49 replies to this topic

[stinkypuppy]

the day i have been waiting for forever is finally here, 4 new chassis from the good old days back from the dead ready to destroy and conquer the new modern mechs. that's right, project phoenix is here and its deadly! with 4 chassis with 3 variants each these new mechs will prove to be deadly in the field of battle. each mech is beautiful to look at their interiors are great to with lots of detail added for extra eye candy. and with that here we go with this review.

Graphics: each mech looks great, when you see each mech in your mech bay you can help but think how awesome they look. only issues i have with each mech is with their standard phoenix paint they look pretty ugly. their surfaces look like poorly done plastic and their colours are really washed out and don't look nearly as crisp as the concept art. it looks like before battle the mech got washed 500 times because of how faded the colours are. because of how they look i found myself using the hod-rod colours from the new pattern that phoenix came with more often than the actual phoenix colours other than the occasional phoenix white in certain spots in order to make my hot-rod pattern look more awesome.

also the lack of decals on the phoenix mechs as shown in the concept art is pretty disappointing and because of this it makes the only difference between phoenix variants and standard variants just a difference in where the paint is located. when decals are introduced i hope they give phoenix buyers their decals for free. also there is no excuse for skipping out on adding decals seeing how the current hero mechs have decals applied to them. also the "unique" geometry is not very unique. all they do is range from added railings that look barely different (the shoulders of the shadow hawk) to obscure your vision (added roll bars that make it harder to see in the locust) to shoulders that are easier to hit (both battlemaster and thunderbolt)

Game-play: each of the phoenix mechs are a joy to pilot and really do give you a good feeling when in their cockpit and they even have some really cool effects such seeing any of the AC cannons in the shadow hawk because when they shoot they have a cool recoil effect as seen modern tank turrets. the locust plays as it should like a small very mobile scout mech and harasser and because of its growing popularity with light mech pilots is really common to have a group of locusts to swarm the enemy which is always fun.

the shadow hawk has some real problems with its size though. in one round i stood beside a friendly battlemaster and we were the same size. this scaling is getting out of hand. the shadow hawk is larger than a awesome. its narrower so it will not get hit in the CT as often and it is "kinda" safe to use a XL but its height really gives it a disadvantage. some people suggest using the height to your advantage to peek over buildings and cover but the problem is that if you are getting shot at a lot and you decide to back up you are way to big that your face and main cannon are sill popping out over the ridge. this is just a poorly designed mech and its speed and jump jets don't help it at all. the hunch back is a much better mech.

the thunderbolt is fine. its scale it good and its a pretty solid mech but i find its a mech that kinda struggles to find its role. its rocket barrel hints as it being a LRM support mech but it can only hold the tubes to mount 1 LRM 20 effectively and that's only 1 variant that can do that. its other hard points suggest it being a brawler or energy support mech but basically whatever it can do a battlemaster can do better, with the same speed. heck there is even a version of the battlemaster that can hold more missiles than the thunderbolt can ever dream of so the battlemaster just tops the thunderbolt in every way. its still a fun unique mech to drive but i will just be using the battlemaster more often.

Value: the overlord phoenix pack is a really good value. not only does it come with 4 chassis and 3 variants for each of them (and each of them have a total of 3 variants so you have them all) but it also comes with other packed goodies that makes the purchase feel like the pack that keeps on giving. if you look past its short comings (not very unique geometry, washed out colours, over sized medium mech) its a really good pack that is quite worth it, especially since you can spend hours customizing, fighting, mastering, and piloting these mechs that you can spend more time using than the time playing 3 retail AAA games (provided none of them are grand theft auto or skyrim) and if you look at the money you would spend its a good deal.

80$ for overlord plus 30$ for saber. 110$
3 full retail games 60$ each. 180$ (not including tax)

P.S. on the thunderbolt and battlemaster the outside does not bounce around with the cockpit. if you look left or right you will see the cockpit bouncing around but the outside (arms, and side torsos) are just stationary as if its just sliding around on the ground. i paid good money for these mechs and i kinda expected better than this, also if you think i'm being picky you spend 80 dollars for something and find out that parts of its quality its totally missed out. its like if i bought battlefield 4 and they forgot to add any vehicles.

[Cerlin]

Gave it a like but you also get a -1 for bad capitalization and formatting. Please edit.

[cc_TheToph]

I am always glad to see positive reviews of ANYTHING in these forums, so good on you, mate.

That said, while I agree with your enthusiasm, I don't know that I agree with your interior conclusions. When tonnage matters due to drop limits, I think the Thunderbolt will find a happy home. I have really enjoyed my plays in the Shadow Cat, size not withstanding. The Locust I may never even see the inside of. I am cautiously optimistic about the Battlemaster, but my time in that likely won't come until November or December.

I do agree on the colors. I was expecting more POP in the shades.

Still, I am hugely excited to spend the next three months exploring these 'mechs.

[Bishop Steiner]

love my SHADs so far. Love the revolving UAC barrel. BANG! barrel advances, BANG! barrel advances. placed where I can watch ti so pretty.

[Asyres]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 October 2013 - 01:36 PM, said:

love my SHADs so far. Love the revolving UAC barrel. BANG! barrel advances, BANG! barrel advances. placed where I can watch ti so pretty.

It moves? I haven't played the SHD with a UAC5 yet... That's pretty cool.

[Bishop Steiner]

Asyres, on 16 October 2013 - 01:44 PM, said:

It moves? I haven't played the SHD with a UAC5 yet... That's pretty cool.

yeah, think the Jager does too. Just most mechs I have, you can´t see the barrel from the cockpit. But I think graphic setting matter too, as I don´t see them move to the best of my memory on my laptop, which has to run low settings, whereas my desktop runs on high to ultrhigh at 70-100 fps.

[Sadistic Savior]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 October 2013 - 01:49 PM, said:

yeah, think the Jager does too. Just most mechs I have, you can´t see the barrel from the cockpit. But I think graphic setting matter too, as I don´t see them move to the best of my memory on my laptop, which has to run low settings, whereas my desktop runs on high to ultrhigh at 70-100 fps.

One thing I noticed about my Jager...the barrels start glowing red from my cockpit view as they heat up heh heh. I thought that was so cool the first time I saw it.

[Daniel Travieso]

stinkypuppy, on 16 October 2013 - 09:30 AM, said:

..
80$ for overlord plus 30$ for saber. 110$
3 full retail games 60$ each. 180$ (not including tax)
.. blabla a good deal blabla

wtf are you talking about? quit the drugs, seriously.

you only get 5 models (1 of which is utterly useless because the weight limit/ the mandatory engine heatsink requirement is ********) and pay the price of 2 full-fleshed retail games.

a terrible deal.

[White Bear 84]

They are beautiful looking mechs apart from the rubbish pads on the Battlemaster. Playing in the locust is heaps of fun and the variants all feel really cool. Love the camo patterns and colours too! Freebies, woot!

Only thing i want to comment on right now is... ...why on earth would you design an assault mech with a heat efficiency of 0.88?

[DONTOR]

Yep A+ for being positive and giving constructive feedback! I too love the new mechs.

[Byzan]

positive stuff is always good though I struggle to see these packages as "great value"

its just a computer game, and $110 is more than most would expect to spend on a particular computer game. This is just a mech pack....

[Cardos]

Daniel Travieso, on 16 October 2013 - 02:34 PM, said:

wtf are you talking about? quit the drugs, seriously.

you only get 5 models (1 of which is utterly useless because the weight limit/ the mandatory engine heatsink requirement is ********) and pay the price of 2 full-fleshed retail games.

a terrible deal.

didnt buy it, but as far as i know u get also mechbays, patterns & colors, premiumtime......

[Kennoir]

Daniel Travieso, on 16 October 2013 - 02:34 PM, said:

wtf blablabla
a terrible deal.

So its a terrible deal. For you. For those of us who took it it wasn´t. Not even counting the sentimental value

Quote

Only thing i want to comment on right now is... ...why on earth would you design an assault mech with a heat efficiency of 0.88?

They took the loadout straight from the tabletop, where heat is calculated differently and the playstyle is different.

Edited by Kennoir, 16 October 2013 - 03:44 PM.

[Bishop Steiner]

Daniel Travieso, on 16 October 2013 - 02:34 PM, said:

wtf are you talking about? quit the drugs, seriously.

you only get 5 models (1 of which is utterly useless because the weight limit/ the mandatory engine heatsink requirement is ********) and pay the price of 2 full-fleshed retail games.

a terrible deal.

don´t like it, don´t buy it.

But since most "fully fleshed games" end up sucking, getting played for a month or two and then forgotten, that's a laughably pathetic argument, usually used by someone who is just cheap.

Let's try apples to apples sparky:

World of Tanks, USA Sherman Tank, 95 dollars on a blatantly pay 2 win title.
Neverwinter Nights, Menzoberranzan Renegade, 200 USD.

Yeah. Reality check.
,

[Mack1]

Sorry but I have to disagree totally with this review, I will be posting mine soon and it's not a very favourable one.

[Mack1]

Kennoir, on 16 October 2013 - 03:39 PM, said:

So its a terrible deal. For you. For those of us who took it it wasn´t. Not even counting the sentimental value



They took the loadout straight from the tabletop, where heat is calculated differently and the playstyle is different.

They pick and choose what they take from TT and they always have their fat bank account in mind when they do it and not us customers who pay their wages.

[HarlekinEO]

They failed again, in brining a line into the models. A Shadow Hawk taller then an Awesome and armored with paperthin Sheatmetal <rolls eyes>
Also it should be a squirrel with these Jump Jets and the speed, but it behaves like a lame duck.

And the argument dont like it dont buy it is rediculus, because there is no chance to get a Phoenix model after the release. We had to trust in the developers not to mess it up...

@ Developers: Now you got some money, please invest in a scale! If you are cheap, buy a ruler and clue it on the screen =D.

Edited by HarlekinEO, 17 October 2013 - 01:23 AM.

[John MatriX82]

Mack1, on 17 October 2013 - 12:54 AM, said:

Sorry but I have to disagree totally with this review, I will be posting mine soon and it's not a very favourable one.

Yep, after seeing that the locust 3S has an all energy setup, that the SHD 2D2 has a better hardpoint displacement and can go SRM brawler probably even better than what Kintaroes can do (with JJs), that there's a TDR with JJs and that the BLR 1G has a crippled torso twist capability.. I'm happy not to have bought the Phoenix. Add that I don't know what to do with the Locust besides trolling around and I don't want to spend 20$ for it I believe this pack is perfect for non-founders or newcomers or players that doesn't have much cbills left and would like to spend time in grinding a whole bunch of new mechs that come with free mechbays.

Under these povs the Phoenix is a good pack, under the POV of competitive chassis capability probably the best variants are SHD-2D2, TDR-9SE and any BLR in general, which makes senseless to drop 80$ to get those specific hero variants.

[Sephlock]

HarlekinEO, on 17 October 2013 - 01:22 AM, said:

They failed again, in brining a line into the models. A Shadow Hawk taller then an Awesome and armored with paperthin Sheatmetal &lt;rolls eyes&gt;

The Awesome needs every advantage it can get .

[AlexEss]

I have to say that while the Hawk is tall, it is also thin and it is very easy to spread damage around to compensate for the size. Also the height adds to the snipe ability of the mech as it can shoot over some unexpected terrain

But that is just my opinion-