MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
You are the genetically engineered Clan Mechwarrior. The clans are invading the Inner Sphere. Join either the Wolf Clan or the Jade Falcon Clan, who have their own agenda against the Inner Sphere and other clans. Go into battle with your advanced Omnimechs against all opponents. Achieve high warrior scores (by using fewer or smaller mechs than necessary, completing side objectives, etc.) and you'll get the chance to take a promotion test, where you'll face superior opponents in an arena. If you win, you'll move up in rank. If you are very successful, you can make it to Khan, the leader of the clan! Mechwarrior II was developed in-house by Activision and is the successor to the original Mechwarrior. This time there is no dynamic campaign and no mercenary actions, but the clan culture is integrated into the two campaigns. Different clans have different mechs and different rules, even different weapons. You can customize your mechs to use less than "par" power to get a higher rating. The full 3D environment wasn't pretty, since it predates the introduction of 3D accelerators, but it's still better than anything that came before. The NetMech expansion allowed players to battle each other online. When 3D maps came along, special versions were developed to take advantage of 3D texturing. Even though it can't be played quite as often as Mechwarrior, it's still a classic. If you want it now, get the Titanium Edition, which is 3D accelerated.
Story
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat is set in the year 3057, shortly after the Battle of Tukayyid between the Inner Sphere and the armies of the invading clans. The plot revolves around an ideological conflict within the clans.[6] It centers on the Jade Hawk and Wolf clans, which represent either the Crusaders or the Guardians. The clans are the descendants of the Star League Defense Force, which was largely led by its commander Aleksandr Kerensky into the unknown regions of space to prevent the warring nations of the Inner Sphere from wiping each other out. These forces eventually splintered and formed 20 groups called clans. They created a society based on warfare, producing warriors for their advanced BattleMechs. During the years of isolation, two ideologies split the clans: The Crusader clans wanted to return to the Inner Sphere as conquerors and force the nations to unite and reestablish the Star League. The Warden clans believed that the clans should act as protectors of the Inner Sphere and intervene only when a threat of sufficient magnitude arose. Eventually, the Crusader faction won and the clans returned to the Inner Sphere as an invasion force that included a small portion of the clans, including the Jade Hawks, Clan Wolf, Smokey Jaguars, and the Ghost Bears. The invasion force consisted of the Crusader and Warden clans, primarily Clan Wolf. The Wardens tried to limit the damage caused by the Crusader clans. The invasion continued until the invading clans were challenged by the ComStar organization to a battle on the planet Tukayyid. If the clans won, they would gain control of Terra, which was controlled by ComStar; if they lost, they would halt the invasion for 15 years under a truce. The Clans lost the battle and their invasion was stopped for 15 years. After the defeat, Ulric Kerensky, the leader of the invasion and warlord of the clans as well as a staunch Warden and member of Clan Wolf, which was close to the Wardens, was accused of treason and accused by the Crusader elements of his clan of losing intentionally. They claimed that because Ulric was a Warden, he engineered the defeat to sabotage the invasion and also accused him of genocide. The basis of clan law was "might equals right," so matters could be decided by combat. Ulric challenged the Crusaders to maintain his status in the clan council and thus uphold the Tukayyid truce. The Jade Hawk Clan, the strongest of the Crusader clans and historical enemy of the Wolf Clan, accepted the challenge. In the conflict that became known as the War of Denial, the Jade Falcons fight to uphold the Council's verdict of guilt and allow the immediate resumption of the invasion against the still-weakened Inner Sphere. Ulric and the Wolves, however, are determined to wage a war of extermination against the Hawks and weaken them so that they cannot threaten the Inner Sphere.