Super fightin’ robots

MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries is the latest in the slightly niche universe that is ‘Battletech”; a universe filled with bipedal robots and the specially trained soldiers who command these beasts of battle. In MW5 the player takes control of the only son of Nikolai Mason, who is commander of a small mercenary outfit. Early in the game the group is attack by a rival group and Nikolai sacrifices himself to save his son and what remains on their merc group. Armed with only two mechs “Commander Mason” must rebuild his father’s mercenary group in order to avenge him proper.

The narrative feels very ‘run of the mill’, and while I never really connected with the characters; I think those that are fans of this universe will glean more from the overall campaign. At times it felt like the developers at Piranha Games were making connections to the universe at large; alas the last Mechwarrior game I played was MechAssault 2 on Xbox so sadly a lot flew over my head.

MSRP: $29.99 (base game)
Platforms: PC (reviewed), Xbox, PlayStation
Price I’d Pay: $29.99

Speaking of my last experience with the franchise; I was taken aback by how overwhelming controlling the mech was in MW5 compared to MechAssault 2. In game the player can choose between 3rd and 1st person viewpoints and in the later when I look at the control panel I felt like I was playing another Xbox gem Steel Battalion. I attempted and failed to use keyboard controls during my time with MW5 but ended up finding some success with a controller. This made it a tad easier to control my hulking war machine, but it wasn’t by much. It’s almost as if Piranha wanted to really show how cumbersome these machines of war can be. As they move the player will control their legs and torso independently, which sounds cool but can be difficult when the player needs to adjust the torso but the legs are blocked; or you just can’t rotate far enough to get the shot.

Usually not a huge deal taking a little damage, but in the early game of MW5 resources are scarce. There are no health pick-ups, players can find repair bays but they are few and far between. Its important to realize that the mechs are not invincible; while it can lose an arm, or both and still succeed the amount of money and time it will take to repair that damage is always worth taking an extra second before running off half cocked and crazy. All of this management will just be the tip of the iceberg when the player realizes that Mechwarrior 5 isn’t about the fighting; no instead it’s a management sim. Equipping a mech for a mission is sometimes confusing. There are numerous weapon types; but the player will need to ensure they equip ammo for their gun. The game does a good job of showing the player what they might be missing it just feels like a lot to juggle and understand at times.

There is a lot more emphasis put on building up Mason’s father’s mercenary company back to its former glory. It’s here that MW5 shows that beneath its giant blasting robots’ it is a pretty deep business sim. Players will be given free reign of the universe and it quickly becomes apparent that this group is a small fish in a big pond. The various mercenary companies are in conflict with each other and the little guy is caught in the middle. So as contracts pop up a lot of them will be protecting a planets farmer, or making sure a settlement doesn’t get destroyed; typically, wet work for mercenaries.

The real issue is the fact that everything is so expensive; while a player can make repairs to their mechs in a conflict zone; it will cost them more money and resources to do so. The solution; to warp to a different system that isn’t in conflict but the issue is its very expensive to do that. It isn’t long that it becomes apparent the real game is the management sim, and the combat takes a back seat. Not to say that there aren’t lots of fights, but if players aren’t running their business correctly it’s going to be ‘Game Over’ due to being bankrupt.

I think I loved the MechAssault games because the focus was on the action of fighting in a giant mech. However, it seems that is the expectation and not the rule to this series, the management bits are well done but not for me. I play these games for stomping around and causing explosions, which one can do in Mechwarrior 5; they will just have to pay for the ammo. Being bogged down in all the minutia in running a mercenary operation made the combat portions feel like a breath of fresh air. But because that minutia is more than half the game, if one isn’t a fan this will feel like a slog. While I am glad to see MechWarrior make a return; its just not the one I’ve been waiting for. While the latest expansion Legend of the Kestrel Lancers adds new mechs, biomes and a linear story missions its still more of the same, so if one doesn’t like the base game…. Then the expansion isn’t going to do much to change that.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.