[Longplay, No Commentary] MechWarrior 4: Black Knight (PC, 2001) 1080p Full Play-through

Black Knight is the first expansion pack for MechWarrior 4 released in 2001 for Windows. It is the follow-up to the story told in Vengeance, where the player now plays as a mercenary leader contracted to take down the "bad guy" who just regained power in Kentares IV.
The expansion adds a new single player campaign of decent length, new mechs and weapons. The rudimentary barter economy in the form of black market is also a welcomed addition. Other than these, it is still the same old arcadey MechWarrior 4 game with infuriating AI, only this time they are even more laser accurate than it already was. You can truly feel it when actually playing the game ;)
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Useful link if you'd like to have a go yourself:
Installation guide by Ostego Lectric - • MechWarrior 4 Installa...

[@mr.dinklemen2445]

Out of all the gameplays I've seen of the Mechwarrior 4 Trilogy you have the best sense of combat; for God's sake you actually use different weapon groups than just one and make varying loadouts for mechs. It's just so nice to finally see someone who has a decent grasp of the mechlab putting gameplay up.

[@Chanwsan]

Thanks :) I see the game would be quite mundane to just go in guns blazing with a single meta build

[@panoramatint]

Variety is the spice of life

[@Rotceev]

And he uses the first person perspective, while most of other gameplayers do only the third one.

[@armoredcore6Roks]

Piloting still awful though.

[@jonathanj.3695]

"Take out designated target." "Sorry, sir. I can't comply." Are you disobeying a direct order, soldier?!

[@floridadad2817]

I hate that leaving your sister to die became canon, but knowing the history of feuding royal families it makes sense.

[@pannik_lucas]

It never occurred to me using the shutdown order to repair a lancemate in those standing repair platforms. Your uploads of the saga are great

[@Chanwsan]

Thanks! Discovered this trick by "accident" when I almost had enough with that mission. It was almost impossible with broken lancemates at that difficulty.

[@smyers820gm]

@@Chanwsan dude I played this game till my eyes bled and arthritis set in my fingers and I never figured out how to make them repair! 😂😂😂😂😂. I SALUTE YOU! 🫡

[@nathang6376]

5:02:16 - Hearing Elise Rathburn’s voice saying “Omega Lead requires assistance” makes me sad.

[@williammurphy5303]

Is it a nostalgic sadness, or a sadness of what happened in the story, which I don't really understand...?

[@RetroAmateur1989]

Remember all those characters you fought alongside, and grew on you in the previous game. Kill them. Kill them all. Lovely game

[@HamanKarn567]

Man those hellspawns at the beginning didn't want to die. But this brings back good memories. Loved these games.

[@greyfox37]

Waow! Dish ish Fred.

[@HamanKarn567]

@@greyfox37 You're talking to my plant.

[@Maxime_Martyr]

The Black Knight campaign appears to be only partially consistent with canon. The Federated Commonwealth Civil War sourcebook notes that Ian spent Wave Two and Wave Three of the Civil War tracking down Katrina-loyalists and fighting off attacks on Kentares IV. The MechWarrior Dark Age pilot cards include Victor Dresari, the eldest son and heir apparent of Duke Aidan Dresari of Kentares IV circa 3130, indicating that a Dresari (possibly Ian) survived and passed control of Kentares IV to his/her descendants despite the best efforts of the Black Knight Legion. (While William is dead, Joanna was only depicted as dead in an alternate ending (B) of an apocryphal game, and the apocryphal expansion of this ending, making her a possible ancestor to Aidan Dresari. Still, Joanna's existence itself is apocryphal, while Ian's is canonical and certain. Moreover, as the eldest direct descendant of Duke Eric Dresari, Duke Ian is more likely to be Duke Aidan's ancestor. Joanna's possible branch would then be parallel. Still, a full genealogical tree of House Dresari not being available, fans are left to interpret Aidan's lineage in any canonically consistent way they wish). Ian's arrest of political dissidents and suppression of KFA rebels is consistent with "tracking down Katrina-loyalists" and his forces' battles against the Black Knight Legion is consistent with "fighting off attacks on Kentares IV." Operations 1, 2, and 5 of this game are consistent with canon, but the game diverges by winning against Dresari's forces in Operations 3 and 4. A story branch that does not violate canon would have the Legion withdrawing after the betrayal and exacting vengeance on Major Dupres on Voltrat 3 without toppling Ian's rule.

[@Chanwsan]

Thanks for imparting your knowledge on the lore.

[@bek1ndrwnd]

Excellent I was actually curious about this as I was a huge fan of Vengeance when it came out (Yes I also saved Johanna, of course I replayed and and didn't the second time to see the alternate ending but I mean come on lol) but never got around to playing Black Knight until now after finally getting it to run again but was not all that happy to see them "Beat" Ian (After skimming through some literature before starting the campaign) which would have made that whole heartfelt campaign from Vengeance a waste of time. so yes thank you very much for filling in the gaps as I cannot believe Black Knight would ever be able to take out Ian and his bunch. Mercenaries fight for money but when fighting with your heart, there is no winning against that.. at least in fiction. ;) care to share where you read this lore? would love to read it further myself.

[@williammurphy5303]

Does this mean that Ian Dresari was an evil ruler who betrayed his lance mates? Or was he a good ruler, but made a bad decision not to save Joanna?

[@V-im2io]

As it turns out later in the established lore it came out that him being evil was really just propaganda to smear his image especially after being associated with the rebels who didn't really care about collateral damage, it was easy to make him out to be the bad guy politically to justify killing him and establishing someone else as ruler in his place. It's ambiguous if he chose to raid the armory or save his sister because Ian could very well be helping his sister out militarily, after all his goal was to keep on fighting so it makes sense he would come back to his homeworld to help his sister, or it could be him just personally dealing with the ones who are trying to kill him and take the moral high ground after making a bad call and raided the armory instead of saving his sister

[@jacpig1049]

Thank you for this video, I can see that you worked very hard to make it, Mechwarrior 4: Black Knight is my favourite of all the games👍

[@Chanwsan]

Thanks! Yeah I definitely poured much more effort into making this video possible compared to the other MW4 games. So many restarts and deaths had to be edited out! 😂😂

[@mikecampos1193]

Is this the origin of the black pants legions is Tex secretly involved in this.

[@THEGRUMPTRUCK]

I am thankful that due to other bits of Battletech lore which take place during and after the timeline of this game that Ian Dresari actually did not go corrupt, and that it was a smear campaign. He hunted down Katrina loyalists while passing the throne to one of the more competent members of his family, because he wasn't done seeking revenge for what the Archon did to the Dresari name.

[@Predaaator]

4:08:07 HOW THE HELL I WAS SUPPOSE TO KNOW I COULD TO FIX THE MECH THERE!! Thx you my friend, I saw that missions because I did not know how to pass it.

[@Kijin00]

Sad to see Ian Dresari become the villain... Apparently both MW4 'Vengeance' and 'Black Knight' are non-canon.

[@ThatSlowTypingGuy]

0:40 seconds in and we're already graced with George Ledoux.

[@nuhvokva6317]

You actually had the courtesy to speed up the down time mad props

[@SpaceDrake]

Okay, but the Casey fight. Good lord, having to essentially camp the healing stations because he has laser accuracy with everything. Compelling gameplay, Cyberlore and MicroFasa-of-the-time. /s Still, thank you for showing the game off so comprehensively! It's funny, but BK does feel like a more compelling narrative than the original just because of how it unfurls the personal-seeming stakes. You're cruising along, and then you get smashed in the groin by your own employer in perfectly mercenary fashion. Vengeance definitely struggled to really reinforce the stakes in gameplay as opposed to FMV, and BK practically inverts that with no actual cutscenes but the gameplay-reinforced narrative is great. Poor Mandril...

[@George-zj9rr]

Yeah, as a 12 year old playing this game, the betrayals and deaths really stung.

[@williammurphy5303]

Hold on. Are you meaning to say that Ian Dresari betrayed his lance mates, or was he a good ruler, but made a bad decision not to save Joanna?

[@goflyakitefilms]

00:00 when you knew the game boot up correctly

[@jager454gaming]

Awesome video, my man. Gonna try and figure out how to get the games working on my PC tonight. It'll probably be a helluva fight but I'm determined to play the old Mech 4 Vengence and Black Knight games.

[@michaelman957]

The really did Dressari and the others bad in this story. Fun gameplay, but glad it's not canon.

[@darkdill]

You know what would be an absolutely awesome challenge? Beat Dupree while piloting the Black Knight. Yes, I know, you're piloting a Heavy against multiple Assault mechs, but that's what makes it a challenge.

[@Chanwsan]

It is a good challenge, if the enemy AI is not aimbotting so hard 😑

[@klaeljanu]

Black Knight was very overpowered in Mw4, but its a bit of a one trick pony with its best usage being either large pulse lasers, not good until mercs, or erppcs, which were also somewhat lackluster until mw4 mercs.

[@bencewohner305]

Mechwarrior 4: Black Weight!

[@girthquake1413]

Imagine being such a chad, that in your own commercial you include killing past employers from MULTIPLE nations. Legend.

[@raxsavvage]

1:48:40 going in stealth - copy that, turning on the rave lights

[@ajnelson1975]

Is Ian the guy from mech4 vengeance?

[@Chanwsan]

Yup, the main protag from Vengeance is now one of the antagonists here

[@dragonmastercj871]

It is, however it's a different voice actor

[@dannyhartwig7676]

Short but good addon

[@persezyra]

haha, well it was on Veteran. This on Elite and MW2 Ghost Bear are the hardest in highest difficulty. Won it again yesterday. God damn i hate your builds but love the gameplay. 4:36:00 if you repair a lancemate in one of those silver bays, he won't come out unless you destroy the bay with them inside and then push your lancemate away from the ruble. You had only two lancemates following you.

[@OverwatchSniper]

I wonder if anything changes if you never help the rebels

[@CZPredator]

What trick did you use to run in 1080P? Would the game run in 2K or 4K resolution as well?

[@Chanwsan]

That would be the tool called dgVoodoo2. Check the video link in description. He has a timestamp to where he starts setting that tool up. I never had capability to run higher resolutions and thus never tried, but I guess it would allow you to set those resolutions if your hardware can support them.

[@andrewblack4499]

Best gameplay I’ve ever seen. Subscribed!!!!! Keep it up

[@JeriDro]

I like the comm chatter.

[@eldetraquer]

That's a game that need a remaster. BUT NO BY PIRANA

[@simonhoney2050]

Kind of wish they'd used this zoom style for MW5. I have no special or practical reason for this, it just looks neat.

[@darksuit9035]

My favorite mechanic was where you spam an AC20x3/4 and they fall and occasionally slide when hit. (3:36:51)

[@landrum3893]

I believe there were 3 different endings to MW4BL. An IS, Merc and Clan ending. I did the clan and IS. I havent seen the Merc ending until now. Fun!

[@Chanwsan]

Pretty sure Black Knight only has a single ending. The only game with three endings was MW4 Mercenaries

[@uwebrunner4333]

I dont understand why the Player refuses to use lang range weapons like rockets. A strategical mistake

[@theolich4384]

Mechs in MW4 campaign are generally tanky. Instead of spamming missile damage and drag on, bringing big guns to straight coring them out is much more efficient. Just my 2 cents

[@mikecampos1193]

Isn't a black knight a kind of heavy Mech that nothing but energy weapons.

[@Chanwsan]

Yeah it is supposedly a full-on energy boat

[@joshuacooper8540]

Please let me know exactly how do you get the MechWarrior series downloaded despite all of these depressing windows upgrades.... Please tell me

[@Chanwsan]

Hmm, if it's just downloading then you can get the whole catalogue of classic MechWarrior games (so up till MW4) at MyAbandonware.

[@DoomyDoomyDoomDoom]

I'm trying to understand how you can aim. When I tried to play MW4, the aim control was so wonky.

[@Chanwsan]

I played this (and MW4:V) using the Logitech E3DP, so the aim accuracy is only limited by the degradation of low quality potentiometers used in that piece of toy. I did struggle a bit when I first switched to mouse & k/b in Mercenaries because of the different sensitivities on each axis. Just had to get used to it..

[@DoomyDoomyDoomDoom]

@@Chanwsan I haven't tried it yet, but I did some reading and I'm hearing that if you cap the framerate to 30fps, the mouse aim is much easier.

[@landrum3893]

Never had a problem aiming with a mouse or a joystick. Quite easy imo. I can see where using a game pad might be more difficult.

[@Gavamogtron]

why do you use market😀

[@darklord-nc6pc]

why this game stopped working

[@Chanwsan]

how so?

[@rygar8bit2]

No idea why Microsoft hasn't brought Mech Warrior 1-4 to modern hardware or on GamePass.

[@swanky2202]

Licensing issues most likely, after that it's them not caring enough about the games / IP.

[@maze4184]

abandonware downloads still work, with alot of tweaking, there was a reddit thread that had a long list of steps somewhere

[@darkdill]

Who else got a bad taste in their mouth when you had to kill Casey?

[@Chanwsan]

I actually did, and also those poor green Mechwarriors who did nothing wrong.

[@nathang6376]

I always wanted to have a friend like Casey in real life.

[@jorgedanielcontreraslevano387]

He left us all that bad taste in our mouths, he is the most charismatic of the team.

[@armoredcore6Roks]

Huh? I didn't feel sorry at all. Only if it was jenn

[@alexnavarro6941]

Lancemates can't hit shit in MW4, they are almost useless it seems. And I thought lancemates in MW5 were bad...

[@maze4184]

except for in the city, they can atleast follow orders and if you gang up on ppl they do some dmg :D

[@bertbargo7162]

youve got to be from /VG/

[@Chanwsan]

I'm sorry but what's /VG/?

[@raxsavvage]

that they go with the you cut your sister loose route , is such an arsehole move, you spend all game mentioning famaily more than fast n furious, yet they go with the you let her die end? really makes playing V a pointless endevour to be honest, like it just doesn't seem like a thing he'd do. just a troll at the player is how it felt, a shitty troll

[@raxsavvage]

jen and gonzales both??? thought gonzales would've canonically been wiped out tryna help out the evac team, kinda expected jen to just walk away along with the techbro

[@jorgedanielcontreraslevano387]

​@@raxsavvagede dónde sacaste esa información?

[@Gavamogtron]

stop doing the fast forward thing plz

[@andrzejwysocki609]

one of the things mw3 does better than 4 is the detailed cockpits