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Review Database MechCommander (PC) | Mini Review
Minty puts on his headset once more and tells his little mechs what to do!
MechCommander was released for the PC back in 1998 and was grossly overlooked. For me, it is one of the very best strategy games ever made, in terms of sheer fun, replay factor and gameplay it’s right up there with Command & Conquer, it is also a lot harder, as MechCommander is one of the hardest games I have ever played.
Imagine Command & Conquer with no base building and giant robots firing lasers and missiles instead of little tiny men getting blown up by their own grenades, and you have MechCommander. When you first start the game you only have 3 weedy mechs but after each mission you can salvage a lot of weapons and sometimes mechs from the battlefield, depending on how you played, if you captured the weapons or not and if you took down a mech without blowing it up completely, you can usually capture them. You can then use them for your next mission, but after each mission you have to repair your broken mechs from the previous mission with the money you gained from winning the mission, if you beat the secondary objectives you gain more money.
So unlike C&C where each mission starts the same regardless of how you play, in MechCommander the better you play in previous missions means you have more resources and firepower for later missions and thus making the game easier, if you play like a noob by wasting your money, not doing secondary objectives and letting your Mechs get destroyed, and possibly getting your MechWarriors killed, then you WILL get your arse handed to you!
MechCommander has the best 2D graphics of any game, in my personal opinion! When zoomed in the game looks gorgeous and the animators spent a lot of time drawing the frames of animation for each mech and explosions, with each mech being rendered by 100,000 frames each!
These days FASA Interactive don’t exist, closed down in 2007 and Microprose don’t make games like they used to and I honestly think MechCommander is too difficult a game for the current generation of gamers, so we won’t see the likes of this awesome game anymore!
To see my playthrough of this game and what it’s all about please click here to see them on our YouTube channel.
| Presentation | This game has one of my favourite all time intros. It sets the scene perfectly. The game UI is very clean, easy to get to grips with and easy to use |
| Graphics | The best 2D graphics I’ve ever seen, very highly detailed. Each sprite has been draw twice for 2 different zoom levels, that’s a LOT of detail and equals 100,000 frames for each mech |
| Sound Design | Great sound effects, each weapon has their own distinct sound so you know you’re in trouble when you hear the Hunchbacks fire their Ultra AC’s The music is brilliant too and dynamic, it changes depending if there is a battle or not |
| Gameplay | A very difficult game but very rewarding as the better you do means the next levels are a little easier. Controls are easy to pick up and its great to customise your mechs the way you want to to suit your style of play. |
| Longevity | Bring a difficult game you will be replying the levels a lot, there are 30 of them and it will take you a decent amount of time to finish. This game has lasted me since 1998, I always go back and replay it |
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