Mechwarrior Online

[Nutritious]

http://mwomercs.com

Is anyone on OCR playing this game? It's a F2P game based in the Mechwarrior universe. I just downloaded it a couple days ago and been enjoying it a lot so far. I'm a big fan of the old school mechwarrior pc games, so it's right up my alley.

The timeline takes place right before the clan invasion of the inner sphere per battletech lore. That puts it at the end of Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries and a bit before Mechwarrior 2 (original). Interestingly, they're keeping the game timeline in direct corrolation with real time. So, 1 day IRL = 1 day game.

Gameplay-wise, it's the standard mechwarrior simulation (FYI, the last one I played was MW4, so that's all I can compare it to), but with a few different scenarios played out in random multiplayer matchups. Games are 12 vs 12 and the game attempts to evenly balance teams with regards to mech weight class distrbution.

Winning matches, getting kills, etc gains the player c-bills, which can be used to purchase mechs & components, allowing a pretty high degree of customization. Of course, there's a paid component as well, which allows the player to purchase different custom variants and other stuff. Fortunately, they're trying to steer clear of any sort of P2W scenario, so much of the stuff for sale is either cosmetic or won't give the player distinct advantages in combat. The main draw of paying seems to be unique mech variants and being able to purchase a pack of mechs. With the clan invasion coming, they're put all of those new upcoming mechs into preorder. This is the main drawback for me, though, because the high pricepoint (the big pack of all the clan mechs costs upwards of $200) pretty much puts me out of the market of any sort of purchases. Honestly, though, I'm satisfied with the options available as a free game.

So anyway, it's pretty well implemented so far. I've only played it for a couple days, but I've been able to purchase a Catapult and do some limited loadout customization. They're planning on expanding functionality in the next month or so, which will give better matchup options and guild-type support.

TL;DR if anyone is playing, add Nutritious as a friend

Edited January 13, 2014 by Nutritious

[kitty]

Is it only PvP?

[Wiesty]

Great Game!

[DusK]

I fell out of it pretty quickly. The difference in time commitment between people that pay for stuff and people that don't really turned me off from it. If they changed that and made things a bit easier for people that don't want to constantly turn out their pockets, I'd probably come back.

[Nutritious]

Is it only PvP?

Yeah, looks that way. As of now, it seems more like the multiplayer aspect of a game like MechWarrior 4, rather than the MMO elements you might expect from an F2P game.

I fell out of it pretty quickly. The difference in time commitment between people that pay for stuff and people that don't really turned me off from it. If they changed that and made things a bit easier for people that don't want to constantly turn out their pockets, I'd probably come back.

Yeah, I just hit this income wall last night, so I can understand what you're coming from. Apparently, you get a hefty "cadet bonus" for your first 25 games, which gives you a big income boost when you first start. This gives you enough to buy a mech and some loadouts. Thing is, I bought a bunch of different components to try new things, thinking I'd just make the money back quickly. Well, after the bonus wore off, I could see it turning into a grindfest to build up enough cash for an engine or a new mech. I'll probably restart a new character to maximize the bonus at the beginning instead of spending the next few weeks trying to earn enough for something new.

That brings it back to the point I made above where this game is really laid out like a classic multiplayer option of a retail game, rather than the deeper gameplay experience you'd expect from a F2P title. There are a handfull of maps and 3 battle options, which aren't that dissimilar from each other. So, the paid aspect essentially is to buy equipment and mechs to play in these limited scenarios.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a ton of fun to play, just at a casual level. At this point it's too lacking in the content department to warrant much investment in time and/or money. They've slated several releases to come soon to make updates and add content, but it's a pretty small developer working on this, so it sounds like it'll take time.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Yeah, I picked it up a while back, but I didn't stick with it long. I need more content in my games to be satisfied, and as much as I like Mechwarrior, this one just doesn't have enough to justify the time investment. I'm hoping it eventually gets to the point where I can be happy playing it, but for now, I'm content with just waiting on the sidelines.