From rmollard@uoguelph.ca Sun Sep 29 16:52:32 EDT 1996 Article: 185275 of comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Path: prism!gt-news!gatech!csulb.edu!news.sgi.com!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!torn!ccshst05.uoguelph.ca!ccshst01!rmollard From: rmollard@uoguelph.ca (Robert A Mollard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Subject: Re: MechWarrior: Mercenaries suppose to be out. Review please? Date: 29 Sep 1996 05:20:56 GMT Organization: University of Guelph Lines: 71 Message-ID: <52l0vo$mg3@ccshst05.uoguelph.ca> References: <1996Sep27.031231.6192@lafn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: ccshst01.uoguelph.ca X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Status: RO I picked it up yesterday, and so far my reactions are mixed. I'll explain: First off, test computer: P100/32 megs ram, 1 meg s3 video card When I got the game, I was all excited about the whole mercenary aspect of the game... the gameplay of mech1, with graphics even better than mech2. And the kill for cash style is terrific.. I like it a lot. But I'm pretty sure (don't know from the documentation, since there isn't any, but more on that in a minute) that that's the only point to the game.. fight and make money, until you get sick of it and quit. In mech1 you were a mercenary, but there was some sort of puzzle to solve as well, which was a terrific part of the game. I forget exactly what it was.. been a long time. But that said, the mercenary part is done well... you can completely customize your mechs (for a price of course), you have to deal with ammunition, replacing destroyed weapons, plus purchasing the mechs in the first place. All a lot like the original mech, which was terrific. Although one thing with customizing mechs... sometimes I'm warned that customizing a mech will prevent future repairs... not sure what the rule behind that is, since one mission later I can customize it again. The graphics are very good, the music is terrific, the combat is very similar to mech2, but with enhanced graphics and sounds. There are lots of ways to speed up the game too, which is nice. I refuse to run it in 320 x 200 mode (or whatever it is), and indeed it runs quite well for me at 640 x 480, if I disable only terrain textmaps. Okay, now for some bad stuff... This is not a finished product. It's a late beta at best. There are bugs, omissions, and outright dumb errors (even found spelling mistakes). I have already found 2 missions that are un-finishable. In one you are supposed to escort a couple of trucks who are going to rescue some POW's... trouble is, when they get near the prison barracks, one of the trucks then just aimlessly wanders around, without doing anything. The mission cannot be completed. The other is when you're escorting a prince around on a fun fun merc killing spree... you chase after this spoiled brat, waste the mechs that would grind his face into the dirt, go to all the nav points, no problem. But when everythings's accomplished, you and the prince start heading back to the pickup zone. He stops about 300 metres shy of the final nav point, and never moves again. If you keep going, and reach the final nav point, you fail the mission, even though all enemy mechs are dead, and there's nothing left to do. If you don't go to the final nav point, you'll die of old age.. nothing else happens. In short, hell of a game, buggy as hell. If you don't mind playing it as is (I don't really, but the un-finishable missions are annoying as hell), then go for it. If you don't want to be an unpaid beta tester for Activision, wait for some patches to be released. That's my spiel for now. Bob =-=-=-= Win '95 =-=-=-= as899@lafn.org wrote: : According to the Activision Page, Mercenaries suppose to be out in stores. : Anybody bought it yet, if yes please list your first impressions. : Kemble Chen