Remember when I was just disparaging a free to play online RPG for being worth what you paid for it?  Well, today I’m going to bring you one that gives plenty of value at the free level, but with disappointments of its own.  Today we’re talking Mechquest.

Mechquest, like The West, is a free to play online RPG, and a rapidly paced and fully featured model.  In it, you play a young mech pilot (in case you’re not familiar with the whole subgenre, a “mech” is a giant mechanical suit of armor controlled either by remote or by a human pilot from within (in this case, it’s controlled by the human pilot) to wage war against some sort of enemy.  And in this case, you’re the mech pilot who shows a lot of promise.  So much so that even GEARS University’s dean has taken a particular interest in your development.  Meanwhile, a war is raging all around you, largely thanks to the incompetence and egomania of your Kingident.  Kingident, here, is the ruler who has apparently been democratically elected, though frankly, I wouldn’t trust this gomer behind the controls of a television set, let alone being in charge of an entire army.  Apparently this guy thought it would be a good idea to send the aliens moving into position around the planet a set of monogrammed towels and was actually insulted when they didn’t seem to like his gift idea.  Whoa–shades of Barack Obama and that ridiculous DVD set he gave Gordon Brown, huh?

But anyway, I’m digressing.  I’ll tell you this much–I liked MechQuest.  I was in a mech and fighting enemies within the first couple minutes.  In fact, it hadn’t been much over a half hour before I was at a whole new level and could equip an array of interesting new weapons.  The weapons selection menu is positively monstrous, as you’ll have everything from gatling guns to a full-on boomstick to pick from.

Yes, I said “boomstick”.  The item is actually described as being “excellent for threatening the inhabitants of fictional countries” and has an “ashy smell”.  This is one of the many, many examples of geeky in-jokes you’ll get exposed to throughout MechQuest, a clever little touch I’m glad they added.

I do have some issues with this game, however—the combat is simplistic and reduced to buttom mashing, though there are strategy options involved when you start picking weapons.  You have to weight the power of the weapon against the weapon’s energy use and cooldown period, where applicable.  But if you can get a weapon that fires once a turn, once every other turn, and once every THIRD turn, you’ll be able to get some incredible efficiency from your guns.  Also, it irked me that so much content was reserved for “star captains”, MechQuest’s name for “paying customers”.  Look, I like a few fancy premiums because I’m forking over cash.  But for crying out loud, giving the paying guys a whole toybox that the free guys will never see is a bit extreme.

But still—the game is solid enough at either level, and is pretty fun to play besides.  The graphics are in a smooth and clean anime style, the sound is deep and rich (some of the bass even got my subwoofer involved—I could FEEL that sucker shake) and I can’t get enough of the in-jokes.

If you’ve got plenty of spare time on your hands, you could definitely do worse than MechQuest.