The experience of BattleTech on a whole is a series of long brutal wars of attrition. Be it in the strategic layer; managing your mercenary outfit’s finances, weighing up the costs of maintaining your expanding BattleMech garage, keeping your MechWarrior pilots in line, and in the tactical layer; mechs slugging it out turn after turn, chipping away at their opponent’s exterior armour in a hope to expose the vulnerable inner-frame and hardware components - or the pilot themselves.

Although the process of becoming accustomed to and advancing through much of BattleTech’s minutiae is very slow going, the reward is a tremendously deep tactical experience and a satisfying management and customisation layer. The experience is wrapped in story of feudal politics and betrayal, with a cast of pragmatic heroes and scheming villains who would not be out of place in one of the many BattleTech novels.

BattleTech overall surprises in how well it captures interesting aspects of both the original table-top game and fictional universe, while providing an enjoyable self-contained entry point for anyone interested in sci-fi wargaming.

A review update*

Battletech has improved significantly over a year since release. Changes include performance increases (rough on release), and the addition of features, modes, and more generally, an injection of further complexity and character into game: new mechs, mission variety etc.

With the the three DLC expansions Battletech is even an even more robust game, but the free updates alone have done much to improve what was already an excellent and unique tactics game.

The experience of BattleTech on a whole is a series of long brutal wars of attrition. Be it in the strategic layer; managing your mercenary outfit’s finances, weighing up the costs of maintaining your expanding BattleMech garage, keeping your MechWarrior pilots in line, and in the tactical layer; mechs slugging it out turn after turn, chipping away at their opponent’s exterior armour in a hope to expose the vulnerable inner-frame and hardware components - or the pilot themselves. Although the process of becoming accustomed to and advancing through much of BattleTech’s minutiae is very slow going, the reward is a tremendously deep tactical experience and a satisfying management and customisation layer. The experience is wrapped in story of feudal politics and betrayal, with a cast of pragmatic heroes and scheming villains who would not be out of place in one of the many BattleTech novels. BattleTech overall surprises in how well it captures interesting aspects of both the original table-top game and fictional universe, while providing an enjoyable self-contained entry point for anyone interested in sci-fi wargaming. A review update* Battletech has improved significantly over a year since release. Changes include performance increases (rough on release), and the addition of features, modes, and more generally, an injection of further complexity and character into game: new mechs, mission variety etc. With the the three DLC expansions Battletech is even an even more robust game, but the free updates alone have done much to improve what was already an excellent and unique tactics game.