MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries

Moby ID: 8000
Included in

Description official description

The sequel to Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance. When you're a 'Mech Mercenary, you call the shots. You don't fight for honor - you fight for cold hard cash, a fierce reputation, and the heart-pounding thrill of the kill. Your allegiance goes to the highest bidder. You answer only to the call of fortune. Your fate is in your hands alone. Select from 4 of the most notorious mercenary units, Kell Hounds, Wolf's Dragoons, Northwind Highlanders, and Gray Death Legion, to alter your missions, with different outcomes based on your victories. Choose from over 35 different 'Mechs, including 10 new ones. And for the first time ever, your secondary lance allows you to muster 8 'Mechs into battle simultaneously. Or make a killing in the infamous Solaris VII arenas, where fighting dirty can make you filthy rich. Includes 'Mechs from the Black Knight expansion for Mechwarrior 4, and is fully compatible with Mechwarrior 4 'Mech Packs. Fight for fame. Fight for fortune. Fight as a Mech Mercenary!

Spellings

  • 机甲战士4:雇佣兵 - Simplified Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

73 People (71 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Project Lead and Lead Designer
Lead Programmer
Lead Artist
Producer
Executive Producer
Programmers
Additional Programmer
Artists
Designers
Sound Engineer
Content Manager
Additional Content Manager
Marketing
Playtesting
Additional Playtesting
MIS Support
A special thanks to all
  • at FASA Studio [for creating the original MechWarrior 4: Vengeance and assisting with MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries]
  • Peter Mayberry (Pete Von Mayberry; for all his help)
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 23 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 16 ratings with 4 reviews)

Not the best game ever.......

The Good
Well, Mercenaries, the newest expansion pack in the beloved Mechwarrior series, tries to pack as much fun into the Mechwarrior series. Hopefully it will push it into the top of the huge array of mech games. Unfortunately it isn't perfect.

As well as pro's go, a definite uplift is the arena-battle type mode where you are placed in the arena with other mechs and you battle it out for prize money. This adds a definite good side to the game.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the visuals are showing their age. In the past, Mechwarrior 4 had been great to look at, but with that same engine, it is falling behind from other games.

The missions could also have been a little more varied than simple kill everything till you get there missions.

The Bottom Line
Unfortunately, Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries isn't the game everyone wanted. If you're a fan of the Mechwarrior series and have blown away countless hours, this is a good way to expand further into the game and get some more mech action. If you're not a die hard fan, I reccomend you stay away. That's why I rate this game a * 2 out of 5 *.

Windows · by ThE oNe (180) · 2002

This Merc title did everything right about BTech

The Good
Mercenaries managed to capture the flair from the first Mechwarrior title, except the contract negotiation and dynamic campaign with extended missions. You are in charge of a new merc outfit and depending on YOUR performance you can grow at the optimum rate, or even go to Solaris VII to prove your own worth as a Mechwarrior. Loads of weapons, "Black Market" to trade weapons and mechs, loads of mechs, multiplayer, it's almost a Btech player's dream

The Bad
No graphical upgrades, still balanced toward the larger mechs (i.e. a bit too powerful), many mechs are in the extra cost expansion packs, as are some of the weapons (though you don't need them for SP), no true dynamic campaign (the whole thing is multi-branch scripted) not enough reference to the existing "lore" other than the initial bits.

The Bottom Line
Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries is the last iteration of the Mechwarrior 4 series. After introducing Mechwarrior 4, Black Knight, and the 2 mech packs (Inner Sphere and Clans), Mercenaries is basically what FASA and Microsoft has learned from the entire series distilled into a single game.

The graphical engine did not get upgraded, as they need to maintain compatibility, but all the bugs have been fixed and performance tweaked. The MW4 series is a bit faster than MW3 and a bit more action oriented, and the new engine works well enough for that.

Sound remains about the same as well. Nothing major, though some of the new weapons sounds pretty good.

The main difference is you are now running your own mercenary company, instead of working for someone else, or a planetary government / alliance. You are really on your own, work for the highest bidder. You start your career allied with one out of four sponsors, which basically gives you a default orientation and bonus. One starts with more cash, one with more techs, one with better mechs, and one with better weapons! From there on, take on the various missions, try to earn as much money as possible by fulfilling mission objectives, and try to obtain salvage. Capture enemy weapons and sell them.

When time is right, Solaris VII becomes available, where you can choose to fight on mech to mech action in various classes, and hopefully be crowned "grand champion". Winning gives you a huge bonus paycheck.

As missions get harder, you'll need to hire additional help, and you can take many mechs into the battle, subject to mission drop weight limits. You'll need to hire mechwarriors to pilot them and weapons / ammo to outfit them, of course. Employees cost money. As it is your company, it is all up to you.

At the end, you can choose your allegiance toward Davion, Steiner, or neither, as you have fought from one end of the known galaxy to another in this long campaign, and you do need to choose sides, as choosing one side will preclude missions on the other, and so on.

Some missions require tactical finesse, while others rely on speed, teamwork, and more.

Single Player campaign, as mentioned, is quite good, with lots of branches and lots of apparent freedom. Individual battles can be hard, but not overwhelming, at least not after a bit of practice.

Multiplayer has no "commander" view, it's basically every one for himself, though there is chat support which would offer some sort of coordination.

All in all, MW4:Mercs is the most satisfying of MW4 series, giving players a true taste of being a mercenary (Black Knight expansion doesn't really count in that sense) and adding Solaris VII is a brilliant touch. Multiplayer is a lot of fun if you find the right people. All in all, a great time to be had, just wish they added more of a "dynamic campaign" to the MP.

Windows · by Kasey Chang (4598) · 2007

One of the best Mechwarrior games

The Good
The gameplay is the same good ol' fast paced 'Mech action, and now you get to trade 'mechs, weapons, and pilots on the market. I liked how you could buy 'mechs fully equipped rather than be limited to what you could salvage from the battlefield. And now eight pilots can go into battle at one time! And if you want a break from the normal action, you can always go to Solaris VII for some gladiator 'mech battles. It has a great story too. The voice acting was done well, and the dialogue was great.

The Bad
The Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance engine is a bit dated, and the graphics could use an update. Heat is very annoying, as always, at least you can turn it off. I really hated it when I was in a huge 'mech and smashed into a lightweight 'mech and the smaller one wouldn't fall over, which isn't realistic.

The Bottom Line
If flight sims intimidate you, this game won't. It's got all the greatness of any other action-sim game, but it's a lot more fun then spending five hours learning how to fly a virtual plane ever will be. If you're a fan of flight sims, use your joystick with Mercenaries. If you like first-person shooters, Mercenaries is fully compatible with keyboard and mouse, and is extremely easy to get into. If you've never played a computer game before, Mercenaries is still fun! PLAY THIS GAME!

Windows · by Zack Green (1162) · 2002

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Freeware release

On 9 July 2009, it was announced that MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries would be released for free by Studio MekTek. Shortly after, the company stated that Microsoft's legal department held up this release. After Microsoft gave the project a go on 22 April 2010, it was finally released on 30 April 2010. MekTek thanked its partners Smith & Tinker (the would-be developers of MechWarrior 5), Virtual World Entertainment and Catalyst Games (the current owners of many of FASA's tabletop games, including Battletech, on which the MechWarrior series is based) for "pressing Microsoft to allow for the release."

The free release includes all of the original content, as well as additional bug fixes, features, and Battlemechs. A link can be found in the Links/Searches section.

Multiple endings

There are three different endings. Which one the player receives depends on which branch of the campaign they take (i.e. join House Davion, House Steiner, or remain neutral).

Online servers

The game's online servers (which were hosted on MSN Gaming Zone) were shut down on 19 June 2006 in the wake of MSN Games' shift from "CD-ROM matchmaking service" to casual online games.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance
Released 2000 on Windows
MechWarrior 4: Black Knight
Released 2001 on Windows
MechWarrior
Released 1989 on DOS, 1992 on Sharp X68000, PC-98
MechWarrior 3
Released 1999 on Windows
The Mercenary Rise
Released 2019 on Windows
MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries
Released 1996 on DOS, Windows
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
Released 2019 on Windows, 2021 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4...
Wander Hero
Released 2023 on Windows
Resident Evil 4: The Mercenaries
Released 2023 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8000
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Zack Green.

Additional contributors: Kasey Chang, Longwalker, Unicorn Lynx, Cantillon, Titan10, Plok.

Game added December 23, 2002. Last modified March 27, 2024.