Now, with more maps, missions, fixes, official mod support, and a 'career mode' sandbox for playing without the campaign -- this is a much more complete game than it early on.

What this is, is basically a mercenary management game where (1) you control up to four 'mechs (and only four, although you can eventually have up to 12 set up in mech bays) at once in turn-based tactical combat missions on a 2D hex grid with mechanics adapted or derived from the tabletop game; and (2) you need to manage the mercenary company's resources -- pilots, mechs, various parts, and ship. Salaries need to be paid, mech damage needs to be repaired, parts may be destroyed and need replacement. Pilots can progress in four stats (1-10), with a few possible passive or active abilities picked up along the way. They can also die, or be badly wounded and need time to recuperate. Part of the management problem is ensuring that setbacks such as losing a pilot or having a mech severely damaged do not render you unable to complete enough missions without sustaining further severe losses that may cause a spiral into bankruptcy. Even an armless enemy mech isn't really 'armless when it *might* be able to land a kick into the cockpit of one of your own mechs, killing the pilot...

The campaign has a linear set of 'priority' missions but you can generally grind randomized missions all you want between them. You can also continue to play missions afterwards, if you like.

Audiovisual-wise, it's pretty basic. There's drawn scenes for the campaigns, but the combat gameplay is... well, focused on the gameplay, not on flashiness or style.

I don't know that I would have recommended it early on, but they've improved the game quite a bit since then.

Now, with more maps, missions, fixes, official mod support, and a 'career mode' sandbox for playing without the campaign -- this is a much more complete game than it early on. What this is, is basically a mercenary management game where (1) you control up to four 'mechs (and only four, although you can eventually have up to 12 set up in mech bays) at once in turn-based tactical combat missions on a 2D hex grid with mechanics adapted or derived from the tabletop game; and (2) you need to manage the mercenary company's resources -- pilots, mechs, various parts, and ship. Salaries need to be paid, mech damage needs to be repaired, parts may be destroyed and need replacement. Pilots can progress in four stats (1-10), with a few possible passive or active abilities picked up along the way. They can also die, or be badly wounded and need time to recuperate. Part of the management problem is ensuring that setbacks such as losing a pilot or having a mech severely damaged do not render you unable to complete enough missions without sustaining further severe losses that may cause a spiral into bankruptcy. Even an armless enemy mech isn't really 'armless when it *might* be able to land a kick into the cockpit of one of your own mechs, killing the pilot... The campaign has a linear set of 'priority' missions but you can generally grind randomized missions all you want between them. You can also continue to play missions afterwards, if you like. Audiovisual-wise, it's pretty basic. There's drawn scenes for the campaigns, but the combat gameplay is... well, focused on the gameplay, not on flashiness or style. I don't know that I would have recommended it early on, but they've improved the game quite a bit since then.