Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Prime Day Deals
  • Superman
  • Donkey Kong Bananza
  • Switch 2 stock
Recommended reading
A Gundam style mech in Mecha Break
Third Person Shooters Mecha Break review: "This mech battler makes up for lacking customization with a varied roster that lets me live out my Evangelion fantasy"
Alsynes attacks an enemy with a laser halberd in Mecha Break's Mashmak mode
Third Person Shooters PvP mech shooter Mecha Break finally has a release date, and it's coming to PC and Xbox Series X next month
Mecha Break
Action Games Multiplayer shooter Mecha Break has working toilets because you aren't a mech, you're a squishy person in a mech, and sometimes you gotta go
Lit in red, RocoCop aims a pistol in RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business
FPS Games RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business finally puts me in control of the series' iconic ED-209 bot, and it's as silly as it is violent: "Realism is not a part of RoboCop at all"
A screenshot from Pragmata shows a blonde girl shooting out lasers from her hand while an orange border identifies it as part of GamesRadar's summer previews
Third Person Shooters Capcom's android apocalypse Pragmata is such a genius mix of shooters and puzzle games, both of which I normally hate, and I'm starting to rethink my entire existence
Infinitesimals
Third Person Shooters Infinitesimals is a Honey I Shrunk the Kids take on Halo with a very good jetpack, and its vibrant combat sandbox reminds me of one of the most underrated Xbox 360 cult classics
A cropped screenshot from the pre-alpha gameplay footage shown in the 'Introducing Battlefield Labs' video.
FPS Games New Battlefield 6 leak shows the tank-on-tank combat, and it looks raw as hell: "Destruction and audio are back"
  1. Games

MechWarrior Online preview Taming the titanic metal beast

Features
By Lucas Sullivan published 2 August 2012

The kind of massive mech combat we’ve been waiting years for

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Page 1 of 30
Page 1 of 30

Page 2 of 30
Page 2 of 30

Page 3 of 30
Page 3 of 30

Page 4 of 30
Page 4 of 30

Page 5 of 30
Page 5 of 30

Page 6 of 30
Page 6 of 30

Page 7 of 30
Page 7 of 30

Page 8 of 30
Page 8 of 30

Page 9 of 30
Page 9 of 30

Page 10 of 30
Page 10 of 30

Page 11 of 30
Page 11 of 30

Page 12 of 30
Page 12 of 30

Page 13 of 30
Page 13 of 30

Page 14 of 30
Page 14 of 30

Page 15 of 30
Page 15 of 30

Page 16 of 30
Page 16 of 30

Page 17 of 30
Page 17 of 30

Page 18 of 30
Page 18 of 30

Page 19 of 30
Page 19 of 30

Page 20 of 30
Page 20 of 30

Page 21 of 30
Page 21 of 30

Page 22 of 30
Page 22 of 30

Page 23 of 30
Page 23 of 30

Page 24 of 30
Page 24 of 30

Page 25 of 30
Page 25 of 30

Page 26 of 30
Page 26 of 30

Page 27 of 30
Page 27 of 30

Page 28 of 30
Page 28 of 30

Page 29 of 30
Page 29 of 30

Page 30 of 30
Page 30 of 30
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming Platforms
PRODUCTS
MechWarrior Online MechWarrior Online
Lucas Sullivan
Lucas Sullivan
Social Links Navigation

Lucas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlands and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them. 

We’re perched atop a precarious peak in the snowy ruins of a bombed-out city. In the distance, we see a hulking Atlas mech closing in on one of our frontline allies. With our targets locked, we zoom in to get a better shot using our armor-piercing AC 10 rifle to blast away chunks of its dense hull. Suddenly, the silent stillness of our cliff top sniping is shattered by a barrage of missiles at our six-o’clock; it seems someone was getting the bead on our mechanical, humanoid shell while we were looking elsewhere. Unable to pinpoint the location of our attacker, we’ve only got one escape: leaping off the face of the cliff into the frigid tundra below.

But ten-story drops don’t do any favors for 55-ton machines, and our giant metal legs shatter from the force of the fall. As more enemy mechs close in on our position, we futilely fire off our remaining rocket reserves in the hopes of deterring our attackers. But those volleys come at a cost – our heat is reaching critical levels, and our mech is beginning to shut down on us when we need it most. With all functions in our hardened mechanical fighter going offline, all we can do is glance around our cockpit as we wait for death, defeated.

Such is a scene from MechWarrior Online, the long-awaited, free-to-play mech sim from Piranha Games. With the insanely customizable, tense showdown action that fans of this classic PC series will remember fondly, MWO (not to be confused with the turn-based MechWarrior Tactics) looks to bring in a new generation of MechWarrior fans, for the low, low price of free.

You may like
  • A Gundam style mech in Mecha Break Mecha Break review: "This mech battler makes up for lacking customization with a varied roster that lets me live out my Evangelion fantasy"
  • Alsynes attacks an enemy with a laser halberd in Mecha Break's Mashmak mode PvP mech shooter Mecha Break finally has a release date, and it's coming to PC and Xbox Series X next month
  • Mecha Break Multiplayer shooter Mecha Break has working toilets because you aren't a mech, you're a squishy person in a mech, and sometimes you gotta go

Its lumbering shootouts strike just the right balance between the precise details or a sim, the heated firefights of first-person shooters, and the tactical aggression of an RTS. Our time with the game had us itching to construct a mech we could call our own, and taught us two valuable lessons that should come in handy later in life: never forget to map your LRM (long-range missiles) and medium lasers before a fight, and too much heat spells certain doom.

With mech games, pacing is everything. Zooming around asphalt battlefields in games like Virtual On and Armored Core is all well and good, but it feels more like dueling with giant robot-sized humans than actual, 50-ton metal monstrosities. MWO offers the kind of methodically paced action that gives each lurching step of your machine a palpable gravity; there’s no circle-strafing, quick-dodging acrobatics going on here.

The WASD keys are still the go-to controls for movement – but instead of forcing your mech to walk forward or strafe, W and S control the throttle of your forward or backward momentum, while A and D turn you from right to left with a tank-like sluggishness. Spacebar’s jump jets feel like they’re struggling to propel the walking tank above them, with a satisfying thud as you land. It all adds to the feeling that you’re in control of a truly colossal war machine, instead of a lightweight robot acrobat. Watching a mech trip and fall when its legs give out to a gigantic bullet is hilarious, with a clumsy heaviness to their titanic faceplant. This is only topped by watching the awesome awkwardness of the mech pushing itself up from a tumble, like an enormous metal toddler striving to get back into the fight.

The actual gameplay is reminiscent of the engrossing action old-school PC fans will remember from MechWarriors 2 through 4 – only here, they’re all rendered with stunning CryENGINE 3 graphics. You’ll plod your way towards the enemy forces, making sure not to get separated from the group in fear of getting cornered and annihilated in seconds. Targeting enemies near or far is as simple as tapping the R key, which will greatly improve visibility and let any missiles you’ve armed home in on their mark.

The battlefield you fight on will have a huge impact on your tactics: snowy maps offer a tradeoff of far less heat generation for lower visibility, while one of the volcanic maps we played on obscured our vision with plumes of black-green smoke and made our machines heat reduce at a snail’s pace. Your HUD displays the map with handily labeled tiles, so you can call out flanks from E9 or vulnerable enemies at D5 like a match of mechanized battle-chess.

With four base mech sizes, each with their own unique makes, and a metric butt-ton of customization options, from heat sinks to weaponry to body plating, min-maxing pilots will have a field day trying to crack the best-possible mech construction. Such customization means the learning curve might be substantially steep compared to other F2P games; for instance, your artillery must be mapped to certain weapon groups at the beginning of a match for maximum effectiveness (and not overheating your mech with a single discharge of your futuristic weaponry).

Players seemed irked that they couldn’t execute these simply functions while waiting for a match to start - it’s not the most intuitive system in the world, but it definitely fits with the sim aspects of the game. The game’s atmosphere totally sells the feeling of being encased in a cramped cockpit at the helm of a metal beast, with a meticulously-detailed cockpit view and convincing bleeps and bloops when sighting and locking onto targets.

Our taste of MWO has instilled a hunger for giant mech combat in the pit of our black hearts, something we hope to satiate with time in the upcoming beta. For now, we’ll just have to reminiscence about our gratifying time with these massive metal titans, and plan out (in detail) what kind of weaponry, armor, and spiffy paint job our go-to mech will be packing.

See more Games Features
Read more
A Gundam style mech in Mecha Break
Mecha Break review: "This mech battler makes up for lacking customization with a varied roster that lets me live out my Evangelion fantasy"
Alsynes attacks an enemy with a laser halberd in Mecha Break's Mashmak mode
PvP mech shooter Mecha Break finally has a release date, and it's coming to PC and Xbox Series X next month
Mecha Break
Multiplayer shooter Mecha Break has working toilets because you aren't a mech, you're a squishy person in a mech, and sometimes you gotta go
Lit in red, RocoCop aims a pistol in RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business
RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business finally puts me in control of the series' iconic ED-209 bot, and it's as silly as it is violent: "Realism is not a part of RoboCop at all"
A screenshot from Pragmata shows a blonde girl shooting out lasers from her hand while an orange border identifies it as part of GamesRadar's summer previews
Capcom's android apocalypse Pragmata is such a genius mix of shooters and puzzle games, both of which I normally hate, and I'm starting to rethink my entire existence
Infinitesimals
Infinitesimals is a Honey I Shrunk the Kids take on Halo with a very good jetpack, and its vibrant combat sandbox reminds me of one of the most underrated Xbox 360 cult classics
Latest in Games
Marvel Rivals
NetEase surrenders to Marvel Rivals players, dresses up The Thing in a thong, calls him "The Thong" in front of all his friends, and puts other heroes in skimpy swimsuits starting this week
Life is Strange
Square Enix announces a complete $60 Life is Strange Collection for PS5, but the monkey's paw curls: only 2 of the 5 games are actually on the disc
Diablo 4 The Butcher
Diablo 4 boss has almost 1,500 hours - that's 60 days - logged in his own game, and I need to know the 1 achievement he's somehow still missing
Old School RuneScape
MMO streamer says he turned down a $5,000 WoW deal to keep grinding Old School RuneScape, player declares "RuneScape won the MMO war" but a dev quickly counters: "You can love both games"
Destiny 2 Edge of Fate Ikora
It's not just you: Destiny 2 Edge of Fate changed Ikora's voice actor and others, Bungie affirms, but the studio is "actively re-recording lines for affected characters" with original VAs
Everwild
Another Xbox studio reacts to the layoffs exploding around it: with Rare's Everwild dead, Sea of Thieves dev says "it's impossible for something like this not to ripple through the studio"
Latest in Features
David Corenswet as Superman fighting back flames
I’m tired of MCU post-credits scenes that go nowhere, which is why Superman’s organic world-building is such a breath of fresh air
The first scenario in Frosthaven, showing a four player party facing down a group of monsters
I've played board games like Frosthaven for years, but I think the digital version might be a far better introduction
Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077
It took me 326 hours to clock a less-obvious reason why Cyberpunk 2077 is the best open world RPG I've ever played: it's a secret comedy game
Lego Pokemon characters sit around a table, divided from a Fallout Vault 111 scene by a white line
I don't know about you, but I'd throw money at these gaming Lego sets
Superman flies up above Metropolis in the Superman Returns game
I've been searching for the best Superman games after watching the new James Gunn movie – here are my 7 favorites
An Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered screenshot showing Dark Brotherhood leader Lucien Lachance talking to the player in a dimly-lit inn
I'm playing Oblivion Remastered as a vampire, and I wouldn't trade my new life for better sleep or a clean conscience
  1. Zion Wright grinds along a wooden balustrade in in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4's San Francisco level
    1
    Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 review: "A nostalgic, must-play hit for fans"
  2. 2
    College Football 26 review: “Thanks to rivalries and dynasty, this is the greatest show on turf”
  3. 3
    Mecha Break review: "This mech battler makes up for lacking customization with a varied roster that lets me live out my Evangelion fantasy"
  4. 4
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  5. 5
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  1. David Corenswet as Superman inside the Fortress of Solitude in James Gunn's Superman.
    1
    Superman review: "A triumphant reinvention and a promising start for the DCU"
  2. 2
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  3. 3
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  4. 4
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  5. 5
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...