Even a simple keyboard/mouse combination feels unhindered and easy to use, although using a force-feedback joystick is the clear winner for preferred input device. Weapons can be selected and regrouped, targets acquired and your Mech piloted, all with a minimum of fuss. The in-game interface is nothing short of excellent. In their previous life they worked on sims for the military. Zipper aren't neophytes in the coding business though. After taking the franchise back from Activision (who, after slightly missing a beat with Heavy Gear, are back on track with Heavy Gear 2), FASA Interactive gave the task of turning out the next MechWarrior games to Zipper Interactive, whose only previous major game was Recoil (which, by the way, is a damn fine arcade tank game). So, how does the latest instalment in the Mechwarrior series stand up? If heavy-handed acts of random destructive overkill is your thing, then MechWarrior 3 was made for you. In fact, the only thing that can stop a BattleMech is, of course, another BattleMech. They can stomp buildings (and infantry when the need arises), destroy vehicles and pummel the scenery with ease.
So what's different about BattleMechs (AKA 'Mechs)? Mechs are massive lumbering war machines, which crap on mere tanks from a great height, and not just because of their long legs. Heavy Gear fits snugly under the first-person-giant-robot-shooter label (anyone for genre-name overkill?)- MechWarrior 3 definitely does not, and curiously, Starseige actually sits fairly nicely in between. They've all got lots of armour, modular weapons and feet don't they? What it all comes down to is the feel. Your average punter may well be puzzling over the difference between Heavy Gears, Starseige 's Hercs and MechWarrior 's BattleMechs. You see, as any Mecha nut will tell you, there are giant robots, and then there are giant robots. OK, what we have here is yet another giant robot game, right? Well, not quite.
If you've played MechWarrior 2 and its siblings to death, and thrashed the demo until your hard-drive started smoking, you'll probably want to skip to the next section of this review. MechWarrior 3 is, of course, the eagerly awaited third installment in the MechWarrior series.
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