MechWarrior Online Previews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on August 3rd, 2012

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There's a certain methodology that playing MechWarrior Online implants in you -- I found myself running through a mental checklist any time I had to make a decision. How's my speed? Can my heat sinks handle another barrage of laser fire without overheating and shutting down my mech? Do I use my jumpjets to get up on a ridge for a tactical advantage at the risk of revealing my location? The sheer amount of information that I had to process is unlike anything I've played in quite some time.

In one such situation my Centurion was damaged and struggling along with a single functioning leg. I knew the Awesome I had my sights on had been doing a lot of firing, so there was a good chance it would overheat if it unleashed its arsenal again. After checking on my mech's status, I stepped into the nearby river (water provide much-needed cooling), and fired away. Sure enough, I took a bit of damage from his Short Range Missiles before his mech overheated and I was able to land a finishing blow with my Medium Lasers.

During that brief, maybe 10 second altercation, I had put more thought into what I was doing than I had in months of playing shooters like Gears of War or Counter-Strike. I've become so accustomed to playing games on the balls of my feet, working with split-second reactions and going with my gut, I was happy to be thinking as much as I was about battle strategies and techniques.

For the uninitiated, as I was, down (s) and up (w) control your throttle forward and backward, setting your mech to a constant speed. Right (d) and left (a) point the mech in the direction you want it heading, while your pilot looks around freely relative to where your mouse is pointing, though you can no longer look around a full 360 degrees (at least not in the ones I used) like an inquisitive owl. Otherwise, the scheme is familiar. Click the mouse to fire your lasers (or, sometimes, other weapons), space to jump for mechs outfitted with such an ability, and so on. Oh, and a super neat controller is in the works, too, though I didn't get to use it. Simulation!

These lumbering hulks can absorb a lot of punishment and your lasers overheat with quickness when overused, which causes a temporary system-wide shutdown, leaving you vulnerable. Again, it's a slow-moving affair. Teamwork, restraint and thoughtful piloting seemed imperative, giving confrontations a dogfight sort of volley as you trade strangely whimsical red and green pew pews of laser. Mechs are armored differently and will take a lot of damage to different portions before finally sustaining critical damage, rendering you a scrap heap for the remainder of the present match.

The biggest adjustment came from remembering that I'm controlling a giant tank with legs, rather than a person. Despite the traditional WASD-plus-mouse control scheme, I had to realize that I wasn't a nimble dude jumping around with an assault rifle. I had to adjust to the fact that I can aim and move in different directions. I had to remember how turning my reticule meant that I still needed to rotate my legs if I wanted to keep chasing someone. That W doesn't mean forward -- it means increase throttle while S decreased it. If I ran past someone, I can't just stop and instantly zip backwards; I had to deal with my mech's mammoth inertia as it slowly bled speed before kicking into reverse.

And then there's managing my damned heat. In my first match, none of my weapons were configured, and firing all of my missiles and lasers simultaneously (when done purposely, this is often referred to as an "alpha strike") quickly led to my mech shutting down from generating so much heat. After a few minutes with a slightly obtuse interface that uses arrow keys and R-CTRL, I eventually mapped my weapons to groups to better manage my heat per shot (and also have different weapons ready to fire while lasers cool and autocannons/missile launchers reload). Certain maps affect heat as well: one map (the recently revealed Caustic Valley) featured a volcano that added ten percent to your total heat meter -- even when you're just standing -- while another one in the snow masked your heat much more effectively. Finally, while I didn't see this in action, I heard some developers and players commenting about how sometimes, your autocannon or missile ammunition could explode and severely damage your mech (unless you had a CASE module that redirects the explosion and mitigates the overall damage).

The actual gameplay is reminiscent of the engrossing action old-school PC fans will remember from MechWarriors 2 through 4 only here, they're all rendered with stunning CryENGINE 3 graphics. You'll plod your way towards the enemy forces, making sure not to get separated from the group in fear of getting cornered and annihilated in seconds. Targeting enemies near or far is as simple as tapping the R key, which will greatly improve visibility and let any missiles you've armed home in on their mark.

The battlefield you fight on will have a huge impact on your tactics: snowy maps offer a tradeoff of far less heat generation for lower visibility, while one of the volcanic maps we played on obscured our vision with plumes of black-green smoke and made our machines heat reduce at a snail's pace. Your HUD displays the map with handily labeled tiles, so you can call out flanks from E9 or vulnerable enemies at D5 like a match of mechanized battle-chess.

With four base mech sizes, each with their own unique makes, and a metric butt-ton of customization options, from heat sinks to weaponry to body plating, min-maxing pilots will have a field day trying to crack the best-possible mech construction. Such customization means the learning curve might be substantially steep compared to other F2P games; for instance, your artillery must be mapped to certain weapon groups at the beginning of a match for maximum effectiveness (and not overheating your mech with a single discharge of your futuristic weaponry).

This vulnerability ties into the game's central mechanics. The view from your cockpit is well-designed, complete with detailed strategic map, mech status screen, and weapon arrays, all conveniently placed onscreen for easy reference. A heat bar and a speed bar finish off the surprisingly tidy interface, allowing you to focus on the action that is perpetually in front of you (or behind you or underneath you; larger mechs can have a little trouble maneuvering). When your weapons cause your mech to overheat, the camera lists crazily, and you feel as though your intensely vulnerable pilot is being rattled around your temporarily dysfunctional machine. This is definitely a game to play with a good set of headphones or speakers; lying motionless in the middle of a battlefield with shells exploding and lasers shrieking overhead is something that really is worth experiencing, as is your subsequent jerky struggle upright.

The controls aren't intuitive, but that's by no means a condemnation; rather, the game rewards players who invest time and thought into it. Piloting your mech feels at times like driving a tank that's suspended in midair. There's a standard WASD control scheme, but W and S adjust only your speed, while A and D control your actual direction. Long story short: Unless you're already familiar with the franchise, you'll spend some time running into stands of trees. But once you've gotten the hang of the controls, it's immensely satisfying to strafe around your enemies and lay down suppressing fire. You feel as if you've gained in skill, and in such a complex game, that means a lot.

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