MechWarrior (PC/DOS) 1989, Activision/Dynamix, adlib

There have been many computer games produced that were set in the universe of Battletech boardgame. Today we will talk about one of the earliest that graced our hard drives. The very original Mechwarrior.

In Battletech, players take control of giant war machines called Battlemechs. On the first glance most people would call them "robots", but this is not true at all. In the cockpit of every Battlemech sits a live, breathing human who controls this giant behemoth of destruction. These brave men and women are the Mechwarriors.

The background story is the typical "last survivor of your family" style. To cut it short, you are Gideon B. Vanderburg, a son of ruling family of Ander's Moon colony. All of your family were killed and your family heirloom, the Chalice of Herne, was stolen during a surprise attack by an unidentified group of Battlemechs. You've sworn to avenge your family and reclaim what is rightfully yours.

And here your adventure begins.

During the game you must find out where the murderers of your family have gone and reclaim the Chalice. To add to the challenge, this must be achieved in a limited time span.
You need to assemble a team of the best pilots and BattleMechs you can. To do this, you'll need money which you can earn in two ways; either become a mercenary and fight other wars, or become a merchant, buying Battlemechs at worlds where they are cheap and reselling them on other worlds where they are far more expensive. It is your choice. Guess what brings more interest?

Your initial Mech is a Jenner, a light Mech that is second lightest one in the game (but not the worst). After patching it up, you will be ready for your first contract. You can sell your services to any of the five Successor Houses, providing that you are on a planet that belongs to it, but contracts for each of them have their own twists, so be careful when choosing your employer.
The game has various features that add a lot of realism to the gameplay. For example the reputation you gain by carrying out missions for the Successor Houses can result in being able to negotiate better contract terms and find better mechwarriors offering to join your forces. On the other hand, if you have a particularly low reputation in one of the Houses, they might refuse to give you any employment at all. In combat you have to watch your heat levels. Your teammates gain experience during the game, and sometimes you may find that the repair facilities can run out of parts for specific type of repairs.

There are eight Battlemech types available in the game. As said, you begin with one of the cheapest and lightest. Fortunately, there are better Mechs avaible that you will be able to buy as soon as you have enough money. These range from the lightly armored and armed but extremely fast Locust, to the agile and decently armed (but quick to overheat) Phoenix Hawk, to the mighty Battlemaster whose firepower has to be seen to be believed. The eight mech types in the game are quite diverse and almost every one of them can find its use during the game.

When your beloved machine is damaged, you can naturally repair it, providing you are rich enough. Mech repairs aren't cheap, but it's cheaper to repair an old machine then to buy a new one. If you don't have the money, you might need to do with only most basic repairs to most basic systems, just enough to make your mech usable to earn money for a full repair. One thing that I really miss is the ability to customize your mechs, known well in the boardgame. Can't have everything, I guess.

During the contracts you will have to fulfill various types of objectives, ranging from disabling or destroying all enemy Mechs to destroying important enemy structures to defence of base facilities. Each mission type requires slightly different thinking, as destroying an enemy ammo storage is a quick thing to do even with a light Mech, but defending one is much more difficult. You can target specific parts of enemy mechs and achieve different results by damaging them; i.e., destroying an arm makes your enemy lose the weapons he has mounted in there, while blasting his cockpit, although much harder, takes him down outright. You can leave your accompanying Mechwarriors to their own AI, or switch to a real-time command screen that allows you to plan their actions more tactically to a degree.

Видео MechWarrior (PC/DOS) 1989, Activision/Dynamix, adlib канала Major Thriftwood