News hit late last week that the venerable MechWarrior franchise is getting a reboot. With the electronic entertainment rights to the franchise back in the hands of FASA Interactive founder Jordan Weisman, the BattleTech property is poised to make a comeback. The new game, entitled simply MechWarrior, is being developed for PC and Xbox 360 by Smith & Tinker (founded by Weisman in 2007) in conjunction with Piranha Games.
Weisman and Russ Bullock, president of Piranha, gave an extensive interview to IGN in which they discussed their plans for the new project, including a full single-player campaign, an experience-based online multiplayer (similar to Call of Duty 4) and a four-player co-op experience. Another highlight is an information warfare element, where players will have to rely on active scouting and recon drones to locate their adversaries (the idea being that a planet’s military satelite network would be swiftly disabled by invading forces). Weisman also indicated that he hopes to eliminate some of the targeting conventions of earlier titles; in previous iterations, once a target lock had been established, no amount of maneuvering could break it – even if the target fled behind terrain. The developers intend to reward good piloting by allowing clever players to shake off pursuit and set up counter-attacks and ambushes. They are not looking to follow the action-shooter model of the MechAssault Xbox games, but rather are determined to use the new game to bring the franchise back to its action-simulator roots.
Previous MechWarrior games employ a food-chain approach to ‘Mech selection. The player begins by piloting Light mechs, which lead to Medium mechs, which in turn lead to Heavy mechs, which finally open up 100-ton Assault mechs. Generally speaking, once a new class of mech is available there is no reason to use earlier chassis; players are effectively racing to get into an Atlas. One of MechWarrior’s design goals is to provide viable and rewarding battlefield roles for all classes of mechs, and their current plans for four-player co-op seem to assume that there will be one of each class in a lance. While the roles for Light and Assault mechs (recon and direct engagement, respectively) are clear enough, it remains to be seen how Medium and Heavy mechs will be integrated.
Players looking forward to piloting Mad Cats or other Clan omni mechs into battle should consider themselves warned: MechWarrior is to be set in 3015, during the Third Succession War – fully thirty years before the Clan invasion. At the moment, it seems that all the mechs will be Inner Sphere designs.
MechWarrior has been under full-time development since March 2009; planning began in October 2008. The developers are currently shopping for a publisher and no release date has been announced.
Filed under: Games | Tagged: 'mechs, BattleMech, BattleTech, FASA, Inner Sphere, Jordan Weisman, MerchWarrior, Piranha Games, Smith & Tinker
