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And I know everyone's already had their say and plenty of topics have already been made on this, but I felt compelled to write my own. Read on or not, up to you.
One of the biggest things that has always irked me about MechWarrior Online is that it hasn't ever really shined on giving me the feeling I'm in a giant robot. I won't bore you with a block of text explaining why I think that, but rather the points where the new map does well.
Also keep in mind I'm a real stickler for aesthetics and usually place my immersion above how balanced or fair a game is.
Firstly... just lookit this:
- The lighting is the first thing I noticed on this map, and it's pretty. It reflects what I'd actually expect the lighting to look like in reality. It's deep, bright and colourful and free of pointless colour filters. Shadows are deep rather than bland.
- There's a serious attention to detail on this map and it's clearly been a painstaking process for those involved. Everything from the crater marked roads to the dense flora that surrounds the town, it just feels richer.
- Scale. They did better this time. This feels more like an actual town with a greater variety of scale in terms of its props and layout, rather than many of the other maps which seem like they're designed to conveniently provide a perfectly covered battlefield for a mech to fight in.
- You're dropped off in what's clearly the outer regions of the city and are tasked with moving inwards to combat the enemy team. That's magnitudes better than just being dropped into a confined city arena straight off. Those outer areas technically aren't needed, but just the fact it's there makes the map more interesting and immersive.
- I can't comment as much on the layout when it comes to the competitive scene, but it feels properly non-centred. Sure, games seem similar to before but I'm willing to put that down to player habits. There's definitely room for much more manoeuvring and positioning.
- The new collision effects are awesome and add just that little bit of terrain interaction needed to make you feel part of the game world, rather than toys in a pretend world. Interaction with game world = immersion.
- Of course, the day/night cycle. Having maps with dynamic effects means maps are far more interesting and unique to play on. In many ways it can make a single map feel like two or tree. It'll be interesting to see if weather effects can be implemented, perhaps lowering/raising temperatures, changing visibility, maybe even lowering sensor quality.
