MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries Review – The mechs are back in town

It’s been 17 years since we’ve seen a single-player MechWarrior game, with the last one being released in 2002. Thankfully, with this release, not only have I witnessed a triumphant return to the series, but I get to smash the hell out of stuff in giant mechs.

Who doesn’t like that, right?

Game Name: MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
Platform(s): PC
Publisher(s): Piranha Games
Developer(s): Piranha Games
Release Date: December 10, 2019
Price: $49.99 on the Epic Games Store (coming to Steam and Xbox in 2021)

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries takes place in the Battletech MechWarrior universe, right smack in the middle of the Inner Sphere. Players take control of a pilot who also happens to be the son of a famed war hero. Right at the start, you find yourself being introduced to a mech that has seen better days and the very same one that you’ll be taking out for some training maneuvers. After a short while, you’ll be given some battle practice, and should you be successful, you’ll be ready to see your father get blown to bits? He’s been hiding a secret that involves something significant, and he’ll end up taking that to his grave. You being the next of kin, you want nothing more to see the bastards who did this to your father to pay.

But not so fast, you first have to find them and to do that you need to take on missions. Dashing off into space takes money, money means battles, and thus you’re up to date with current events. Dashing off into space takes money, and to do that, you’ll have to planet hop throughout the vast Inner Sphere taking on contracts. Those contracts will range from various tasks, including assassinations, raids, demolitions, and others.

For those wondering if this takes place during the Clan Invasion, it does not. It takes place quite a few years before this happens. This is fine as you’ll be busy dealing with the Great Houses; Davion, Marik, Kurita, Liao, and Steiner. You’ll work with many of these organizations, and should you earn their favor, they’ll reward you with free mechs, supplies, and changes to earn better negotiation rates which benefits you greatly. This also means you’ll be upsetting other houses who’ll be upset at you when you side against them, not by attacking you directly, but charging you a higher rate for parts and repairs or offering less payment on contracts.

As you see from the image above, there are many planets and locations that you’ll be visiting. Which ensures you’re not going to run out of activities anytime soon.

This ain’t no Lonewolf affair.

Sure, you can be a lone wolf, but where’s the fun in that? You’ll want a buddy or two to watch your back. Sure, you’ll have to pay them, provide take care of their mechs, but it’s worth it. Besides, having a pair of extra laser cannons on a mission never hurts anybody that isn’t in their crosshairs.  Here you’ll be able to recruit up to three other AI controller pilots. Each has a specific skill set that can prove useful, and they’re handy in a battle. They don’t just sit there and watch you; they do work. I’ve watched my team wipe out scores of other enemies while I sat there during the earlier battles. The more they do, the better they’ll level up and become even more useful for the cause.

But there is a downside to having teammates out there with you. You’ll have to watch out for them during battles, as they can get hurt or worse. Having their mech get wrecked during a fight can put them in traction or even kill them off. So you’ll need to watch for how much damage they take and get them out of the fight if you can. Sadly, there’s no option to tell them to get the hell out of the action. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve told my squad to form up on me, and the next thing I know it, they’re dashing back into the fray with their mech being held together with duct tape. Good times, good times.

Mech 101

The mechs themselves aren’t like those found in more recent mecha titles. They don’t turn on a dime, they will not come to a complete stop, and most are ugly as sin. But they can take a hit (well, most can), they’re armed to the teeth, and they do a decent job of conveying just how massive they are. Movements aren’t graceful, and there’s a feeling of heft when you’re crashing through buildings or when you’re stomping across the battlegrounds. I was worried that Piranha Games wouldn’t get this aspect right, but they nailed it as far as I’m concerned.

There’s also a vast amount of mechs you can choose from, or I should say purchase. As the story progresses, you’ll take on missions that grant you more money, and from there, you’re free to buy whatever mechs you deem fit. You’ll find everyone from small and annoying mechs that are great for scouting or drawing fire. Medium mechs that are the jack of all trades, master of none, or these huge lumbering giants that can take a ridiculous amount of damage and dish out the same. But they all cost money, money that you may not have.

There’s also a surprising amount of flexibility when you’re outfitting your mech; Autocannons, lasers, missile launchers, machine guns, and a few others. Of course, each weapon type comes with various advantages and disadvantages. Lasers tend to fire faster but will cause you to heat up faster, while autocannons do a massive amount of damage, but they require ammo and are slower. You aren’t restricted to how you customize your mech, but going about it the wrong way may lead to some frustration when you’re on a mission.

So far, that all sounds good, right? Well, this isn’t just about taking your mech out to blow stuff up. Sometimes (all the time), you’ll end up taking damage, and to get that damage fixed will cost ya. Simply due to everything on your mechs can be damaged. You can and will experience times where all your limbs are useless and where you’re weapons will be blasted clean off of you. You’ll quickly find out that repair and replacement costs are expensive. This also causes the game to slow down at times as you’re picking up missions to repair your mechs. This means you’ll need to do some planning on not only how to take on missions. I’d recommend picking up multiple mechs so you can rotate them out to save money fixing damaged ones when needed. Or selling them when they’ve served their purpose. At least you run out of money and are left no other choice.

Speaking of parts and mechs, all of which you can purchase throughout the Inner Sphere. You can also salvage those from contracts, depending on how favored you are with a Great house. If you’re a fan favorite, you can demand what you want. If you’re hated, you’ll be lucky if they give you any scraps at all. Keep that in mind when you’re trying to outfit your ever-growing team.

This leads to some frustration that I have with the game. Story progression is gated, and you need to earn a certain amount of reputation before moving on through the campaign. Rep is earned by completing various missions, including some that provide extra reputation and other rewards. However, it’s a slog that can become frustrating at times. There were times that I stopped playing due to this, despite how much I enjoyed the other aspects of the game.

Did I mention that the game looks amazing in action? Sure, still shots don’t do the game justice. But when you’re out in the battle and watching the mechs go at each other, it’s breathtaking. Weapon damage is accurate, especially when a laser or PPC touches the metal. You see it glow as it starts to melt. Or when you’re being pummelled by missile fire, and suddenly your shiny mech is now blackened. Even the cockpits are nicely done. It’s the little touches that go a long way, and the longer I played, the more I enjoyed what I saw.

Instant action and Co-op

If you do not care about story progression and want to see the world burn, not to worry, as there’s something for you.  Instant Action is a mode that lets you drop in at any time, pick from any mech that’s available in-game, any specific mission type, and change the difficulty before setting you loose on the world. You don’t earn anything that transfers over to the main game, but it’s a nice way to enjoy it. Plus, an added benefit is you get to check out any number of mechs before you decide to spend money on it during the campaign. It’s also a nice stress reliever if I do say so myself.

Co-op is also in. However, it’s handled differently than I expected. Here, co-op isn’t available until you manage to pick up a couple of mechs and pilots. The reason for this is that co-op players will utilize those resources instead of bringing over their own. This way, they can work through campaigns with you, but at the same time, this ensures that you can’t power level through missions. That also means if you don’t have any spare pilots of mechs, you won’t partake in this mode.

Some assembly required

Sadly, despite Nvidia hyping up this game as yet another RTX showcase, Ray Tracking didn’t make its way into the game. Piranha Games assures us that it will come to the game later. We don’t have any ETA as to when.  The game is completely playable with a keyboard and mouse, and it felt natural to me. I didn’t even try using a gamepad, as that’s blasphemy playing a simulator such as this with a controller. At the time, only a certain number of HOTAS can be used to play the game, and even I don’t own one. I had planned on picking one up in the past, but I had little reason. Now I have a reason, so if I do pick up one, and I’ll revisit this review of my impressions when I do.

I would have liked the ability to change up the HUD as well. As it is now, your weapons are disabled at the bottom right of the screen. Yes, you can enable a cooldown time that hovers around your reticle, but it doesn’t display damage. Being able to customize the HUD would have been a nice touch, or at least being able to reposition the weapons display. Not a fan of where it is currently.

It’s worth mentioning that the first build of the game I played was very rough. However, Piranha Games has been optimizing the game, and it shows. Prior I saw performance issues all over the place, more so when the mech action got hot and heavy. Now, it’s smooth (mostly), and it doesn’t drop as many frames as it previously did. There is still another patching coming after the official release that will introduce more optimization updates as well.

Outside of that, the Unreal Engine 4 looks as good as ever, despite some hiccups.

Piranha Games has done a commendable job with MechWarrior 5. If you’ve been longing for some sweet mech on mech action, then this game is right up your autocannon. I’m eager to see the MechWarrior community make their way over so we can get more people involved in the co-op missions.

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