BattleTech: Flashpoint Review

Harebrained Schemes’ BattleTech brought the mech combat series back in one of my favourite games of the year and it’s already time for their first expansion, Flashpoint. What does it bring to the war room and is it worth buying?

BattleTech: Flashpoint brings a mixture of things to the strategic table, its key points are a new tropical biome to fight in, a few new mechs, a new mission type and the titular Flashpoints. All of these extend and deepen both the post-campaign endgame and the new career mode that came with patch 1.3.

New mechs give more build options which open up new challenges and strategies. Flashpoint introduces the fan favourite Hatchetman, who as you might have guessed has a ruddy large axe for a hand, as well as the laser-toting Crab and the battle computer equipped Cyclops. The first time your poor MechWarriors get an axe to the torso from a Hatchetman will make you wince.

The new tropical biome brings a fresh tinge of colour to proceedings as your lance of mechanised monsters get to take in the sights as they fire missiles into the heavens. And the new mission type “Target Acquisition” sees you needing to split your forces to control multiple points on the map. These are both welcome additions and combined with the procedural nature of the game broaden the palette for the game to create things for your band of mercenaries to do.

The meat and potatoes of the expansion however are the Flashpoints themselves. These can appear throughout the game’s campaign and career modes and provide self-contained mini stories. Made up from two to six linked missions they introduce new characters and events that include decisions, these not only affect how the missions will play out but also give them some replay value.

Flashpoints not only offer linked missions with a narrative hook, they mix things up by sometimes not allowing you to refit and redeploy. Forcing you to live with injuries and damage sustained from one mission to the next. Head trauma isn’t pretty at the best of times but when you are nursing it across three or four missions hoping a stray rocket doesn’t finish your favourite pilot, it takes it to another level.

Obviously, the risk and challenge Flashpoints represent means you get some solid rewards, these can range from uncommon and rare mech parts to weapons and even LosTech (unique, rare trinkets and advanced tech from BattleTech’s Star League era). This gives you a solid reason to put yourself through these encounters and can give you a real boost, especially early in a career mode playthrough.

For those who’ve finished the campaign and need some focus in the sandbox endgame, Flashpoints provide a focal point to work into your sessions, bite-sized (if potentially hours on a single Flashpoint chain can be called bite-sized) goals that offer interesting rewards. For those wanting to start a new career from scratch, they offer interesting role-playing opportunities and rewards that can only enhance the freeform nature of the sandbox and make it feel more alive and lived in.

BattleTech: Flashpoint might seem to have a fairly narrow focus, but that focus on engaging story and missions makes the whole game feel larger and that’s a fantastic thing for existing owners and newcomers alike. As Harebrained Schemes’ opening gambit for its three planned expansions, the future of BattleTech is going to be very interesting.