As a bit of insomnia work, I'm setting up a variety of things! including some emulators! which means the PS1 and that means awesome tactics games including one of my personal favorite mech games: Front Mission 3. Wanzers are secretly my favorite mech design and while I think FM3 is a bit janky in the story department it does give me the crunchy combat I like.
You can unload with shotguns are close range to devastate an arm. If an enemy pilot ejects, it can actually be prudent (if cruel) to execute them before they get back in their mech, and honestly? Beyond the amazing alt-history mechs from Ring of Red, I don't think a series has done this kind of giant robot better than Front Mission. Battletech's a bit too stompy (and BIG!) and this is a kind in-between with nice "modern" military feel with enough greebles..
Excited to play this one later this year!
Front Mission 3 is the only mech game I ever put a lot of time into. You could customise the mechs cosmetics, and I used to make them all different to make it easier to remember their roles (red is the long range rockets, blue is melee, yellow is machine guns, etc). This is what inspired my Battletech miniature paint jobs - differing colour schemes to make them easier to distinguish in a game.
