[Elh]

in reply to: First Impressions? #6068

I thought it was a decent C&C/WC2 clone back in the day. It still has a bunch of QoL issues, but it’s a good game for sure. I’m happy that it’s on GOG for sure, it’s a real gem of its time.

Fun little fact: Creative Assembly began because of this game. One of the guys said they looked at KKND and said that if people can make this type of low budget/low quality RTS, then surely we can. I’ll see if I can find the source.

[Elh]

in reply to: How far did you get within the month? #6067

I played all 2 campaigns (30 missions total) and then actually the Ghost Bear’s Legacy campaign (17 missions) over a span of 3 days. If you deck out your mech with LRM20s and a couple of lasers you can basically one-shot a lot of mechs from distance. 🙂 But it still a hard game and you die easily.

[Elh]

in reply to: MW2 trivia, development, art, reception, legacy #5973

And if anyone wants to scrounge through a whole bunch of magazines and interviews and reviews and previews and art, I compiled one big zip archive with all the stuff surrounding the MW2 trilogy. You can download it here: https://mega.nz/file/Ml0nVSST#ZDqhkeF8Beq-iAedGpjR_ZFVtnCMEMEV3Yx_VrgKk_k

[Elh]

in reply to: My take on MechWarrior 2 #5961

Great article and analysis!

[Elh]

in reply to: Disappointed you can only play as a Clan warrior #5880

You have so many other Mechwarrior titles that only let you play as Inner Sphere. Mechwarrior 1, Crescent Hawk’s Inception and Revenge, Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, Mechwarrior 3, Mechwarrior 3: Pirate’s Moon, Mechwarrior 4, Mechwarrior 4 Black Knight, Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, and now Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries.

There’s only two games out of this entire series that lets you play as Clans – MW2 and the expansion pack Ghost Bear’s Legacy.

[Elh]

in reply to: Mercenaries #5879

I think it’s worthwhile to talk about the Mechwarrior 2 trilogy as a whole (MW2, GBL, and Mercs). They all use the same engine and mechanics, but especially Mercs receive some significant gameplay system additions that has inspired subsequent Mercenaries titles.

Mechwarrior 3 was not released until 1999 and developed by Zipper Interactive, because it had undergone severe development difficulties when FASA Interactive had tried to make their own Mechwarrior 3 using the engine from the Virtual Pods.

FASA owned the Mechwarrior/Battletech license and were unhappy with how Activision had been handling it with the problems with developing MW2: The Clans. That’s why it was not renewed and instead Activision “pivoted” to the less successful Heavy Gear 1 and 2. That’s why they brought it in-house with publishing agreement with Microprose, but FASA had their own problems, so around 1998 they moved the MW3 project over to Zipper Interactive who crunched the actual MW3 game in under 2 years of dev time.

[Elh]

in reply to: How to play Mechwarrior 2 + information resources on the game #5706

Even though this is practically abandonware, I assume I should not link to the full ISOs ready for installing the game, correct? Because the stuff that’s freely available online does not have the music and I would strongly recommend against playing the game without the music, it is a *key* component. So if you don’t have the actual full games, please make sure you play the game with its full installation.

[Elh]

in reply to: How to play Mechwarrior 2 + information resources on the game #5079

Haha I appreciate the reference 😀 Yeah, I really enjoy the series and the fictional universe a lot despite never having actually played the tabletop.

[Elh]

in reply to: How to play Mechwarrior 2 + information resources on the game #4995

And if anyone wants to continue on with the subsequent expansions to Mechwarrior 2, I also highly recommend both Ghost Bear’s Legacy and Mercenaries.

GBL was campaign expansion pack with a new story, new missions, new mechs, and music. It’s practically more of the same of MW2, just with new content.

Mercs is regarded as pretty revolutionary Mechwarrior game because it took the mech sim gameplay of MW2 and added a management sim layer where you have to manage a mercenary unit in the universe and take on contracts. It’s the formula that many other Mechwarrior/Battletech games have followed because it uses many different game systems. And funny enough, it actually has its 25 year anniversary here in September.

Both GBL and Mercs can also be installed easily via MechVM. The same thing with the DOS versions being superior applies to GBL and Mercs, although in the W95 version allows for dynamic salvage in patch 1.1. Check Patches Scrolls for patches for each of the game: https://www.patches-scrolls.com/mechwarrior2_ghost_bears_legacy.php and https://www.patches-scrolls.com/mechwarrior2_mercenaries.php