries for your wingmen. Since the update 1.1 for Mercs the graphics now have 3D support which makes the graphics awesome. The ‘mechs are now fully textured instead of just gourad shaded. The sound is some of the best around with a really wicked soundtrack and the sound of crunching metal as you blast away at the enemy. The single player mission are fun to play through and will put you through such things from escorting important diplomats, to blowing away buildings in the middle of a city. Multiplayer is made much easier thanks to the newest patch. It is now just a click or to away from killing Mercenaries across the globe. (Hint: the bigger they are, the most you get worked). Despite some graphical glitches like, Pop-in and some clipping problems with certain video cards, Mercs is a really good buy. We suggest buying the Titanium version, that is unless you want to download about 17 meg for the Titanium patch (Bad news is that it is all one large 17 meg file).

S3TH

Breakdown (For Key)

Music: Mercs' music is supurb! So enjoyable you will be finding yourself putting this disc into your CD player to listen to the music as you play other games.

Sound: Really good. It all fits what is going on around you. It is also very clear and easy to understand, you don't have to sit there for 5 min trying to figure out just what exactly was that sound you heard.

Graphics: Good. Everything is textured with good lighting effects with the patch. There are a few glitches with a few video cards, but overall they aren't very noticable or distracting.

Solo Play: Good. It isn't as good as MechWarrior 2's because of no real plot. It is really cool because not only do you have to fight but you also have to manage. There is a starter mode where you are just a fighter and someone else will do all the managing.

Multiplayer: Really good. It couldn't be much simpler. You select a server, select a game, select and configure a 'mech, and play. Lag was not a problem, and the multiple modes of play kick ass.

Fun Factor and Longevity: Great. This is a welcome change from playing the standard Quake deathmatch. The patched version of the game has better graphics than its nearest competitor Heavy Gear, and the gameplay is many times better than Heavy Gear's. The only real threat facing this game in the Giant Robot Simulation genre is the next title in the series, MechWarrior 3 (Which, in fact, is not being developed by Activision but by Microprose).

System Requirements: Not bad. It plays well on low end machines but chugs sometimes with the accelerator version. Other than that nothing is out of the ordinary for the requirements. The classic version will play decently on a Pentium 75, if you can stay away from any intense battles.

Actual Minimum System Requirements:

Pentium 133 (For 3D Accelerated version, Pentium 100 for the Classic [software] version)

16 MB RAM (32 MB recommended)

195 MB Hard Drive space (Uncompressed)

2X CD-ROM Drive (4X recommended)

DirectSound compatible sound card

PCI Direct3D compatible 3D accelerator for 3D Accelerated version (Also supports 3Dfx's Glide and Rendition's RRedline)

VESA Local Bus or PCI video card capable of 256 colors for Classic version

Windows 95/98

Mouse

Keyboard

Joystick (Deticated game card highly recommended)

DirectX 3.0 (Titanium version uses DirectX 5.0)

IPX network for Network Play over Mercnet

TCP/IP network for Network Play over Mercnet

Any 100% compatible Win95 modem at 14.4 kbps or faster (28.8 kbps recommended for Internet play)

Any other 100% Mircosoft DirectPlay network

My 2 Sense

Is there anything better than alpha striking another 'mech? Not much.

The Clair

July 1998