MechWarrior 4: Black Knight Expansion

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Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00005O1GM
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches ; 5.6 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 6, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,454 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Microsoft picked up the venerable MechWarrior gauntlet with its impressive-looking and -playing MechWarrior 4: Vengeance. Fans of that game, and of the franchise itself, have a lot to look forward to when the new Black Knight expansion pack stomps its way onto shelves. It uses the same graphics engine and requires MechWarrior 4 to play, but it adds an entirely new campaign and 20 new missions. Black Knight will allow players to play the missions in any order they like, even repeating some of them as they wish.

The new missions are nice, but the most dramatic change was made at the request of the legions of MechWarrior fans who believed that the vanilla story in MechWarrior 4 didn't live up to BattleTech's dark, feudal roots. The new story casts you as a Black Knight, a mercenary working for House Steiner (the bad guys from the previous game). Our Microsoft rep grinned with glee when he described how your first missions in Black Knight will be to hunt down the characters from MechWarrior 4. The character on the top of the fans' hit list? Annoying wiseass pilot Casey.

New to the game will be the black market, which is an area where you can buy or sell equipment for your Mech Lab. This gives you an even better reason to be precise with your shooting, as you can salvage more equipment from your adversaries. New multiplayer modes will also be available. They include Absolute Attrition, Strongholds, Siege Assault, Giant Killers, and Clan vs. Inner Sphere. --Andrew Bub

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exactly what MW4 needed, January 14, 2002

By A Customer

Seems a little weird, all that work you did getting Ian Dresari into power, and now you gotta fix that mistake. Well, you're a mercenary now and that doesn't matter anymore. You start out with some lighter mechs now instead of a shadow cat, but eventually you'll get upgraded. There are several new Mechs and new weapons (X-Pulse lasers rule). Nothing as far as mechs or weapons have been left out, everything that was in MW4 is still here. Graphics are as good as MW4, and gameplay is definately better. More communication with tac-officers just lends more flavor to the game and reminds you that nothing ever goes right in a war. Tactics you used in MW4 work the exact same -- never charge into a group of enemy mechs or they'll team up and waste you, lancemates still don't know what Mech repair bays are (argh!), and never run directly at a calliope turret. Theres new vehicles too, including a tank with two new surprises for you, to clarify, two AC/20's.

As far as equipment goes, you dont' always get to keep what you find. Since you ain't running the show, if the boss says you get medium mechs, that's what you get, even if you salvaged an atlas in a mission. Also, certain events might cause you to lose equipment (like your base coming under surprise attack and you gotta evacuate, etc). weapons that have been destroyed in battle are lost forever, and mechs with severe damage need to sit out of combat for a mission or two (depending on whether they are 'Damaged' or 'Crippled') while they are repaired.

Bottom line, if you liked Mechwarrior 4, or even think MW4 just needs a pinch of salt, by all means get this expansion. There's plenty of single player levels to go around in case you were wondering, and if you didnt like Casey Nolan, you get to kill him! what more do you need?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Mech Warrior yet, July 16, 2002

By	"mustang11b35d" (Fort Huachuca, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This expansion improves upon the outstanding MechWarrior 4 "Vengeance." The feel and personality of this expansion are more interesting, gritty, and (I think) true to the spirit of the original game than Vengeance.

New weapons and 'mechs make for lots of interesting variations. I enjoy using the "Instant Action" missions in conjunction with extensive trips to the Mechlab to try out new configurations and strategies. I love to stomp through the first missions in a custom Daishi or a "souped-up" Uller with no lancemates!

Two changes could improve this game. One, the lancemates are nearly incapable of doing a repair/reload. You have to lead them to the entrance, point them in the right direction, and get out of the way before giving the command (hoping that they don't run into the walls in the process.) Second, a practice range or series series of ranges (like the instant action in MW3, which is that game's best feature, in my opinion) would allow the player to more quickly test configurations against specified foes. That said, the MW4 instant action missions have the advantage of serving as training grounds for the campaign. The ideal would be to have both options.

But all things considered this is a terrific game- ...

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware of Spyware, March 31, 2003

By A Customer

While I enjoyed the expansion pack, this software and the two mech packs (clan arsenal and innersphere) contain the C-Dilla spyware. 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.