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I’ve never played any MechWarrior games, but from what I gather, they’re part of
a much larger franchise. Something about BattleTech or MechBattle, I don’t know. I’m going
into this one with a pretty clean slate here, so I have no loyalties or nostalgia affecting
my opinion.
Which is unfortunate for MechWarrior: Tactical Command.
Like I said, there’s a lot of history behind the MechWarrior name. There have been games
in that series dating back to the eighties, but this is its first release on an iOS device.
Frankly, you’d think the iPad would be a good platform for this kind of mech battling
strategy type thing...and maybe it is.
It’s just that this one doesn’t show it.
The game puts you in control of a group of up to four mechs. You go into its three worlds
with a pretty simple to-do list...destroy the enemies and fulfill whatever your objectives
may be. You do that by commanding your mechs and navigating them around these sprawling
environments.
And really, that’s where the problems start for Tactical Command. You move your characters
by tapping them and then tapping an area for them to move to. That’s fine, when it works.
The problem is it sometimes doesn’t. You can tap all you want, but the command won’t
work. And even when it does, it just feels clunky and slow. In fact, a good deal of its
problems are directly a result of that.
The game just doesn’t run that well.
And you know, for a game about blowing up robots, you’d think there’d be some epic
combat here. At least some kind of satisfaction in the battles...but there just isn’t. The
camera is so far out, the combat just looks really unimpressive. It’s kinda like you’re
watching little miniatures that...shoot water or something.
The game doesn’t look very good, either. And that’s another area in which the camera
doesn’t help. It really shows just how barren the landscapes are. And even though you see
a lot of the levels, you somehow never feel like you’ve got a good angle. I mean, this
just isn’t a very user-friendly game.
If you’re really into strategy games or mechs, you might be able to see past its issues.
But even then, I mean...it’s decent at best. And there are probably better options in the
App Store with bigger explosions than MechWarrior: Tactical Command.