MechWarrior 4: Vengeance

Most players I've met who played through the original games, found Mechwarrior IV too cartoony. Especially compared to the texturing on the 'Mechs in Mechwarrior III. The terrain, however, is far superior to any of it's predecessors. Right and vibrant, with wild life and dense forests, the eye candy is here alright.

The game is set after Operation Bulldog, during the Federated Commonwealth Civil War, which is the ending chapter in the Battletech storyline.

The player plays the last of the Dressari family, the ruling house of Kentares IV. Your family was butchered by Steiner loyalists, and you are out for revenge. Although you once were considered the 'black sheep' of the family, your choice of becoming a Mechwarrior comes in handy. A few loyal servants of your house side with you and aid you in your quests to dethrone your cousin, crush his army and reclaim your place as the rightful ruler.

That is, until your sister is found.

Here is where it gets interesting. During the final stages of the game you get the choice if you want to help your sister and put her on the throne, or get a cache of high tech weapons and claim it for yourself.

Whatever the outcome, the story continues in the expansion pack.

Already one can see where the rot in the series started once it was in Micro$oft's hands. One can't help but think that Micro$oft spent more of the budget on the FMV scenes and actors rather than the game itself.

Seriously, the acting is bad. Way bad. Think of all those B-Grade movies. The fact that pratically every mission has FMV cut scenes with the actors is torture. Unfortunately, you have to listen and watch the FMV scenes in order to get the mission objectives.

The game itself is fairly alright. You get all the previous mech action you had from previous titles. The game trusts you in the roll of the last surviving member of a ruling family and you must fight against great odds to retrieve your right to the ruling throne.

I think much more could have been done with the game if they completely did not do the FMV scenes and spent the money on the engine, game play and the soundtrack. Especially the soundtrack, which is a gigantic step back from the previous titles. Think 'M16-rifles-to-stone-spears' kind of step back.

Remember the great acting of the Wing Commander series? (The credit's list read like a who's who of Hollywoods most respected actors). To say that the acting here was less than that standard would be an understatement. Perhaps to say that the acting here is as painful as using a Gauss Rifle as an insertion tool for a suppository might be a bit of an overstatement. The fact of the matter is that this movie starts off with a bang with the action for the game-play being awesome. At the end of the game, the ending cinema is so flaccid in content and execution that it really doesn't surprise me that, in the credits, the cinema production staff is listed after even listing each member of the orchestra. The ending cinema is a rip off to anyone who played their way through to it. it's like the production team just ran out of money. There are 'communications' in between missions...terrible acting and it's mostly just talk. The cinema team dropped the ball for this game and 'microsoft' said 'whatever' and sent it out. On a lighter note, there is not a thing wrong with the opening scene.