Witness the majestic Centurion in its natural habitat.
It took a round or two to get used to the tank-like controls, with a throttle & pivot system taking the place of your standard shooter layout, and I wasn't able to stop or go on a dime because acceleration or deceleration is needed. For many of you this may not sound like a huge difference, but for someone used to the gaming landscape in its twitch-oriented state as of late, it's huge. It became immediately apparent that MechWarrior Online was operating well outside of my expectations. This would require forethought, strategy, and an entirely different way of thinking than I'm used to. I couldn't stop ruminating over what I was going to try next.
Deep In Thought and Steel
There's a certain methodology that playing MechWarrior Online implants in you -- I found myself running through a mental checklist any time I had to make a decision. How's my speed? Can my heat sinks handle another barrage of laser fire without overheating and shutting down my mech? Do I use my jumpjets to get up on a ridge for a tactical advantage at the risk of revealing my location? The sheer amount of information that I had to process is unlike anything I've played in quite some time.
Water keeps mechs cool under pressure.
In one such situation my Centurion was damaged and struggling along with a single functioning leg. I knew the Awesome I had my sights on had been doing a lot of firing, so there was a good chance it would overheat if it unleashed its arsenal again. After checking on my mech's status, I stepped into the nearby river (water provide much-needed cooling), and fired away. Sure enough, I took a bit of damage from his Short Range Missiles before his mech overheated and I was able to land a finishing blow with my Medium Lasers.
During that brief, maybe 10 second altercation, I had put more thought into what I was doing than I had in months of playing shooters like Gears of War or Counter-Strike. I've become so accustomed to playing games on the balls of my feet, working with split-second reactions and going with my gut, I was happy to be thinking as much as I was about battle strategies and techniques.
Your Mech, Your Way
Ranging from the tiny and fast Jenner to the crushingly destructive (but slow as hell) Atlas, the huge variety of walking tanks invites a certain amount of commitment to a play style, but only after that style has been determined through experimentation. Sure, you could roll into battle with the pre-created mechs and have a good time, but where things get really interesting is the tremendous amount of customization that can happen before battle.
So many choices!
Looking over the parts list for the first time I was completely overwhelmed. And I found that putting weapons, heat sinks, engines, or whatever else into my mech was pretty simple that was nothing more than dragging and dropping gear into empty slots on the customization screen, but each addition had profound consequences. More weapons means not only more weight, but also creates a faster overheating mech. The heat problem can be taken care of with more heat sinks, but they'll slow the mech down with all that extra weight. It's all a balancing act.
I didn't exactly have time to toy around with all of the options that MechWarrior Online had laid out for me, but I was able to suss out a bit of how important it is to the way it's played. Whereas in most class-based multiplayer games you're stuck within a rigid playstyle, MWO allows you to carve out your own role on the battlefield. When faced with the option of dozens of mechs with thousands of customization choices, I'm not entirely sure what I'll like or what I'll do. But I am excited to find out.
I don't like these odds.
MechWarrior Online has me in its grasps and now I find myself thinking about the style of mech I'd like to create (a speedy, scout-like class, in case you were wondering), and would love to toy with the customization options until I find exactly what I'm looking for. Where I used to see a slow-paced game, I now see a contemplative, complex multiplayer experience. In short, I'm a convert.