t's 3058 and the folks of the Inner Sphere are ready to rumble. Tired of the
incessant butt-kicking laid on them by their sworn enemies, the genetically bred
Clans, the Inner Sphere warriors want some payback. MechWarrior 3 depicts
that payback--the war between the Inner Sphere's elite Eridinai Light Horse
BattleMech Regiment and the Smoke Jaguar Clan.
The rumblers are 10-meter-tall bipedal weapons chassis called BattleMechs. Piloted
by MechWarriors, and capable of inflicting more damage than a herd of tanks,
BattleMechs are the ultimate instrument of destruction.
In MechWarrior 3, gamers use those ultimate weapons in a 20-mission
campaign spread over four operations. In the missions, players--and the Lancemates
(i.e. squadmates) he or she controls--smoke enemy Mechs from a first-person
perspective, destroy bases, escort folks, and do most of the usual combat
simulation things. As in MechWarrior Mercenaries (and
MechCommander), thrifty gamers can salvage parts from downed enemy units.
To win, players must complete the 20 missions and put a serious hurt on the Smoke
Jaguar.
But warriors do not live by campaigns alone. In addition to the scripted
battles, MechWarrior 3's Instant-Action mode creates random encounters
against enemy Mechs of numerous types and sizes. Multiplayer features
accommodate up to eight players, offering battles in Deathmatch and Team Play mode.
The best Mech game yet
In 1995 MechWarrior 2 took the gaming world by storm. Not only did the
Activision classic rock the playing world with high-resolution graphics, a
mesmerizing orchestral soundtrack, and cinematic quality full-motion animation
(FMA), it boasted well-scripted missions and almost Quake-like
multiplayer capabilities. To this day the praise continues, making the game one
of the decade's all-time best.
MechWarrior 2's success, coupled with the usual industry hype, made
MechWarrior 3 one of the most anticipated games of this year. Amidst all
this buzz, however, lingered one important question--can MicroProse's game
live up to its predecessor's place in history?
The answer is yes. Hands down, MechWarrior 3 is the best mechanized
combat simulation game on the market. Care oozes from every pore on the CD-ROM. The
missions are well constructed. Targeting, with the addition of the right-click
zoom, is greatly improved. And the artificial intelligence of Lancemates is significantly smarter.
This BattleTech universe is also rendered in painstaking
detail, from the sunlight on the clouds to the sparks of machine gun shells
tracing a tattoo up a Madcat's leg armor. This isn't science fiction. This is
real! Boot the game and workaday existence fades. Players become By-God
MechWarriors.
Unfortunately, MechWarrior 3's reality shift is a tad short. Twenty
missions isn't much for $50. They are, however, quality missions. And
in this day of marketing-induced feature creep and my-box-is-bigger-than-yours advertisements,
it's nice to see a game that doesn't rest on its laurels. Better still, work has begun on the
fourth installment of the series, which will hopefully meet the expectations set by
MechWarrior 3. But for now, who cares? Players have a war to win. Onward, MechWarriors!
