Austin Walker, one of the best critics and editors in the business, posted his top 10 of 2018 aka Year of the Mech. Lots of robots :)
Here's the full list:
Here's Austin's reasoning for Battletech as his GOTY:
Here's the full list:
10. Sea of Thieves
9. Tetris Effect
8. Frozen Synapse 2
7. Ashen
6. Valkyria Chronicles 4
5. No Man's Sky Next
4. Monster Hunter: World
3. Into the Breach
2. Heaven Will Be Mine
1. Battletech
9. Tetris Effect
8. Frozen Synapse 2
7. Ashen
6. Valkyria Chronicles 4
5. No Man's Sky Next
4. Monster Hunter: World
3. Into the Breach
2. Heaven Will Be Mine
1. Battletech
Here's Austin's reasoning for Battletech as his GOTY:
1. BattleTech
Into the Breach's mechs are extensions our natural strengths so that we may protect others. Heaven Will Be Mine's enable the impossible and then shield us from it. BattleTech's mechs? They're us at our most grimy and material, unlucky and desperate, bottom-line and bottom of the barrel. And for that reason, and many others, BattleTech became my favorite game in 2018.
And the truth is, I thought that Into the Breach had this spot locked down. Its simplicity and transparency, it's divergence from the norm, and all the rest of the reasons I said above. Then, in the weeks prior to writing this list, I found myself pulled back into BattleTech only to realize that it had all of those things I was (and am!) glad that Into the Breach avoided, and I loved the game for it. Base building, character upgrades, an economy to manage. All of this stuff that was beginning to bore me in the XCOM model of tactics game, BattleTech had in droves. Why didn't it bug me here when it was starting to be a bore in other tactics games I'd been playing this year?
Well, one answer is that what you do between all of that stuff is so different and unique. You've already heard me talk about my love of BattleTech's combat at length, and you maybe even watched Rob Zacny and I play about 15 hours of it this year, so I'm not going to walk down the bullet points. (And, hey, if you haven't, yet please go read Rob's review of the game, too.) But at a high level? This is a game that takes seriously the idea that mechs are just walking tanks. It systematizes the risks and costs of warfare—especially in the game's new career mode.
Another, even more simple answer is that I just kind of wanted this and have never had a game so perfectly live the fantasy of the belt-tightening, mech-piloting mercenary captain. All of the meta-systems in BattleTech turn it into a game that splits the difference between the tactical challenge of Into the Breach and the pilot-driven drama of Heaven Will Be Mine. It gives me characters to give a fuck about, a memorial to mourn them in when they die, and a garage where I can try to build something that's more rifle and less coffin.
I can't underscore the importance of investment in my pilots here. Frozen Synapse 2 is a more distinct and innovative game than BattleTech is. But my "vatform mercenaries" in that game? I can't name one of them. And that's fine, that's not what FS2 was going for. But it is something I like and it's something BattleTech gives me in spades.
Because death is terrifying in BattleTech, I can tell you how I lost Dekker, one of my starting characters—as can most other BattleTech players, probably. And because building a flexible team is one of the larger, meta-level challenges in the game, I can brag about my campaign game's elite A-team—Vesper, Rooster, Root, and Witness—and how they carve through enemies across all ranges. Because all of this is paired with a collection of random narrative events, I can also tell you that a pickup game of space basketball once brought an up-and-coming pilot (Partisan) out of a funk just in time for a big mission, and that his improved morale wound up saving my ass.
But I also think that the reason I like all of this stuff that I first thought "bloated" BattleTech in contrast with Into the Breach is because in 2018, it's been rewarding to play a game about staying one step ahead in a cruel, indifferent world. This is no more clear than in the game's career mode, which makes every piece of scrap that much more precious, and every wound that much more detrimental.
My career mode game of BattleTech has become my go-to game when I have nothing else on my plate, and every single session has been a blast. Each time, I shoot someone a message summarizing some dramatic encounter I've had. "I was outnumbered, eight to four," I'll start. Or "Now, the thing you need to realize is that I thought my large laser had been repaired." Or, with as much resignation as an IM can muster, "I didn't expect heavy mechs in a two star mission."
In 2018, where every month felt like a year and every minor success felt like a lucky break, I needed a game that both scratched my oldest fanboy itches and also made me keenly aware of what failing felt like. There is too much on stake in the world right now for me to really enjoy fantasies of perfection or grimy, joyless simulations. Right now, I need both a fast boat and a little blood in the water. BattleTech was happy to provide both.
Career mode doesn't give you the same lush supply of gear and money that the campaign does, I'm clawing my way forward, blowing huge stacks of cash on low tier medium mech parts just because I need something to turn the tide in my favor out here. It's miserable. I love it.
