It is deeply amusing to note that the first question about the addition of the Hatchetman to MechWarrior Online’s lineup is “does this mean melee is being added to the game” with the answer being a firm no. Even if you know nothing about the source game, you can probably guess from the machine’s name that its whole thing is having a hatchet. That’s literally the point. But no melee for you just the same.
All right, that’s not entirely true because the game does have a workaround in the form of bolt-ons that ensure your Hatchetman does what you expect it to do (that is, swing a hatchet at things). When the developers say that the game doesn’t have melee, they’re mostly specifying that your ‘Mech can’t deliver a haymaker to an opponent. It’s still really funny.
Meanwhile, players of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries can look forward to the game’s fifth DLC, Rise of Rasalhague, which focuses on the people of Rasalhague trying to rise to independent status separate from the great houses; it’s planned for release in January. So it’s a good time to buy some stuff in the general space of giant video game war machines.
