MechWarrior 4: Vengeance

by Microsoft

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004YLZM
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 30, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (115 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,861 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

In the beginning, FASA created a miniatures game that featured humans in the far future piloting 30-foot giant robot tanks called BattleMechs. The game was called BattleTech, and it was good. Then Activision assaulted our PCs with MechWarrior, a sequel, a handful of add-on packs, and MechWarrior: Mercenaries, and it was great! Then, MicroProse got the computer game license and gave us MechWarrior 3, and it was OK--not quite good, but also not bad at all. Now, Microsoft has bought FASA Interactive and the BattleTech license. So FASA gives us MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, and folks, it's awesome.

MechWarrior 4 casts you as Ian Drusari, the nephew of a powerful duke, who returns to his home world from the Clan Wars to find it occupied by a rival noble family: House Steiner. You must launch a civil war and reclaim your birthright as you command a ragtag army of awesomely armed, 40-foot-tall, 80- ton, 90-mile-per-hour BattleMechs across the remote battlefields of your hostile world.

Not a bad tale to tell and Microsoft made sure the telling would play as well as it looks. The graphics are flat-out amazing. Lighting effects, smoke trails, smoldering Mech armor, laser discharges, and missiles all look incredible. You can fight in deserts, arctic regions, forests, and even on the moon: all look sci-fi-movie perfect. Mechs have more animations than ever before as well. They stomp across the battlefield and reel from weapons fire convincingly, and when the cannon fire finally punches through their armor, they light up like Christmas trees. Thermonuclear Christmas trees, that is.

The Mechs are faster than in previous games yet you still feel like you're piloting a lumbering, walking tank--this is a Mech combat simulator, not Quake III in power armor. The controls have been simplified, but this is a good thing. It used to take a long time to learn how to pilot 100 tons of armored death, but now the controls are much more intuitive. No longer will players have to cycle through weapons lists; now, each weapons group is controlled by its own button on the joystick. We recommend Microsoft's Sidewinder joystick, as the game's controls were written with that stick in mind.

The enemy Mechs in the single-player game play well. Both your allies and the enemy use their Mechs' capabilities wisely and provide a challenge throughout the game's long and entertaining campaign. Multiplayer is offered via Microsoft's easy-to-use Gaming Zone and there is also an Instant Action mode that'll keep you playing long after the campaign is over. MechWarrior is back and looming large over the gaming scene. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• Immersing techno-feudal storyline
• Excellent balance between simulation and action
• Challenging, yet easy to learn.

Cons:

• High system requirements
• Sometimes cheesy voice acting

Product Description

Are you up for the challenge with two Mechwarrior epic campaigns? MechWarrior 4: Vengeance places you in the center of an epic campaign of battle, birthright and betrayal as you command an awesomely armored 40-foot high 100 ton BattleMech.  Mechwarrior 4: Black Knight Expansion Pack includes all-new â??Mechs, vehicles, weapons, missions and more await each new recruit in MechWarrior 4: Black Knight. Do you have what it takes to make it in the Black Knight Legion? Time to find out.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worthy of the name, December 1, 2000

By 

Matthew Dunphy (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (CD-ROM)

The short: Great gameplay, great engine, excellent interface, awful story and acting. A fine addition to the Mech series of games. A solid, stable, fun game that doesn't require that you played any of the previous three to have a complete blast with it.

The long: I respectfully disagree with the review that gave this title one star because you can't make any Mech into a supermachine. That is precisely what makes this game better than all the ones that came before it. I have played ALL of the MW games, including the Virtual World cockpit sims, and this is the best yet. The game has been totally changed (and by the FASA guys themselves) from being just a computerized version of the paper game into a solid computer game that more accurately conveys what it should be like to be in one of these machines.

The shortcoming of the previous games was that Mech models didn't matter. You could take any one of them and put in any weapons, any equipment, any armor. You were limited only by total weight, so what was the difference?

Now there IS a difference. The missile racks on a Mech now really do have missiles in them (or nothing), and you can really hit those racks and blow them up. In the prior games you could hit a Mech in the waist and it would count as a "torso side" hit, regardless of what the structure of the machine was supposed to be. Now it plays far more like you'd think the real deal should. Two 75-ton Mechs are now completely different if they're different models, and you can play them with different tactics. You can use your knowledge of their structures to hit them where it hurts. Shouldn't it have been this way all along?

Game balance is totally different: Legs are way tougher to hit and to damage, so you can't cheap out as easily with leg or even head shots. Mechs accelerate, decelerate, and reverse faster, so if you crash into somebody, you don't ballroom dance with them at close range until somebody dies (and the meltdown from a death at close range is now greatly to be avoided--very cool); you can break off easily and continue to run and gun. Every Mech battle is now the extended duel it should be--no easy way out, and no cheap argument-ending superweapons like the Ultra AC/20. Now you've got to actually fight. If you don't like solid tactical fighting, then go play any first-person shooter, ninnies.

Weapon select and grouping is now totally different; the HUD is much simpler and more effective to use, and the Mech lab is equally simplified and effective. Wingman command is perhaps the best such game interface yet invented; very quick and it works.

Missile play also is done right this time; long-range missiles launch in an arc to the target, short-ranges are dumbfire and Streaks always hit without needing a lock. Other toys like AMS and BAP really work now, and have a noticeable effect and advantage during play. The new way that the missiles launch in a ripple-shower (instead of all at once) is more fun. This means that evasive action works. Now rather than either getting hit with the full load or totally missed, you can do things like dodge some and try to let AMS handle some, and everything in between. It also means that you need skill and strategy as a missile marksman, which wasn't really the case before.

The Mechs themselves have never looked better. They're highly detailed, distinctively blacken on damage, limp, stagger, run, walk, recoil, fall, and DIE awesomely. The graphics look great. Weapon effects are intense and the sounds are rich and throaty. You feel like you're dealing out some hurting even if you're only scratching paint when you unleash a machine gun. The AI is no longer dirt-stupid, puts up a great fight and won't sit there while you snipe from long range or pull other tricks that used to work. It's much more equivalent to the great bot AI that you see in first-person shooters like Unreal Tournament or Quake.

The single-player campaign is 25 full missions, far longer in play time than MW3. Unfortunately the story is as awful as most other computer games. Starcraft or Half-Life this is not. I can't remember seeing worse acting since high school, so I can't give this five stars. It's solid in just about every other way, though. I look forward to any expansions that may be on the way.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet Game, December 30, 2000

By 

J. Hassevoort (Michigan (USA)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (CD-ROM)

Mechwarrior 4 is an excellent game. The graphics are crisp and the sound is awesome. The smoke from missiles looks much better than in Mechwarrior 3. I also think the new weapons that are included in the game are great (for example MRM 40 missiles). The mechs even start on fire and get charred from taking hits.The mechlab is confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy to use. The biggest downside of the game is the large file size (maximum installation is 1045 megs). The instant action is great because you can use it to practice missions. Another big downside is the long video sequences before a lot of the levels that you can't skip. They're cool at first but after like 20 times its annoying. The controls are very similar to Mechwarrior 3 so that cuts down much of the learning time (though i still suggest you do the training mission). Firing different weapon groups is much easier because each group has a designated firing button so there is no toggeling betweeen groups any more. If you plan on buying Mechwarrior 4 I suggest you get a joystick if you don't already have one. So, in the end i think Mechwarrior 4 is a great game and worth the money.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Well Balanced., November 30, 2000

By 

"mrhuck" (Sequim, Washington USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (CD-ROM)

... I think this game is an excellent, well balanced game! The only real beef I have with it is that it seems too short and I wish you could play the single player missions in Multi-player games. Other than that, the game is excellent! The storyline is good and the actors don't suck. I don't know about you, but I like seeing weapons come out of places they are supposed to come from. It's kind of weird and unrealistic to see a beam weapon, or ballistic weapon coming from a missile rack don't you think? Also, I would imagine it makes Multi player a little more balanced and fun. You have to work for your victory, using combat tactics and strategy! No more Cheapo, no talent mechwarriors stocking up on Ultra AC's and taking everyone out with a couple shots! I say bravo to Microsoft for making the game beautiful, and fun for everyone! I also should note that the animation in the game is wonderful! The Mechs move and take weapon hits as you would expect them to in the real world! Very fluid! Again I say Bravo Microsoft!