MechWarrior 3
Description official descriptions
The Inner Sphere is launching a counterattack on the Clans, and the Smoke Jaguars is the first target! Operation Democles will attack the planet Tranquil. As Connor Sinclair, you're leading the Democles Commando team lance, part of the Eridani Light Horse, on the attack. The op went terribly wrong when one of the two drop ships was hit during descent, and your lancemates have been scattered to the four winds in the frenzied drop. You must attack through Clan territory, meet up with your lancemates, remove any resistance in your path, and try to find a way off the planet, while also accomplishing what you came to do: destroy the Smoke Jaguars!
MechWarrior 3 features detailed mechs (they limp when legs are hit, and destroyed limbs spark and trail wreckage) with slow and ponderous movements, as 100 ton mechs should. Firepower and precise application are the key in winning your engagements. Plenty of mechs are available. You start in a 55-ton Bushwhacker and work you way up to the really heavy stuff in a 20-mission campaign. Full multiplayer is supported with Internet play at Microsoft Zone. Your MFB has limited capacity so you'll need to decide what supplies to keep or dump for your salvage. You'll need to track ammo, weapons, equipment (like heatsinks), and the mechs. Keep the MFB safe or you'll have even less room! Redesign mechs to utilize newly captured weapons or adapt to the changing ammo situation.
Spellings
- 机甲战士3 - Simplified Chinese spelling
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Credits (Windows version)
163 People (131 developers, 32 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 86% (based on 31 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 41 ratings with 10 reviews)
The Good
Terrific graphics, and good control. The missions, while not astounding, were varied and fun. Multiplayer is good, but a lot of that comes from the fact that you're able to play in FASA's universe rather than any outstanding move by the developers. The environment is great, and you can interact (blow up) many of the things in it. Weather and terrain really make a difference. Finally, it captures the feel of the board game better than its predecessors.
The Bad
Fairly short. 20 missions aren't really enough, and while they are fairly varied for this type of action game, they're rather dry compared to missions from MechWarrior 2. The enemy AI can be somewhat braindead at times. The initial release was somewhat buggy, and had a serious multiplayer issue -- you could shoot off one of someone's legs and they'd die immediately.
The Bottom Line
While not as much sheer fun as MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (for me, at least), it captures the feel of the board game quite well. If you don't care about the differences between an autocannon/20 and a medium pulse laser, though, MechWarrior 2 is probably a better bet if you haven't played it already.
Windows · by Vincent Valentine (23) · 1999
The Good
In the past I have looked at this series many many times in the stores. but never quite picked one up. If Mech 3 is a standard then I might need to pick up some old copies of Mech 1 and 2. It is rare that I overlook a jem like this for so long. So it heighted my pleasure to play this great game. Great weapons good control ease of use, all qualities of excellent games. On an odd note I own a system that has a cd-rom and a burner, D and E respectively. When I have Civ II in drive D and Mechwarrior 3 in drive E and play mech something interesting happens. During the game it plays music from the civ game. WEIRD!!
The Bad
Too many weapons that are almost completely the same. No in game info about equipment. Teammates can walk through you (wow I must have missed that section in the manual that talks about matterless armor.) Often when refitting in basecamp teammates will get caught in with the mlb's.
The Bottom Line
Good game with a few flaws that dont take away enough to negate the fun.
Windows · by William Shawn McDonie (1131) · 2000
A pretty good Mechwarrior game.
The Good
First of all, when I put the game in, I was blown away by the graphics. They are still pretty good today. Very realistic Mech responses make the game even better.(Shoot a mech in the leg, it will limp). The gameplay also is very good. You can twist your torso,and target indiviual parts. The mech customization is also very good. The sound is crisp and solid.
The Bad
The AI is where this game really stumbles. If you stay far enough away, you can bombard them with missles from extreme long range and all they do is continue their normal behavior. Some bugs also make the game less fun. Aside from the classic " fall through the ground", (very rare) every time I load a certain mission, the game crashes.
The Bottom Line
A solid game with excellent grapics and terrific sound. It has every thing a great game needs except good AI. The AI is very poor. If you are a fan of Mechwarrior, then this is a must have. If you are not, this is merely an average game.
Windows · by James Kirk (150) · 2003
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
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Need Help configuring... | Bob Bob | Jul 16, 2013 |
Trivia
German version
The German version of the game has been censored: Foot soldiers disappear as soon as one aims at them or one is in an position to smash them with the mechs' legs.
Graphics
This game has its own unique style and is, in some places, technically superior to MechWarrior 4: Vengeance. For instance, MechWarrior 3 features landscape mesh transform when you hit the terrain with a weapon. This means that you don't just leave a char mark, the terrain actually changes when you strike. MW4 leaves a decal and that's it. The decal then fades or disappears suddenly after a period of time. In MechWarrior 3, if you leave a crater, it's there until you leave the map.
OEM release
MechWarrior 3 was the bundled software that came with the second production run of the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro 1.0 joystick. The first release was bundled with Urban Assault.
Rights and development
Activision was unable to develop a sequel to MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat after the FASA Corporation, the creators and then-owners of the BattleTech universe, refused to renew the licensing contract after the delays and troubled development of the game, despite its subsequent success. However, this did not prevent Activision from creating and patching the two expansion packs, Ghost Bear's Legacy and Mercenaries.
Initially, development on MechWarrior 3 was influenced by another 3D BattleTech game from the mid-1990s, created by the Virtual World Entertainment Group, which featured eight mutually connected cabinets called "Tesla pods" where players would fight in 'Mechs against each other. FASA acquired this technology to be used in a full-blown video game that was to become MechWarrior 3, under the publishing of MicroProse. For this reason, the FASA Interactive Technologies (FIT) division was formed to develop it. The process was delayed, however, due to struggles with the engine incompatibilities with concurrent hardware.
In 1996, Spectrum Holobyte, MicroProse's parent company since 1993, lays off much of the MicroProse staff and renames itself into MicroProse, and is purchased by Hasbro Interactive in 1998. FASA Interactive merged with Virtual World Entertainment Group, but their version of MechWarrior 3 is eventually put on hold, as Zipper Interactive was called to finish the game. They used a combination of the already developed assets and their own engine, most likely from the 1999 game Recoil.
Meanwhile, Microsoft bought the Virtual World Entertainment Group, but only kept FASA Interactive, and by transition, they now had the rights to the BattleTech license and MechWarrior games, hence the Microsoft logo's appearance in the MechWarrior 3 back cover art and intro.
The original MechWarrior 3 project would be the base of FASA Studio's MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, released a year and a half after Zipper Interactive's finished MechWarrior 3.
Information also contributed by Zaghadka.
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Related Sites +
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Mech 3 Community Project
A nice and big Community Website with a good Download-Section (official patches/fanpatches), a good program (gameRanger.com) for playing Mechwarrior 3 online and a well sorted Forum with a very good support. -
www.mechwarrior3.org FORUM
The forum-site for Mechwarrior3.org. Very good support regarding technical problems.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Raphael.
Additional contributors: Rebound Boy, Kasey Chang, Unicorn Lynx, BostonGeorge, Patrick Bregger, Plok.
Game added September 20, 1999. Last modified March 31, 2024.