MechWarrior 5: Clans Review – Battlefield Drama

MechWarrior 5: Clans Review

I had the chance to drive a real mech once. Yeah, that’s right, they exist. This thing was 20 feet tall, belched fumes like a dragon and every movement was accompanied by a symphony of grinding, squealing metal. Getting into the pilot cage was accomplished through a series of ladders and contortions. But damn it, it was a mech. It had jointed legs, arms, and hands. It lumbered around, looking for cars to crush (that was its real-world purpose, not combat). I think of that every time I play a mech game, especially MechWarrior 5: Clans. Because in the world of MechWarrior, mechs aren’t nimble and fleet of mechanical foot, but immense, slow, and formidable. 

Clans is a sort of narrative-focused parallel game to MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, which was more open-world and favored PvP combat. In contrast, MechWarrior 5: Clans wants to tell a fully-imagined story, to remind us that the immense machines are piloted by people. Sure, Clans is also about blowing stuff up real good. But the time in between the battles is just as important.

Never-Ending War

A spiritual — if not literal — successor to 1995’s MechWarrior 2, Clans is once again about, well, warfare between MechWarrior Clans and the despotic Great House Lords. The narrative comes from the BattleTech universe, the OG when it comes to all things mech. In the hard sci-fi BattleTech world, it isn’t aliens but power-hungry humans that are the ever-constant threat.

In MechWarrior 5: Clans you play as Jayden, an untested but promising Clan Smoke Jaguar pilot. At the conclusion of the tutorial chapter, Jayden is promoted to the leadership role of Star Commander. This means he’s in charge of a five-pilot group of Mechs. Jayden and the rest of the Star fight against the Great House Lords’ forces in the Inner Sphere, a collection of planetary systems hundreds of light years in diameter. We’ve been asked not to spoil the narrative, but it’s in the grand tradition of war stories. In other words, it’s about doubt, courage, ambition, failure, sacrifice and heroism. Jayden’s fellow pilots and the game’s assorted commanders and antagonists are thoroughly imagined. Unfortunately, the narrative is also full of some dreadfully cliched situations, scenery-chewing dialogue, and impenetrable BattleTech jargon.

Metal Boots on the Ground

MechWarrior 5: Clans is an action game, so all that narrative complication is an excuse to get the mechs into battle. If you’ve played a MechWarrior game, you have an idea of what to expect. Unlike those in the Gundam and Armored Core games, mechs in this franchise are believably immense, ponderous, and subject to all sorts of physics-related mishaps. They overheat and topple over, and fall apart like demolition derby cars. As a pilot, players have a wide array of offensive and systems controls to monitor and adjust. Part of what makes MechWarrior unique is the immersion that comes from the complication. Depending on the load out and degree of sophistication, the mechs control just as you’d imagine. Weight, center of gravity, and inertia are all part of the equation.

While there is eventually some freedom in the choice of missions, the missions themselves are nearly always a series of evolving objectives on a pre-rendered (not procedurally generated) battlefield. Many missions involve scanning installations or other objects in the environment, capturing key points, and fighting enemy tanks, artillery, aircraft, and, of course, mechs. Although there is variety in the environments and biomes and a lot of Unreal Engine 5 detail, there are some pretty basic textures too. Not everything looks great up close. Over time, the battles can start to feel a bit same-y and repetitive. That doesn’t mean that the player can sleepwalk through the fights, however. While Jayden’s AI squad-mates do a pretty respectable job on their own, the player can give them specific orders using the Command Wheel, or take direct control of any mech in the group.  Having that kind of flexibility helps with battle fatigue.

Icing Layer

Aside from MechWarrior 5: Clans’ narrative and combat, the front-end metagame completes the experience. This is a rich suite of economic stats, construction tools, and personnel decisions. For some players, it might be the most engaging aspect of the game.

No matter the franchise, customizing the player’s mechs is always a key component. Mechs are a Lego-like, tinkerer’s dream. From weapons to just about every structural component, drive train, and power supply, mechs can be infinitely tweaked. Doing so costs money, parts, and salvage, which of course are earned in combat. In addition to customizing and upgrading all the mechs in the Star, the player also needs to assign XP to an RPG-like upgrade tree, increasing skills for the player and pilots. Then there are decisions around which mechs to repair, which support staff to hire, and which pilots and mechs to send into each battle. It’s a lot. Players hoping for a more streamlined, arcade-like experience might be frustrated by all this sim-level complexity, but plenty of others will get lost in the possibilities.

 

MechWarrior 5: Clans does a good job of balancing story, combat, and the all-important time in between. Customizing the mechs and gearing up the squad are both lots of fun and the battles themselves are appropriately oversized. The narrative is a bit reliant on overly familiar war story tropes and the battles themselves can get slightly repetitive. Overall, MechWarrior 5: Clans is a solid entry in the franchise and a more-than-equal partner to Mercenaries.

***PC code provided by the publisher for review***