I've always found something deliciously epic about giant robots blasting and smashing the hell out of one another. Hunks of scrap metal flying everywhere and the sound of thunderous gunfire go together like peanut butter and jelly in my book. While it's certainly based on the venerable mech battling franchise, MechWarrior: Tactical Command doesn't quite capture the thrill of battling inside the cockpit of a huge death machine. But it does offer a mostly serviceable real-time strategy (RTS) romp through miniaturized killer robot territory.
Tactical Command's story-driven missions play out across three distinct worlds, which have you ferrying up to four mechs around sprawling areas to tackle objectives and shoot up foes roaming the terrain. Combat often boils down to simply poking foes with selected mechs and watching them fire away, which makes me feel like "tactical" is a bit of a misnomer here. Unselecting mechs to issue scout drone commands on the map is awkward at best, and splitting your group up to tackle different flanks is equally challenging.
Contrasting sharply with its stunning intro sequence loaded with robot thrashing, seeing the actual gameplay is a rather ugly experience on the battlefield. With dull, empty maps and a distant birds-eye-view that doesn't let you get very close to the action when it erupts, piloting a posse of well-armed metal robo-suits into the fray isn't nearly as exciting as you'd hope.
Even with an unobtrusive mini-map, the camera gets in the way most of the time. It never affords a comfortable viewing angle, which makes issuing commands and plotting a course more arduous than awesome. However, when guns start blazing, subtle familiar details -- like tons of classic mech designs and damage indicators for individual mech parts -- do add some authentic flavor into the otherwise dry encounters.
The bottom line. MechWarrior: Tactical Command isn't the strongest RTS offering on iOS, but there's enough here to pique the interest of the most hardcore mech fans.
of 5
iPad running iOS 5.0 or later
Lots of different mechs. Individual mech limb damage indicators.
Camera stinks. Simple, repetitive combat. Not much to look at.
