MechWarrior 5: Clans Review - You Dare Not Refuse This Batchall
I can’t be alone in thinking that it’s really been a good time of late for those who fancy taking charge of a giant robot and unleashing destruction all over the place. We’ve had FromSoft deliver Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, and now it’s time for Piranha Games to do the same with MechWarrior 5: Clans. But I need to be real for a moment: having listed Clans as one of the games I’ve most been looking forward to this year, there was always the concern that it might not live up to what I was hoping for, which outside of a few concerns has thankfully not been the case.
With MechWarrior 5: Clans, the main focus is on its story – something which typically not seen such attention with prior games, particular its immediate predecessor MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries.
You play the character of Jayden, newly minted MechWarrior and part of the forces of Clan Smoke Jaguar assigned to take part in the Clan Invasion of the Inner Sphere (which is the bulk of humanity is based). As they’re tasked with more and more important assignments, what they encounter out in the field starts to challenge the narrow worldview the Clan has forced upon them.
These story beats are delivered through conversations mid-mission, but also with cutscenes between missions, and the performances of the cast are striking here. I found myself rooting for Jayden and his Star-mates, but also finding myself concerned for their superiors, especially as circumstances change and they start to get dug in battling intense resistance.
The story is only part of the overall experience, and with MechWarrior 5: Clans, the combat certainly contributes a lot to my enjoyment of it. Compared to other recent Mecha games, Clans’ BattleMechs are lumbering beats of steel where combat is about positioning and learning how to take down Mechs fast through coordination of your Star, and getting real good with targeting your armaments.
You’ll really see this with the missions you’re assigned to. Early on, it’s all about recon and providing support to other Stars. As you unlock the tougher Mechs, you’ll find later assignments, will have your Star leading assaults and taking on valuable targets for the Clan. That might sound limiting, but there’s plenty of variety within these missions, and being tightly scripted means they’re far more distinctive than you’d expect at first glance. This happens to lead into my main issue with the game, and that’s the difficulty balance. Missions typically take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to beat, and by itself I’ve got no issues with this as it makes each one feel substantial in its own right.
Though at the same time, I can’t help but feel like they have one too many encounters as even the best MechWarrior can’t complete a mission unscathed. There’s nothing more agonising than reaching the end of a mission with your Mechs heavily damaged and ammo supplies running low only to get a radio report of a new wave of hostiles is inbound and ready to spoil your party. It truly feels like a kick in the pants to replay a mission from the start when your Star is taken out. Especially when it may take far too many attempts to beat a mission, as so happened to me on more than one occasion. The game tries to mitigate this by including repair bays in some missions, but there usually aren’t enough to repair all your Star’s mechs, so you’re always going to be carrying some amount of damage as you go on.
Part of me wonders if some limited checkpointing might have worked here. At least that way if you died during a longer mission, your could choose to replay the whole thing (and maybe try a new load out), or continue on from a safe spot. The feelings of elation may feel trite after those missions (thanks to said frustrations), but it still can feel well earned, which brings you to the post-mission experience. Completing missions earns resources in a number of areas – from XP for your MechWarriors, to additional funds and salvage items.
At first, it may sound like a lot – you can upgrade your pilots skills, research upgrades to weapon technologies, unlock new Mech chassis and boost their stats, or obtain alternate weapon configurations. But I love it for the depth of customisation it offers. Being able to improve your pilots skills is paramount as you get further into the game, and boosting attack ranges of weapons, let alone improve their cooldown times can make you into a far more effective fighting force. All of these are features which really help shake things up from mission to mission, as you can’t just discard old Mechs once you unlock newer models. Instead, you’ll have to take note of each mission and be prepared to swap Mechs as necessary to keep under weight limits, or the environment conditions.
Thankfully you can easily go back and try different configurations and layouts, especially as the game provides plenty of auto-saves either when starting a mission, or returning to base after completing the previous one. The work gone into giving you this level of freedom is greatly appreciated in terms of letting you be the most effective member of your Clan.
Despite the frustrations of some of the missions (and my feelings that an extra tuning pass would have been appreciated), I can say that MechWarrior 5: Clans has managed to do a great job at taking the core Mech-simulation from its predecessor, and bolting on a story with a few more layers than I was honestly expecting. While it has been a little rough technically, the first few patches post-launch have improved things quite a bit. The control scheme – at least with Mouse and Keyboard gives you plenty of flexibility, and not just with control of your own Mech, but for managing your Star during missions too. If you’re open to the slower nature of these titanic weapons of war, and up for a game with an interesting story to tell, and ready for a challenge which might push you to points of frustration at times, then I feel you’ll greatly enjoy MechWarrior 5: Clans.
MechWarrior 5 Clans was reviewed on PC with a code kindly provided by Tinsley PR
