BattleTech is my #1 contender for strategy game of the year. You should know that about me. And today, Paradox Interactive and Harebrained Schemes revealed 30 minutes of gameplay for the upcoming Fall 2018 BattleTech: Flashpoint expansion.
Flashpoint—which lines up new maps, a new mode, and new mechs—prefers you to finish the main "Arano Restoration" campaign first. Flashpoints are meant to be hard missions for more experienced players.
First, they look at the namesake Flashpoints. If the Arano Restoration is the game's novel, then Flashpoints are the short stories. The mission board looks slightly different. There now a heads-up for Engagement Length (e.g. Short), Consecutive Deployments if you'll be involved in back-to-back missions with no downtime for repairs or healing, and if there are Tonnage Requirements. In the video, the mission briefing says there aren't any Tonnage Requirements; however, the mission's narrative says you'll want to run a lance of fast, low-tonnage mechs. Which is awesome. One sizable complaint from BattleTech fans has been the relative uselessness of smaller mechs in the main game. "Bigger is better" won't be the only strategy once Flashpoints are online.
Also, new mechs! There's the Cyclops, a 90-ton assault mech; assault mechs are the big dogs. The Crab is a 50-ton medium, if you want to create an "all seafood lance." And the 45-ton Hatchetman, a crowd favorite, has hatchet that does a devastating +70 melee damage.
BattleTech: Flashpoint is due sometime in November on PC. I'll be all up in that, if I can tear myself away from Red Dead Redemption 2 in that amount of time—which I certainly won't be able to do.
