Urban War and Heavy Metal - actually worth getting?

[Nazrex]

I'm curious about these two DLC's and whether they're actually worth getting?
They both have such bad reviews on Steam, that it makes it seem like they would just be a waste of money...

 

[stjobe]

Steam reviews aren't the best source for whether anything is good or bad; the base BATTLETECH game has negative reviews from people with 1,000+ hours played, as well as negative reviews from people upset that you can make a character with a "them" pronoun. In other words, Steam reviews often have nothing to do with the actual game being reviewed.

That said, YES, both Urban Warfare and Heavy Metal are worth getting.

Urban Warfare

• A new biome, Urban
• A new mechanic, ECM
• Two new 'Mechs: Raven & Javelin
• Three new vehicles: Gallant Urban Assault Tank, Packrat, Rotunda
• Ten new Flashpoints
• A new Mission type, Attack & Defend

Heavy Metal

• Eight new 'Mechs: Flea, Vulcan, Assassin, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman, Archer, Bull Shark, Annihilator
• Nine new Weapon systems: COILs, Snub PPC, Ultra ACs, LB-X ACs, Infernos, TAG, Narc, 'Mech mortars
• A new Flashpoint mini-campaign (a series of linked flashpoints)

Urban Warfare is worth getting due to the biome alone; fighting in a city is quite different than fighting in the countryside, and targeting a building instead of the 'Mech on top of it to collapse the building and kill the 'Mech from fall damage never gets old

Heavy Metal will net you some classic 'Mechs, some weapon systems that can really shake up how you fight, and a very well-written mini-campaign that'll see you fighting some pretty well-known BattleTech characters

 

[Jade_Rook]

All of what stjobe said.

The DLCs have quality content and really improve the Career mode. They are less useful for the original campaign.

I consider all of the DLCs to be with it. They will all improve the game. It is just whether you think they will improve it enough to be worth the price.

 

[stjobe]

They are less useful for the original campaign

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't most of the UW/HM content apply to the original campaign as well?
Off the top of my head, the only things that won't apply to the campaign are

• The flashpoints from Urban Warfare (until you've completed the campaign)
• The mini-campaign from Heavy Metal (I have no idea if you can run that post-campaign or not...)

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I really like all the DLC for the game. The Flashpoints are the biggest draw for me. Playing Career Mode with all those Flashpoints and the new content feels like playing a new Campaign in a way.

You can also play the Flashpoints after the story in Campaign Mode, but I love just playing a Career when all those Flashpoints are applied. It's just a lot of fun.

 

[Eelectrica]

I know I really enjoyed my time with both expansions. I'd say yes, they're both worth getting.

 

[Nazrex]

Thanks Guys.
...and no @stjobe .. I find Steam's player reviews extremely useful and helpful in most cases.

Anyway, thanks all for the replies... I've kept passing on getting those last two DLC's each time they were on sale, cause I was doubtful of them.

 

[eclecticbibliophile]

Urban Warfare is absolutely worth it, the new biome and mission type are great. The Electronic Warfare less so, but still some fun.

Heavy Metal is a bit more complicated; as others have said it comes with a lot of new high quality content, but it isn't well balanced. The additional battlemechs are all given unique perks that are either extremely powerful or useless, just to make them different than the base game mechs. The Annihilator is particularly annoying to me - it deals extra damage with autocannons for no real reason, especially since its hard points alone make it uniquely suited to boating ballistic weapons.
Then there's the all-new Bull Shark, which is very cool and comes with a fun story attached! It is by all rights unique, but after the player completes the flashpoint a variant (which is in many ways *better*) appears regularly among the enemies. Really screws up the narrative.
Of course you can fix many things with mods, but you can also get a lot of new content from mods.

 

[Jade_Rook]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't most of the UW/HM content apply to the original campaign as well?
Off the top of my head, the only things that won't apply to the campaign are

• The flashpoints from Urban Warfare (until you've completed the campaign)
• The mini-campaign from Heavy Metal (I have no idea if you can run that post-campaign or not...)

True. All of the new mechs, equipment, missions, and biomes are available in the original campaign, but I consider the Flashpoints the biggest draw with the DLC and those work much better in Career mode.

 

[Kharille]

Funny, couldn't get into battletech until the last dlc came out. I did the kickstarter, maybe got past the pirate moon base mission and then lost interest. Went nuts on it, then the last patch came out and I did a 2nd playthrough.

Don't see any issues with getting all the dlc, usually don't feel like I want to play a game until its 'finalized'.

 

[Panzer-Killer]

• The mini-campaign from Heavy Metal (I have no idea if you can run that post-campaign or not...)

Yes, you can! Indeed, I've run the HM mini-campaign in my first and only completist and PokeMech campaign (arrived now at 1.280 elapsed in-game weeks for a a total of 773 actually played hours) after having run all other available flash-points delivered by the previous DLCs.

 

[Marauder3D]

Thanks Guys.
...and no @stjobe .. I find Steam's player reviews extremely useful and helpful in most cases.

Anyway, thanks all for the replies... I've kept passing on getting those last two DLC's each time they were on sale, cause I was doubtful of them.

If you enjoy career mode, I'd consider those two DLC to be must haves. If you don't like running careers, you can probably skip them. Although I agree with the community that the game is far better with them than without.

I've played the campaign in vanilla mode, and then once with each DLC. I've also done careers with each DLC as they came out. I can definitively say that for me, I enjoyed the variation in biomes and mechs with all DLC's installed. Not to mention the Flashpoints included in Urban Warfare and Heavy Metal, which were brilliant.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,

Mad

 

[Panzer-Killer]

BUY THEM! They’re totally worth their price.

 

[starscream]

In my humble opinion I would say yes the urban city map is grezt to play especially with the bullshark where you can literlly blast a path through the buildings
also its more mech stompie fun so i would say a deff yes its worth getting

HBS Battletech is the first game i bought the dlc for and i deff don't regret it