Thursday 23 February 2012

MWO - The Commando

This week sees the announcement of yet another mech in Mechwarrior Online's starting line up: The Commando. It's an interesting choice of mech; very humanoid (for want of a better word...) in it's appearance and proportions. Actually I'd say the original designs look a bit more like it should be a Transformer.
Thanks to Sarna.net for this classic image

Once again Piranha have slapped the original in the face with their Legendary Sword of Modernisation+3. We see a new design that holds true to its roots whilst looking perfectly acceptable by 2012 standards. I'm liking this quite a lot.


Gameplay wise the Commando is classified as a light mech. Actually you could say very light, at a mere 25 tons. Fast, maneuverable and with short range weaponry, we're talking about a scouting mech that should excel in urban or dense terrain. In previous Mechwarrior games there has been a lot of people that go straight for the huge assault mechs every time, they just can't see past big guns. Those people miss out on some of the most entertaining gameplay and they nearly always suck. With MWO putting even more emphasis on scouting, information warfare and synergy between weight classes, I'm expecting this mech to be one of the most exciting to play.

4 comments:

  1. For being supposed to be the Commando, it's a good deal. It's even not too far off from the "real classic" commando, which also can be found among the pictures on the BattleTech Wiki:
    http://www.sarna.net/wiki/File:3025_Commando1.jpg

    So, graphically it's convincing, this design very much is the 2012-ized version of the Commando and will do well as that.

    Though, lately the choice of mechs to be implemented is somewhat disappointing. For a light mech, i'd rather pick a Valkrie or Javelin. Even a Firestarter, Stinger or Wasp would do better, so i have no idea why (next to its background) they might have chosen this tincan. But alas, considering that all medium mechs presented up to now are slow 4/6/0 walkers, the choice is not that surprising and the Urbanmech wouldn't really surprise me any more for one of the next announcements.

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  2. I would be intrigued to see how they bring the Urbanmech up to date. Funny looking thing that is.

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  3. Sylow - I guess the thing with which mechs they pick is that other than certain absolute classics (Atlas, Catapult, Madcat, etc), most of the others will split opinions. I'm quite happy with what they've gone with so far, though there are others I'm keen to see and in many ways I'd like to see those that are featured less in previous Mechwarrior games. Yet as a huge fan of previous MW games, I do have a real soft spot for the Awesome, Thanatos, Raven, Uziel and Zeus. Oh and the Novacat and I had a special relationship :P

    Anon - I'd also love to see what they can do with the Urbanmech. :)

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    1. I'm just so very much waiting for a medium mech which is just able to keep up with the dragon. More speed and possibly some with jump capacity would be absolutely necessary in that section. The Assassin might be a bit over the top, as it'd outmaneuver the Jenner, but stuff like Griffin / Wolverine / Shadow Hawk, but also Phoenix Hawk or Enforcer or (*shiver in anticipation) the Clint (yay!) would really help a lot for the medium section.

      On the Commando, I understand that they picked a pure walker as second light mech, since the Jenner already covers the "very fast jump capable" cathegory. I still think that we'll need more variety here, though. (And, yay, given the choice between Commando and Locust, i'd still drop the Commano, but i guess that's just me. )

      And while i don't mind the Commando being there, the current speed of mech announcements in comparison to the release date makes me fear that more "essential" options will be missing, if they go for too many "flavour" mechs.

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