Mechwarrior 4 is the best robot game, ever. Yes, it is better than Mechwarrior 2. It might not be as dominant as MW2 was - competition is a lot stiffer these days - but Mechwarrior 4 is definitely the best 'Mech game we've ever played. The excellent singleplayer campaign is perfectly complemented by an equally competent multiplayer game. The plot won't win any Academy Awards, that's for certain, but it's good enough not to take anything away from the game. If there was ever a game to bring back the big robot genre, this is it.
On the technical side, Mechwarrior 4 is as close to perfection as we can imagine. The graphics engine is quick and beautiful, and you can easily tailor the game to slower systems -just fiddle with the settings a bit. We were able to run in full detail at Ultra High settings at 1024x768 and 32-bit color on a GeForce 2. A Voodoo5 5500 managed 4X FSAA at High settings at 800x600x32, both on a run-of-the-mill 600MHz Pentium III.
The sound effects and music are beyond- way beyond today's typical game. In fact, the only area where production quality suffered was in the full motion video department - we were disappointed at the quality of the videos themselves, not just the acting.
With everything said and done though, this is one killer package sure to make any gamer's Christmas. Oftewel: een retegoed spel . Jammergenoeg konden ze nog wel 2 minpuntjes bespeuren, waarvan dit er een is:If there was anything we didn't like about the graphics engine it is the fact that it requires DirectX 8. Most gamers refuse to update DirectX until they absolutely have to, since no one wants to be an early beta-tester. While DirectX 8 didn't conflict with any games I have installed, it didn't help the precarious status of my Win98SE installation. You never know what a significant change to an old Win98 installation can do. Some of us might consider a fresh installation of Windows before trying Mechwarrior 4. DirectX 8 is inderdaad niet al te geliefd onder de gamers, maar als je de eyecandy even bekijkt, is MechWarrior 4 het installeren van DirectX 8 wel waard.