31st Century Combat is as classic as it gets short of going back to the original purebred DOS game. Given quite a bit of tinkering, and I do mean quite a bit with looking into DOSBOX just at the minimum (you should probably forget about windows editions), you eventually lead to what should be a relatively stable and quite functional game. In fact, a little more stable than Mercenaries. Alas, less content. When people speak of the glory days of Mechwarrior, they tend to refer to Mercs, as that game has more diverse enemies and gameplay in general. If you want old school multiplayer, it's still worth looking at. Much of the experience boils down to getting it to run, but between MechVM, dosbox, and a myriad of guides (look for them on reddit), a tech savvy player should be getting things up without too much trouble. If you're scared of software guts so to speak, this isn't a game for you. In fact, between graphics and dated gameplay concepts, this is more nostalgia food than anything. A recent mechwarrior player will find some novelties that would be nice in later editions, but a lot more that is simply missing. Even comparing to Mercenaries. I'll give it a 6, not because the heart of it is barely average, but because time has not treated this particular entry well. I can review on what once was (and what a gem it was back then), or I can review on what it is now. I'm mainly going for the latter given the troubles of getting it together and the difficulty of its appeal towards an audience that isn't within the series. If you're a veteran looking for a classic, though - this is one of the big ones.