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One of the most popular spinoffs of the ''[[Battle Tech (Tabletop Game)|Battle TechBattleTech]]'' franchise, the ''MechWarrior'' series puts the player in the cockpit of the [[Giant Mecha]] that define the universe. With cutting edge graphics and fairly intense combat, these games probably brought more people into the universe then anything else.
 
The first game, '''''MechWarrior''''', set roughly around 3025, placed you in the shoes of Gideon Braver Vandenburg, who is out to reclaim his birthright after his family was murdered. This game, published in 1989, is notable for featuring full three-dimensional gameplay (predating games like [[Ultima Underworld]]), as well as crude squad AI (which would be refined in later games in the series).
 
The second game, '''''<nowiki>MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat</nowiki>''''' (1995), was set during the Refusal War in 3057 between Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon. Five years have passed since a cease-fire between the Clans and the Inner Sphere, however, the circumstances have changed. The player is given the option to play as a young warrior in either side, rising rapidly in rank as you led the campaign against the opposing clan. The expansion pack, ''Ghost Bear's Legacy'', followed after this conflict as the Draconis Combine attacks (you guessed it) Clan Ghost Bear. However, not all is as it seems. A standalone sequel, titled '''''MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries''''', places you as [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|an Inner Sphere mercenary]], giving you the choice of running your own unit or joining another one. It's technically a prequel to the other ''MechWarrior 2'' games, as it covers events in the the previous decade.
 
'''''MechWarrior 3''''' (1999) takes place three years after ''MechWarrior 2'' and in the aftermath of Operation Bulldog (the setting of the first [[Mech Commander]]) on the planet [[Blatant Lies|named Tranquil]], where a task force code-named Damocles is assigned to take down several major installations of a Clan while the Star League deals with the rest of the Clans (this is the Counterattack and Great Refusal arc). Due to a surprise attack, half of the Inner Sphere force is destroyed before it even makes landfall on the planet. However, the mission must go on. The expansion pack, ''Pirate's Moon'', feature a new campaign letting you play as either a raiding pirate or a member of the Eridani Light Horse, the mercenary unit deployed to stop said pirates.
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A game trailer was shown in 2009 for a reboot of the series for the 5th game, in the vein of the first 4 games, set in 3015, but as time went on, the IP rights holder and game developers couldn't find a publisher for such a game and have since retooled the game into a free-to-play MMO: '''''MechWarrior: Online.''''' Initially taking place in the year 3049 (before the Clan invasion era) that will allegedly update storyline-wise each day after the the currently set August 1 2012 release date (which will be August 1st, 3049 in game universe, meaning that the Clan invasion will not happen yet and Clan mechs will not be initially available). [http://mwomercs.com/ The website can be found here.]
 
Also of note is ''[[Mech Assault (Video Game)|Mech Assault]]'', a [[Third-Person Shooter]] series set in the same universe, and ''Multiplayer Battletech: Solaris'' and ''Multiplayer Battletech 3025'', which were online multiplayer takes on the ''MechWarrior'' formula before ''NetMech'' (''<nowiki>MW2:31stCC</nowiki>''), ''MercNet'' (''<nowiki>MW2:Mercs</nowiki>'') and such became popular. Unfortunately, both titles have been entirely [[Lost Forever]] for years.
 
Fan made games and mods:
* ''[http://www.mechvm.org/ MechVM]'', a program that allows the ''MW2'' games to run on modern systems. [http://www.mech2.org/forum/index.php More info here].
* ''[http://www.mektek.net/projects/at1/promo Assault Tech 1: Battletech]'', a standalone game made by Mektek (the team who released ''MW4: Mercenaries'' for free) which has gameplay similiar to ''MechWarrior 2'' with updated graphics and controls.
* ''[http://www.mechlivinglegends.net MechWarrior: Living Legends]'' (MWLL), [[Game Mod|a total conversion multiplayer mod]] for ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]] Warhead''. Takes cues from all the ''MechWarrior'' games and is balanced for multiplayer. First game to feature ''useful'' tanks, aerospace fighters, [[Power Armor|battlearmor]] and VTOLs.
* [[Battle TechBattleTech]] MUD, popular in the 1990s, a series of ASCII-graphics MUDs (MUCK, MUSH, MUSE, and MUX over the years) did real-time multiplayer combat.
 
For the ''MechWarrior'' tabletop roleplaying game <ref>Emphasis on character to character combat and interactions rather than the vehicle to vehicle combat of Battletech</ref> , see ''[[Battle Tech (Tabletop Game)|Battle TechBattleTech]]''.
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=== These games provide examples of: ===
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* [[Arch Enemy]]: In [[Mechwarrior]] 4: Mercenaries, Burr's Black Cobras may take this role in opposition your lance, depending on how you interact with them. Destroying Lieutenant Dunman's lance in the Industry Raid mission on Halloran V leads to Dragonfly attacking you during the last Halloran V mission. This culminates in a firefight with Colonel Burr on Wernke, which will see you grossly outnumbered and possibly outgunned.
* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: AI controlled lancemates tend to dumbfire missiles, bump into enemies and take forever to go around obstacles. However they are actually [[Artificial Brilliance|good at shooting down aircraft]].
** Enemies do this too on the lower difficulties, which makes some missions (especially [[Escort Missions]]) extremely frustrating due to the tendency of enemy 'Mechs to [[Fridge Brilliance|die while standing right next to friendlies]], either severely damaging them or [[Taking You Withwith Me|taking them out too]].
** Arguably the whole reason the single-player campaigns are playable at all. The player is always pitted against numerically superior forces, occasionally using even heavier Mechs than their own; were AI pilots capable of doing things like grouping weapons, using group fire properly and smartly managing heat, they'd consistently wipe the floor with the player.
* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: The Clan hierarchy, with different Clan definitions for asskicking as seen in MW2:
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* [[Big Freaking Gun]]: The Clan rail gun in MekTek's free [[MW 4]] is considered one even by 'Mech standards. The Autocannon/20s, Hypervelocity Autocannon/20s, Ultra Autocannon/20s, LB-20 X-Autocannons, Gauss Rifles, and Heavy Gauss Rifles are all much smaller than the Rail Gun, but can be mounted on far more mechs, and are the largest conventional weapons in the games. The Long Tom artillery piece in ''Living Legends'' can one-shot an Assault 'Mech with a direct hit.
* [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands]]: 'Mechs like the BattleMaster in ''MW4'' have huge weapons (it's nearly as large as a 20 ton 'Mech) carried in their arms, which are very easy to blast off.
* [[Blinded Byby the Light]]: The Warhammer in ''Living Legends'' has a very large spotlight mounted on the shoulder, which is effective at blinding enemies using the nightvision overlay.
* [[Bubblegloop Swamp]]: [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Marshes]] in ''Living Legends''. Large mounts of silt and mud covered in trees, murky water full of reeds, and fireflies ''everywhere''.
* [[Cannon Fodder]]: Tanks and basically every non-mech/dropship enemy in the games; most die in a couple hits. The tanks in ''<nowiki>MW4:Mercenaries</nowiki>'' take it to the next level in that they almost never shoot at you; only in missions where you get attacked by dozens of them are they an actual threat.
** ''MechWarrior: Living Legends'', a ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]]'' [[Game Mod|total conversion mod]], has non-mech assets more like their ''Classic Battletech'' counterparts, as in actually dangerous. Veterans from ''MW4'' tend to ignore tanks when first starting to play ''MWLL''. [[Hilarity Ensues|It is quite surprising]] when a Demolisher eats their 'Mech alive with its double Autocannon/20s.
** As the game progresses, most light BattleMechs become these too. The array of larger weapons available to heavier 'Mechs can chew up even a modestly well armored 35-tonner in one or two good salvos.
*** Sometimes subverted in ''Living Legends,'' where a good pilot in a Shadowcat can make a ''real'' mess of an average pilot in an Atlas.
* [[Canon Immigrant]]: The Omni version of the 40-ton ''Arctic Wolf'' from the official Clan Mech Pak, as well as Mektek's 85-ton ''Deimos'', were later made part of canon ''[[Battle Tech (Tabletop Game)|Battle TechBattleTech]]''. (Previously the Arctic Wolf had only been a non-Omni [[Battle Mech]] in the tabletop game.)
* [[Car Fu]]: The Harasser hovercraft in ''Living Legends'' can punt tanks around like they're toys.
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: In ''MechWarrior 4: Vengeance,'' nobody in the Steiner command listens to Vanda Castro even though she's the [[Only Sane Man|only one]] who is giving sound tactical advice and not grossly underestimating the threat posed by the player. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by the player and their operations officer after Operation 5-1.
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* [[Face Heel Turn]]: thrust upon {{spoiler|the player character of ''Vengeance'' and his team}} to set up the ''Black Knight'' expansion.
* [[Fan Remake]]: ''Assault Tech 1: Battlebech'', which has gameplay similiar to [[Mechwarrior]] 2 with updated graphics and gameplay mechanics.
* [[Fan Sequel]]: ''<nowiki>MechWarrior: Living Legends</nowiki>'', a ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]]'' [[Game Mod|mod]], made when it appeared that there wouldn't be any more ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' games. It combines most of the better parts from previous official ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' games.
* [[Fluffy the Terrible]]: Mr. Bubbles in ''Living Legends''. Mr. Bubbles is a [[Humongous Mecha|one hundred ton bipedal tank]] with ''three'' ten ton [[Gatling Good|rotary autocannons]] which can shred ''anything'' in the game in seconds.
* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Light and Medium 'Mechs are fast, but can not take heavy punishment. Assault and Heavy 'Mechs tend to be [[Mighty Glacier|the opposite]]. A special note goes out to the Sparrowhawk jet in ''Living Legends''. It has so little armor, that if you try to run over a player at max speed, you explode. Other vehicles don't even take damage from doing the same thing.
** ''Mechwarrior 2'''s Firemoth is a special case - no other Mech can reach its blinding speed. Even the second-speediest Mech in the game is, at best, half as fast as the Firemoth.
* [[Fun Withwith Acronyms]]: The CRAP, Close Range Assault Puma in ''Living Legends'' - a variant of the Puma which has loads of heavy lasers.
* [[Geo Effects]]
* [[Glass Cannon]]
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* [[Goomba Stomp]]: The (in)famous "Death From Above", or DFA. Nearly impossible to manage in ''MechWarrior 3'', but results in hilarous physics-defying glitches and instant death to your enemies.
** In ''MechWarrior 4'', DFAs do damage to the torso based on weight. A 20 ton mech will do fairly little damage, but a 100 ton Marauder II will basically crush anything under 50 tons when it lands on the enemy.
** Due to ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]]'''s wonky collisions, trying to DFA a mech in ''MWLL'' will result in your mech landing on their head. The bottom mech can then run around with a mech riding on its head. [[Hilarity Ensues]] when you have a 95 ton Assault 'Mech riding ontop of a Raven running around at 120kph.
* [[Gravity Screw]]: Extremity in ''Living Legends''. The gravity something like 25% normal MWLL gravity, causing mechs and tanks to be extremely floaty. Battlearmor can zip through the sky, rolling around crazily. The map also breaks the impact prediction mechanism on Long Tom artillery and Firebombs (they use "normal" gravity in their impact predictions), so you have to eyeball your shots.
* [[Guide Dang It]]: Good luck knowing where to start the story missions in ''MechWarrior 1'' without a guide. {{spoiler|And sell your starting 'Mech while you're at it. You won't need it 'til you're done with practically all those missions save for the final one to retrieve the [[MacGuffin]], and you'll save a fortune on travel costs.}}
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*** Some Battlearmor can outgun 20-30 ton BattleMechs, damage-per-second wise.
** Battlearmor in ''MechWarrior: Living Legends'' has paper armor and are (fairly) slow, but will utterly tear mechs apart if left alone. Most players can easily kill them with a PPC blast to the feet or by hosing them down with machine guns, but if the battle armor gets on top of your mech, you're doomed unless you can smash your mech into a nearby wall or have a teammate blast him off. If you can't, the battlearmor player can hose down your cockpit or rear torso armor (which is made of paper) with his guns without a fear in the world of getting killed or knocked off.
** The Harasser light-hovercraft in ''Living Legends''. Originally laughed at for its poor handling, poor armor, and poor weaponry. Then it was discovered that it can climb up almost vertical walls [[Car Fu|and punt tanks around like they're made of paper]]; a Harasser hitting an 80 ton tank at its max speed (162kph) will send the tank flying wildly back. ''Then'' MWLL version 0.4 refined the handling and gave it the hilarious [[Kill It Withwith Fire|6xFlamer]] variant which can kill enemies by making them overheat.
** ''Mechwarrior 2'''s Firemoth barely counts as target practice when encountered in missions, as the AI [[Artificial Stupidity|uses it like any other Mech]], and any weapon at all will deplete its armor at alarming speed - when it doesn't kill it outright. However, the version that mounts eight light lasers can be frightfully effective if used by a competent player - get in close using its ridiculous speed and maneuvrability to avoid enemy attacks, unload alpha strikes at the enemy's legs and/or weak back armor until heat buildup threatens to shut you down, get the hell away before they have a chance to react. Rinse and repeat until enemy is dead. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTJmLcsAXXo Here's an excellent example].
** The Sparrowhawk in ''Living Legends'' used to be a joke vehicle, but after the flight model was changed to make heavier aircraft less maneuverable, the Sparrowhawk effectively [[Took a Level In Badass]]. If a Sparrowhawk gets on your tail when you're in a [[Mighty Glacier|Shiva]] or a [[Jack of All Trades|Sulla]], you have ''no hope'' of escaping from the Sparrowhawk as it pounds your engines into dust.
* [[Lethal Joke Item]]: The machine gun, even the heavy version, in ''MW4'' is weak compared to other weapons, but if you load enough of them up on a Daishi, or even better, an Annihilator, the dakka goes through the roof and things get a lot more fun.
* [[Lethal Lava Land]]: [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Inferno]] in ''Living Legends''. Rocky terrain, large lava flows sliding down mountains, distant volcanic explosions, a smoky atmosphere, and extreme heat which causes mechs to overheat easily.
* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: The Mad Cat MK 2, a 90 ton assault mech armed with a pair Gauss Rifles, has a base speed of 68 km/h (compared to an Atlas 54 km/h) and has jump jets.
** Even worse, the Kodiak-same speed, also has jump jets, packed with hard hitting medium range missile and HAS CLAWS.
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* [[Nintendo Hard]]: ''Pirate's Moon'' is very much so.
** Certain missions in this game seem impossible at times thanks to enemies that wield weapons like [[Bullet Hell|Ultra ACs, LBXs]] and 'Mechs like the [[Demonic Spiders|Thor]] and [[Boss in Mook Clothing|Annihilator.]]
* [[No Backwards Compatibility in Thethe Future]]
* [[Oh Crap]]:
** The player in ''<nowiki>MW4: Mercenaries</nowiki>'' if he continues doing the ambush missions at the start of the game. {{spoiler|Be prepared to fight a Mauler, several Arguses, and swarms of tanks and helicopters. While you're in a light 'Mech. Two ways around it, though: you are given the rare option to flee without suffering a [[Game Over]], and it's entirely possible to do missions on some other planets first and thus be able to afford the heavier 'Mechs you'll need to win this fight.}}
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* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: The ''[[Expansion Pack|Ghost Bear's Legacy]]'' campaign, culminating when you ''level a city'' to punish an enemy clan.
* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: In ''Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance'', the protagonist is from a royal family, seeking to restore legal rule to his planet (and the final battle is with his cousin). After one of his missions, a lancemate actually says "I guess you're not one of those royals who let the rest of us do the heavy lifting."
** ''[[Mechwarrior]] 1'' and Gideon Braver Vandenburg as well...hell, let's just say the whole ''[[Battle Tech (Tabletop Game)|Battle TechBattleTech]]'' verse is rife with examples, if you read the novels.
* [[Running Gag]]: Hula girls are rapidly becoming this for MechWarrior Online (based on the 2009 trailer, in which a hula girl statuette was visible in the cockpit of the Warhammer).
* [[Sadistic Choice]]: There's one near the end of the fourth game's original campaign. {{spoiler|You can either save your sister or leave her to die in order to raid a weapons cache to help in the final battle}}. The choice you make [[Multiple Endings|determines the ending]]. {{spoiler|It's actually not much of a choice. The weapons cache is very well defended, so if you have enough equipment to capture it, you probably don't need what's in it anyway.}}
* [[Scenery Porn]]: ''Living Legends'' is full of this. It's running on ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]]'', after all.
** Potentially the upcoming Mechwarrior Online as well has it's running off the newer Crytech 3 engine vs the older engine Crysis / [[Crysis Warhead]] has.
* [[Schmuck Bait]]: In the Blade Splint mission of ''MechWarrior 2'', there is an overly innocuous building that, upon closer inspection, has a description of "Don't shoot me" Doing so nukes the entire city, killing all mechs in the area, yourself included.
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* [[Sniping the Cockpit]]: In the official games, destroying the "Cockpit" section of the armor is a way to quickly kill an enemy, but difficult due to the tiny hitbox and the mechs bobbing around. In ''Living Legends'', sniping the cockpit lets you actually steal the enemy mech - kill the pilot, and you can hop in his mech and use it combat (though there is no cockpit armor, so you're totally exposed) or run back to base to sell or repair it.
* [[Some Dexterity Required]]: As would be appropriate when operating a [[Real Robot]], there are a lot of controls. A LOT of controls.
* [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]]: "Mechwarrior" is just one word, and the "W" is capitalized when used in titles.
* [[Spheroid Dropship]]: Carried over from ''[[Battle Tech (Tabletop Game)|Battle TechBattleTech]]''.
* [[Spider Tank]]: A quad mech was available in ''[[Mechwarrior]] 2'' by cheat codes. It was a bit hobbled by technical limitations; as the engine couldn't have a four-legged Mech, two of the Tarantula's legs are in fact arms. Shooting the latter "arms" off has no effect on the now-two-legged, gravity-defying Tarantula's movement; and yet, only shooting one leg off causes the three-legged Tarantula to be unable to move. They haven't appeared in any later games.
* [[Squishy Wizard]]: The Loki in ''Living Legends''. Several of the variants carry devastating long range or close range firepower, it's fast, and most of the variants carry plenty of radar equipment. It's also [[Glass Cannon|pathetically armored]], causing it to die very quickly when focused on.
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{{quote| '''Specter:''' Spunky little fella, isn't he?}}
** It's also fully possible to do that mission with a lance full of 100 ton assault mechs. The 25 ton Owens, outfitted with long rang missles, [[Too Dumb to Live|will charge right at you.]]
* [[Taking You Withwith Me]]: Players sometimes attempt to [[Suicide Attack|selfdestruct adjacent to an enemy to inflict significant damage]]. In ''MechWarrior 4: Vengeance'', there was even a weapon, that when triggered, produces a more devastating explosion.
** Also in ''MechWarrior 4: Vengeance'', if you lose {{spoiler|Terra Risner}} you get informed that {{spoiler|she}} did this to an enemy patrol. Justified since {{spoiler|she joined your team when you rescued her from being summarily executed. She was not going back to a POW camp for that to happen again.}}
** Happens sometimes in ''Living Legends,'' where getting killed close enough to an enemy can kill or damage him too, even if you don't go critical.
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** In the second game, most missions give you 25 minutes to complete, unless said mission is a Trial of Position or otherwise noted as 15.
* [[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]]: In the third game. The initial drop insertion goes awry when [[Didn't See That Coming|Warship-class lasers]] on the surface shoot down your dropship. The first three operations see you linking up with other survivors of your force and completing your mission objectives; the final operation is basically all about frantically searching for a way to escape the planet before enemy reinforcements overwhelm you.
* [[Trial Byby Combat]]: Clan Trials.
* [[Tournament Arc]]: If you beat Ghost Bear's Legacy without losing a single mission, you get to compete in a tournament to win the right to a blood name.
* [[Unbreakable Weapons]]: Partially subverted. [[Gatling Good|Rotary Autocannons]] jam when fired long enough (but will unjam on their own after a while), but the machine guns (except for the infantry's version) can fire as long as they have ammo.
* [[Unwinnable Byby Design]]: The final mission in Ghost Bear's Legacy requires you to jump jet inside an enemy dropship. Don't have jump jets equipped? Have fun restarting the mission.
* [[Vector Game]]: The first game.
* [[Video Game Caring Potential]]: Taking care of your lancemates in the fourth game helps you get a slight edge in later missions.
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