Launching later this year, MechWarrior 5: Clans marks a bold change in direction for the long-running franchise. Don’t let the confusing nomenclature fool you; despite being another entry in the MechWarrior 5 saga, MechWarrior 5: Clans could very well be a brand-new game altogether, eschewing the menu-dense battle for galactic conquest of its predecessors in favor of a narrative-heavy adventure with an emphasis on cooperative play.
I recently had the chance to sit down virtually with Russ Bullock, the Campaign Director and CEO of developer Piranha Games, as he stomped his way through an early campaign mission first showcased at GDC. While the preview was admittedly quite brief, it did a great job of highlighting MechWarrior 5: Clans‘ greatest strengths: its focus on delivering a compelling Battletech story while creating the most accessible and streamlined mech epic to date.
For the first time in the series’ history, MechWarrior 5: Clans allows players to assume the role of a newly minted pilot of the Smoke Jaguar Clan as they fight to reclaim their homeworld amid a massive invasion. The story unfolds as your five-mech unit (known as a Star) makes its way across the galaxy, pushing back the invaders’ forces. Though not much in the way of the story was shown, the five members of the unit (Jayden, Nasir, Mia, Liam, and Ezra) all seemed like compelling characters, and their banter as the game’s opening mission rolled on grabbed my attention and made me want to get to know them better.
The demo mission took place on a rusty, Mars-like planet as the Star investigated a mysterious group of dropships on the planet’s surface. As you’d expect, it didn’t take long before the sh*t hit the fan, and a heavily-armed welcoming party of tanks and nimble BattleMechs rolled in to greet the Smoke Jaguars. Thankfully, Bullock was more than happy to return the favor, proudly showcasing what his fearsome Shadow Cat could do as he lit up the horizon with a veritable light show of laser blasts, rocket salvos, and devastating rounds from the war machine’s mighty cannons. I’ve spent plenty of time reducing mechanized monstrosities to scrap metal in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, but watching enemy gunships fall from the sky and explode as they collide with an enemy outpost or smash into a sheer cliff face never gets old.
During this skirmish, we got a good look at some of the ways MechWarrior 5: Clans streamlines the moment-to-moment action. The most pronounced of these changes is the addition of BattleGrid Commands. These allow you to bring up a top-down map which you can bring up to direct the members of your squad. The way it functions is very similar to your average real-time strategy game, giving players a user-friendly way to manage their tactics without wading through a mountain of menus.
Further streamlining things is the addition of a new radial menu, which allows you to quickly and easily execute more advanced commands for your mech or your AI-controlled allies. The best part? All of this happens without pausing the action, making for a seamless experience as you command your lethal army of walking battle tanks.
The MechWarrior series has always been a tough nut to crack, especially for newcomers to the mech simulator genre. That said, it’s great to see the developer lean so hard into accessibility with Clans. Hopefully, this will translate to a wealth of new players when the game launches on consoles and PCs later this year.
After laying waste to a handful of installations, the Star was ambushed by the bandit leader Helmar Valasek, who trapped the team by detonating the dropships they were investigating. While the demo build’s settings were set to medium for the sake of the broadcast, the spectacle was still impressive as a massive fireball raged across the arid landscape, serving as an explosive punctuation mark to my time with MechWarrior 5: Clans‘ demo.
Without a doubt, MechWarrior 5: Clans looks to be an exciting new entry in the franchise. Still, there are plenty of other details I’d still like to take a closer look at, such as the various new upgrades it’ll introduce for our BattleMechs, along with its exciting promise of drop-in, drop-out co-op for up to five players – with cross-platform support! Thankfully, with the game’s launch set for later this year, we likely won’t have to wait too much longer to learn more about these new additions and more.
So, are you looking forward to getting your taste of narrative-focused 31st-century combat when MechWarrior 5: Clans stomps onto consoles and PCs? What do you think of the Piranha Games’ new, more user-friendly additions to the formula? As always, we love to hear what you think. Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
