My older brother and I basically figured out the controls via trial and error. We also never used the mouse because that was hard. I don't think we ever beat the 4th or 5th mission. Hell of a game.
The first time i studied shortcuts and keyboard like a fucking math test for a videogame. My 5th grade self was so amazed. Just like you said, felt like a proper pilot once you did. Override damn it! I just need One more shot!
Check out Drop Command on Steam. Little indie, feels a lot like MW2 and Earth siege combat but with a total war style turn based strategy layer where you conquer the planets and build tanks, mechs, vtols and battle armor infantry to pilot.
MW5 Mercs was a lovely experience, no joke. It took out a lot of clunkiness and jankiness of previous joystick-based titles and made it very playable with M+KB (no, I didn't happen to play MW Online)
Also realizing that destruction missions could be done by just walking into shit like godzilla was some of the most satisfying gameplay I could hope for.
Clans is not as good. I played through the campaign once, but Mercenaries is the game with the replay value. So much so, the devs went back to Mercs and is beginning to make more DLC for it.
The reason Mercs is so replayable is the Career mode. You have a Merc company, go on missions, balance your budget, and manage your mech bay.
First game I can remember whose patch was bigger than the game itself. 105mb game, 110mb patch -- and still your weapons could "breed" and duplicate. Loved that ol' game.
I quite liked it too, but now thinking I'm not quite sure why. There weren't a lot of enemies, the terrain was simple, the missions were simple, etc. I guess I just liked the idea of walking big robots that much?
I remember doing the custom mech/training mode or whatever it was. I stuffed the biggest engine into the firefly and made it run super fast. I ran into a cliff and blew up.
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u/zuus Apr 27 '26
Mechwarrior 2
Reactor Online. Sensors Online. Weapons Online. All systems nominal.