Melee attacks have been added to turn-based mech battle game BattleTech. Fans of the franchise can also show their support by buying official merch from the newly launched online store.
Are you the competitive type? Check out our list of the best multiplayer games on PC.
The news comes in a big update post on Battletech’s Kickstarter page, where the devs at Harebrained Schemes go into detail about their goals for the melee attack. It’s worth a read if you’re interested in the day-to-day challenges in game design, but in terms of how melee will work in the game, here’s what you need to know.
You’ll have an ‘engage’ button when you close into melee range (indicated by a gold box), which will trigger a melee attack. Given the size differences between mechs, attacks will vary by necessity between punches, kicks and shoulder checks, but all will have the same impact. You’ll do damage based on your mech’s tonnage and whether it has particular ability in melee (e.g. you can build a mech with melee-focused actuator upgrades). A melee attack costs your whole action for the round, but should be decisive, as the damage is “tuned to be quite large.”
Melee inflicts instability, and is an easy way to knock rival mechs down, especially if you outweigh them. Some gadgets and weapons are incorporated with your melee, enabling you to fire flamethrowers as you punch or use jump jets to do a dropping attack on the enemy, which “looks really damn cool”.
Harebrained Schemes also announce that Battletech merch is now available to purchase from their new online store. Due to licensing issues each item is a limited edition, so if you’re a fan, you’ll want to head there now while stocks last. Products include an Atlas Resin statue and a set of banners to hang on your walls.
BattleTech is a military sci-fi gaming franchise about giant mechs that beat each other up. The franchise has stradded genres, from RPG to strategy to shooter (as MechWarrior), but began as a board game co-created by Jordan Weisman, who leads Harebrained Schemes, the developers of the current project. The new BattleTech game is due for release in May 2017, will be a turn-based tactics game with PvP multiplayer, and has presently raised $2.8m on Kickstarter of a $250,000 goal.
For more information, check the BattleTech website.