BattleTech

This game is only worth playing, and continuing to play, because of the amazing work that the modding community has done, turning it into the game that the fans originally wanted. And not just a compromised product designed to appeal to the largest number of people.
If you're looking to buy this game in 2024 what you'll need to do is head over to Nexus Mods. There are a host of great mods that give you the entire map of the galaxy, mods that allow other factions to go to war and take systems, and my current favourite, Hyades Rim which changes the story, rewriting it, changing the cut scenes, your role (which didn't make any sense to the roll playing elements of your origin story) and gives you a far more realistic, natural, place in BT universe.
Is it the Cresecent Hawks Inception remake that I've always dreamt of (I'd destroy the only copy of Half-life 3 if it meant some studio remakes Cresecent Hawk inception), no of course not but jeebus, its a great game. The remade story, the added flashpoints and difficulty changes on many of the big overhaul mods have really sharpen the game. It's finally giving me that battletech hit i've been dreaming of since my first shot in the 1980s.
So Batteltech, is worth it? Its cheap, play vanilla, see what it gives you and then go to town modding it. The mods are amazing. The expansion of the innersphere, the realignment of planets, the application of 40 years of lore, Every fricken planet has its own story, there are hundreds of mechs that modders have put into the game, thousands of weapons and equipment, great missions (properly thought out, challenging but not impossible, well paced). I used to fall asleep playing the vanilla but these days especially with Hadyes Rim you really need to think of strategy, flanking, feints, drawing the enmy in and other tactics or else you're gonna get your ass kicked.
Anyway, jeez, why are you still reading this. Go buy it.
Also go watch some Battletech Black pant legion tube videos (especially for the perun cameo)
(edit excuse the grammar, me no speak englash goud)

>Play for 30 hours in vanilla
>Install BTA3062 and RogueTech
>Play for another 800 hours
Yep, that's just how it goes.

This is a "MUST BUY!" if
- You are a fan of the original tabletop game.
- You are into Battletech/Mechwarrior from somewhere else.
- You enjoyed Shadowrun (same devs), X-COM or similar games.
- You like turn-based tactical games in general.
- You love big stompy mechs.*
- You want an expansive (low) SciFi universe.*
* unless you dislike turn-based tactical games.
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The base game has already alot to offer, they did a great job for an indy team on a tight budget (game got funded via Kickstarter), it runs stable if rather slow (but there is ways to improve performance/stability) depending on your hardware.
The DLC is definetly worth it as well, best get the game + season pass, as it regularly goes on 75% discount on Steam or elsewhere, it's also cheap (but if it were not for the frequent sales, still worth full price).
Now, the real kick here is the mods, after you enjoyed the vanilla game, probably for a few hundred hours, the skill, dedication, and community involvement of the BT mod scene has produced some outstanding "expansions", bundled up in one of the three main mods (BTExtended, BTAdvanced, RogueTech) you can extend the content and complexity of the game tenfold.
Also there is mods that implement a new story campaign, namely the popular "Hyades Rim" mod.
While the basegame does cover a relative short timespan based around 3025-3035, in a limited corner of the Inner Sphere, and thus excludes the Clans, the mods open up the whole vastness of not only the Inner Sphere, but outlying regions as well, with technology and lore form a timespan of several hundred years, basically from the beginning of the SLDF (~2700) up to the Jihad and Dark Age (~3100) and everything in between.
Base game: 8/10
Modded game: 11/10

Almost didn't buy this game because 1 review stated that this game didn't respect his time (forced to watch cut scenes), well my experience in the first few chapters of this game is that I can skip cut scenes by following the instructions on the screen (press the esc key). I guess this just shows that sometimes you have to try the game and not trust the reviews. I think it's an interesting game and worth the discounted price. I'm not sure I'd pay full price for any of it. XCOM, the game people compare this one to, is a more complex game and in my opinion provides more fun, but I haven't come close to mid point of Battletech, so maybe I'm talking out of my butthole. Battletech is fun, and reminds me of the board game, but it's better, because the mechanics are automatically calculated and I don't have to buy and paint miniatures (LOL). I haven't noticed any bugs yet (i7, 4060 RTX laptop). When I play my fan is always humming (not loud but I can hear it), I use a fan plate, and my keyboard is warm.
I recommend this game if you like tactical, and turn based battles with the caveat that I've just started playing the game.

The base game is good for the story - for a more genuine tabletop feel go modded. I can recommend BEX (Battletech Commanders Extended 3025) and BTAU (Battletech Advanced Universe). NexusMods for BEX and bta3062 dot com for BTAU. RogueTech is another mod that is worth exploring, with the caveats that it requires a more robust computer and the gameplay can be quite a bit more harsh until you learn the systems it introduces.

The game has been kept alive by mod packs like Battletech Extended (BEX), Battletech Advanced 3062 (BTA), and Roguetech.

Great Game, finished it and played custom for a good while.
But 80%+ of my hours have been in the RogueTech mod, seriously in my opinion the Real way to play BattleTech.