Customer Reviews

Mech Warrior 4 Mech Paks: Inner Sphere

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Inner Sphere pak is great!

It's what a lot of MW4 players have been waiting for, and it doesn't dissapoint. The IS pak comes with 4 new mechs (Zeus, Dragon, Highlander, and Hunchback), 1 new weapon (Heavy Gauss), 1 new component (IFF Jammer), and 2 new maps (Coliseum, and GageTown).

The IS pak also comes with the 3.0 patch and it fixes A LOT of bugs in the game that cause certain mechs not to take proper or any damage.

You NEED Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance to be able to install the mech pak. You can use the mechs in instant action and in multiplayer only. You can also play others who DON'T have the IS Mech Pak yet (they have to have the 3.0 patch too), but they won't be able to choose any of the extra stuff.

CONS:
The only thing i didn't like about this expansion was that it didn't have any new missions like MW4: Black Knight did.

Some people have said that Instant Action doesn't work too well with this new pak, but i haven't had any problems. I think they fixed the problem with your team not respawning in Instant Action when you have more than 1 life, but the catch is they respawn after you get destroyed. For each life you loose, you get your partners back.

Once you install MW4:IS you won't need the CD for a while, because you can't run the game from the disc. You can only run it from the Mech Warrior4: Vengeance CD (either cd1 or cd2 will work). That makes it seem like a waste of money though.

Don't expect to see a highlander running around in the MW4 Missions.

If you don't have MW4 this game is useless. The real review to read is there. If you liked it, THEN read this. The mech pack contains 4 new mechs all of the Inner Sphere (duh).
Hunchback: .... Too little tonnage for its load out
Dragon: Performs like a medium mech on weapon steroids
Zeus: A very strong and well-rounded assault mech
Highlander: Great load out with jump jets!

It includes the coliseum, which is a very fast paced and good map. It has lots of interesting obstacles like arches and a secret cavern.

The Heavy Gauss rifle is very strong, and can fire 600 meters. But like the name says it's 18 tons!

And finally the outrage of the expansion. The IFF Jammer makes your mech appear neutral to the enemy when further than 400 meters. So what? You shoot a neutral mech.

Over all it's a ... package that brings a little fresh blood in.

*Addition*
This has been confirmed as compatable with MW4:mecs. Ten new mechs is a lot, but if you play the campain and not multiplayer (I play multi more, but the camp a lot) then these meckpaks will bring in 4 new mechs each and 1 new weapon and 1 new electronics. There's always the 1 map that wasn't advertised(Gagetown for IS, New gothem for clan). But both advertised maps will be included in base Mercs. With both paks 18 new Campain Compatable Mechs. That's a lot. The base game of MW4 had 21. It's worth the extra [$$$] for both.

While I enjoyed the added mechs, this software and its counterpart clan arsenal contain the C-Dilla spyware. The Black Knight expansion pack also contains it. This is a copywrite protection program that installs on your machine and does not shut down after you exit the game. TurboTax also installs the program and the only way to remove it is to download and run the safecast uninstaller program from the intuit website. Including this program was a terrible thing for Microsoft to do, especially since it does not disclose the fact at any time.

If you are a MechWarrior 4 fanatic (like I am) then this expansion is probably a good buy. The 4 new mechs are excellent, I especially like the Zeus (a fast assault mech) and the Hunchback (a medium sized mech which can carry quite a heavy loadout of weapons.) It is also possible to arm the Dragon which is included with 4 Clan Ultra Autocannon 5s, which gives it quite a bit of punch for its size -- I've even taken down a Daishi (a very heavy, dangerous assault mech) with it, though only with luck helping out. The new weapon, the Heavy Gauss, is a bit more dubious in my view -- it takes up 4 slots, weighs 18 tons, and does 27 points of damage with a long reload time. The fact that it takes 4 slots means that there are lots of mechs you simply can't put it on, and I haven't been able to get a combination as deadly as the one I have on my Variant 1 Daishi: 4 Clan ER Large Lasers and 3 Clan Gauss Rifles, which can take down any mech with two shots (to get all those weapons on there, just lower its engine rating to free up weight). ... you should probably buy the main game -- this is, after all, a supplement which won't work at all without Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance installed and running. The IFF Jammer is basically useless unless you are playing against bots (computer players). Finally, there are two maps in this game -- Coliseum (one of my favorites, with a few cool details -- try shooting at the force fields that are protecting the crowd around the edge of the arena, for instance!) and Gagetown. I thought it was worth the price, but I don't know if I would if I weren't a fanatic -- there's nothing in this that'll allow you to beat my Daishi Variant 1, which was made with the basic game! :)

(For those who don't know) The MechWarrior4 MechPaks are expansion packs that give the player access to new 'Mechs, weapons, and electronics, and a new map. The first one to be released is this one, containing Inner Sphere items. Coming out soon (hopefully) is the second, which contains Clan parts/'mechs. The new stuff included in this pak adds a bunch of new excitement and things to play around with, enriching gameplay. But, the new patch that comes with this is a hassle to install. Many people are having a big hassle installing the new patch(es), which is why I have deducted a star. I still would recomend this to all those who already have MW4 and the Black Knight Expansion.

[...]

First off, this is a box full of extra stuff, not a game. So it needs MW4 to work. If you don't have it your in the wrong place. For people that have been with the mechwarrior series early on, its a great expansion becuase you see some old mechs redone and given new life. I remember from Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries that the Zues mech was a jugernuaght not readily messed with, and I'm glad to see it back on the feild.

This is an "expansion" to Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance. Which is an awesome game as well. In this pack you get 4 new mechs,2 new maps to play in, and some other stuff. You can play MW4 online with other people. If you like the Mechwarrior Series, you'll like this game.

This is an "expansion" to Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance. Which is an awesome game as well. In this pack you get 4 new mechs,2 new maps to play in, and some other stuff. You can play MW4 online with other people. If you like the Mechwarrior Series, you'll like this game.

I have not had time to enjoy MW4 online with the pack, but I like what I have seen. I hope that MW5 debuts soon.

This game gives more kick to the mechwarrior game. There is alot stuff to do with this addition.