MechWarrior 3

The Good
Compared to both its prequels and sequels, MW3 is probably the most physically realistic MechWarrior game. Autocannons create recoil; missiles blind you in their backwash; you can be knocked over by weapon impacts, and it feels like you're actually off balance (as opposed to the other 'Mech games, in which you might fall after a certain quantity of damage is dealt to you in a short length of time, but you have no real warning). The designers of this game did a remarkable job with the physics and graphics, to say the very least.

The missions were also set up brilliantly. Unlike all other MechWarrior and MechCommander titles, there is no form of money in MW3; you have to scrap everything you use. And you can't hold everything you come across, so you will have to decide what you need and what you don't.

The environment effects are far more diverse than what you'll find in any other MW title as well. Buildings don't just explode; they crumble. Trees burn, water slows you down more as you get in deeper, and 'Mechs will explode if overheated beyond a certain point. A whole lot of attention was placed in making this 'Mech game the most realistic, and it seems like the sort of idea that would pay off...

The Bad
...except that it didn't.

There is a reason why MW4 refused to adhere to the realism of MW3: It didn't help the gameplay. The first major flaw involves the Autocannons, which, as I described earlier, have recoil. The first thing you're going to say when you pop off a few shots with this weapon is 'cool!', but don't get too excited: The recoil, especially if the weapon is mounted on an arm, is sufficient to throw the torso into a spin in the middle of firing the three-round burst, thus throwing off your otherwise brilliant shot.

While this looks cool at first, in gameplay it's frustrating. Unless you mount two autocannons, one on each arm, the recoil effect makes your heaviest starting weapon almost pointless. Do I prefer it over the unremarkable, beam-style autocannon shot in MW4? Probably, but just barely, and MW4 doesn't force me into odd autocannon configurations just so that I can land a shot.

The crumbling buildings are pretty cool, but there's a pretty serious issue which stems from the AI behavior. Your allies follow behind you, or can be directed to Nav points. But they don't have very good sense, and there are lots of dangerous things that shouldn't be stepped on or bumped into - mines, collapsible bridges, etc. The AI is inexplicably attracted to these dangerous things and getting them to avoid hazards is nearly impossible. In some missions, I feel less like a lance commander and more like a babysitter. Especially since there are only three allied pilots in the game, and if one dies, well, that's it, you can't have a full lance.

The biggest, boldest reason why realism doesn't pay off involves 'Mech movement. MW4 ended up being superior simply because it was fun to pilot a 'Mech; the torso could rotate with the mouse in order to strafe targets. All 'Mechs had a rotating torso. Guess what? Not here. The torso is fixed, which means that you have to snipe your opponents or make 'bombing runs'. All it really does is prevent you from moving while you fire, which means you just move from place to place, stopping to kill something, then continuing along.

This - and the terrain for most of the game, which is wide open and flat - simply encourages you to load up with the longest-ranged weapons possible. Sitting in one place and firing can be accomplished from 800 meters or 50 meters just as easily; the difference is that, at 800 meters, you're a lot less likely to be hit in return. And the enemy rarely has the sense to rush you, preferring to engage the same way you do, by stopping and firing.

Around the last few missions, you'll find yourself facing 'Mechs which have similarly long-ranged loadouts. Though the expansion would fix this using a 'light-amplification' feature, some of these missions take place at night, and the game designers decided that this means a 'fog of war' has to be placed at roughly 500 meters. So you can lock onto an enemy, and even see your target reticle turn red when it passes over the enemy, but you can't see the enemy unloading its ordinance in your face. It's mildly frustrating, to say the least.

The Bottom Line
Every now and again I return to this game, play through a few missions, and stop at a reasonable point to continue playing MechWarrior 4. This game could've been brilliant, but it's also a lesson in how realism doesn't necessarily improve gameplay.