MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

1995 · Simulation · PC/DOS

About MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (1995) is Activision's BattleTech mech simulator, in which the player fights the Refusal War of 3057 for Clan Wolf or Clan Jade Falcon, managing heat, armour and loadouts across 32 missions.

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat in Depth

The player joins Clan Wolf or Clan Jade Falcon and fights on planets named in the BattleTech canon, on missions such as search and destroy, reconnaissance and base strikes, gaining squad commands in later ones. Between missions a mech lab lets the player change the weapons, armour, engine and heat sinks of any drivable mech. Control modes range from basic point-and-shoot to an advanced mode that steers the legs and torso separately. The on-board computer reports nearby forces, damage and ammunition, and heat has to be watched constantly: firing weapons repeatedly raises the temperature, which can set off ammunition, cost limbs and actuators or detonate the fusion engine. The computer tries an emergency shutdown when heat climbs too far, but the player can override it. A Windows 95 version added NetMech for battles over a network.

It is 3057, after the Clans' invasion of the Inner Sphere was halted by defeat at Tukayyid. Crusader factions accuse the Wolves' Ulric Kerensky, a Warden, of losing on purpose, and he answers by challenging them to settle it in combat. The Jade Falcons fight to resume the invasion, while the Wolves aim to weaken the Falcons for good.

Making MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

Activision developed the game for MS-DOS and later ported it to Windows and the Mac, with enhanced versions for 3D accelerator cards. Quantum Factory built separate Saturn and PlayStation versions from scratch as MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition, with power-ups, more enemies, shortened missions and 16 new ones to make it faster and more action-led; a Panasonic M2 version was dropped when that console was cancelled. The Ghost Bear's Legacy expansion followed in November 1995 and the stand-alone Mercenaries in 1996.

It sold more than 500,000 copies within three months and was the 12th best-selling computer game in the US in 1996. Next Generation called it "the best 'mech simulator currently available", PC Gamer US named it the best action game of 1995, and it won the Origins Award for best science fiction computer game of the year. In 1996 Computer Gaming World ranked it the 27th best game of all time, and the console versions were also praised for how well they were adapted.

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat Trivia

It was planned for October 1994 but slipped after almost the entire development team turned over.
Its rendered introduction was produced by Digital Domain.
Its music, by Gregory Alper and Jeehun Hwang, was stored as standard CD audio and could be played on an ordinary CD player.
In the third quarter of 1995 Activision reported waits of up to an hour for its hint line, mostly because of MechWarrior 2 callers.
Gregory Fulton, later lead designer of Heroes of Might and Magic III, started his career as a tester on the game.