Quite some time ago (a millennia by STEEM time....), I played and reviewed the PC game BattleTech by HareBrained Games. Although I really did enjoy the game and re-imagining of the original FASA board game, I did find it quite lacking in certain areas. Part of this was due to the desire to tell a tight story in a tightly controlled setting... however, this played a bit at odds with the pseudo-open sandbox metagame that came with running a BattleTech mercenary company.

So, when I came across the RogueTech mod for the vanilla BattleTech game, I was pretty interested! Basically, it is pretty huge overhaul of the base game, which transforms the Universe into an evolving battlefield... with you trying to survive against pretty tough odds in an uncaring 3040 BattleTech universe.

So, this is just my quick first impressions after a first day of playing the mod! I plan to do a detailed review later after I get some more hours under my belt!

The game is re-imagined as a rogue-like open sandbox. Meaning, that you are running your company in a similar way to the vanilla game, but there is no overarching narrative (aside from Universe wide narrative events) and that your hand is not being held. You will have to fight and scheme to just survive by the skin of your teeth in each battle, with employers stealing your share of the salvage and disaster lurking one tactical (or strategic) mis-step away. It's hard, and I LOVE IT!

Mod installation is a bit of a pain, in terms of modern games, as the original game has no mod support.... but if you grew up in the good old days of modding, then it is a breeze. Basically two giant downloads and installs from NexusMods, just RTFM!

Big changes to the vanilla game that I've noticed so far has been a better UI for the tactical game and a better initiative system, an overhaul of the pilot skills and more contracts (this was a huge gripe in the original, that there was only ever a handful of contracts to choose from). Plus, the bad guy AI is much much more vicious! It's a struggle to survive!

However, the single biggest change is the import of the entire BattleTech board game ruleset! No dumbing down for the modern "gamer", this is all the rules, with a bewildering variety of weapons, Mech mods and chassis... plus the promise of LosTech and CLANS! Wow, I'm sold... I have a feeling I'm going to lose myself in this mod for quite some time, I've had a first play... and my company lasted one month before a mission went south... which ended up losing most of my Mechs and bankrupting me with repairs....I've got to play more cautiously next time!

There are a few bugs... but for the big huge positive changes... I'm fine with that! Anyway, I'll be back some time in the future with a proper mod review... but for the moment, I'm really on board with this!

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