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You can customise your Mechs to a greater extent than you could in the first Mech Commander, too. Mech customisation isn't quite as flexible as it is in Mech Warrior 4, but with numerous Mechs to command at a time that's almost a relief. They've also fixed other complaints people had about the first game - you can now save mid game and there are three difficulty levels rather than one, both of which are welcome additions as Mech Commander 2 ramps up the difficulty pretty quickly, just like its predecessor. Thankfully, the challenge lies in the gameplay rather than the interface since it's just as easy to use as the original, if not more so, particularly the Mech customisation screens. The AI also seems improved - there's no more seeing your Mechs take enemy fire without retaliating until you personally order them to, and they'll often move about in an attempt to avoid enemy fire, or so it seemed to me. At one point I even noticed one of my Mechs creeping backwards as an enemy Mech approached, so his long range weapons remained more effective and he stayed out of range of the other Mech's guns. Assuming that wasn't just my imagination, that's pretty cool.
What isn't cool, though, is that sadly I couldn't get very far in this beta build thanks to numerous bugs, which is why I decided to call this a First Impression article rather than a Hands-On Preview. Loading a game invariably made it crash and it also decided to randomly bomb out into Windows on me a few times, not to mention that it wouldn't run at all under Windows ME. This forced me to use Windows 2000 which is of course little better than an Apple Lisa for 3D gaming. However, assuming they fix these problems in the end, they're pretty irrelevant, seeing as this is a beta. But you can't blame me for venting a bit of frustration, can you?
There was one frustration that wasn't down to bugs though. Now and again a mission would suddenly end as a building unexpected exploded due to enemy fire, killing all my Mechs. Then again such sudden explosions are no doubt less of a problem when you can quick load, and at this early stage I really don't have many other complaints (again, best turn a blind eye to the bugs as they'll presumably be fixed in the final version).
Seeing as I could only get it working on one of the machines on my network and the Zone.com Mech Commander 2 room was empty I didn't get a chance to try out the multiplayer. Still, you'll be pleased to know that it should support 8 teams of 8 players (you do the maths), which is more than the previous title supported, and it includes a number of different gameplay styles, including "Complex", which I assume, no, hope is some sort of interesting multi-objective multiplayer scenario.
Overall, it seems to be shaping up well. Assuming they fix the bugs (which, to be fair, I've already spent too much time focusing on since this is only a beta) Mech Commander 2 should be worth a look in at the very least. Aside from the ever cool Mechs, the landscapes, explosions and gunfire look great when you get a fair number of Mechs fighting together, and at the core of it all is still the unique strategy game system that was created with the previous game and is still just as refreshing years later, especially now they've improved the formula. Oh, and last but not least the acting is thankfully much better than in the otherwise excellent Mech Warrior 4 which has worse acting than Sunset Beach, which I thought was impossible. The acting here is certainly a cut above the wooden performances of Mech Warrior 4 and I'd go so far as to say it's pretty good. And just as well - I don't think my fist could take it if I punched my monitor screen again.
By Pete Closs
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