MechWarrior 5: Clans

The narrative design is a victim of modern coroporate focus groups attempting to inject modern hero-shooter tropes into a franchise that rejects them. While battletech lore dictates that clan sibko cadets graduate into full warriors around 18-20 years old, the art direction fumbled the translation. Instead of looking and sounding like peak military recruits hardened by lethal training, they look like fortnite characters or characters from a pre-teen sci-fi drama. Players don't want a gritty universe sanitized down with 'relatable' teenage angst. Previous MW games hooked players precisely because they didn't hold hands or tone down the adult, warlike mystique. By forcing a youthfful, stylized lens onto the campaign, the game alienates people familiar with the previous games, while also failing to capture actual younger players. For what it's worth the gameplay was fine, I just had to stop playing after watching too many cringey cinematics and hearing too much angsty dialogue. I hope if they ever make another MW game they go back to their roots and create a mech sim existing in the BT univese, as opposed to creating a teen melodrama disguised as a mech sim in the BT universe

It's fun. No complaints. I'm 59 yrs old, I remember playing games on a Atari 2600. Its a good game,

It's really hard to recommend or outright warn people off from this game. It does a LOT right compared to MW5M, but it also screws up in several ways that is critical for linear gameplay. Pros: - Combat is reasonably tough and it feels better more reasonably polished compared to prior titles. - More options to rearm and repair armor/hack turrets/etc does add a tactical component to longer missions/horde modes. Mehs: - Mech customization options feel better, even being able to modify the engines on certain mechs. BUT they still take the lazy road with 'research' percentage modifiers which feels dumb. I want the full tactical barbie feel to modifying a mech's guts to suit ones playstyle. Roguetech level might be beyond the technical skills of the guys at Piranha, but ffs, let us tinker! - The AI isn't 'as' dumb compared to MW5M, but we still need more options on how to tell friendly AI to behave. Can we not tell friendly AI what targets to prioritize and automatically engage? Or ranged dealers to hang further back off the Star? Also make it easier to have AI go hack the turrets or rearm crates in horde mode! Cons: - The story premise is great and there's a lot to work with. But the feel and tone is so far off. I don't blame Jayden or his star for being a bit immature or some of the drama being present, that I think is supposedly lore accurate with freshly graduated troops. But the casting, writing, and design of much of the other leadership feels really freaking off and artificial and abruptly contemporary at times. Like it wouldn't break tone if they started discussing feedback sessions, or a challenge results in a facilitated conflict-resolution framework. Yes, I'm saying the leadership feels comparable to Karens/Kevins in the HR department, not a secular military monastic order. The dissonance is so severe I'd rather there be no cutscenes. - Performance feels grossly unoptimized. It's pretty, but holy crap compared to MW5M this game eats resources. - And if they were going for the linear route, I think the game would have benefited more by giving players more engagement with the strategy and political aspects of the invasion. Or maybe how the inner sphere reacted to said invasion. - Some enemies are just too tanky and kill the fun of the horde mode. Those highly armored VTOLs suck and just are not fun. So yeah, I'm on the fence, and as much as I'd love a 'so-so' option, I'll just say 'no unless it's grossly on sale'.

As a long time battletech fan and having played the OG Mechwarrior 2 and 3 etc, I have to say that this is still not a worthy game/sequel. I am not surprised, as Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries etc never hit the mark but wanted to give it another shot, just to realize that Piranha Games still do not do a competent job with this. Only recommend it when it's on sale, at a steep discount, and with the below points in mind: Positives - The story is better than expected, and the relatively good character models and (voice) acting helps a lot with that. - The mech models look good enough. Negatives - Parts of the story are really ridiculous; rather than fighting the Draconis combine most of the time in the invasion (as it is the first regular inner sphere power, you encounter with Clan Smoke Jaguar), you are mostly fighting a yakuza group with seemingly endless supplies. The first two missions or so are against regular DCMS forces, that are quickly defeated, and then it is just countless battles against the yakuza, which for some reason are much stronger. It is also not really guerilla-style battles, but pretty much open battles against never-ending waves of mechs, tanks and bombers. - The mech animations look so bad and clunky. Destroyed mechs just turn black and flip over, also physically often behaving incorrectly. Then they disappear in the ground, literally sinking into it. Seriously, almost all other mech games have way better animations and more correct physical behavior. Whether it is HBS's Battletech, granted it is turn based, it is many years older, but still so much better in that department. Or Armoured Core 6 etc. Completely immersion breaking and done so poorly in this game. - Also otherwise, the combat just feels off and very "arcade like". It is like a shooting gallery, very much lacking in deeper tactical play and ultimately boring. The game should make one-on-one situations against enemy mechs more challenging, and force you to think a little bit, but in the current state it is barely more than button mashing. Also AI is really dumb. - Graphics at first sight look nice, given the UE5 use, but when you go through a few missions, you discover so many ugly spots. Whether it is incorrect lighting or very ugly and low res textures, the environment is not pretty. On top of that you often have object proportions that are out of scale and unrealistic and a way too saturated color pallet, making it look like a cheap comic. You get "the picture". - Sound is ok, but in sum rather a step back compared to the previous Battletech games. I wish ballistic weapons would have more palpable impact, firing rockets is just a "whoosh", and if you press the button, they are fired all in one go (unlike before, where they were fired in succession). Also ACs don't have much "dakka". - Finally, the progression system is not done well either. You gather experience, reputation and money, and for that can unlock upgrades for mechs, pilots and get access to heavier mechs and buy more (mechs, weapons, technicians etc). It is of course the obvious and straightforward way to design the progression, but it is in my feeling just not very "Battletech" and feels cheap, superficial and trivial. Especially the "mech experience", that I collect for each model, that then allows me to accelerate more or turn more quickly etc, feels so tacked on and uninteresting, that I think the game would be better off without. For the pilots, a system similar to HBS's Battletech, e.g. focusing on mechwarriors' individual strengths in use of certain weapon systems, special abilities etc would have made it more "deep" and give the NPCs more personality. I was hoping for a significant improvement over the previous game by Piranha, and while there is a lot of improvement in terms of story/atmosphere, there is still so much wrong with the core gameplay. Depending on what you are looking for, I would recommend you rather play one of the much better alternatives on the market: For Battletech fans, my recommendation is to go with HBS's Battletech (which is of course turn-based strategy), and one of the complete overhaul mods, that make it really interesting. For fans of immersive Mech-action, the best game you can find is Armored Core 6, which is imo close to perfect.

Basically an interactive movie. The mech gameplay is pretty much the best it has ever been. Cinematics and story delivery are excellent. If you enjoy the BattleTech universe or are a fan of sci fi (this does a really good job of introducing the universe) give this one a shot. If you only care about stomping and shooting, take a look at Mech5 Mercs or Mech Online.

You can feel that its old people making the cutscenes, but there's a certain charm to it. Gameplay and mech customification is top notch. Co-op got the most fun out of it for me.

Been quite enjoying this mechwarrior game. They finally FINALLY got jumpjets right! Having full control to go in any direction and change direction on the fly is just so good. Zig zagging around buildings midair as cover from enemy fire just feels finally worth the tonnage. Games been working smoothy, missions are fun, and the story is passable enough. I like the changes from the previous entry, will likely be picking up the dlc's soon. Performance has also been stable, no issues on that front at all.

I love Mech Warrior games, but this one... it's just so on rails and restrictive in game play that I don't have any fun playing it. See a repair or resource on the map... sorry you can navigate to that yet because you will be out of bounds and we will fail the mission. Push forward in missions, sweeping everything in sight? Oh we ran out of map so now we will spawn the enemies out of bounds and tether you so a small corner that you can't evade in all while the enemy has free reign to attack you. Look at all these mechs you can choose from, not that one though that's DLC we show it to you so that you can be jealous. Want to be able to build mechs like you want? Sorry we have this weird complex omnipods and XP research that prevent you from making the mech the way you want. There are no salvage rewards like the good versions of the mech warrior games where a really lucky or skilled shot on a rare mech 'earned' you the right to pilot that mech. It's like they went out of their way to maximize all the worst aspects of mech warrior, minimized the map exploration or tactical aspects of the game then decided to strip all fun and glory of the old games. I'm glad I bought this on a sale.

They got rid of walking around and admiring your mechs in your mech bay which is what I loved about MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries. The story is terrible. Voice acting is terrible. Character design is also terrible. Nearly all characters have the same face and eyes. Terrain doesn't seem scaled properly to size of mechs. Just seems odd. Also, they ruined the fun of upgrades in my opinion. Also, if you change difficulty at any point it restarts your entire mission. There should be a warning or something. Overall just mid. I wont be buying DLCs this is just sad.

A decently enjoyable game, a bit heavy on the requirements and had occasional bad performance despite a good pc. The story is decent, parts of it were fantastic, other parts quite dissapointing. Feels like some of the characters needed more time to shine. The omnimech system is quite good and enjoyable to play with. Lots and LOTS of crashes for me in the menu, seems to be an AMD issue. Im recommending it, but if i could, id give it an ehh.. Buy on sale.