It's Bugged. Still.
So this is basically the perfect mech game. But it's let down by bad design decisions, poor ai, and poor optimisation. I'd have given it a 5 star rating.
So you need mods to fix the the design decisions and broaden the game. The YAML mods are essential, and make this game better than perfect. But the mods have bugs. Then they release a DLC or patch and it breaks the mods. This cycle repeats for 6 years and in it's current state it's a chore to play.
I'd like to write an article on this game but it would take too long. I've got a mid range PC with an RTX 12GB video card, 32GB ram, and a decent processor - but when an ammo plant explodes (on lowest settings) the frame rate tanks. Then the mods slow the mechlab to a crawl. (Yes I know there's a workaround but it's not practical to the game).
The ray tracing and DLSS is flat out broken. There's micro-stutters with assets loading, mechs exploding, or entering the arena with a dropship.
What they've done is incredible. The salvage, the amount of mechs, the mechlab and how the mechs reflect damge and weapons you install visually. It goes on and on in how brilliant this game is.
But with everything mentioned (and probably a few I've forgot) it's not that kind of game where in 6 months to a year I feel like booting up again. Becuase all this "stuff" wears you down.
If they're making another DLC or patch they need to fix this and this will be the best mech game ever made. And hopefully the modding community will support the final version. But it's an example of why 'modern' games are just such a pain in the neck. I think of all these issues and in 6 months time it'll be MW3 + Pirate's Moon I load up again because it just works flat out.
I could do a whole list of things that totally infuriate me, and then there's thing s that make the game the most fun I've had in years. Or things that just make me throw my hands up in the air and walk away. Just one example: certain mechs are completely USELESS because of the cockpit position. All you have to do is look at a clan enemy for 1 sec and it will headshot you. I get it; that's the mech design. But it means I'm not going to pilot the mech. Mad Cat is the best example. Classic mech. Totally useless. Scrap. So you go from that level of realism & attention to detail to base defense missions where the attacking AI is running away away from the base, running into a mountain, and jumping up and down on the spot. And I'm sure they've done something with enemy headshotting you (like it's scripted) because it's like 9/10 shots miss and then BAM! Alpha strike to the head with 100% accuracy over 3 secs laser duration. But if the AI isn't doing that, then it's just getting stuck for the whole mission (lancemates and enemy) in a hole in the ground...
It's like: maybe if they had just got the AI to walk around a rock without getting it wedged between the mechs legs permanently and left the ace 1-shotting from across the map out, it might be a less frustrating game. And this happens in 8/10 missions. Lancemate gets stuck on the map, enemy dropships in next to him, ED-209 moment seconds away.
Also: the enemy AI knows where you are all the time, and can time its shots against you. So: there's a clan guy behind that wall but my radar isn't picking him up. I destroy the wall and the moment the wall comes down (he knows) and has already fired, and his PPC/gauss shot has cleared the wall as it's destroyed and shot my mech in the face, 1-shotting my mech. Same thing with cover: the enemy AI is omnipotent and the shot is on its way towards you as you emerge. It can also shoot through entire forests and hit you, but I have to mow the place down like the Predator scene just to hit him once.
It's not challenging - it's immersion breaking, unrealistic, frustrating, and wearing on the player's patience. I can see myself playing this game over months (recovering from an injury) and just shelving it forever unless they fix these issues. And I wont buy the next game.
Edit: Bought the latest DLC, installed mods are: YAML, YAML weapon mod complete, Pilot Overhaul eternal, Stuffed Crates. These are essential mods that make the vanilla game the best Mechwarrior game ever released. Unfortunately salvaging is now broken and even with all YAML settings in place, headshotting a mech doesn't guarantee salvaging. Mostly effecting Star League mechs it seems. Without salvage it's just an incredibly fun mech/robot game. So I might as well be playing Fall of Cybertron.
There's nothing quite as dissapointing as something great, that I've been waiting over over 20 years for, ruined by bugs, incompatibilities, or bad design decisions.
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