I hear my enemy rumble off into the distance; little does he know that I’m lying hidden in a nearby clutch of trees, my puny form nothing to his massive frame. Ten seconds from now he will be a steaming pile of slag, victim to my TAG laser and several hundred tons of missile technology. Welcome to the new world of MechWarrior – but we’re not previewing this year’s upcoming MW title.

No, this is the new MechWarrior: Living Legends Crysis mod, courtesy ofWandering Samurai, in all its DirectX 9 – or 10 if you're lucky – glory. And boy, is it glorious.

The time has long since past of the gray box shooting other gray boxes of MechWarrior 2 yore, replaced by what could only be described as industrial eye-candy. The entire mod oozes attention to detail, from the stunningly represented mech cockpits to the colour of the beam weapons embedded onto each chassis. I’ve often found myself straying from combat simply to admire the colossal scale of the Mech that I pilot, not to mention the glorious battlefield itself. Bushwalking in a Bushwhacker is an entirely new experience, while the battlegrounds are both large and varied; wandering through steaming marshlands, to coughing through a sandstorm, even floating around an asteroid orbiting a massive star.


But enough of the game’s stunning visuals – this is a Crysis mod after all, and anything less wouldn’t be acceptable. How does this stunning beast play? The start of each multiplayer game is a simple two team affair, one side plays InnerSphere, the other a Clan faction. The basic premise is to rain Technicolour death upon the opposing team until victory is achieved. Sounds deceptively simple, yet like a game of chess there are many different layers to contend with; should I use missiles and leave myself vulnerable to close range? Or should I try close range and possibly run out of ammo or armour before I can damage anything? There are layers upon layers of variables to decide upon, ranging from air and land support, with VTOL helicopters and ground-pounding tanks also on offer beside the eponymous Mech's.

Considering this is a free production, the level of polish is staggering. Granted, there are some bugs and glitches, but this mod is still in beta, and they’re not game breaking (the very occasional floor-falling adventure aside).

Until the release of the newly rebooted MechWarrior game later this year, this is the closest mech pilots can get to a fresh and visually updated 'Mech experience. If this is what the amateurs can do then the professionals have their work cut out for themselves, and then some. As stated before this is still a beta - I can only foresee this mod becoming better as time and feedback goes on.

If you have a copy of Crysis gathering dust and you're a fan of the MechWarrior franchise then I highly suggest grabbing the mod, strapping in and holding on, as in the 31st Century (and 2010) there is only War.

Feel like stomping into battle in several hundred tonnes of metal and explosives? Here's what you need to do to install MechWarrior: Living Legends:

1. You'll need to have Crysis installed.
2. Click here to download and install the Crysis 1.2 patch.
3. Click here to download and install the Crysis 1.2.0 -> v1.2.1 Hotfix.
4. Click here to download and install the MechWarrior: Living Legends beta 1.0 installer.
5. Click here to download and install the MechWarrior: Living Legends Open Beta Release 1 - Hotfix 1.
6. We recommend checking out the following YouTube tutorials from the game's developers, as they'll teach you the basics of mastering these complicated beasts. They also show just how slick this mod looks in action.