Paran01ac » Reviews » MechWarrior Online
View Store Page
View Community Hub
Find More Like This
211 people found this review helpful
6 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 1,414.3 hrs on record (498.5 hrs at review time)
Posted: 18 Jul, 2017 @ 8:21am

I'm Legendary Founder of this game from 2012.
MechWarrior Online had a great start deep in the closed beta back then.
The potential was sky-high.

Now, let's boil down to what it is now in 2017:

  • Overall skill-basing of the game: Still good. Skill (constant map awareness, planning, mech piloting) is what is takes to win or carry your potato team in a mechs that allow to do so. Lock-On travesty such as LRMs and Streaks are a nuisance but can be countered with skill and 90% of the time team of LRM savants loses the match.
  • Mechs: Very good design and 3D execution. Paint jobs, colors and decals are beautiful.
    However, Mechs are being locked behind paywall for 3+ months after their release, then they are being HEAVILY nerfed (Timber Wolf, Night Gyr, Kodiak and so on).
  • Weapon balance: Mediocre. Skill-based pin-point weaponry being HEAVILY nerfed for no reason (Gauss, AC/20). Low tier lead of balance guy making whole weapon systems (Small Pulse Lasers) useless based on his low-skill play.
  • Gamemodes: Terrible placeholders that are out of place for the Battletech universe. Some absolutely horrible unplayable gamemodes like Escort or Incursion are not being removed only because of PGI's ego (well, you know the EGO of game developers).
  • Maps: "Small" WoT or CoD arenas without the Battletech feel. Map designer never played a MechWarrior game before. Maps that reward placing all your weapons to one side of the mech and corner peaking.
  • Gameplay&Meta: Bad gamemodes with objectives in the center (always in the same place) and poorly designed maps result in the meta where your 12-men team have to always stay together and repeat the same circle jerk nascar (both teams are chasing each other in a circle) or engage in the similar fights in the same place over and over and over again. The higher skilled you are and the lighter your mech are, the more variety you can add to the battle, but it's not much.
  • Developers: Never listened to the players even when the OFFICIAL vote for the introduction of 3PV camera revealed 90% of players were against it. Old people that know little of game balance and gameplay.
  • Community: Small. Consist mainly of Old North Americans and Brittons that are not splendid at the game playing it because they spent more than a $1000 on it.
  • GFX: Downgraded from the closed beta graphics, literally butchered CryEngine, although mech textures are great (Of course mechs must look great if they cost so much money). Optimization is average, game is heavy CPU bound.
  • Progression: Buy 360 mechs for your hangar, apart from that - none. There is a Tier system that is basically just an XP bar. There are also 237 nodes of buffs to the mech you can unlock out of which 91 can be applied to the mech at the same time. You can change them if you are changing mech's loadout. That's it.
  • Hit detection: Average. Bearable if the target is moving slower than a 100 kph.
  • Destruction: None, small statues and trees can be brought down. Some columns (map objects) have destructible effects. Destructible (disappearing) concrete walls in Incursion that are covering bases and power sources in the middle (minimal effect on gameplay).
  • Economics: you won't go into negative balance, but the grind is hard for the new player.
  • Faction Warfare (Global Map): 12-men team 4 mechs per player Attack/Defend on different maps, 4 mechs per player on regular maps and gamemodes, and 4v4 gamemode with light/medium mechs. Wait times are long, point of playing is little, well, you can get 75mil c-bills and 2500mc for a 1000 hours of high skill play per Mercenary or a Great House contract. Maybe it's good enough for you.
  • Loot Boxes: Are a literal joke, out of 8 items, you always get the worst one. I've seen players opening a 100 loot boxes and only getting 2 worthwhile items out of them.
  • Mech Collisions/Knockdowns: were removed. And for a cause, with the bad meta/gamemodes/maps mentioned above players are constantly running into each other, which with the knockdowns enabled would result in one hell of a circus.
  • Hope for the Game: Little, as developers are already working on the MechWarrior 5.
All they had to do is to introduce MWLL gamemode on great big maps which would make each match diverse and unique. 30-60 minutes meaningful matches with epic experiences.

Verdict: Could've been a masterpiece, instead it's an overpriced Mech Pack Buying simulator with the most repetitive boring gameplay, 5/10.

Play only if you love Battletech/MechWarrior.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
16 Comments
< >
Baldy 27 Oct, 2024 @ 7:55am 
All you should try what a garbage heap it has become. I have spent ( because I was Battletech fan boy, I spent too much MONEY, far too much so ....)

Now in 2024 .. lol it's garbo .. complete garbo ... I am a Battletech fanboy since 1984, .... and this ?
Now in 2024? a Skin selling CS Go wannabe..no Battletech left...

Give it a try, if you want.... don't say we DIDN'T warn you ... DO NOT spend money on it, what ever you want you can buy over time ... but now... witht eh stupid TTK ( time to kill lowered) it's almsot impossible.. I ahve over 3000 hours in the game, and about $500, if not more in "bundles of mechs, it was NEVER pay to win, and still isn't- but it IS pigeon holed mech balanced " )


Really NOT worth anyones time these days.... not at all, and it PAINS me to say this...
Bashar 2 Mar, 2021 @ 5:11am 
@Oiza Carpaccio give it a try. I did and have no regrets so far.
Oiza 7 Jan, 2021 @ 12:29am 
Not trying to be funny, just a genuine question.
Paran01ac 6 Jan, 2021 @ 12:12pm 
Are you trying to be funny? I'm a sad Battletech fan who is stuck with what is available.
MW5 is literally a mobile quality game, I can't bring myself to play it.
And no, MWO didn't get any better.
Oiza 10 Nov, 2020 @ 12:29pm 
So, since you put another 1000 hours into Mechwarrior since the review.

Is it ok now?

Would you recommend it now?
Paran01ac 2 Sep, 2017 @ 4:44pm 
Thanks for comments, guys, I read them all. If PGI didn't have heads up their butts and listened to the most skilled people in the community like Solahma, Bows3r, TwinkyOverlord, bear claw or Proton, the game's popularity would skyrocket. Instead, PGI's ego is seeing an end to everything... No words... Only sadness.
Hexidecimark 24 Aug, 2017 @ 8:58pm 
MWLL is Mechwarrior Living Legends.
T.K.F.T.3K 16 Aug, 2017 @ 6:50pm 
"Verdict: Could've been a masterpiece, instead it's an overpriced Mech Pack Buying simulator with the most repetitive boring gameplay, 5/10.

Play only if you love Battletech/MechWarrior."

Right on all accounts. Only really come back in when one of my mechs launch, then I pay $20 (or more) to access it. Steep. But, hell, at least I finally have my Madcat MKII. In my 20's, but I remember playing the series as a child, and I do play mostly for the nostalgia factor.
Grizzk 15 Aug, 2017 @ 2:56pm 
Would be nicer for the MegaMek people to do it.
Stand with Ukraine 15 Aug, 2017 @ 2:55pm 
Excuse me? THESE idiots are working on MechWarrior 5?

That game is doomed.