Overview:
The sight of BattleMechs lumbering across the terrain is a familiar one among the worlds of the Inner Sphere. Nevertheless, the sight of an Atlas still manages to make even experienced MechWarriors break out in a sweat and brings the bitter taste of bile to their mouths.

General Kerensky himself set down the specifications for the Atlas. He said that it should be "a 'Mech as powerful as possible, as impenetrable as possilbe, and as ugly and foreboding as conceivable, so that fear itself will be our ally."

Capabilities:
Ugly and foreboding are two apt descriptions for the Atlas. Though some 'Mechs might be taller and heavier, non have the Atlas' aura. Considerable effort went into making the Atlas' weapons as visible as possible, giving an opposing MechWarrior plenty of opportunity to see that he is outgunned and to decide he is not being paid enough to die. Designers spent and entire year fashioning the head and cockpit to create a perfect merging of function and gruesomeness. The result was a complete success, and so MechWarriors nicknamed the Atlas "Death's Head".

The main drawback of the Atlas is its slow speed. Intelligent opponents will retreat before the forbidding machine, hoping either to draw it into tight quarters, such as a city or woods, or sucker it into water or mud... If a company depends on an Atlas for fire support, then a wily enemy will hit and run, hoping to the swifter 'Mechs away from the slow Atlas.

Quoted from "BattleTech: Technical Readout 3025"