One of the most enjoyable aspects of Battletech was always getting into melee and bashing heads – something that has been missing from most (if not all) Mechwarrior video games. It was always a risk vs reward kind of scenario, but sometimes it was just too damn fun to not do. Nothing like piloting your 100 ton ‘mech into someones personal space and teaching them a lesson in pain. Now I understand why this may have never been implemented in previous video game versions (or upcoming ones such as Mechwarrior 5) of the 1984 table top classic, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to see added, the more and more I got into it.  Well now I have to wait just a little longer.

Battletech is a crowdfunded project run by Harebrain, and I have to say I’ve been excited for this since it was first announced, throwing my money at it in a way I know I never should. I’ve been following its progress closely, and each update makes me more and more excited, and not just because of what’s to come from this project, but also from what COULD come from it. There is so much in the Battletech universe they can draw from, and they’ve chosen just a small slice – imagine the possibilities for DLC!!!

Once you’re close enough to punch someone, punching should usually be the right thing to do (or at the very least, it shouldn’t ever be the wrong thing to do).

Well the latest kickstarter update showed what got me the most excited. Melee combat in all it’s glory! ‘Mechs puching ‘mechs, ‘mechs headbutting ‘mechs, more ‘mechs punching ‘mechs. It’s nothing short of amazing. They are doing their best to make this work efficiently, effectively, in a balanced way, and more importantly, making it look good in the progress. They have really thought this through, explaining “Bringing these three concerns together — complexity, head shots, and visual consistency — we decided to collapse all melee actions down to just one, “Engage”. When you engage, we look at your relative size, your relative position above or below the target, whether you have arms suitable for punching, whether those arms are intact or blown off, and so forth. Then we pick an attack that best fits what you have available.”

You can see how much they care about this project and how they are doing their best to please the fanbase. I will be more than happy to mix my Mechwarrior gaming time between this and Mechwarrior Online. You can even see how beautiful the game is going to be with some of these in game work in progress gifs.

Let us know below what you think of this, comment your favourite Battletech/Mechwarrior game and tell us your favourite ‘mech.