BATTLETECH

complex

I loved this game. It is one of the best TBS experiences I have ever had. I recently finished the vanilla campaign, and now I've installed the BTA mod and am considering buying the DLCs as well. Highly recommended for anyone who loves lasers, missiles, and giant exploding war machines. [b]PROS:[/b] [list] [*] Great atmosphere [*] Simplified rules (compared to the original BattleTech tabletop game), making it newcomer-friendly while still offering an excellent turn-based combat system [*] Runs well on the Steam Deck [*] Wide variety of mission types [*] No obvious bugs or other serious technical issues [*] Large selection of high-quality community mods [/list] [b]NEUTRAL:[/b] [list] [*] There is an ongoing story that you can either completely ignore by clicking through the dialogue or read for a light RPG/visual novel experience [/list] [b]CONS:[/b] [list] [*] The business dispute between HBS and Paradox is very saddening [*] Most of the text is very small, both on the Steam Deck and even on larger monitors. On the Steam Deck, I had to constantly use the magnifier function. It feels more like a stylistic choice, as there would be plenty of room for larger text. [*] Maybe I just played on too low a difficulty setting, but during the last third of the campaign, the AI didn't seem very capable of using heavy and assault mechs effectively against my own. Once I had built strong lances, battles felt more like stomps than fair fights. I hope the mods and higher difficulty settings will improve this on my second playthrough. [*] There is no official gamepad support, but it is relatively easy to play using the Steam Deck's touchpad as a mouse. [*] In the vanilla game, you can barely zoom out, making it harder to get a good overview of the battlefield. Fortunately, mods like BTA allow you to zoom out much farther and see a larger area. [*] The follow camera is sometimes positioned in very strange ways. It might show only the legs of a moving mech, or even the side of a hill instead of the unit moving behind it. Luckily, you can disable it altogether. [/list]

I bought this game in 2018 and it was unplayable (on an intel mac). Sat on it for 8 years, and tried it for the first time, and realised its awesome. This game scratches XCOM2 itches, as well a total war series itches (thru modding). You can mod this game like crazy, even on a mac, and the mod material out there is immense. I love modding games even more than playing, and I imagine ill be modding it for years to come. I started playing it in 2026 lol. Shame its not mod-able on steam workshop... A SUPER SHAME i give it 4 out of 5 starts for turn based tactics, 5 out of 5 for customization (building mechs and squads) and 10 out of 10 for moddding. (this games modding ease, and community - rivals Rome Totalwar) its extremely good. and i dont even have a single DLC yet!

imma tell my kids this was mech commander

Still an awesome game!

Nice game that can take quite some time to really get in to but if you like TBS, you gotta check this out at least.

Its fun