Awesome / MechWarrior

• Both endings to Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries depict the climactic Battle of Tukayyid between ComStar and the Clans. The cinematic opens with a Mad Dog charging alone headlong into a canyon, reducing a Com Guard Commando and Catapult to burning wrecks until it finally ends up in over its head, destroyed in turn by the massed firepower of the rest of the Com Guard unit. The two surviving Clan 'Mechs, a Kodiak and a Timber Wolf, engage the Com Guards at point blank range. Fire is exchanged, with the Timber Wolf loosing a 40-count Macross Missile Massacre at a Com Guard Atlas...which simply walks straight through them without flinching. Even as a second barrage destroys a Com Guard Zeus, the combined fury of the Atlas and a Catapult blow the Timber Wolf to pieces. The Kodiak is able to exact revenge by crippling a Com Guard Mauler, but it's too little too late—the Catapult and Atlas both unleash everything they have at the Kodiak and bring it down, leaving the Atlas standing tall while its head is backlit by the sun. All the while, the awesome soundtrack Götterdämmerung plays in the background.
• The premise of Ghost Bear's Legacy in its entirety. It takes you, an otherwise normal Ghost Bear Mechwarrior, through a very satisfying Roaring Rampage of Revenge to avenge your clan's besmirched honor and recover stolen genetic legacies. Taken as a whole, it's a Mission-Pack Sequel that plays very much like a BattleTech Expanded Universe novel.
• The entire campaign of MechWarrior 3 is pretty much this. Starting with a botched drop that leaves most of the force scattered and/or dead, your player character must fight his way out with a measly Bushwacker dropped alone in hostile territory. You get supplies from the enemy bases you raid, your lancemates are survivors, just like you. In the end, even though your mobile field base (three repair vehicles with some outdated intel) is all support you get, and even though you get outright left to die by the rest of the strike force, your lance of four manages to kill or otherwise cripple every important enemy and installation AND commandeer a command shuttle to get out of there. Awesome.
• There are two missions in MechWarrior 4: Vengeance where you make a hot drop, with your 'Mech descending from the Drop Ship rather than simply starting on the ground. The first, the drop onto Kentares, is nothing special. The second, however, is when you go to rescue Ian's sister when she's trapped and injured during a failed resistance offensive, and it's quite the experience. From the hovering bulk of the Drop Ship five heavy or assault 'Mechs descend on columns of flame in the midst of a thunderstorm to the rainswept streets of Kentares' capital. Before you land, you'll see lasers and PPCs flash past your lance's 'Mechs, and your lancemates will start to return fire still in mid-air. The only reason there's no more imagery of Omega Lance as the Resistance's avenging angels is the game engine can't do it.
• The final mission in Vengeance. You've just fought your way through an entire world in your crusade to free your planet from Steiner influence, crossing frozen tundras, deserts and swamps before moving in on the capital city. Finally, you storm the palace itself, all the while hearing the pathetic Smug Snake Big Bad's increasingly desperate pleas for help and useless attempts to save himself. When he finally tries to flee in a DropShip, Ian Dresari delivers the most awesome response to a We Can Rule Together offer ever.
  Roland: Mr. Dresari, stop this attack! If you desist, you can have William's place on the throne.
  Ian: Sorry, Roland. Pass.
  Roland: M-Mr. Dresari, spare me, and I promise you can rule without my intervention!
  Ian: You still don't get it. This isn't about the throne, Roland.
  Roland: Mr. Dresari, stop! If you don't want to rule...What do you want?
  Ian: My family back.
• The Mercenaries expansion for MechWarrior 4 includes many awesome moments. One of the very first missions involves escorting a convoy of freshly minted artillery tanks across rough terrain to a nearby base for delivery. Once there the base quickly comes under heavy attack from multiple lances of Medium and Light Mechs, too many for the paltry defense grid to handle. Then, the Hrothgar dropship receiving the shipment powers up, opening fire on the incoming enemy Mechs with Gauss Rifles and PPC's. Needless to say, the ensuing carnage is beautiful, and makes the rest of the mission, escorting an aggravating convoy, worth the while.
  • Any time you take on rival mercenary group 'The Black Cobras' in Mercenaries, starting with a small scale raid against a facility defended by them right up to facing down Black Cobra leader Colonel Burr himself on a desolate moonbase.
  • Another mission involves retaking a planet from the Jade Falcon Clan. Spectre challenges the Falcon battle leader to a Trial of Possession in order to resolve the dispute.
    • At this point, the player has the opportunity to ambush the Clanners the night before the Trial begins and take them all out unprepared. It's pretty cool to see the usually fearsomely competent Falcon Clan in utter disarray.
    • The other, much more awesome option is to do the challenge properly. Eight of your own Mechs, more than likely all Ace Customs by this point against ten fully outfitted Heavy and Assault type Clan Mechs, with fire and missiles blasting everywhere. Definitely one of the best levels ever, especially with the soundtrack.
    • When the enemy commander bids two heavy Stars (5 mech group designation used by the Clans) for the battle and you respond by bidding two Lances (4 mech group designations used by the Inner Sphere), she scoffs that you're underestimating them. Spectre calmly asks if she wants to go back and bid lower and she declares that you will suffer for you insolence.
    • And if you manage to pull it off, you can claim the enemy commander as "Bondsman", making her basically an elite pilot in your roster that you don't have to pay.
    • The battle of Tharkad is an amazing fight. You are probably used to having a full team of 8 'Mechs by this point, but Tharkad forces you to pick your best three pilots and go into the city with Peter Steiner-Davion, returned from exile to oppose his despotic sister. Fighting your way through the capital of the Lyran Alliance, you're expected to toe to toe with none less a figure than General Nondi Steiner, badass old lady Dragon to Katherine Steiner-Davion herself in a recreation of the last novel in the Fed-Com Civil War arc from the BattleTech Expanded Universe, with the implication that it was you who finally beheaded the Lyran army, not Peter Steiner-Davion as the books suggest.
• The voice actor for the Solaris Arena in MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, "Duncan Fisher" will be voicing the announcer for the MechWarrior Living Legends Solaris Arena deathmatch mode!
  • George Ledoux (said Actor) also grants his voice to Mechwarrior Online's Solaris mode as well. Because, frankly, if it's Solaris for Mech Fans, it's got to have Duncan Fisher.
  • The streak continues, Ledoux returns as Duncan Fisher in the Solaris expansion for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, covering his meteoric rise from middling Mechwarrior to powerhouse Solaris commentator.