For a few months I’ve been on a bit of a BattleTech / MechWarrior kick. One of the things that crossed my mind is how disjointed most of the MechWarrior games are chronologically:
- The first releases, BattleTech: Crescent Hawk’s Inception in 1988 and MechWarrior in 1989 were sensibly enough set in the original or ‘classic’ BT time period in 3028.
- The sequel to BT:CHI, Crescent Hawk’s Revenge began right after BT:CHI but made jumps forward as far as the Battle of Luthien in 3052. This one covers a lot of ground.
- Next, released in 1995 the ground breaking MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat inexplicably advances the timeline to 3057. In a major departure the backdrop is in Clan space rather than the Inner Sphere. The story is basically completely unrelated to events in prior titles, and I’m not even sure if they are explained in-game / a link is made to earlier titles in-game.
- 1996’s MechWarrior2: Mercenaries reverts to a spheroid protagonist and takes a time machine back to 3044 and concludes at the Battle of Luthien .. uh, again.
- For 1998’s MechCommander and 1999’s MechWarrior 3 the timeline leaped forward to 3059 and finally from here on out the releases actually increment the timeline predictably. What a mess
Trying to wrap your head around any of that is a waste, not to mention the glaring differences from cannon that many of the games exhibit.
But hey why not figure out the chronological order and play them? So, here are all 18 games:
Game Year Published Plot/Era/Locale ------ ---- --------- -------------- mw1 3024-3028+ 1989 mw snes 3027 1993 bt: chi 3028 1988 Chara III (Pacifica) bt: chr 3028-3052 1990 Lyons, War of 3039, Luthien mw2 mercs 3044-3052 1996 Clan Invasion! mw 3050 3050 1995 Clan Invasion mw2 31cc 3057 1995 Refusal War mw2 gbl? late 3050s 1995 mc1 3059 1998 Operation Bulldog mw3 3059 1999 Post OpBulldog, Serpent mw3 pm 3060 1999 mcx 3060 1999 Post OpBulldog mw4: v 3062 2000 FedCom civil war mw4: bk 3060s 2000 FedCom civil war mw4: mercs 3062-67 2002 FedCom civil war mc2 3063 2001 FedCom civil war ma ~3067-81 2002 WoB Jihad ma2 ~3067-81 2004