Mechassault on Xbox

I'm always late to discover cool games because I'm a cheapskate. There are very few games I'll pay $50 for. Halo 2, Madden 2006 and Doom III special edition are the only games I've paid that much for. The rest of the time I wait for the price drop or get them used. As the years go by it's easier and easier to find great Xbox games for cheap.

Most recently I picked up The Sims, Goblin Commander and Mechassault for $30.

I finished Mechassault yesterday, and I freely admit that it exceeded my expectations. My only previous experience with that universe was with the paper version of Battletech which has detailed and difficult rules. I've never been a war-gamer, so during my limited gaming periods, realism has never been my goal. I also had a hard assed game master who forgot that we were all there to have fun. I barely understood the game mechanics and never made the next step to developing basic tactics.

My next experience with the Mechassault world was with a PC version of a few years ago. I found the large lumbering robots and the PC interface frustrating, and didn't enjoy it enough to delve into the game beyond a mission or two.

All of these problems were solved with the Xbox version of 2002. Obviously, the game takes care of the mechanics, and even later in the game, your choice of mechs are limited. There's no real role-playing elements, so you don't have to learn all the possibilities of the mechassault world. Early in the game robot choices are nil, but gradually increase. The developers strike a careful balance by offering entertaining choices that are important for some of the missions, without burdening the player with too much choice. While I imagine an awesome game could be made by adding non-linear role-playing elements to the basic engine, this was not the game they developed, and that's okay.

Mechassault is not a game of finesse. Mechassault is a game of destruction, basic planning and fundamental tactics. It is set in a world composed of destructable elements unlike any I've seen in games developed before or since. The missions are challenging, some very much so, but usually the most difficult ones can be conquered with the right plan.

I've already looked into getting Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf.