REVIEW – 2019’s MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries was a great little game, if only for the systematic destruction of enormous walkers, but it didn’t offer much in the way of plot. After five years, Piranha Games opens up the cockpits of the infamous BattleTech mechs with MechWarrior 5: Clans to us, to take over the worlds of the Inner Sphere in a clan invasion, marching all the way to Terra…

The MechWarrior series holds a legendary place in the hearts of fans of combat simulation games. In the dystopian, war sci-fi universe, BattleTech, in the (mostly) 31st-century titles, we have to control giant walking combat machines and teach the enemy how to be moe, while also delving deeply into the political intrigues of a dark future that is both feudal and industrial. The deeply developed background world with hundreds of types of wargame mechs provides a lot of opportunities for a video game to provide an exciting and complex experience – and MechWarrior 5: Clans has undertaken to do just that.

Mercenaries, but this time, there is also a story

We can’t get past the choice of title: MechWarrior 5: Clans is in many ways a standalone expansion to MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. It’s the same engine; the gameplay hasn’t changed much either. Of course, anyone who has played any of the previous MechWarrior games will find the experience familiar, but the fact is that Clans is mostly an improved version of Mercenaries. It improves on the shortcomings of its predecessor in many areas, but what is worth highlighting right away is the plot.

Formally, of course, Mercenaries also had a story, but Clans considerably raised the stakes. This time we play Jayden, the “ristar” of the Smoke Jaguar clan – a rising star pilot – who, after a relatively simple tutorial, immediately finds himself in the position of commander of a mech squadron (“star”) consisting of five machines. This is not only a responsible position for the player – since we are also responsible for the other four machines and their pilots – but also for Jayden’s character, since his position plunges him into the world of political machinations. The great virtue of Clans is that it presents Jayden’s journey from naive warrior to disillusioned commander in a much more immersive and captivating way than in recent MechWarrior games, who has to make serious decisions and has to question more than once whether he can remain loyal to his principles…

Without venturing into spoiler territory, we can reveal that we get a relatively twisty and logically structured story. The supporting characters are interesting and likeable enough, or even obnoxious enough to evoke emotions from the players. The cinematics are distinctly spectacular, both the motion capture and the dubbing are (mostly) gorgeous.

Mech Commander

Of course, it’s not the story or the cinematics that make you want to jump into the cockpit of a mech – let’s see what the gameplay has to offer! Clans’ team-based, tactical combat simulation doesn’t differ much from what we got in Mercenaries at first glance. The missions are a bit more linear, the maps are mostly quite large, and the enemy combat vehicles and mechs attack in droves, sometimes in such quantity and with such intensity that we can’t help but shake our heads. We have the option to play the campaign in cooperative mode with four of our companions.

The developers at Piranha Games obviously didn’t want to change what works. However, they have made the combat significantly more tactical, which greatly helps you imagine yourself in the role of a “star commander”. We have a “Command Wheel” – which is probably familiar to players of tactical shooters – where we can issue more complex orders to our squadmates than “Attack” or “Defend”. With the introduction of the “Battle Grid”, we have the opportunity to control the others in an RTS style, with a full overview of the given tactical situation. If necessary, of course, we can still take control of any of our comrades, and if Jayden’s plane is shot down, we can continue the mission as one of our comrades.

They have also introduced “Scan Mode”, which helps us interact with our environment. Using the scanner, we can not only see where the openable doors are, but also explore ammo depots and repair shops. And we will need these a lot, because the game is sometimes cruel even on normal difficulty. On larger maps, it can be a serious problem if your mech runs out of ammo or suffers structural damage that significantly reduces its combat value. It’s a welcome development that one of the most annoying mechanisms in Mercenaries, the overheating that completely paralyzes your mech, has been slightly improved: now only your weapons become unusable in such cases.

Should I be Adder, or Timber Wolf…?

You can’t have a MechWarrior game without fully customizable mechs, and Clans surpasses its predecessors in this area. There are sixteen types to play, including many iconic examples, from the fast and manoeuvrable Mist Lynx and Kit Fox to heavily armed monsters like the Executioner or the Dire Wolf. The weapons and tactics you start with are important for the gameplay, but it can be said – at least on normal difficulty – that bigger and stronger is always better. My team consisted exclusively of Timber Wolf and Dire Wolf mechs in the last missions, and I only had to make sure that there were laser-machine-gun specimens in front, while walkers equipped with missiles and gauss cannons divided the opposition from behind.

During breaks in combat, you can visit the management interface, which appears within the framework of a completely clean menu system. Here, we can customize our machine in the Mech Bay, and tinker with improvements in the Research Lab, while Barracks is used to customize the characteristics of our fellow pilots. In addition to money (“kerenskies”), our resources are Merit, Honor, components, and XP, which both pilots and mechs receive separately. It’s worth managing them well, because we don’t get too much of them, and improving and developing our mechs is essential for success.

Beautiful Destruction

The new game is also a step forward in terms of graphics and general performance. Although the engine’s development options are limited, and this is increasingly apparent, the development of both our machines and the environment is magnificent. And this time there are no complaints about the effects: the sight of zigzagging laser beams, raining missiles, and enemy mechs exploding to pieces on the fly would make even Colonel Kilgore from Apocalypse Now’s Colonel’s heart beat faster.

However, beauty has its price: it requires quite powerful hardware, and if that’s not enough, optimization here and there, and you can also encounter graphical glitches and stuttering from time to time. Most of the bugs are minor, but the performance fluctuations can be quite annoying, especially in the middle of major clashes. As for the sounds and music, we can say that they are both there; they didn’t make a much deeper impression on me, except for the already mentioned dubbing.

MechWarrior 5: Clans – let’s liberate Terra!

It’s unnecessary to say anything else: MechWarrior 5: Clans is a great game. It’s a worthy successor to the previous episode, showing serious progress in terms of story and gameplay. And what was already good in Mercenaries, like graphics or mech-crafting, brings the expected level in those areas as well. The only complaints we have are the bugs and perhaps the fact that the game is not very beginner-friendly: there is little tutorial, and we are thrown into the thick of things very quickly. All in all, though, anyone who liked Mercenaries will probably love Clans; and anyone who is just getting to know BattleTech video games would be hard-pressed to find a better introduction than the amazing chaos of destruction that this game offers!

-ROD-

Publisher: Piranha Games Inc.

Developer: Piranha Games Inc.

Style: Shooter/simulator

Release date: 17 October 2024