And I am severely disappointed. When I played battletech [the tabletop RPG] back in my childhood, it was great. I admit that. I enjoyed it a lot. Now - after nearly two decades, do I enjoy this game? HELL FUCKING NO. You know, I have done this thing - called GROWING. And while I was at it, I somehow picked up this thing called knowledge. I know what [we] as humans living in 21c are capable of, and when I think of our war capabilities, I am not getting impressed by any of these battletech combat scenery. To me, it looks like Pre-Napoleonic era battle with robots rolled in. You need a recon mech scouting ahead. Seriously? I mean, WE are flying Joint STARS or, if human casualty is a concern, we fly Global Hawk above everybody's head and let them do the scouting. SAMs have a range limit, and lasers cannot hit anything flying at high altitude - but if the AA capability is a concern, we run wild weasel operations to allow these AGS vehicles to operate freely. This means the war scenery MUST incorporate the aerial battles, and integrated aerial defense also must be included in the battle. [That has been there after the 60's anyway!] What the fuck are they smoking? Is there any aerial superiority missions? Fuck that. The warfare is completely 2-dimensional. It's not even half as advanced as WWII combat scenery. Actually, it looks more like 'skirmish' but let's not even get into that. [4 mechs on the field. Like that can do a lot. That's but a stinking ONE ELEMENT worth of units, no more.] And the weapons are much more stupid. Really. Short range missiles are a complete fucking joke. We, living in 21c, link up to the satelites and use JDAMs and, in a pinch, we let loose Javelins. They don't miss like these future missiles would. Of course, other [dumb] weapons are all linked up with FCS, so the gunner doesn't need to gauge the minor details all in his fucking head, while in the heat of battle. Ok - you'd need a bomber flying above your head for JDAMs, but they don't even have aerial mission - obviously, the concept of aerial superiority flew above their head when they decided to make this. This means there is no such thing as CAS available either. WE don't do battle like this. But the future people will? And lack of FCS is like, what the fuck? Evasion? What the fuck? If you have read everything down to this drivel, you'd realize how unreal this combat scenery is. When you are engaged in aerial dogfight, the maximum range for WVR [Within-Visual-Range] combat is about 5 aerial miles radius. Anything beyond - you'd have to go into BVR, where you use your radar and let your missile do the job for you. Here, in Battletech combat, EVERYTHING is WVR. Hell, our current M1A1 has longer operating radius than this bullshit. So - if you enjoy masturbating with your childhood reminiscence, go ahead. That's your soft spot. If you want some good combat simulation, I'd say, stay the fuck away.
Okay - maybe I was a little bit harsh. We don't always deploy AGS vehicles, and we need to send out recon units in such cases. But this is about it. First of all, when we deploy recon unit, we don't send a single humvee filled with 4 marines. It's either a platoon or company. You just cannot rely on a single vehicle getting the job done successfully - it's not a knock against a single vehicle. That's the nature of the mission. Moreover, if they had such a highly developed technology, couldn't they develop a mech-launched AGS drone of a sort? Doesn't need to fly all that high. Hell, I am not even talking about the operational range of M1A2 tanks [250mi +] Just a stinking 1000 feet height will survey everything within good 300 meter radius. [Of course this radius is not long enough to allow artillery for even current US army, but whatever.] As such, I cannot deem this combat simulation anywhere near realistic. It is not. And it probably will never be.
I cannot say I enjoyed it. Not in the least. If the game was enjoyable, I wouldn't have been THIS butthurt over this. I couldn't stand playing this bullshit for more than an hour. I requested refund after my first session.
Friends have said they've enjoyed it. I've always enjoyed the Battletech universe myself, because giant robots. I'm guessing because it's based on a really old tabletop RPG, it isn't the best at capturing realistic combat. I typically view it as a mix of medieval combat and primitive robotics.
Yeah - that's the thing. I am not the kid I used to be - and that actually changed my taste in games considerably also. I just can't enjoy what I deem [not realistic in reasonable fashion] any more. Like this Battletech.
