MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries PC review — Solid gameplay in a repetitive, boring world

Source: Windows Cardinal

Launching today, December ten, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is a throwback to the days of onetime. Some of you may even retrieve MechWarrior 4: Vengeance from 2000, even if it'south fleeting. From what I can recall from all those years agone, the premise hither remains the same: walk around in a behemothic BattleMech and shoot all the things.

MechWarrior 5 takes place in the 3100's, and humanity has colonized a region of space chosen the Inner Sphere, but everything is in chaos, and there are abiding Succession Wars between factions.

You accept on the role of Commander Bricklayer, an up-and-coming pilot who's forced onto a trail of vengeance subsequently an attack by some other mercenary visitor. Yous ready out on your own path, building upwards your little merc group every bit yous get.

Sounds cool, right? Who wouldn't desire to travel to unlike star systems piloting a multifariousness of mechs and shooting things, living that sweet, romantic mercenary life? I will say this: at first, MechWarrior five is a blast, and I had a ton of fun in the opening hours. Notwithstanding, the nostalgia and absurd factor wear off rather rapidly.

So how have the years treated this venerable series? Let's take a await.

Behemothic mechs

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

Bottom line: Though a fun concept and quite enjoyable in the opening hours, MechWarrior 5 suffers from really repetitive gameplay, abrupt difficulty spikes without warning, and bad writing.

Pros:

• Nails the experience of piloting a mech
• There's a lot of mech variety to suit your play way
• Mech gameplay is mostly well thought out, demanding your attention

Cons:

• The story and characters are bland and boring
• Sharp difficulty spikes force deadening grinding
• Repetitive mission types pb to a dull, listless gaming feel
• Most of the game feels lifeless
• Friendly AI is hopelessly impaired

Piloting a mech sure is fun

What I liked about MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

MechWarrior 5 is a long time coming, resurrecting the serial after a long hiatus for its single-player games. More and then than its predecessors, it really feels like you're in the mech (not even including the VR fashion). You tin feel the mech shake as it stomps forward, the recoil of the large AutoCannon twenty equally the massive slug booms out of the barrel, and the reactor power upward when you're deploying into a mission.

This experience made me practically lightheaded, even after several hours, and it got even better when I started throwing lead, lasers, and missiles at enemy combatants.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
Genre | Sci-fi mecha
Players | Single-player, co-op
Programmer | Piranha Games
Microtransactions | No
Store | Ballsy Games
Launch engagement | December ten, 2022
Launch platform | PC
Price | $50

Besides some unlike ballistic, energy, and missile weaponry, MechWarrior five features a startling corporeality of mechs, each suited to dissimilar purposes. Some are scouts, fast machines that are lightly armed and armored, but good at getting around. Set on and heavy mechs take the enemy head-on, lumbering into boxing with the biggest guns y'all can attach to them.

Seriously, there are a lot of choices hither, but the game introduces new models slowly to continue you from getting overwhelmed. You'll beginning with the Centurion, which I mained for a few hours, only you lot tin can earn and buy more every bit the game progresses.

Source: Windows Central

If the story doesn't involvement you, then hop into Instant Action. In this style, you tin can choose any mission type and any of the mechs available in the game. Feel like trying the Atlas, Warhammer, or King Crab? Go for information technology, strike out on your ain, and have some fun. Honestly, this was the part I enjoyed most.

At that place'south also co-op, allowing you lot to team up with your friends and have on missions together. It'southward bachelor in both the story and Instant Action modes.

More and so than its predecessors, information technology really feels similar you're in the mech.

Overall, MechWarrior 5's gameplay is well thought out. Fighting other mechs feels gritty, forcing you to strategize to figure out the best manner to take them down. Going into battle nether the tonnage limit means yous'll be at a disadvantage, so be sure to have a good spread of mechs to meet the challenge. Yous need to juggle what to bring with y'all, as well, whether that's more ammo for your AutoCannon, additional bullets for your machine gun so that you can pelt enemies and buildings, or heat sinks to lower the gamble of overheating when using free energy weapons.

Source: Windows Central

When on a mission, you lot have to pay attention to your mech's condition, your weapon range, and the enemies' spread. In that location's a lot to worry virtually, not to mention your evasive movement patterns and keeping on course. To be certain, it's not for everyone, but players who like the complexity of piloting and maintaining a mech will find a lot to love.

Deadening, lifeless, and repetitive

What I disliked well-nigh MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

Source: Windows Fundamental

As much as I dearest reliving childhood memories with modern tools, sometimes, it'southward all-time to get out the by in the past; let it prevarication, so to speak. I suppose that's how I experience virtually MechWarrior v. It doesn't practise a whole lot to bring the series into the modernistic era, besides slapping on a prissy coat of paint and calculation complexity. Everything just feels lifeless — the NPCs don't move or really do anything. It feels like no one lives on these planets, and at that place are simply a few biomes yous'll encounter.

While I don't think anyone plays a MechWarrior game for the story, it's however disappointing to meet such poor writing on display here. The entrada is predictable and boring. Dialogue is but bad in most cases, and you'll hear the same lines over and over. Paying voice actors is expensive, I realize — and non all of them give great performances — only boy, did I get tired of hearing Ryana. She'll tell you the same mission briefings over and over advertizing nauseum, and it'south specially grating since you'll exist doing the same handful of mission types repeatedly. Funnily enough, you'll also encounter recycled enemy pilots and garrison commanders.

Source: Windows Cardinal

And that leads me to my biggest gripe with MechWarrior 5: the encroaching boredom. The gameplay, as I said, is pretty good, simply information technology tin abound dry and tiring earlier as well long. To handle the abrupt difficulty spikes, y'all'll demand to grind missions in lower-tier areas to proceeds plenty skill points and funds to accept on upper-level tasks and quests. You'll get through a staggering corporeality of money merely traveling to new star systems and repairing your mechs subsequently a boxing. Not to mention the real-world fourth dimension information technology takes to sit down through loading screens, which come complete with frame drops and, once again, repetition.

The game flow goes a trivial like this: observe your favorite blazon of mission (mine is Demolition), travel to it, negotiate bonuses, complete it, go to the nearest Industrial Hub to brand sure you get the best prices for mech repairs and replacement parts, then get dorsum to the same system to have on a new contract. Once you take several million C-Bills (the game's currency), purchase an upgraded mech. Take hold of a story mission or 2 when you think you're set up. Echo that for hours on finish, and you can see why I ended up begging to play something else.

MechWarrior v ended up existence a forgettable, repetitive experience.

MechWarrior 5'southward balance and AI nevertheless need some tuning, despite some patches during my review period. Your friendly AI pilots are simply obviously stupid nigh of the time, though they have now learned to break formation. In boxing, they used to stick right past you, ofttimes getting in your way, or shooting you instead of the enemy. You can order them to do bones things similar set on your target, get to a specified location, form up, or cease-fire.

Now they fan out and try to take on enemy mechs, tanks, and VTOLs on their own, which often leads to them getting wrecked and you getting stuck with a massive repair beak. Not to mention them being out of commission for months of in-game time or getting themselves killed. Damned if you exercise, damned if you don't.

Source: Windows Central

Even when y'all're heading to the evac indicate to terminate the mission, these idiots volition still be dinking around with the huge swarm of enemies and getting themselves ruined. Even ordering them to course upward doesn't help all that much since they're even so getting pelted while trying to catch up to you.

All I can say is if you're going to play this game, max out the impairment insurance payout when y'all're negotiating a contract, assuming you survive and consummate the mission. Otherwise, reload to an autosave indicate from before you started the contract, and either try again or practice something else. It just gets so dull, fighting the same things over and over for piddling reward.

Wrapping upward

Should y'all buy MechWarrior five: Mercenaries?

Unless you really, really like the BattleTech universe, or desire to spend $50 to airplane pilot a mech for a few hours, then probably not.

I think the heyday for MechWarrior has come up and gone. At that place are just far better mech games out there than Mercenaries these days; Titanfall 2 comes to listen. Or fifty-fifty BattleTech itself, from Hairbrained Schemes.

MechWarrior 5 definitely has some positive elements, especially if you lot only love mechs regardless of any crude edges. I can't say I could personally purchase or recommend this game and experience good about it. I would put it downwards after a couple of hours and probably pick it upwardly one time every few years to re-feel piloting a mech.

The erstwhile MechWarrior games are classics, for certain, and Mercenaries could have been a truly solid entry. However, it ended upwards existence a forgettable, repetitive experience complete with a grind that had fiddling payoff.

Fun for a footling while

MechWarrior five: Mercenaries

Fails to impress

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is a one thousand ol' time for a bit, only suffers from wearisome, monotonous missions, a grind without much payoff, and bad writing.

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