MechWarrior 4: Vengeance

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MechWarrior 4: Vengeance
Developer(s)FASA Interactive
Publisher(s)Microsoft
Platform(s)Windows PC
ReleaseNovember 24, 2000
Genre(s)Action / Simulation
Mode(s)Single player, Multiplayer

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance is a computer game developed by FASA Interactive and published by Microsoft. It was released on November 24, 2000. This game is the fourth game in MechWarrior series. It takes place in BattleTech universe where the pinnacle of all war machines are huge, heavily armed robots called Battlemechs. The player pilots one of the these 'Mechs and uses variety of available weapons (autocannons, lasers, missiles, ...) to battle enemy 'Mechs, tanks and other vehicles. An expansion pack, MechWarrior 4: Black Knight, was released in October 31, 2001, and a subsequent stand-alone expansion, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries was released in November 7, 2002.

Plot

The game takes place on the Inner Sphere planet Kentares IV and its moon. Players takes control of Ian Dresari, son of famed Clan War hero Duke Eric Dresari and heir to the throne of Kentares.

A civil war erupts on the planet after William Dresari, a cousin of Ian, betrays the family and seizes the throne for himself under the banner of Katherine "Katrina" Steiner, ruler of the Lyran Alliance and responsible for annihilation of loyalists to Victor Steiner-Davion, brother of Katrina. After a surprise attack by Steiner forces on the Dresari royal palace, leaving Eric Dresari, and the majority of the royal family dead, Ian meets up with his uncle, Sir Peter Dresari on the moon orbiting Kentares' to launch a guerrilla campaign to take back Kentares IV from Steiner. Ian fights alongside with fellow Resistance MechWarriors Casey Nolan, Jen McQuarrie, Jules Gonzales, and their commander Elise Rathburn in various missions. The Resistance abandons its base on the moon and sets up camp for the first time in Kentares artic regions. At one point during this campaign, Ian's uncle Peter is murdered by Duncan Burke, a high-ranking officer in Katrina's forces. Ian and the rest of the Resistance are devastated by the loss of his uncle and debate over whether or not to continue the fight for Kentares freedom. They decide to push forward and manage to capture a satellite network from Steiner. The rebel group moves into the mountains.

After destroying a disabled, but heavily guarded Steiner dropship, Ian and the Resistance move to the Hadra Peninsula, a remote desert region. Rumors of an abandoned prison camp reach the Resistance and efforts are made to locate and liberate the camp in order to enlist more personnel for the Resistance cause. Along the way, Ian is shocked to find that one member of his family survived Steiner's siege of the Dresari palace: his sister Joanna. After a short reunion, Ian and Joanna are separated once more as the Resistance plans to mobilize their forces to take the fight to Steiner. They make a brief detour to save a coastal town named Vale after Steiner threatened to bomb the town due to allegations of links to the Resistance. Not only does the Resistance save the population, but Ian manages to personally defeat his uncle's murderer, Duncan Burke, in a heated duel.

Pushing forward into urban environments, the fighting heats up and Resistance casualties mount. Joanna informs Ian of an old armory cache hidden somewhere in the city full of equipment enough to outfit four heavy Lances of 'Mechs, valuable for assaulting the Dresari palace, now the headquarters for the Steiner occupation. Before the search for the cache could be conducted however, Joanna and her Lance are ambushed by Steiner forces, leaving her badly injured and in mortal danger. Ian has to make a choice, between rescuing his sister from certain death or securing the weapons cache for an assault on the Dresari palace. Whatever the player chooses, Ian and the Resistance fight one last battle against House Steiner, finally putting an end to the war. However, the fight is not yet over for Ian, as William shows up in a modified Daishi, challenging Ian to a duel. Ian defeats William and finally frees the planet from Steiner's grasp.

Depending what choice the player makes during the second-to-last mission, either Joanna or Ian will ascend the throne as Duchess or Duke, respectively.

Modes of Play

Campaign

This tells the story of the game. It contains 26 missions divided into 7 "ops", each with different environments. Each ops contains about 3-6 missions, with exception to Ops 7. In the first few missions, only a few smaller 'Mechs are available. As the game progresses, more 'Mechs and weapons are at the player's disposal. These come in form of salvage from previous missions. Between missions, the player can outfit 'Mechs with different weapons and also assign 'Mechs to one of your three Lancemate slots.

Instant Action

This mode lets you play with any of the 21 'Mechs in the game. You can play either one of campaign missions (even those which you cannot access in campaign yet) or wave missions in which you can select up to four other mechs and fight them in deathmatch style. There is also a master trial mode in which the computer randomly picks a stock 'Mech for you. It also randomly picks one map to play on and three stock 'Mechs as enemies. You have to successively destroy all three enemies in a one-on-one fight.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is similar to instant action in many aspects, but its gameplay can be more customized. It has nine game types and about dozen maps (more user-made maps can be found on internet).

Game types are following:

  • Destruction - simple deathmatch
  • Team Destruction - team deathmatch
  • Attrition - similar to deathmatch, but points are awarded for damage you dealt (not only kills)
  • Team Attrition - like above, but in teams
  • Capture the Flag - points are awarded for bringing flag from enemy base to yours
  • King of the Hill - points are awarded for staying in specific area of map
  • Team King of the Hill - like above, but in teams
  • Steal the Beacon - points are awarded for carrying the beacon
  • Escort - points are awarded for destroying enemy VIP (a small 'Mech)

Microsoft has stopped hosting for the game's built-in game browser, and MSN Zone has stopped supporting CD based games. To play Vengeance's multiplayer, you must search for servers via direct-IP (click "Add" on the game's server browser and type in the IP), or use the third-party GameSpy Arcade.

Servers still running on MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (IPs are listed after the server names) -

  • WPPC on Wednesday nights EST: wppc.servegame.org
  • {SoE} FrostFight on Friday nights CET: mw4frost.dyndns.org
  • CLS: mech.es
  • TR: 68.98.212.251
  • Knights: knights.mine.nu

Weapons and equipment

A 'Mech has slots which can usually mount only specific kinds of weapons. A weapon can be mounted if there are enough free slots and free weight. Weapons are generally very heavy and make up more than half of a 'Mech's weight. Most weapons have Clan variants which have some advantages over regular ones.

Energy weapons

This type of weapons generate heat, but requires no ammunition. Larger types of energy weapons do more damage and have longer range. They include:

  • Lasers - fire a beam that takes several seconds to recharge. Heat buildup is minimal.
  • Bombast Laser - similar to standard lasers, but they are charged up before they are fired.
  • Pulse lasers - fire series of pulses in rapid sequence and take few seconds to recharge. Heat is accumulated with constant use.
  • PPCs - fire accelerated particles. Causes a high amount of heat and shorts out the electronics and sensors of a hit mech for a short time.
  • Flamer - somewhat like flamethrowers. heat buildup is minimal, but if this weapon successfully hits an enemy mech, it causes heat also to that mech.

Missiles

This type of weapons requires ammunition and generate small amount of heat. Larger types of missile launchers fire more missiles per salvo. They include:

  • LRMs - long range guided missiles.
  • MRMs - guided missiles which do more damage than LRMs, but have significantly shorter range, and are unguided unless equipped with a Clan STREAK system.
  • SRMs - short range missiles which do large amounts of damage, but are not guided (unless equipped with a STREAK system).
  • Thunderbolt Missile - a long range, unguided missile. It deals significant damage.
  • Artillery Radio - although this technically is not a missile it is considered a missile weapon. When activated it targets an area for friendly artillery to fire. After 7 seconds the area is bombarded by artillery shells. NOTE: This weapon causes massive splash damage and is only available in the Instant Action MechLab and on special campaign missions.

Ballistic weapons

This type of weapons requires ammunition and generate almost no heat. Larger types of ballistic weapons do more damage, but have shorter range. They include:

  • Autocannons - Ordinary cannons.
  • LBX autocannons - Cannons similar to shotguns which do more damage, but shots are weak at distance, and range is quite limited.
  • Ultra autocannons - Cannons shooting two autocannon rounds at once.
  • Gauss rifles - Cannons shooting magnetically accelerated KE-penetrators. There are standard versions, a light one (inner sphere, no clan version) and the heavy version, which deals significantly more damage at a lower range than the other Gauss Rifles (it is only inner sphere, no clan version)
  • Machineguns - Small bore guns that fire at a high rate. Deals a small amount of damage by itself, so they are meant for use in groups or as a support weapon.
  • Long Tom Artillery - Massive weapons, similar to off-map artillery. It deals a lot of damage, but rather hard to aim and generates high heat.

Equipment

A 'Mech can be equipped with various devices to increase its effectiveness in a battle. They include:

  • Jump jets - Some 'Mechs can mount these rocket boosters which greatly increase mobility, especially over rough terrain
  • ECM - Jammer decreasing distance at which can be your 'Mech can be detected, although if you are detected, missile lock-on time is reduced
  • LAMS - Laser Anti-missile system which shoots down some incoming missiles
  • Beagle Active Probe - Device increasing your radar range
  • Light amplification - All 'Mechs can equip this device making the pilot able to see in darkness
  • IFF Jammer (from the Inner Sphere mech pak') Mechs that use this are usually detected as neutral or friendly by other mechs until the mech equipped with this fires at a target.
  • AMS - Anti-missile system. Similar to the LAMS, but has limited ammunition and generates less heat.

Armor

A 'Mech is covered by armor protecting it from enemy fire. Armor can be added to offer more protection at the expense of additional weight. There are three types of armor:

  • Ferro fibrous - standard armor which protects equally against all kinds of weapons
  • Reactive - this type of armor protects more against ballistic and less against energy weapons
  • Reflective - this type of armor protects more against energy weapons and less against ballistic weapons

'Mechs

'Mechs are classified into four weight categories. They are also either from Clans or Inner Sphere. Clan 'Mechs are generally superior to Inner Sphere 'Mechs of same weight in terms of range and weapon loads, whereas Inner Sphere mechs typically have more armor and better heat management.

Light 'Mechs

Medium 'Mechs

Heavy 'Mechs

Assault 'Mechs

'Mech Paks

In August 2002 Microsoft released two add-ons to MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, the Clan 'Mech Pak and Inner Sphere 'Mech Pak. Each pack contains four new 'Mechs, one new weapon, a new electronics package, and two multiplayer maps. Many players were disappointed by the fact that new 'Mechs can be used only in instant action or multiplayer and not in campaign. In spite of this, the add-ons remain extremely rare and expensive for collectors.[citation needed]

'Mechs
  • Dragon - 60 tons, Inner Sphere
  • Highlander - 90 tons, Inner Sphere
  • Hunchback - 50 tons, Inner Sphere
  • Zeus - 80.5 tons, Inner Sphere
Weapons and Electronics
  • IFF Jammer: Creates confusion among enemies by making the player appear as a neutral entity
  • Heavy Gauss Rifle: A more powerful version of the standard Gauss rifle, causing more damage at closer ranges
Maps
  • The Coliseum: Gladiator-styled combat within a massive spectator arena
  • Gagetown: Urban combat outside a walled city
Mechs from Clan 'Mech Pak
  • Arctic Wolf - 40 tons, Clan
  • Cauldron-Born - 65 tons, Clan
  • Kodiak - 100 tons, Clan
  • Masakari - 85 tons, Clan
Weapons and electronics
  • Streak MRM: Medium-Range guided missile that provides more damage than regular MRM's
  • Enhanced Optics: Increases the targeting sights for equipped mechs

Maps

  • Factory: Gladiator-styled combat in a Solaris VII tournament
  • New Gotham: Sprawling city for urban combat

Awards

External links

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