I have played on and off ever since day 1, and I've been playing MechWarrior games ever since I was 5 years old, starting with 2.
The game used to be a lot tougher (see: more fun) back in closed beta. Punishing heat cap, slower mechs, maps that took 1 minute to flank on instead of 5 so more brawling, knockdowns so that mechs were punished for hugging each other. The only really problem with it was the ease of knockdowns and the HSR.
Then time passed and people kept whining about certain mechs, leading to the heat cap getting raised, DHS getting toyed with, weapon range/damage changes all the time, quirks, and so on. This got further exacerbated when the Clans came in. Then Faction Play finally came in and that's where everyone remembered "Hey, I can just play sniper mechs all the time just like MW4 and outperform every other build!"
I always played MechWarrior for a simulator-ish experience. I don't get that with MWO. I fondly remember the days of MechWarrior 2, 3 and 4, utilizing almost every single key on the keyboard because it did something. MWO is missing dozens and dozens of features that MAKE MechWarrior games what they are, such as:
- Stackpoling
- Knockdowns & Falling over on bad terrain
- Weapon Recoil
- Weapon Impact Force
- Radar modes
- Mech Crouching
- Heat penalties to movement, HUD and/or accuracy
- Tough to grasp aiming mechanics (I loved MW3's free cursor + torso movement)
- A meaningful Lance quick-communication system (the new MWO one is useless, and doesn't even have any voice)
- Heaps of other stuff I've missed.
- Destructible environment
- LONG FIGHTS WITH LONG TTK
On the other side, MWO has also missed the opportunity to make some real changes to the MechWarrior mould as well. I'm talking about Convergence. The separate Torso-Arm reticles were a good idea, but not good enough on their own. Battletech has always painfully described how average most mech pilots were with their aim. It should follow that aiming in MechWarrior would also require quite a degree of skill. How?
- Have Torso weapons fire straight forward at all times.
- Have Arm weapons fire straight forward, unless you have locked onto a target
- Have the reticle bob up and down with the mech's movement (like you see in 3PV in MWO)
Of course, any mention of this and you get some dumb response about "B-BUT MODERN BATTLE TANKS CAN FIRE AN ACCURATE SHOT WHILE SOARING MID-AIR AT 100KPH." As far as I'm concerned, people that defend pinpoint convergence so much are likely dedicated laser sniper pilots themselves and don't care about how OP they are, and/or really don't care that the game they are playing carries the Battletech name on it. Battletech is not real life. Battletech states mechs are incredibly difficult to pilot/aim well. Go play something else if you don't give a crap about the franchise this game is set in. I am of the opinion PGI also doesn't actually care that this game revolves around Battletech based on their idea of what MWO should be.
I played MechWarrior for a fun, challenging mech combat simulator with a cool backstory and vehicle design. Not for an arcadey, easy, online-only unbalanced deathmatch.
I really only play this (only when events come around now) because it's the only current MechWarrior title around. Sometimes I still watch the trailer for MechWarrior 5 and shed a tear about what could have been, and what we got instead. The only thing that would remotely make me enjoy this game again are any of the listed changes above, and the introduction of some new weapons like RAC, MRMs, and the like.
At least NGNG showed me Animattronic. He did some great MW-inspired music and since then I have bought everything he's produced. I enjoy his music more than this game to be quite honest.
Edited by Dakkss, 30 June 2016 - 10:44 AM.