A fun tactics strategy game. I'd never played or researched Mechwarrior/BattleTech universe games before this, and its been a fun ride learning about the universe.

The game really sells the 'big mechs fighting other big mechs' component, and the animations, weapon fire and theming of the game is excellent.

The combat is engaging and has some nice depth to it, and the campaign serves as a good tutorial and introduction to the game. The 'strategic' layer isn't that deep, and while it has some functions to it, the decisions there just impact the tactics/combat layer, and don't have any real depth to them. This fits thematically, but if you're coming from an XCOM style tactics game don't expect any depth here - this is at heart a story (if you have the Flashpoint expansion) and squad tactics game.

Expansions add a lot to the game, and I'd recommend them wholeheartedly. Heavy metal is the least appealing unless you've already sunk a few hours into the game, but Flashpoint and Urban Warfare add so much to the variation of combat and change up the monotony of the same maps and missions. They address previous concerns of mine regarding lance size limitations, 'sameness' of missions and maps and everything around that. Heavy Metal is also worth it, but the benefits aren't seen so much until the late game, and it doesn't change up the way the game plays to make it essential.

The game is backed by a strong community of modding, with the Rouge Tech mod essentially an entire overhaul to the game, increasing difficulty and replayability well past the base game.