MechWarrior 5: Clans review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

I have always enjoyed games in the BattleTech (MechWarrior) universe, from the tabletop tactics game to the video games. I have played and enjoyed most MechWarrior video games starting with MechWarrior 2 forward, so does this one have the tonnage to be good, or does its fusion reactor go critical under scrutiny?

The first thing players will need to know before even starting MechWarrior 5: Clans is that the story of the BattleTech universe is very long and convoluted, and even I don’t know it very well. Here is what I understand, there was an exodus from Earth at some point, followed by a bunch of conflicts and wars. The systems that Earth controls are called the Inner Sphere and the star league are the descendants of the people who left earth formed the clans and joined together to make the Star League. Each of the clan’s home worlds are secret.

The game starts with players controlling Jayden, a not-yet MechWarrior who want’s to become a Star Commander. This is a person who controls his own lance of five MechWarriors. The first mission of the game is the tutorial to get you used to the controls and commanding your other four cadets.

Command of your cadets can be done in one of two ways. First, from your cockpit, you can open a command wheel, select one or all of your lance mates, target a location and select a command. The other is to go into an overhead battlemap view which gives a tactical overhead map where you can command your lance mates. Keep in mind that doing either of these can be dangerous as it does not stop the action. The command wheel takes some to get used to, is faster and can be less accurate, while the battlemap view makes it easy to pinpoint where you want your lance mates to go.

The second mission involves your trial to become a MechWarrior. Destroying a ‘mech is enough to make you a MechWarrior, but destroying two, one right after the other in one on one combat makes you a Star Commander. Once you complete the trial, the main campaign starts in earnest.

The MechWarrior 5: Clans story is kicked off by having a ship appear above the home world Huntress of Clan Smoke Jaguar, and it turns out that the ship is from the Inner Sphere. Because the locations of each clan’s home world is supposed to be secret, especially from the Inner Sphere, the clans decide now is the time to re-take Terra and launch an invasion of the Inner Sphere worlds. Being someone who knows little about the history of the world of MechWarrior (BattleTech) I can still understand most of what is going on, though someone who has more knowledge of the world will get more out of the story.

Just because the story feels more geared towards people who know the history of the MechWarrior universe doesn’t mean it’s hard to follow. The game is full of, in some cases, morally questionable decisions of your commanders. Cutscenes are some of the best out there. The voice actors do an amazing job of capturing their characters, every character that I have come across that has a speaking role in the game is done very well.

The soundtrack of the game, however, is hit or miss for me. While the music in combat is fine, most of the time I don’t notice it, much of the soundtrack during cutscenes make heavy use of Mongolian throat singing. While it takes a tremendous amount of talent to do, feels like it is overdone in the soundtrack to this game.

Outside of combat there are a ton of things that can be done in MechWarrior 5: Clans.  As your MechWarriors battle, they earn experience, and all this experience can be spent on one of six different abilities, some of them are unique to the character while others are not. For example, one of your lance mates has improvable skills in ballistic weapons, another missiles, and  another energy, etc. Each team member has their own unique set of skills for a specific weapon type in the game and as experience is earned, it can be spent to increase these skills.

More experience is earned as a collective as specific mech chassis are used. Every time a mech is used, experience for that mech type is gained, and when achievements are earned, a large number of experience is gained for that mech. Experience earned on that mech can be spent to improve the abilities and maneuverability of it in combat, as you get to choose what improvements to spend the experience on.

Each mission allows you to collect parts, there is a standard number of parts you get at the end of each mission, and in most cases, there are parts hidden somewhere on the map. Find them and they can be used in your science labs to increase your overall mech abilities — for example, better heat management, or more damage with laser weapons, etc.

Your science lab and repair bays can be upgraded using honor points, earned when leveling up characters. Honor points can be spent in one of several ways: use them to hire more scientists or upgrade the science facilities. Each scientist gets you a specified number of points per cycle, upgrading the science facilities increases that value, and here you can also upgrade the amount of scrap you can bring back from the field of battle. Hire more repair techs and improve your repair facilities; much the same as hiring a scientist or improving the science lab, each tech gets a set number of repair points and improving your repair bay increases that number. The last thing you can do is unlock new mechs to purchase. Depending on what level Jayden is, he can unlock different mechs to be able to be purchased later.

Further customization is done with the purchasing and installation of weapons and components. When a mech is purchased, it comes with a standard loadout for that unit. Players can strip it down and add new weapons, armor, jump jets, scanners, etc. onto the mech to fully customize it for them or for their lance mates. This is all assuming you have the money to do so. Each part that is removed, or replaced, costs money to do the install. War isn’t cheap.

This is all fine and good, there is a TON of customization and decisions to make in MechWarrior 5: Clans before you even decide on what mission to go on. Once a mission is chosen, pilots are assigned to mechs and the mission is started. Missions will vary and there is a pretty good variety to them, and there are even stealth missions (yes you can sneak around a battlefield with a 40 ton ‘mech running on a fusion reactor).  There is always plenty of chatter between you and your team mates as well as your commanders, and the dialog is well written and well performed.

MechWarrior 5: Clans looks very good though I’m going to fall short of calling it stunning as on both the Xbox Series X and PC (even if my PC is 3 years old) I was having some frame rate issues. Combat is fun and fast paced and it also has some challenges to it, more so than your average first person shooter. In most FPS games, a couple shots is all it takes to bring down a target but in MechWarrior, it takes a lot more than that. Depending on how big or how much armor the mech has, it can take a pounding.  Add that to finding different kinds of cover depending on the type of weapon being fired at you.

MechWarrior 5: Clans is a fun new entry in the MechWarrior franchise, even if you don’t know all the intricacies of the world and its history. Players can get lost trying to figure out how to customize everything from their characters, to their mechs, to what things to research — as there is a lot to unpack here.  I do recommend the game, it’s one of the better MechWarrior games out there. If you enjoyed MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, don’t pass this one up either.

Note: Piranha Games provided us with a MechWarrior 5: Clans PC code for review purposes.