At first, they were just words -- rumors of things barely understood. Words without any connection to the magical world you know, but heavy with mystery.
MechCommander, the fourth installment in the Mechwarrior-series, although the first by Microprose, is also the first to take the _Mechwarrior_ series back to its roots as a tactical-level strategy game.
It can almost be considered a retro RPG game these days where you have a top down view and walk around in the cities buying items, talking to citizens, and furthering the story and getting attacked constantly by enemies once outside the cities.