Mechwarrior: Living Legends

Engine Room: The incredible awesomeness of giant laser armed robots is back, and James Matson was there to cower.

Mechwarrior, or more accurately the entire Battletech Sci-Fi universe represents – for the most part – an infallible franchise. Like Warhammer, Warcraft or Dungeons & Dragons, Mechwarrior is a household name even in households that know little to nothing about the deep political workings of the Inner Sphere or the borderline psychotic joy of taking out a 75-ton Mad Cat Mech with a particle cannon from 100 metres away. The Battletech saga has spawned a multitude of tabletop games, books, an animated television series and even a collectible card game, all shining examples of the attention to detail and richness of the world launched by the FASA Corporation back in the mid eighties.

Included among all these bits of Battletech merchandise were the wildly popular Mechwarrior video games, which most of us will have tackled at one time or another. Starting with the original Mechwarrior, the series became a multi-platform monster spawning three more instalments and a number of expansions with its successful mix of a rich Sci-Fi storyline and the simple pleasure of roaming around the countryside in a multi-ton, missile-armed behemoth.

Then, after Mechwarrior 4, everything went quiet. Actually, quiet isn't the right word; the landscape of Mech games just evaporated. The gaming community hasn't seen a Mechwarrior title in years now, and it seems like a travesty considering how perfectly suited to large-scale giant robot carnage the 3D engines of today are.

When development of Mechwarrior 5 fell flat in 2003, it looked like no one was ever going to pick up the mantle and create the next big Mech game, but while the commercial development world seemed to forget the magic that Mechwarrior created for a generation of gamers, the modding world didn’t, and the talented bunch at Wandering Samurai Studios have begun a project that will bring your favourite Mech machines onto the PC screen amid a hail of rocket fire and plasma discharge. Daniel Tracy, Creative Director on the Mechwarrior: Living Legends project explains the drive to get something Battletech out to gamers.

"There hasn’t been an updated Mechwarrior game for at least six years and there’s a huge fan-base out there just waiting for a quality title to be released. Although the Battletech franchise is fairly old now, it still has a lot to offer."

He’s not wrong there. An estimated twenty-five million people have played a Battletech or Mechwarrior RPG or read a Battletech-based novel, and at least ten million have played a Battletech-based video game. Daniel has been overjoyed at the response from the community.

"There is a huge international fan base, and support from the community of Mechwarrior players over the internet has been both positive and plentiful."