Can’t get through? Build bigger mechs
My first experience with the Battletech universe was Mechwarrior when I was much younger than I am now. Mechwarrior came out in 1989, I remember playing it in 1990 when my family got a PC powerful enough to play it. Instead of being a soldier running around a battlefield, you piloted building-sized robots and blew up other robots. Back then it’s all I needed to know.
This screenshot will give you an idea of what cutting-edge 3D graphics looked like in 1989.
I had seen the name Battletech on things, but I didn’t care about it. I wanted Mechwarrior. I wanted to blow up bigger and bigger things – that was my only requirement.
Then came Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. I got exactly what I wanted. There was some Inner Sphere story stuff that was getting in the way of me building my Mechs and shooting things though.
Later on the second playthrough, I started paying attention to the story, but that got cut short by life and a few other things.
One of the things that got in the way was a game called Mechcommander. I still had heaps of Mechs at my disposal, but now I was in the command chair rather than the cockpit. I now knew about the Battletech universe, and Mechwarrior being one small aspect to it. But I had what I loved, and I was hooked!
But all that changed over the years. There were some other Mechwarrior and Mechcommander games, but I just kind of moved on for some reason. I don’t think there was anything specific, I just kind of wandered away.
Then in 2015, a Kickstarter caught my eye. Somehow. I never do anything with Kickstarter as you know.
The first thing I saw was the title – Battletech. Something triggered in my mind like I kind of knew it but couldn’t remember?
Then I opened the project, and saw this:
Then the memories all came flooding back. Looking through the project, there were just so many positives for me to see.
First – it was being run by Harebrained Schemes. Apart from having one of my favourite company names ever, they did the amazing Golem Arcana board game.
Secondly – and the clincher – they have Jordan Weisman on board. The creator of the Battletech universe was bringing it back!
Now, at long last, the wait is over. I have my Steam key and waiting for the preload.
April 25th, I will be able to once again command squads of Mechs and stamp the universe with my will.
