MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
73
Metacritic
84
Steam
82.758
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$29.99
Release date
26 May 2021
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
84 (8 564 votes)
Recent
80 (152 votes)

The year is 3015. The battlefields are dominated by war machines known as BattleMechs. Level entire cities and decimate the enemy in your BattleMech. Follow a quest for glory and revenge. Manage an expanding mercenary company. Fight alongside your friends with a four-player PvE co-op.

Show detailed description

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries system requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 (64-bit versions)
  • Processor: Intel Core i3-7100/AMD Ryzen 3 1200
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770/AMD Radeon R9 280X
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 55 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: Broadband internet connection is needed to play and host Co-op games. Internet Connection is NOT Required for Single player once the game is downloaded.
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Shalmdi
Shalmdi

Everything everyone else wrote about this game is true. Except for those reviews written by people whose thumb disagrees with me. Those people are wrong and possibly bad. I think I heard they support that political group you don't like. NOTE: This exists because Steam won't just let me just thumbs up/down a game. Why not Steam? What do you fear? Bees? Text won't stop bees, Steam.

{FITH}™ WAGOOGUS. #G{FM}
{FITH}™ WAGOOG…

Nearly impossible to map joystick controls, despite claimed joystick support. The official method for mapping a joystick requires manually editing a text file, which is unacceptable for a game of this price in 2022. And, once the joystick is edited into the text file, attempting to actually map game actions to joystick buttons is impossible because the game claims "Throttle Button 4" is being held down - except "Throttle Button 4" doesn't exist in the mapping.

Kevin T
Kevin T

This is just like the original Mech-Warrior Mercenaries but way better- galaxy to travel new people to meet and kill them !!. The AI is great and you have Co-op too

3X073K
3X073K

i like what they tried to do, the action is good, plays well, controls are standard and the story is there. You can tell its duct taped together but still a worthy experience for fans of the brand.

Tsuki
Tsuki

So let me say: This game is great. It got me into the Battletech universe as a whole, and on its own its a very fine game. However, the real enjoyment of the game is brought out through the Modding community, which adds things like all the Lore accurate Mechs, more missions, Infantry, improved quality of life, ect ect.

Overall, the game is about 5 significant warring houses fighting over their territories in deep space. Giant war machines called Battlemechs have mostly taken center stage on the battlefield, and are used on almost every front. from the 20 ton Flea to the 100 Ton atlas, you control your own walking death machine and beat those controlled by your enemies into the ground. Sometimes I just log on to use the Mechlab, because i get an idea for a special Variant or loadout for certain mechs, and i cant help but see them through.

Truly a fun game, especially if youre willing to mod it a little.

GordonMcallister
GordonMcallister

I love this game, the Career mode is awesome. The progression is fantastic, the economy is engaging. The combat is excellent. I can see myself putting hundreds of hours into this

Jim Raithe
Jim Raithe

How did Piranha Games actually make this a worse game than MechWarrior Online? I loved MWO and played it for years. Playing this is clunky compared to their prior game in the Battletech franchise. How do you take something that good and mess it up years later?

erikbreau
erikbreau

Absolute shite. Controls are 1990's style, you need a console to play right, and you better have 55+ buttons on that mouse of yours, otherwise you will be be using every, single, frakkin' key on your keyboard, just to get half of the things done.
Who designs controls like this... wait, are you piloting a hyper advanced, neural connected networked assault machine? Yeah? Then WHY are ALL the controls manual? And don't even get me started on the concept of using throttle on a MECH (bahahahahaha) what a farce. It has legs, right? Does it take YOU five steps to stop walking?
Tried refunding this game, steam wouldn't because I exceeded 5 hours of play... apparently having the game open while you desperately watching YouTube tutorials to try to learn to play a game, is playtime.
Yeah, NOT recommended. Now I know why it was 50% off and no one plays it anymore... LMFAO

Adamvs Maximvs
Adamvs Maximvs

Mechwarrior 5 is a big step up in graphics compared to the Mechwarrior games of the 90s, but feels old and clumsy otherwise. There's a plot, but it's tacked on and stuffed between endless 'rinse, repeat' missions on slightly changing planets. Expect a heavy grind of doing the same 2-3 missions a dozen times in between plot points. At about 8 hours in I still don't have any heavy or assault mechs, and am mostly in the 'middle' weight mechs.

Mech customization is in depth, but cumbersome and some quality of life features such as 'compare' between different weapons or loadouts is desperately needed. Being able to rename mechs or give them nicknames would be massively helpful in making you have different loadouts.

Ultimately to me, Mechwarrior 5 feels too old. I loved Mechwarrior games as a kid, but I'm dropping this one as I don't feel like another 15-40 hours to see the conclusion of a couple of characters that I don't know or care about is worth the time invested.

Unless you're a die hard mechwarrior fan, I'd say skip this one even if you have fond memories of 90s mechwarrior. MW needs to evolve beyond a new skin on old bones.

davidbmr2
davidbmr2

Great Game and scratches the itch. Finished Battletech a few years back and this is the FPS of Battletech !!! Worth it particularly on sale.

Raxis
Raxis

This is the first mw merc game I've played, and it's great. The quality of models is high and clean feeling. Sometimes the missions can be a little repetitive but the cool unique maps each time make up for that, and all around it's a good experience.

SunGodGGG
SunGodGGG

its good if you enjoy the combat of mechwarrior games. if you want an engrossing story look elsewhere. sadly for battletech though there isnt an elsewhere...

AcetoneHaze
AcetoneHaze

Mods make this game into the successor it was meant to be. This game scratches an itch that was long forgotten. My introduction into the BattleTech universe was with MechWarrior 2 back in '95. In spite of the obvious flaws, such as the cookie-cutter maps and low mission diversity, this game has rekindled my love for the BattleTech universe. I can only hope that Piranha Games brings out a Clan Wars DLC or expansion to the game.

[Hymer]Klaws
[Hymer]Klaws

Very disappointed. Most missions (except defense mission, as far as I can see by now) are pitted an infinite number of enemy units, with new fresh units spawning whenever you defeat a wave. And they spawn everywhere: right in front of you (so they are inside minimum LRM range before you can even get a lock on), behind you (yup), in the middle of your lance or right inside the property you are meant to defend. This makes it impossible to use the terrain to your advaantage.

Apparently, the developers did not want to implement a competent enemy AI but opted for "spam the player with overwhelming force" instead.

Now, it's not only enemy AI which lacks competence - your lancemates also try very hard to get themselves killed. I constantly have to tap the F1, F2 to keep my lancemates from running into enemy fire. Since they have a very shot attention span (like, 5 seconds, I guess), they naturally forget your orders whenever they see the chance to get themselves killed by running into enemy fire.

The salvage system is...interesting. You cripple an enemy mech, and...you regularly don't receive it as salvage. But sometimes you are lucky and receive a "cored" mech as salvage (yup, apparently, the explosion of the fusion reactor might kill nearby friendly mechs, but leaved the exploded mech intact enough for you to salvage it). Assuming you have enough salvage points, that it. For some reason, if you negiotiate a contract with salvage rights, you receive "salvage points" with which you can "buy" parts of the salvage. Perhaps, when I progress further in the game, I may reecive more slavage points, but so far I have 9 points, and a slvageable mech which had been destroyed in a nuclear explosion costs 16 of my 9 points. Uh.

Normally, I would have quit playing after the first four or five missions. But then I discovered that there is a pretty active modding community, which provids mods to fix many of the issues in the game.

"Better Spawns" is the mod which is absolutely required to play this game.

Technology Specialist
Technology Spe…

Amazing game, with attention to detail. Reminds me of XCOM for some reason lol. This also runs great on the Steam Deck.
The sound design however is horrible and needs lots of work. The music is way too loud I had to tune it down to 20%. Please do something about that. This game has my approval. I love the AI companions too, really awesome.

CMDR Firaxa
CMDR Firaxa

The game fills your fantasy of being in a cool big robot fighting other cool big robots, but that's where the praise ends.

Graphics can melt your system if you aren't careful, so ensure your requirements are up to scratch if you consider purchasing.

The gameplay feels very shallow, slow and one-sided, with the difficulty spike being almost unfair; granted, after this, it levels out, but the game as a whole shouldn't be designed like this. The main character is a cookie-cutter rough guy, and the enemy is always a cartoony villain. The voice acting gives your allies a little life, but there's no character-building whatsoever.

You will never see any semblance of life on maps; it's always just tanks, helicopters or mechs. There's no sign of any ground soldiers, even though it's shown in images for the game. The mechs, except two that come to mind, are so slow and feel similar to one another, even with entirely different load-outs. Even the weapons feel a little flat, with colossal burst fire cannons feeling like they barely scrape the enemy's armour.

The game can become repetitive quickly, and although I may give it a quick play now and then, it doesn't warrant the price tag. Hopefully, updates in the future will give the game a little more life because it's just so close to being an excellent game.

Narthan Dume
Narthan Dume

if you want epic smashy lots of dakkka dakka dakkka battle mechs then this is for you :) dont have any dlc yet & only run 2 mods so far (improved salvage & repair + no player friendly fire) yes its grindy but it can be pretty challenging especially raid & assassination missions like the most recent assassination mission i played all 3 targets were stalkers... i had my hero wolverine, oni-v, thunderbolt & warhammer battle mechs and i finished the mission but had like 8mil in repairs lmao those stalkers are brutal. some people say your ai lance mates are kinda poopy and they are somewhat if u just forget about them but if you tell them to focus fire on same targets they can be pretty brutal and provide you the neccessary covering fire while tanking hits so you can go flank & spank. the melee is pretty brutal if your mech weighs enough running at full speed into a light mech can destroy it out right xD

JaePii
JaePii

I'm a long fan of the Mechwarrior series (from SNES MW:3050, to PC MW2/3/4 and now 5) and this game has been the perfect platform for me to reconnect and also made it accessible to introduce new players to MW via Co-Op - WITHOUT new players needing to understand the mechlab. Co-op really feels like you're bringing in a friend as a pilot for your merc-company. I found the DLCs fun as well, and it is nice that co-op doesn't require the players that join a host's game to have all the same DLC, the base game is enough.

Smooth Hexagon
Smooth Hexagon

Great game, that makes for a solid installment into the Mechwarrior franchise. At launch this game was a bit rough in all honesty, but as of now it works excellently with only a few of what could be considered glitches. Mechwarrior 5's strongest points are the fights in the contracts, modifying your mechs, and managing your mercenary company. However, the weakest point is that doing the randomly generated missions as they can end up being repetitive after a while of doing them. Most problems i and others have can be solved with mods, which has fully integrated support for. 7/10

Hurricane
Hurricane

Your team AI is not just stupid, they're UNBELIEVABLY stupid. And the game makes absolutely no attempt to guide you on measuring contract difficulty vs your capabilities. So you should expect to launch your group of drooling morons into absolutely unwinnable missions on a regular basis.

DevilDawgPryde
DevilDawgPryde

Fun game, great story line. I've played this since I was a child and we used dice. Love MW series. Pryde is my Bloodname.

someone
someone

it's like the western version of godzilla.
not as cool and flashy as its japanese counterpart, but still fun nonetheless.

Edit: much more edible with mods.

[TD] Janu$Man
[TD] Janu$Man

This game is a good MW game, this remember me the old days playing with Mw, Mw2 mercenaries, Mw3, Mw4 and Mechcommander :)

Note: I don't see an Atlas Yet in this game but I hope I won't have to run to my dropship when I see one at the enemy team xDD

Maverati
Maverati

With mods it looks a lot better and you can add more quality of life improvements, you can even make the game play like mech commander.

CheshireMadcat
CheshireMadcat

I first discovered Battletech back in the 80s when I bought my first model from the kits that came out back them. It was a Shadowhawk. I then bought more and more until I had all but two. Then one weekend a buddy of mine called and said he got this tabletop game with mechs, said it was called Battletech. We played all weekend. This went on for years, even buying 100s of the minis. Sadly I lost all of that to a house fire in 96. But I still love Battletech. I’ve played the games since they came out, including BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception. This one is great, I enjoy it more than the rest, just feels closer to the way I felt playing the tabletop game all those years ago. I would recommend picking this game up, and relive your past.

Sir Dookface McFerretballs
Sir Dookface M…

This is a great game*

*WITH MODS!

Off the bat, this game is a bit rough around the edges with un-optimized textures that look blurry and slow things down even on high-end hardware.

But that is where MODS come in!

This is a good game made GREAT by MODS and WORKSHOP support.

First off, I don't know what is wrong with the stock graphics in this game, they look like garbage smeared in petroleum jelly, so you are going to want to download the Xenopax "Optimize" and Xenopax "Art Optimizer" mods first. They fix almost ALL the strange graphical issues and make this game look amazing and modern, sharpens up textures and rendering, and also makes the game run much better/faster.

After that, I'd recommend the "YET ANOTHER" series of mods you can get in WORKSHOP on steam, they add so much more content and mech customization to the game. Other mods with the tag "YAML" are compatible with these "Yet Another" mods.

You will also have to get a mod from nexus called "Mod Options" by BobbertModdert that allows you to customize more options in game. Who also makes even more great mods for this game.

As for the stock game, it is quite fun. Procedurally generated game worlds look amazing. It is open-world and non-linear so you can approach missions and travel the way you want to. I got about 5 missions into the story and then got sidetracked for 20 hours just doing side content and customizing my mech squad.

As time progresses in the game, more Mech types and weapons and such become unlocked, and there is a random chance you will run across good stuff in stores and whatnot.

If you are a MechWarrior or Battletech fan, you will likely love this game.

My only real issue after everything that is fixed by mods is that CONTROLLER players will need to use a combination of the controller and Keyboard and Mouse quite often for navigating menus and shops. The actual battles and fighting is great with a controller, but the menu/shop/upgrade navigation is a pain with the controller.

I played the game on Windows gamepass and my saves and such transferred over when I bought the complete edition on sale on Steam.

Love the music in this game too! A mix of instrumental hard rock, synth, and late 90s early 2000s sounding metal. One of the few games recently where I actually want to hear the soundtrack.

40+ hours in and I'm still having fun.

Definitely worth the $50 I paid for the complete collection of this game with all the DLC.

Robocat
Robocat

great game.
very good graphics
decent AI
Good Co-op campaigns & Single player campaign
Enjoyable gameplay

Lanner
Lanner

Pretty graphics, boring mission design, sloppy writing, limited mech customization. Play MechWarrior Online or BattleTech instead.

JazzDawg
JazzDawg

VR and Head Tracking / Great Game & Highly Recommend!

Here is a Guide to run this in VR and have Head Tracking. Download the following TWO programs.

1. VR
usmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/531

2. Head Track
https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack

OpenTrack Settings (Note: Must be RUNNING when playing the game)

Input: SteamVR
Output: Mouse Emulation
Edit Mouse Settings Button>Select X AXIS-YAW
Y AXIS-PITCH
Method: Direct Input

Enjoy!

EOD Man
EOD Man

There are too many options for weapons that must then be matched with compatible ammo. Distracts from the flow of play. I buy one type missile system from the Industrial Hub to find out they don't sell the ammo. Would you buy a 9mm pistol at a gun store to find out they have NO ammo.... course not. Developers over thought this part of game

Brnstv
Brnstv

Was fun at first but the issues become glaringly obvious so I quickly lost interest. I tried some of the better mods and they made things better for a bit but the game still has several problems.
Has stupid AI. Really stupid AI. I can't stress how unbelievably stupid the AI for enemy and allied units is. All AI controlled units have terrible path-finding and frequently get stuck driving straight into cliffs and walls. Watching the the enemy tanks flip-flopping over and around hills and mountains is not very impressive.

Lots of glitches and bugs. Textures popping in and out is noticeable if not common and graphics are barely passable.
UI is not very well presented or very user friendly. Important Information is not readily available and several basic game concepts are not explained well or at all.
Questionable mission designs. Some are very easy, some are insanely difficult and both can be won by cheesing the terrible AI.
In any game, procedurally generated mission maps are always dull, uninspired featureless craters so no surprises that the mission maps are dull uninspired featureless craters.
Campaign and career modes are a patience withering grindfest.

Vanilla - 4/10
with DLC- 4.5/10
With Mods - 6/10

Not recommended, even with mods.

RoadKillDeluxe
RoadKillDeluxe

I couldn't get much further than the beginning of the tutorial because the game is just soooo ugly. And that wouldn't be an issue if it didn't also run like crap. The cutscene framerate is atrocious, the gameplay framerate isn't great either. The effects and shading are awful. The environments and world models are really dated looking. Like 2008 graphics. My rig is running at or beyond the recommended specs, vsync is useless, tweaking the graphics settings did almost nothing. Just an ugly and poor running game. I like mechs, but if I can visually watch them skip across a screen frame by frame like a south park character I'm out.

Tech-Priest
Tech-Priest

The only issue I have is the very obvious meta in terms of what mechs are even worth investing into.

So eventually, you're forced to used a very select few weapons and mechs in order to have any chance of surviving.

Proxy
Proxy

This game is a good starting point for MW6

So im gonna be blunt this game is not very engaging, sure the youtubers and their commentary make it seem so but it is not. The "Battlescape" is always the same 7 or so scenarios on different maps with some side objectives and the commentary on repeat. The "overworld" is a bit more engaging with constant player choice besides listening to the campaign story stuff which is all gone in Career mode.

Im because this game is actually very similar to XCOM im gonna recommend some suggestions based off of that game series

1. give players full customization access to the Mechs like in MWO
2. Allow players to make a customized main and side characters with starting attributes
3. add in shields for all mechs able to melee
4. In the time Pre-battlescape give the player the option where to land and how to land with a topographical map
5. in the battlescape allow for more types of unit commands like formations, scouting area, missile barrage X area, and hold position.
6. allow all mechs to have the ability to equip special equipment like ECM, AMS, etc
7. make special equipment far more common and not rare at all.
8. In the "Overworld" disconnect upgrades from specific mini quests and make them more like a research tree. and split it between the mech types so people can special more into one of 2 types of mechs and certain weapons.
9. make the difference between light medium heavy and assualt mechs more diverse like in MWO where lights and some mediums are actaully fast enough to circle jerk slower mechs and make give heavy mech a bit more armor max
10. allow for upgrades/research on the transport ship for more jumps, cheaper price, and more slots for active mechs, better defensive weapons etc
11. in the "overworld" allow mechs and equipment to be broken down into parts that can be used to fix mech and reduce overall repair price.
12. make the "overworld" map more fluid like after x days change random systems to different faction control
13. Add in a hidden repair station one each map in the "battlescape".
14. add in difficulty selections
15. allow pilots to earn special traits after lvling up enough to make them more worth keeping alive.
16. in markets to replace special equipment that will be become common add in special parts for mechs like KGC arms that are 5% lighter etc.

Final Score: 5/10

Gameplay - 0.5 :it is mechwarrior but its gameplay is very average
Story - 0 :i dont care about the story at all
Presentation - 0.5 :UI is passable
Visuals - 0.5 :better than MWO but the loading screens that look almost real would be a real visual upgrade over MWO
Characters - 0 :They are just generic and i have already forgotten their names
Customization - 0.5 :limited camos and decals with no way to make your own just change camo colors
Combat - 0.5 :I want to feel powerful and unstoppable when in an assault mech but in this game you are just a slightly tougher heavy which is a slight tougher medium etc.
Stability - 1 :MWO crashes all the time this hasnt crash once on me
Bugs - 0.5 : floating objects and AI spawning in the floor
Mods - 1 :Game has full mod support and has an active modding community
(if this was an a out of 11, Voice acting would be a 0.5 serviceable)

Anonymous
Anonymous

The game is well thought out and has the right amount of challenge to it so far (3 hours). The process for starting a new mission is not obvious and will probably take some getting used to. The backstory and details of exactly what your character is doing and what is going on around him are hard to grasp at this point. I'm sure it will start to become clear with more play time.

koleas
koleas

Cons

1) There are only 5 missions types so gameplay quickly becomes repetitive

2) The game will crash when i travel to some star systems -- happens about 1 to 3 times an hour

3) Lancemate AI is awful unless you're constantly micromanaging them.

Pros

1) The combat is fun

2) Graphics are nice

lrj_36
lrj_36

Great game, just as good as all the others at the time they were made. The Battletech universe is huge and the lore is long.

AhriFox950
AhriFox950

So far, this is one of the best games that I have ever played. I've never played any of the other MechWarrior games, so I don't really have a baseline. I played Mechassult as a kid on the original xbox, and this game is a dream come true! I play with a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick and it is a blast. I haven't tried mouse controls yet, but playing with a joystick took some time to get used to and I had to crank aim assist up because It's hard to be really precise with one, but I digress.

My enjoyment, however, is not on the base game. Vanilla kinda sucks. It is unbalanced, and there is a distinct lack of customization and it's pretty buggy. I was about to quit about 10 hours in because the game was making me so mad, and for me that's saying something. Thankfully I downloaded YAML and some other quality of life mods that really turned this game into something extremely fun and enjoyable. If I want to, I can turn up financial difficult and have to focus more on logistics, or set the travel cost to $1,000 and get rid of most other costs to just stomp around and blow stuff up.

While not perfect, now that I have modded this game, I can see it becoming my most played game. It is worth every cent I payed for it.

Blightor
Blightor

This game is wonderful. I've played a lot more hours on the non-steam version, but I bought it again on here just for the ease of use of the steam workshops mods.

While I dont think the campaign was that great at launch and there were some real issues with some of the stuff, they have really stepped up and kept improving the game and adding DLC - so I have to give it to PGI for making a wonderfully visceral stompy mech combat game, with LOADS of different mechs, and not a single bit of microtransactions to buy extra hats.

In fact, they have gone to some length to make this game very mod friendly, ensuring pretty much everything can be modified easily with some UE knowledge, and allowing mod authors to use all their mech designs and providing a really open platform. This has lead to something very special, because although the Mechwarrior and Battletech community is fairly niche, its FULL of absolute nerds and highly experienced engineers and developers - the games mods for such a niche are truly amazing in the fairly short time its been around.

So thanks PGI, for making the game and supporting it and allowing the community to go to town so easily.

dmaq-1
dmaq-1

I started w/MW4 and played my first online matches and loved it. This game is way better than that. you can mod the game for your playstyle. Campaign is awesome as well.

Sky_Cure
Sky_Cure

im new player on this game but i play many many years from first day mechwarrior online, i love sooo much this game i love the gameplay the graphics and to playb with friends keep the good work.

jfvaldivieso
jfvaldivieso

Surprisingly satisfying albeit repetitive mech management shooter. Graphics are neat. Sound design is good. Music and voices are serviceable. Honestly the only thing lacking here is the story. Everything else feels coherent. The sense of scale is great, and so are the slow, clunky controls that feel just right. Mechwarrior 5 surely had more issues on release, but in its current state the gameplay loop is quite fun. Do expect repetitive missions as this will likely annoy some.

MonkeyGamesVR
MonkeyGamesVR

I do recommend it for people who liked the MechWarrior series, wich I love and had many hours taking my time. I still listen to the music and wish that this game had it inthe game. My only little nit picky is just that.
Olso I wished for a more tactical moves, where one could tell to defend, attack or stay put individually.
Olso I wished for a little bit better AI both sides.

All in all Im having fun with this game, wich is good thing. ✌️

Fart Master
Fart Master

Only buy on sale with a heavy discount and then fix with mods.

Soooo much lack of polish like no tool tips when navigating the UI, unintuitive UI, incorrectly calculated weapon fire rate stats, hot and cold environments that barely have any effect on your heat management, absolutely TERRIBLE team pilot AI, and randomly generated missions that are the exact same map or environment or objective over and over.

Co-op is fun, but it's a tacked on afterthought where players have to sit around in the mech bay while the host outfits the mechs and chooses the missions without other players being able to SEE any of it. They don't get to see the storyline. They only get to have fun when the missions start.

There are also game breaking but basic bugs still in the game even though it's been out for over 2 years, like your HUD disappearing in battle and being impossible to recover.

Arbater139
Arbater139

amazing game for mech combat. you can mod the game for a better or more customized and in depth experience but i enjoy the base game a lot

Water
Water

It was fun once I decided to cheat.

MW5:Mercs is a total grind, anyone who tells you different is lying. The difficulty isn't too bad at the start of the game, but the way the money management works combined with travel, repairs, and weapon replacement costs you're almost always broke. On top of that it's you and 1-3 of your teammates versus seemingly endless waves of enemies.

The unfairness in numbers, and the inability to turn down the difficulty reminds me of Battletech which I absolutely blasted in another review.

The grind is real. The repetitiveness is apparent one hour in. It's Mechwarrior, but barely. I really miss the old developers in the 90's and early 00's those were great games. Even MWO is better than this game. I would have refunded but hit over 2 hours, and wanted to give this game another shot.

I only play with cheats now because even with God Mode, I'm not clearing much money and my lance of mediums is regularly fighting heavies, mediums, and lights with air support, ground support, and turret support. The amount of bullshit in this game is insane.

Tianlongprc
Tianlongprc

7/10
I bought this game as I remember playing Mechwarrior 2.
The game itself follows that of its predecessor that is good and bad.
Overall I just feel that more could be done. You play in the world but have no real impact on the world.
There are star systems on the outskirts that have minor factions or are unclaimed. However the player can't
do anything with these systems. I feel it is a major waste. Why can't the player claim that area and build it up? I hope the DEV's can release a DLC that allow the player to impact the world or claim area and build your own minor faction. Imagine Mount & Blade but in the MechWarrior,universe, EPIC!

Alan Starwind ™
Alan Starwind ™

Fun game. Career mode makes you feel like part mercenary part business owner. AI team is mindless. Best played with friends via co-op.

Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter

A lot of people are judging this game based on their wonderful memories of the older games, even the tabletop version. I'm not going to do that. This is a good game. Period. Is it a lot better with mods? Absolutely, but what game isn't? Remember kids, they didn't HAVE to add mod support but they did and it works great. THIS is the big stompy robot game I've been waiting for.

mildmanor405
mildmanor405

im enjoying this game alot. missions may be repetitive in their objective, but no 2 missions play the same. avoid missions that have active artilliary however unless you enjoy it

Constanzi
Constanzi

tutorial is trash however the game rewards the "fuck around and find out" method of discovery.
graphics 6/10 (compared to 2022 standards)
gameplay 8/10 (gundams are fun!)
audio 5/10 (game music is loud and repetitious)
all in all worth it. co op is fun

skm
skm

It's really meh.

Graphics, sound, controls, the way environment reacts to the mech - everything is cheap and under-developed. I've only played half an hour so I cannot testify to the actual game, but I expect the same approach.

Wandering_Wojak
Wandering_Wojak

A little challenging to pick up and go, but after a few hours of play, I have the hang of things and am enjoying this game far more than I ever anticipated! Though it doesn't fill the void Armored Core left in my heart, it is an incredible stand in for it.

Justin from IT
Justin from IT

The game is initially fun and building your own mech is a blast, however I cannot recommend this game with the state of the AI.

After a Certain difficulty, your friendly AI mates just completely stop working. They will walk in circles and walk into direct melee range of enemy mechs and just get completely melted

Ive tried all the recommended fixes:

-Consistently give attack commands
-Use the Move command to send mechs beside enemy mechs
-Use of Mods such as TTRulez etc. It helps to a extent but this issue/bug just seems to keep occuring
-Checked weapon groups, Heat managment/capacity etc.

Nothing i did seemed to make my AI work consistently. They can snipe choppers out of the sky with no issue but the second there are more than 3 Enemy mechs they completely break and seem to just randomly stop working in the middle of my missions.

Its fun to do the regular missions but once you try to do the more difficult story encounters, be ready to watch your AI run in circles while you get shredded by 20+ enemies at once.

Edit: forgot to add - My friendly AI blocked more of my shots than they put out. Absolutely nerve wracking

SuicideSauce
SuicideSauce

I played the old MechWarrior games when I was a kid and I loved the games. I also played MechCommander which was a fantastic game as well. I think that MechWarrior 5 has kept the original things that made MechWarrior so enjoyable and made improvements to game mechanics and gameplay to make it competitive with any other franchise. This is an excellent game which I am only halfway through.

Mr.Mustard
Mr.Mustard

Single-player/co-op Mechwarrior? That's delicious. Now lets not drool just yet. In this game, there's no clans, so mechs like the MADCAT aren't in this game. (Workshop solves the MADCAT problem.) HOWEVER. This game is great! Plays like a dream, give me some really awesome feeling moments! Cross-Plat is 10/10, AND it's got replayability with its career mode. Any save in career mode can also double up as new game plus as well!

Walking Corpse
Walking Corpse

Haven't touched this game in months. Played for a couple days. Couldn't find anything online for help regarding random crashes to desktop. The error messages are quite generic in nature. No patches. No help online forums. Just another
waste of money for a dream of having a decent mech warrior game in the current generation.

MrZeeg
MrZeeg

This is the worst designed game possibly ever made, the only redeeming factor is the mod community. Unfortunately PGI decided to break all mods and their game to the point it wont start up without crashing. I hope PGI gets thrown into oblivion and a company who actually cares about the Battletech franchise makes a good successor.

Arc Viper
Arc Viper

I've always loved mechwarrior games, and I was very excited when this game came out. It has everything you want in a mech game: Resource management, risk analysis, and blowing s$%& up.

Mechwarrior 5 a good amount more weapons than in Mechwarrior 5, and a fair amount of new mechs as well. One big difference between this game and its predecessors is the ability to just walk around your hangar and admire your mechs. They look amazing with max graphics settings.

Here is where in my opinion the game falls short. For as good as walking around in the hangar looks, inside the cockpit feels a bit generic. No light glares, window tints, stuff that adds gritty realism. Looks too clean and unpolished compared to walking around in the hangar. You're going to want to download some mods to make this aspect look better.

Also, for those that care about story elements, Mechwarrior 5 lacks story content. I'm 10 hours into the game and I've only seen one cut-scene at the beginning. Piranha games studio lacks the storytelling that was present in Battletech, which is a shame. Piranha games really needs to hire a writer and more artists/animators. In its current state the story feels unfinished. You're not going to see any cut-scene epic mech battles here. Only scripted cutscenes with in-game assets.

All and all I'm very greatful to Piranha games for deciding to finally bring us a single player mech experiance. If you like managing assets, building up a team from the ground up, and slowly working your way up the ladder in big stompy robots this is the game for you!

Nemesis
Nemesis

The game is a lot of fun, but could use some balances and FPS improvements. Mods are your best friend!

Admeralbeoch
Admeralbeoch

Great game, kinda like MW4 but better, the mod support is great! comment with questions! Have a great day!

SalamanderUmbra
SalamanderUmbra

Pros:
-In-mission combat is pretty fun, mechs feel heavy enough or light enough for their respective classes
-Mech v Vehicle combat is pretty well balanced
-Mech v Mech combat can be balanced, but if you aren't used to mechwarrior games it will feel like a "shoot and hope it dies before you do" exchange.
-customizing mech's appearances is neat, and not very restricted
Cons:
-Can instantly screw yourself over if you pick even one mission that turns out to be too hard for your lance
-Missions are very repetitive
-Extremely steep difficulty/learning curve (mostly in Inner Sphere DLC mode)
-Career mode is badly balanced (faction spawns don't seem to have any adjusted level based on the location, so if you pick a faction who's region is normally high level, guess what, its STILL high level if you spawn with basic light mechs there)

Overall, I personally think the management aspect of this game detracts way too much from what would have been fun gameplay. Largely due to the prior point of "instantly screwing yourself over", if your lance takes too much damage, not only do your existing pilots die permanently, you may just not have enough cash to cover the expense of repairing any of your mechs, therefore preventing you from going on missions to get the cash...annnd you're up s*** creek without a paddle.

TLDR; big stompy mech game fun, too f***ed up by ingame economy.
Would actually recommend mechwarrior online over this one, and that's even considering its monetizations.

w.wait
w.wait

its fun but can be hard when you first start but keep going it will get better toe more you play. There are a lot of you tubers playing this game so watch them for info on the game.

MAJ Rookie
MAJ Rookie

I would like to have the ability to change the slots to accommodate different weapons. I would expect it to be very expensive and take a long time to complete it. It would let me configure mechs for specialized uses. I would also like to have AI mechs do what I tell them. If I tell them to stay behind me, that's what I mean, not run out ahead of me. It would be nice to be able to tell the AI mechs where to go by using the map, and have a key combo to tell them to stay with another live player, or go to the extraction point.

blindpower
blindpower

I'll keep this short, fun about 35 percent, 45 percent annoying or shit. 20 percent intolerable. Some missions are fun and your lance (ai bot team) is at least there maybe even doing some stuff. Other times its death, heres a brand new assault mech(most armored **mostly), and an almost top lvl ai, and instantly dead from one enemy turret, yes dead. ai wont shoot at times, wont shoot some weapons, will shoot the ground, miss or barley attack enemies even if they are stationary or huge buildings. You can hold your own at times but others makes it just annoying, tedious, or just plan silly. But wait lets talk about the ai. yes ai the enemy ai that will shoot, move, use jump jets (ya yours never do), attack, ect. meanwhile your friends are starting at the ground with them showing their backs or staying still. then there is artillery, here is a spawn at each corner of the map go have fun... enemy drop ship coming in to drop enemy mechs, well your ai will drop everything and finally shoot it, even using some of the weapons they never use, they do this instantly, but there is no point. you cant do damage to ship or mechs inside. the enemy artillery can tho so your mechs can be all fecked right from the start. With friends i bet this game is awesome but with the ai its largely misses with some fun hits, sadly alot of the game is the same stuff, mission, cycle, ect. some fun but would say dont go full sticker price, wait some. maybe even see if they want to fix some stuff.

Skho
Skho

The game looks great, but performance feels a bit not super optimized for a 3yr old game. I recently upgraded to a GTX3080, Ryzen 5800x, with 32gb ram, on 3440x1440. I was hoping to run this on max settings with no issue. But I ended up having to drop anti-aliasing down to 2x because the game hangs like with zoom function.

Gameplay wise, the missions does get a little repetitive, but outside of MW:O there is nothing else out there. Mech play is solid, but wish the sound feels heavier. (Feel like MW:O did a superior job here)

Last but not least.... where my Timberwolf at? Dire wolf? yo where my dags at?!
8/10 mostly because its the only thing out there outside of MWO

EDIT: I just realized the setting of the game is prior to the Clan invasion, so no dags yet. One can hope

Also wish there's a way to "rebrand" my merc. flag.

nyrican73
nyrican73

This reminds me of the original Mechwarrior but with better graphics and more freedom to do what you want. I'm glad I purchased this game.

Flinter
Flinter

while you cant effect boarders of factions which is sad:( the game still isnt bad, it does get repeditive but still i enjoy most missions. Destruction missions can get a bit dumb just from the sheer number of enemies you have to destroy to get out.
Getting bigger better mechs is a SUPER slow process so be prepaired to use the same mech for days and days.
the enemy seems dead set on only shooting at you if you are in their fire arc and will ignore allied units so you need to be careful on that.
all and all it is SUPER annoying some times but something satisfying about shooting enemy mech arms off so they have no weapons left and they have to eject. even more so shooting a flying enemy out of the air with projectile weaponry.

The Inventor
The Inventor

Let's assume you're here for a MechWarrior game. The gameplay is great, the writing is awful, so it's a perfect fit for the franchise! Couldn't get the joystick working on a Linux, but mouse and keyboard works perfectly fine, too, with a little bit of control rebinding.

ThirdWor1d
ThirdWor1d

Poorly designed. Poorly made.
I love the MW series but this game is a dumpster fire.
I bought all the DLCs just so I could install the Coyote Mission pack mod.
I added 40+ mods, everything from QoL and AI improvements, to sound and texture packs.
30+ hours and I really, really tried to enjoy it.
But it's just boring. Could go into minute detail but, in summary, with all the issues, it's a boring game.
Go play Battletech.

Taleweaver
Taleweaver

When this first came out I kinda didn't like the experience. The mechs felt so light that I didn't feel like I was in a mech.

Whatever they did with those patches this is now an A1 mechfighting experience.

Project 0
Project 0

Mechwarrior 5 is, by all accounts, a return to form Mechwarrior game. Build a lance from the starting days, with a tiny roster that grows the more you battle on. But, get ready for a challenge, because these battlesuits are not bulletproof, and the enemy does not want you to win. With an economy system that makes you scrape and fight for every scrap on the way up, you'll find yourself either starving for money, or drowning in spare parts and cash depending on how well you run your budget. Pros and Cons below, spoiler free.

Pros:
•Pilot a very diverse roster of battlemechs, from dinky and fast mechs that can keep an entire army distracted, to massive powerhouses that lumber slowly onto the battlefield, crushing their enemies underfoot, and everything inbetween. Don't like to face conflict head or want to take a more tactical approach? Sit back and turn your enemies to charcoal with missile-launchers, or snipe them from a distance. Your playstyle is up to you, and what mechs you want to drag out there.
•Wonderful to-scale scenery that makes you actually feel like you're in a 50 ton mech stomping around. Feel like mecha-godzilla as you stomp your way through a city and over the plains, ramming entire buildings down and tearing apart the scenery in combat.
•Don't like what your favorite mech has for weapons? You'll find a different variation of it. Many of the Mechs (barring a handful) allow for different weaponry to be attached, giving you a plethora of options on top of just choosing a different battle suit.
•Interesting lore, including news articles that hit you with the changing politics and advancements in technology that roll out while you're out on the campaign. Good reads for when you're taking a breather from the battlefield.
•An absolutely dedicated, skilled, and wonderful community. You'll find no better fans than the ones on the Reddit and in the Workshop, giving you all sorts of mods to add even more customization to this game.

Cons:
•Campaign is static, and I mean that in the most complete way. There are no choices in game, reputation doesn't affect how the map evolves over time or what missions you're given, and ultimately nothing you do in this world really makes an impact. That said, you're not really supposed to be the "hero of mechwarrior", as one outfit of mechwarriors shouldn't really be that important in this universe. Still, it would have been nice for some variation, as it would justify a second playthrough.
•No real endgame. The game tries to convince you that there are even more zones to do battle in, but the challenge increase was negligable for me. Honestly, I only continue to play the game due to how much mech variation the mods give, but you're pretty much hard-capped at the end. With rewards being locked behind a prestige system, you're also limited as to what you play in the end game, and there are only 4 100-ton mechs (max weight mechs), meaning you aren't really changing much in your vanilla end game.
•One and done. If you get through the campaign and feel fully satisfied with the combat and have your fill of it, this is definitely a one and done game. Due to the choices not mattering and the end-game not being much, this one will no doubt hit your shelf as soon as you are finished, unless you come back to enjoy some more of the core gameplay loop.
•Boring DLCs: the campaigns added in the DLCs really don't add much, and its sad to see such a wonderfully designed game have embarassingly bad content added to it. One of their modes added in the DLC doesn't even work and causes your team AI to glitch out and shoot at nothing!
•Not really a mech-builder. If you're playing this game unmodded, it's honestly kind of sad how little you can do to your mech. Other than raising and lowering armor values, or switching heavier weapons for lighter versions of them, the vanilla game experience really doesn't allow you to do much to your mech compared with older versions of the game. But, at least you don't have to listen to cringy nü-metal.

In summary, Mechwarrior is a great battle-sim. It allows you just enough customization to make you feel like you can be proud of the career you playthrough. Just, be prepared to be disappointed if you're looking for a game with choices or replayability. This is definitely a game where, if you don't like the core gameplay, you can refund it before you hit the hour mark because you're not gonna get much more than that at the end.

mgibster
mgibster

This game has big stompy robots blowing one another to pieces. What's not to like? The campaign mode is okay, but the NPCs are bland and the story is generic, but it's fun to pilot a mech.

Sekret One
Sekret One

The game's biggest sin is it's _almost_ fun. Almost. And it almost works. _almost_.

I can't express how really low the bar is for making a mech warrior game successful. 90% of it is it just needs to run successfully, and it doesn't.

ThomastheCat
ThomastheCat

This scratches the giant robot itch in a great way, especially with all the DLC. Melee is a lot of fun and the variety of mechs and weapons is astounding. I also really enjoy the campaigns and short story threads they've added giving you plenty of things to do and an clear goals.

Scandrax
Scandrax

Highly recommend. Totally awesome mech destruction. The DLCs add some depth to the gameplay and increase its replay value. Great COOP game as well.

1 health
1 health

MechWarrior 1 nostalgia aside, this is the most expansive game in the series and the one I enjoyed the most. I did get the sense that it's not made on the biggest budget ever, but Piranha did a fine job considering how high the bar is set these days, especially for graphics.

I would've loved to have more campaign content, better co-op integration so at least two players can have equal stakes in the campaign, and fewer vehicles.

JustPurdy
JustPurdy

I enjoy this MW5 quite a bit but it's an incomplete game.
The vanilla game is alright but there are major changes that need to happen. Along with saying that, this game is way better with mods that flesh out the game or simply fix things that should be included.

Things that need to be added:
- RPG elements
This consists of interactions with your AI lance-mates/members of your crew. Y'know, kind of like Persona or the other Battletech game or maybe like Mass Effect (I didn't play it).

- Better spawns
There WAS a mod for this, but it's been long outdated. Vanilla has enemies spawning in the general area of you; this could be literally in front of you, or a thousand plus meters off, it seriously kills the immersion or the general fairness of the game with enemies literally spawning behind you like their name was Naruto. The old BetterSpawns mod made it so mechs get brought in via mech dropship every time. A better experience.

- Timeline extension
We want clans and clan mechs. Simple as.

- Meaningful contracts
We should have contracts from invading houses to see borders change so actually supporting one house over another is more meaningful. Hell, adding in meet-able important house members such as dukes/warlords/ruling members and their respective areas would be cool, and if that was to happen, add in a chance to throw your lot in with a house to fight for them and get a planet of your own. To keep this short, apply the awesome stuff from Mount and Blade

- Different cockpits huds
This is just a personal of mine, not very mandatory.

In summation: After writing this I'm of the conclusion that an entire new game should be made.

The game gets old on your own very badly, very easily. Yes, it's nice they make updates for this game, but the DLC's for this game like melee weapon mechs should've been base game. Mods are the lifeline of this game. (Also keep in mind that new updates absolutely wreck mods and have to be updated by the modders themselves... if possible... *looks at BetterSpawns and EnchancedHUD* yes... some mods have to be remade from scratch.

Merl
Merl

I have enjoyed all the Mechwarrior games over the years. Mechwarrior 5 is a worthy addition, espcially with a few mods.

King Thomas of Kawaii
King Thomas of…

Very mixed, wanted to love this, great graphics and the controls are classic while still functional and easy to use. The downside is all of your mechs are paper tigers, you start off with a handful of 30 tonners and the game makes you spend the first 10 hours going up against hundreds of 50 ton mechs. You cant equip two small weapons to a medium weapon slot anymore, just one weapon per slot no matter the size, the mechlab is just a flat out downgrade from Mechwarrior 4's. My advice is get this on sale if you really need it and break the game with mods (fortunately the workshop is nice).

ThePhil
ThePhil

This game...wanted it to be good so badly. It's honestly hard to find something good to say about it. Underwhelming in every regard. Time to find another place to handle the IP.

Bradley056
Bradley056

Grab your mech, get your VR headset and get into the fight. Commander, prepare to drop. Systems online!!

rockthebeats
rockthebeats

Overall, this game is a blast to play. This is especially true in the endgame when the player has access to tons of mechs, equipment and weapons. There is also a great modding community that have put out many mods to further increase the fun factor. Like any game, MechWarrior 5 isn't perfect. I think the pros far outweigh the cons with this title though.

Scrubbers
Scrubbers

This is a single player game.

Yes, you can get other to join your game...

Every player says to play Mech Warrior Online if you want PVP

and honestly....GO play MWO if you want a good PVE feeling as well.

THe AI IS STOOOOOPID.

like dumb dumb AI.

But...as a single player game it is fun.

Just use mods. MODS

Mod everything because the base game is shit.

I came from that turn based hex game Battle Tech.

That game was boring because you could not leg mechs and salvage them...

but in this game...even if you leg a mech you can't salvage them. USE MODS!

The Mission rewards are dog trash.

Starting out is bad.

The story is bad and grindy.

MOOOOODS

z5o3
z5o3

Meh, for a dude that loves giant robots this is kinda a turd. Not sure if ill even keep playing this one out. Kinda bummed I cant return this one and played a little longer than the refund policy allows.

Tewolf31
Tewolf31

very fun game, note when passing through forests non-laser based weapons aren't very useful, and tanks bounce when falling off cliffs in a very funny way.

BZArcher
BZArcher

It took a while, but MW5 finally feels like the game it was supposed to be - especially with the community's amazing modders!

Rifleman311
Rifleman311

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is a fun Co-op game where you are playing as these mechs and you do contracts for various factions, you can be the sworn enemy of one faction and the hero of another. The timeline is set after the forth Succesion war has ended. There is various mechs to buy, sell, salvage or get from completing missions.

D Scriptus
D Scriptus

The base game. With or without dlc is good. Damn good. And I don't regret getting any of the dlc.
Even if getting call to arms was just so I could get coyote's mission's back. Love that guy.
I played through it all. I was around for mechwarrior 1. Floppy version.
And this brought back those fond cga (*1990 ish reference) memories - and gameplay - and sooo much eye candy.
Same game idea with better graphics. By better I mean 30 years of development.
Also, many more things to do, places to go.

Mods can make a fun experience richer, and then some, definitely worth a look.
But keep in mind, mods can be messed up major by updates.

That Old Jake Guy
That Old Jake Guy

I can't stand the drop restrictions. They have no idea how to balance a game so they put arbitrary weight limits on every fucking mission to artificially inflate the difficulty. It's lazy and annoying. What a waste of potential

T.W.K.II
T.W.K.II

The Armor is a joke, the weapons are a joke, the Targeting is a joke, the controls are a joke, the HUD is a joke, the load outs are a joke, and to call this a Full game when its no more then a Demo is a joke! To get ANYTHING good you need to buy the DLC's so the REAL price for this game is Almost $100 AND THIS IS A JOKE!
And I am not laughing.

I am SICK of games that have so many flaws that you "HAVE TO MOD it to fix it", the Devs SHOULD FIX IT before they walk with the money, after they sell us this crap.
BUT they count on people give it A "Yes" recommendation followed by saying mod it to fix it.
STOP DOING THAT PEOPLE!

So in short a $100 for this.... Pass and I want my money back but! Since Steam redid its returns I guess I get to keep this Pile of scrap, and "Mod it" to fix it But I WON'T AND DON'T RECOMMEND IT.
You want to play mechs? Get Mech Warrior 4 Merc's for free. That is A much better choice.

jazinnel
jazinnel

I know the core gameplay is repetitive after a while, the stories are meh and the gameplay objectives aren't all that varied, but I find it addicting none-the-less. The only DLC I own is the Heroes of the Inner Sphere. I'd say to definitely buy the base game and the first DLC at least. That and the free updates that came with DLC 2 and 3 have added melee and mech switching. It's the first time melee was implemented in a Mechwarrior title, and mech switching is a massively needed QoL improvement. It would have been better if these were implemented in the vanilla game on release, but that's why you wait and get 'em later on sale after they've had a year or two to patch things in :) If you don't like the vanilla game, there's great mods out there that unlock the mechlab so you can fully customize your mechs. There are mods to add in more mechs and additional options to tweak to your satisfaction. Now if only MWO were built and upgraded in Unreal Engine.

Mattmon
Mattmon

The base game was well worth the money. After adding mods, it became a whole new and vast experience. Now take all of that and combine it with modded co-op play for the whole main story and then some! would HIGHLY recommend!

You don't have to take my word for it, you can see our whole playthrough, start to finish, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCvX6qc5PHM&list=PL-0Tga6aqpdMu4FnnRp-b…

Traveler
Traveler

Not much of a story but that's not why you want to play it anyway. Good excuse to buy a full HOTAS.

WolfHound
WolfHound

It's better with Steam Workshop mods for "salvage" and "tonnage limit" thank goodness... I like the concept of the game so I continue to play while putting up with it's flaws. Many Missions still consist of swarm fests where enemy appear in waves on top of you and from places you just cleared. For some reason enemy
drop ships can land anywhere, while you need to infil/exfil far away. Some missions often need to be restarted multiple times after almost making it out, and finding out the most difficult swarm drops in at the end when you're almost dead . Oh, and the "Save" button is grayed out during missions so you need to leave the game running during mealtime and other "Real Life" priorities.

Mad Mav
Mad Mav

(WAFFLING, SEE-SAWING HAND GESTURE)
This is a pretty good game...

...It is NOT, however, a very good MECHWARRIOR game.

I would recommend almost any other mainline Mechwarrior game before this one. Every one of them has: better AI, better AI MANAGEMENT, WAY better mechlabs, better map layouts, better sense of scale, MORE THAN 3 FRIGGIN' LANCEMATES, ACTUALLY varied objectives, stories that ACTUALLY make sense, better selection and variety of mechs, (sigh)... I could go on.

What MW5 DOES have is: it looks good, it sounds good, it runs on modern hardware, the few missions that ARE unique tend to be decent and.... Uhhh.... Well, that's about it, really.

--And YES, before all the pedants come stampeding in; there lots of mods that fix lots of these issues. I even started a second playthrough just so that I could mod it up to what it should have been in the first place. BUT, MW5 itself (and PGI, more importantly) deserve ZERO credit for a bunch of mods being practically required to make their game a proper Mechwarrior game. ALSO, a lot of the mods aren't even use-able anymore, usually because they got sick of PGI breaking them all the time.

I'd say this is a SOFT recommend, especially on sale. Don't bother with ANY of the DLC until you're sure you like the game though- it's all pretty lackluster anyway. It's kind of a shame though, because there's elements in here that prove it COULD have been a truly amazing MW game. SOME people obviously cared about the game and put in solid work. And then everybody ELSE had just been brainwashed by PGI and put in the bare minimum effort and pushed it out the door.

Roberticus Maximus
Roberticus Maximus

This game was awesome, and I'm really annoyed I let some of the negative reviews on here dissuade me for awhile. For some qualification, I only played through the base game with no DLCs or mods, and only did the campaign solo, no online stuff, so that's what I'm reviewing here. I have played all of the MechWarrior titles (except MWO) and their expansions before this, so I'm primarily thinking about this game as its campaign compares to the rest of the series campaigns. If you've loved the other MechWarrior games, I can't imagine you won't love this one too.

I want to give my two cents on some of the complaints I've seen about this game. First, I experienced almost zero glitching or bugs. I know I'm coming to this game a few years after release, so maybe they've released some bug fixes and took care of the things folks were seeing. IDK, but it was pretty rock solid for me on windows 11. The only bug I ran into was occasionally a campaign mission that was supposed to be available at a certain planet wouldn't show, but saving, popping back to the title screen, and reloading fixed this every time, and it occurred maybe 3 times in my whole play through, so it just didn't bother me.

Second, I saw some complaints that the lancemate AI is bad, specifically I saw some mention that pathing is bad, and that your lancemates deal lots of friendly fire to you and each other. I didn't really experience this either, or at least it was no worse than any other game in the series. If you walk right in front of one of your guys during a firefight, I don't really know what you expect to happen. There is going to be _some_ friendly fire. Its not like they don't know you're there and continually try to shoot through you, but you'll definitely catch the odd stray hit if you are all bunched up, especially if you are equipping your mates with weapons that have some spread. I also don't really know why I saw pathing complaints. Telling your lancemates to follow you or go to a navpoint works just as well as it always has IMO. I just didn't experience any issues with either of these problems.

Third, I saw some complaints about the story, or supposed lack thereof. I thought the story was simple but good. Its not the Witcher 3 or anything, but it easily met my expectations coming from the other games in the series. There is even a fun twist at the end that I really liked, having a basic understanding of the BattleTech lore and timeline. The voice acting was -- if not quite up to "Deadeye" from MW2 Mercs standards -- solid. One reason I suspect folks complained about the story is because this game greatly expands the nearly-open-world vibe of MW4 to a truly open world with what seems to be hundreds of planets, a large portion of which offer contracts for you to take. Since there are so many more than the other games, a lot of the missions for these contracts are not each handcrafted and are mostly a limited set of generated mission types. To advance the campaign and get better gear, you do have to pick up a lot of these sort of procedural missions, and towards the beginning of my playthrough this did feel a little bit grindy, which I would say is not something I have experienced with any of the other MW games. As I got better mechs and more money though, I thought this kind of play got a lot more fun, it was just that in the beginning having to kill everything in a crappy mech with just medium lasers and lrm5s that was kinda lame. As a result, this game took a lot more playtime to complete than any other MW game I've played. I'd say there was just as much story as usual, but it was a bit diluted by these extra, non-story missions you have to take on. When I started getting some decent heavy mechs -- black knight about midway through my playthrough was awesome -- I was having a good time with these, and by the time I had a couple Annihilators in my lance, I pretty much relished in as much destruction as I could get, story-based or not.

Overall, great game and very worthy addition to the series.

Yuri
Yuri

There is a lot you can criticise about it.
But when Atlas suddenly coming into view in a city crushing buildings around it and "alpha striking" another mech in the "face", I don't care.
It is the best mecha fantasy in this particular genre to date.
If you like mechs you owe it to yourself to try it.
For everyone else, just remember that this is not some complex simulator, it is slower paced tactical shooter.
It is also does not look as generic as trailers make it.
And the soundtrack is incredible, at least for everyone who remembers 90s metal fondly.
This game may surprise you.
Just don't go in for the story, both the plot and presentation are pretty bad.

Ghost of Jeff Goldblum
Ghost of Jeff …

Pros: Is as good at MWO as simulating being in a 'Mech and how they would feel to fight in. Campaign map is huge and has endless missions to take. 'Mechs and weapons behave like you'd expect from the tabletop.

Cons: Glitches, glitches, glitches (and crash bugs). Absolutely F tier AI, both enemy and ally. Significantly reduced customization options for 'Mechs compared to previous single player MW games and MWO. Reliance on procedurally-generated missions means campaign can start to feel repetitive pretty quickly.

Verdict: if you're a massive MechWarrior and/or BattleTech fan, this will scratch the itch, but you'll definitely be frequently frustrated. If you're not, this is just going to be a frustrating experience.

Double-UC
Double-UC

Mechwarrior 2, 3, and 4 are better. This is a clunky piece of garbage, with sub par everything. The resolution of textures is barely at 1080p level. The trailers look okay because the resolution is so low.

EngineFire
EngineFire

amazing! loved the tutorial and i'm ready now for the rest :) graphics, sounds, special effects, etc.....all FANTASTIC

DanielKF
DanielKF

how do i start the game?
you repair the broken mech.
ok cool it's on queue , what now.
idfk lol wait for 55days lol so that you cant refund this broken ass trash game lmfao

Anonymous
Anonymous

The classic stompy robot fun, now in beer and pretzels mode. Play with your friends against all the potato mechs, vehicles, and turrets and shoot, stomp, and punch your way to victory.

ILoveCostcoPizza
ILoveCostcoPizza

Pretty good gameplay with an average story. If you played old Mechwarrior games before then this is pretty much the same but with better graphics and destruction. If there is something you don't like or want some tweaks then there is mods in the Steam Workshop to make those changes. A good mod is "No Tonnage Limit" and HUD customization. Changing weapons on a mech also changes the way how the it looks, seems like this would be an obvious detail but old Mechwarrior games didn't have that. If you're into Mechwarrior and Battletech lore then get this game, otherwise wait for a sale.

ExplorerRowan
ExplorerRowan

Couldn't keep it from crashing, even on lowest graphics settings, and my computer is no slouch. There's clearly a memory leak somewhere. I could play it about 20-30 minutes before it crashed again. I kept starting it back up, obviously, because I wanted to like the game, but after the 10th crash in less than 4 hours, I got fed up. I can't recommend in its current state.

Dee
Dee

I can't speak to the gameplay as I was never able to get past the tutorial because of the terrible visuals. It's a Unreal Engine game using a recent version of UE which means you will have visual issues without using Temporal Anti Aliasing. With AA off entirely or with FXAA on, it breaks the visuals and all the textures have a strange artifacting going on. The best way to explain it would be grainy probably. With TAA enabled, this issue is resolved only to be replaced by TAA's signature extreme blurriness. FFX Sharpening doesn't help, forcing sharpening via NVIDIA control panel helps a little bit but with the extreme blur from TAA, add Depth Of Field on top, it's an ugly blurry eyesore still. If you play at 1080p and possibly even 1440p, this will be very noticeable and distracting. The game Stray has a similar problem but less extreme than this, I believe it uses the same engine as well. The only other aspect I can speak to is performance, which was pretty good. At 1080p maximum settings I was getting near my 165 Hz refresh rate with a RTX 3060, a Ryzen 5 5600, and 32 GB of RAM.

chevmech
chevmech

Refund please. Be careful, download time incorporated into play time. Spent 5 minutes in game trying to navigate menus. During which my PC fan maxed out 4 times. Never actually got in game, but steam logged my time @ 36 min. No thank you.

TacoTuesday
TacoTuesday

Fun to test different mech builds. The "hand crafted" missions are great. My favorite time period in Battletech lore: 3015-3049.

Keys
Keys

The best mech game I've played recently in terms of production value and polish.

The Co-Op needs to be totally revisited though. Currently the Co-Op functions less as a traditional Co-Op experience and more along the lines of a guest player being permanently slotted into one of the 3 other pilot slots that uses an AI pilot stat card. You can change their pilot and mech though aside from not being able to bring their own pilot & mech from their save file - they do not gain C-Bills/Salvage/XP. Additionally you cannot transfer over one of your AI companions to their control which may sound weird but if you're playing a slower Mech and your AI companions are piloting Light/Medium mechs then they will only traverse the map as fast as you (the Commander/Host) move. This means Light & Medium mechs will take a potentially lethal amount of avoidable damage early into a mission, where this problem could be avoided by transferring Lance Command to a joiner player who may have a higher top speed and an enhanced capability to direct your AI companions.

xianlouis
xianlouis

If you're a fan of Battletech, and have had that itch to command your own mercenary company AND also pilot a mech and lead your own lance, this is definitely for you. Specially if part of that itch is to play with your friends in the other mechs. The tutorial helps you out enough to hit the ground running, and the campaign gives you enough freedom to pretty much find your legs and keep going. No regrets getting this game, and I see myself enjoying this for a long, long time.

/dev/null/
/dev/null/

Technical mech sim... good career sim.

Gunlord
Gunlord

This is pretty fun, not much else to say about it, though the graphics are just passable and after a while the missions get repetitive, and the voice acting is very bad :< The main plot is sorta intriguing but the characters are total nobodies. Still, it plays very smoothly, you can customize your mechs to your hearts content, and it is satisfying getting a good loadout and smashing enemies with overwhelming firepower. I can’t complain. I recommend it!

jbacon302
jbacon302

This game brings me back to childhood memories playing mechwarrior 2 mercenaries. Of course the graphics are better but they captured everything that drew me in all those years ago

Mathiesin
Mathiesin

MechWarrior 5 brings back a lot of nostalgia from the previous games (MW2 & MW 3) with a ton of new game play mechanics that keep me coming back for more. The mod community is STRONG for MW5, bringing even more customization that will have you optimizing your mechs for hours if that is your cup of tea (personally, I like to eek out every bit of performance and power that I can).

The missions vary, and the enemies get more difficult, making strategic combat even more fun! Some missions require you to use the terrain and environment to your advantage to prevent your squad from being surrounded and overrun by enemy mechs and units. Additionally, diversity in mech types go a LONG WAY when needing to determine what you're getting yourself into in each mission. You have to plan ahead and strategize. Last but not least, play with your friends in either your campaign or theirs. I highly recommend this game if you've enjoyed the previous franchise or anything mech related.

Maréchal
Maréchal

1. Who is this game for?

I'd call it a passion project for Battletech fans, and Mechwarrior fans who've been waiting for an updated release for a while now. (MWO matchmaking is broken, and MWLL is getting older and older). Note that this is cooperative PvE, and there does not seem to be a PvP mechanic. There are also mods - lots of mods.

2. Should you buy this game?

If you are a Battletech fan with other people to play with, YES. If you are a fan of the Mechwarrior series of games, MAYBE - the story isn't as robust as previous releases (barring MWO). Otherwise, probably not - get Megamek instead (it's free) for your Battletech fix.

3. Should you buy this game RIGHT NOW?

No. Wait for a Steam sale. And if you do get it, get at least the first DLC (HotIS).

jonze54
jonze54

I'm hoping to get this refunded honestly, game runs ok until me and my friend destroy and enemy mech and my computer dies from it, i have a 2070 and can play games that are more demanding than this and have no issues. I don't know how people can actually play it without issues.

Gojosin
Gojosin

I. Dig. Giant Robots.
You. Dig. Giant Robots.
We. Dig. Giant Robots.
Chicks. Dig. Giant Robots.
Nice.

If you have never done a foray into the universe of Battletech, this isn't a bad entry if you enjoy action games. You pilot a giant stompy robot with lasers, missiles, big ass guns, or a mix of them. You have AI partners you can get (or play multiplayer for jolly cooperation). Stomp about, destroy buildings, blast tanks and vtols, dodge artillery, defend buildings, and most importantly, fight other stompy robots!

Just watch your damage and the heat of your mech.

Heaven's Weapon
Heaven's Weapon

Like MWO but with smarter teammates.

snookyDough
snookyDough

This game is super fun and incredibly well programmed!
The intense battles make for a thrilling challenge and the fact that you need to employ thought-out strategies keeps you constantly on your toes commanding your squad!
The amount of personalization of your mechs' stats and appearances make the experience thoroughly enjoyable!
The graphics lack a bit in maps and the AI allies don't pilot nearly as well as they should, but this can be made up for through the full mod support this game released with.

Joey
Joey

If you enjoyed Mechwarriors 2: Mercenaries you will enjoy this game.

Syrius
Syrius

Giant robots, 1st or 3rd person, pleasantly customisable, but mostly excellent mod support!

The community polishes this rough gem into something excellent. Playing with mods is easy thanks to the Steam Workshop, you literally click the ones you want, and turn them on in game. And off if you don't like :-)

For a tiny bit more advanced you can get mods from sites such as Nexus, tho other sites are available ;-)

OK game, worth the sale price, turned into a gem worth full price by the community. Highly recommended!

FenrisWulffe
FenrisWulffe

I have been playing Battletech for nearly 30 years. Love the world, love the tabletop game, so much cannon to pull from. I even find this game enjoyable most of the time. But some missions it feels like the developer is just trying to get you to smash your computer. You should be shamed of the AI for your lancemates MW 5. It is beyond atrocious. These AI lancemates seem to try to get themselves cored. Replaying a mission 10 times because your 3 AI buddies keep taking massive amounts of damage, or destroyed components, or just completely destroyed mechs, while I sustain only light damage is incomprehensible. Especially considering the fact that at this point, my AI pilots are supposed to be damn near aces based on their accrued skill points. I can only recommend this game if you plan to mod the AI behavior (it seems that most people are having trouble getting TTRulezAI to function properly) or if you intend to have your buddies piloting the additional mechs in your lance. I was hoping for so much more...

Gon
Gon

Get those damn subtitles out of my face PGI. Mechwarrior II is an infinitely superior game made two decades ago. What have you done?! Shame.

Dr. Dango
Dr. Dango

Its....ok.
The customization and combat is decent.
Once you get heavier it becomes a walking simulator.
Just kinda feels like alot of walk for a little water....in many facets.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Mustafa Kemal …

Uh play with mods and its an 825/1000. Without mods 700/1000. But that extra 125 makes a big difference. Its fun though. Music is good I don't get why people are so pissed about it. I mean the issue with the music is the lack of things to associate with particular tracks. MW2 had no such problem. 3 had no such problem (Though it also had a measly 2 tracks.) 4 had no such problem. MWO has no such problem (Though people give it shit for not having enough tension or synth. And like it doesn't even play during the game the music in MWO does it what it needs and you can associate each track with specific stuff.)

DAN-di-WARhol
DAN-di-WARhol

Get the VR mod & good game becomes AWESOME.

However, Game itself quickly becomes repetitive. This is the same single mission played over and over. Great thought it is... gets stale quickly.

CrazyIvan
CrazyIvan

This game should be better. The spawning of enemies needs to be addressed. The salvage reward system needs to feel rewarding. The graphics need better optimization.

It's not a bad game, it's not worth the price tag or worth of the franchise.

Wwulff
Wwulff

What a FANTASTIC time this game is !!!!!! Especially with mods.Cant get enough. WANT MOOOOOOORE DLC !!!!!! Give us the damn Clan Mechs . Dont get me wrong. I aint no Clan scum but i aint messing with no broke Mechs . Remeber Tukayyid 3052 Clanners. God bless Comstar xD

Solon
Solon

So yeah, horrible optimization in this game, but, once you get past optimization nightmare, this is an addictively fun game.
By addictive, I mean I played for 18 hours at one time.

Necro Foxxo
Necro Foxxo

I have to give it a do not recommend unless you're patient with poor optimization. It's a real fun game that runs decently but the enemy spawns(Fixed with mods), stuttery graphics (3080TI shouldn't have any problems with this game!), and the occassional "Fatal error" crash make it difficult to recommend.

Grebogoborp
Grebogoborp

giant robots fighting other giant robots I don't think there is much else to say its epic

Mal
Mal

Its's a nostalgic vibe for me to play this game again after years of forgetting this game. Some new game mechanics introduce in this game but it's still quite fun.

What I like :
- Sandbox mission/contract style have a repeatable or loop where u can keep playing after finishing the story mission or just playing the career mode (with inner sphere dlc) although can feels repetitive over the time but you're just a mercenaries taking a contract.
- Comparing it to previous MechWarrior, the graphical detail is very huge.

Most annoying and boring things :-
- Ai lancemates or your teammates like three stooges on battlefield especially when taking a defense contract/mission because they look like ultraman fighting with godzilla and king kong in the middle of evacuated city.
- Jump ship animation that can't be switch on/off can be annoying if just want to search a specific mech variation or weapons.
- Base game has only two main type of mission variants of destroying mech or structure and defense a base.

Base game feels repetitive and shallow, I would recommend to play with mods or one of the dlc or all of them to enhance your game play style and experience. There are some mods that can fix or tune down the annoying aspect of the game. Overall..boleh la..

FragAttorney
FragAttorney

I bought MW5 and played through it when it was first released. I was pretty happy with the game and I think that most people who enjoy the franchise would appreciate it. I recently tried the game again, now that it has a lot of new content and some expansions. Wow, this game has improved a lot!

First, the audio is great. The explosions have a satisfying womp to them. The aerial vehicles are super fun to shoot down, especially because I can hear their copter rotors whine as they are pushed to the limits. The chatter from other pilots sounds great as well. In the future, I hope that they add even more sounds/voice acting to keep fleshing the game and improving replayability.

Graphically, this game is pretty great. My computer runs everything on max without any issues. The expansions added new terrains and now there are cities large enough to enjoy stomping around in them. The lack of cities to stomp was an issue when the game first released and I am glad to see that it has been fixed.

Career: Aside from the campaign, you can play in career mode. Career mode actually has campaign elements in it now that the expansions have been released. Basically, career mode allows you to create your own lance and fly around the inner sphere doing mercenary things. There are lots of great mini campaigns that you can sign onto (or gleefully ignore) that are so much better than the actual campaign.

The campaign itself was kind of forgettable and I wish that they had tried harder with it. That said, career is a lot of fun so don't skip the game just because the writing wasn't so hot for the campaign: not everything can be MW3/4 caliber!

Overall: this is an excellent robot stomping game. If you have enjoyed MW games in the past, then I think you will enjoy this one as well. I recommend this game.

TheKingStu
TheKingStu

MW:5 Is a great Tank Shooter and i wish we had more variety in the genre Highly recommend both a vanilla and a modded play-through

Elicas
Elicas

Campaign is junk. They would have been better off simply copying the HBS Battletech mechanics and porting in the mech combat from MWO rather than trying to create their own.

Salvage mechanics, faction rep pip system, repair system, voice acting and character models are all significantly worse than MW4 Mercenaries. The game doesn't even manage to match the battletech lore correctly, with the "news" feature (which is legitimately good for newbies to the background) giving in universe lore updates as LosTech is re-found and tech introduced to the market - LosTech that you'll already have stacks of because the game throws out Streak launchers, Artemis launchers, MPLAS and advanced autocannons right from the start.

Critically, probably the worst aspect of the game is the enemy mob spawns. The devs have no idea how to make the game hard, so rely on throwing wave after wave of enemies at you instead. You are strictly limited to a lance (MW4 managed 8 mech drops 20 years ago...) so a max tonage of 400t drops, levels such as the last campaign mission throw 35+ mechs at you (including 20+ assault mechs, combined tonage of 400t vs 2000t+). The tanks, VTOL's and masses of light mechs are frequently just annoying to deal with. Pinpoint accuracy when they are elite rated (difficulty 80+ missions) and you'll just slowly be whittled down.

It becomes almost mandatory to have a full stable of 12 mechs and 12 pilots, as once you get the difficulty 90+ missions you will typically lose at least 1 mech per deployment. The AI is brain dead, and seems unable to handle anything other than MLAS and AC20 weapons. The AI will frequently advance to close range so it cant use its LRMs, and anything else is hit or miss on whether your lance mates will use their weapons or not. According to the forums, apparently the AI struggles with any weapon that isn't on weapon group 1. It isn't unusual for you to single handedly do more than 50% of all damage done by your lance.

While the mech combat is solid, it simply doesn't outweigh the sheer amount of incompetence and poor game design.

bc56
bc56

The gameplay is awesome, with beautiful destructive violence between titanic war machines that can stomp through buildings and burn down forests with a single blast.
But the outer level management sim sucks. You spend as much time navigating to and from industrial areas where repairs are cheaper as you do actually fighting, and even then the reduced price isn't enough. You hit a bootstrapping problem around difficulty 10, where your AI allies are no longer competent enough to avoid being killed every mission, and it starts costing more for repairs than you can possibly make. That point pretty much ended the game prematurely for me, because I couldn't keep playing missions where I won and took only light damage but had to pay millions of C-bills more than the payout to fix my allies who had gotten themselves wrecked in the fight.

wonko
wonko

Vanilla is ok, but once you load some mods this game can be a lot of fun.

neuralneurosis
neuralneurosis

Well I was going to play but the controls are just way to counter-intuitive and I really dont want to spend however long it is going to take to control the mech. Really wanted to like this and I'm sure its great if you are already a veteran with this control config but its just really not for me.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Great Game! Keep the spirit of MW2 Mercenaries. Low point: No Clan Invasion, so far. Hope there will be a Mw6 or a DLC with that line story.

althesmith1
althesmith1

Only thing I disliked is the inability to change or install hardpoints on mechs. I would love to see a C3 computer as well.

DelTriangleU
DelTriangleU

Thanks for the great music accompaniment, special effects and weapon sounds!

JustJolty
JustJolty

Personally, I'd say this is the best mech game on the planet right now. There's no other mecha game as real and as immersive as this one.

Jäger
Jäger

My first introduction to the MechWarrior series. Co-op makes the experience even more enjoyable.

EZcheezy
EZcheezy

meh thru excellent depending on some important factors

base game played with a controller: 6/10
base game played on a HOTAS stick: 7/10
base game + DLC played on a HOTAS stick: 8/10
base game + DLC + Mods played on a HOTAS stick: 9/10

the mods and DLC especially add some extremely important additions. the modding in this game is insanely impressive. I have never seen mods so well made and game changing before in my life.

must have mods:
Yet Another Mechlab Mechs
Yet Another Mechlab
Yet Another Weapon Clan
Yet Another Weapon
WAR_FX

nice to have mods:
Enable Infantry
HUD mods

crunt
crunt

its just so much fun.

i know that's not a deep review, and yeah there a few things here and there about the game that deserve a bit more attention from the devs, but thats not the point. the point is, if you like BattleTech or Mechwarrior games in general, this one is bloody fun.

Teqonix
Teqonix

I've been playing Mechwarrior games since Mechwarrior 2 came out, and while rocky at launch this one has turned into my favorite so far with hundreds of hours played between the Epic, Steam, and Xbox releases. The combat in it is fantastic and the mod support is incredible. The only thing I do wish is that the story content was more fleshed out than just text and radio chatter, but everything else is great. Highly recommend picking this up if you've been on the fence.

j90003e3
j90003e3

The game is ok. just that the AI pilots are stupid as a box of rocks and just about as worthless.
do not expect them to be helpful in any way. batteltech did a better job with game design.
the story line is lame and boring . the sand box game play is ok and the only part worth playing . the npc never shut up in the story line
and get on my nerves real fast. " if i could kill them i would!" IF THIS COMPANY MAKES MECHWARRIOR 6
I HOPE THEY HIRE SOME INTELLIGENT DESIGNERS !!!!

i give it a rating of 4 out of 10

9999heracles
9999heracles

Brings my tabletop memories to life!

arkamazanku
arkamazanku

Repetitive mission types on bare bones randomly generated maps mean that for the first few hours the game is fun but it quickly becomes a slog that just feels like playing the same thing over and over again. The game is also brutally unforgiving with your AI companions racking up huge repair costs thanks to their almost nonexistent AI.

As a fan of the Battletech universe I'm sad to say I can only recommend this if it's on sale. Mods help but any game that requires mods to be good is not a good game.

johnmlinn
johnmlinn

MW5 is amazing, stompy robot fun. The gameplay and immersion level is quite fun, as is building your once and customizing mechs. It starts difficult as your resources are limited but once you get past medium weight mechs and into quality heavies it gets a bit easy. When you have a full lance of assaults you are unstoppable. Nonetheless quite a fun game especially if you are a Batteltech fan.

RC-3141
RC-3141

This game combines the fun of ordering a squad of four around, like Republic Commando, with excellent co-op gameplay, customizing loadouts, and big Battlemechs. The story and voice acting leaves a lot to be desired, but ultimately, it completes its purpose of getting you into a big robot and letting you punch other big robots.

darth_wolf
darth_wolf

It looks great, but the gameplay is very shallow.
It get's boring very fast, I already have no urge to play it anymore...

To be fair I was aware of its shortcommings and originally didn't plan to buy it, but well I got weak when it was on discount, because I'm still a big Mechwarrior fan.

I can't recommend to buy it for full price, better wait for a substantial discount.

I haven't bought any of the DLC's, they offer way too little for the price in my opinion.
And my dissapointment with the main game doesn't make me want to invest more into it.

JudgeMage
JudgeMage

Sticking with pre-DLC3 game until mods catch up.
With Merctech I love being able to customise the mechs.
Found that ammo tracking and weapon degredation got very tedious. Always having to unship weapons, refurbish them and reinstall them became a real pain and detracted from the fun. Unfortunately you have to select/deselect this at the start of a career/campaign so need to start again to dump them.
Overall I find this extremely addictive - an excellent blend of exploration, management and battles!

trixelone
trixelone

The game is cool but the real fun starts with the mods, creators or which seem even somewhat supported by the developer so i would really advise running the game with overhaul mods like YAML

Deathvamp
Deathvamp

fun game to pass time and hang with frined's

n0t0ryczny
n0t0ryczny

I have scouted some enemies, they are very surprised. They are also on fire.

0utlaw
0utlaw

A resounding thumbs up right now, even an extra thumb if you catch a steam sale. However, it wasn't always a thumbs up, at launch it was a resounding middle finger. The developer PGI did absolutely everything they could to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. From lying by omission to their community, making an Epic only launch, However, that's in the past and with modding support and the DLC we finally have a fun and rewarding game.

soultaker411
soultaker411

What a ride from start to finish beat it today 08/22/2022 and let me tell you this. Buy it and stop reading reviews you are wasting Mechwarrior playing time.

Oniero
Oniero

Standard Mechwarrior fare. The customization is lackluster compared to previous mechwarrior titles, but still a solid entry into the robots blowing things up category of games. The DLC will help it feel more complete, and fill in a few customization gaps and game play features that honestly should have been there from the beginning.

Moist Biscuit
Moist Biscuit

Most excellent, funnest game I've played in a few years. Support was also helpful in troubleshooting to get the game running.

thebigmoe
thebigmoe

Maybe not the best Mechwarrior game but its polished really well. Mods make this the best Mechwarrior game!

veshtan
veshtan

This game is enjoyable for what it is, but can be exceedingly frustrating for what it isn't, which is well designed/programmed.

The graphics are NOT up to par for a game released in 2019, but given how long it's been since a proper mech warrior game was released (MWO aside), it's easy to forgive a lot when you're stomping around in a 100 ton assault. What's not so easy to forgive are the number of missteps the game has, that even a few years later, are still uncorrected. Add to that the laziness of the developer to issue patches with major bugs and then do nothing for months, yeah, it's hard to swallow.

Some of the more major issues are mission difficulty swings where missions of the same difficulty can be wildly different in actual difficulty. Drop ship exfil points that are over 2km away from your current position on missions with never ending constant spawn. (If the game can be programmed to have enemy drop ships key on your location and drop mechs directly on top of you, then the same can happen for your own drop ship, which means the developers purposefully did this to add artificial random difficulty spikes to try to increase component loss and damage costs). Variable spawn rates and positions that sometimes have mechs or vehicles popping in only a few hundred meters away (yep, still haven't fixed that either, even if it's less prevalent than it was). Inconsistent spawn mechanics where one mission will spawn waves of 4-5 mechs, 4 or 5 waves, then the next mission, same difficulty, will spawn the same tier of mechs, but give you 2 or 3 waves at once, expecting you to kill 8-12 mechs at the same time.

Probably worst of all, and the biggest issue, is your abysmal lance mates that show some pretty incompetent programming on the developers part. The game NEEDS, BADLY, a setting that allows you to turn off friendly fire, because the devs did such a sloppy job with lance mate AI that in many missions, half your damage costs can be attributed to your idiot lance mates shooting you and your other mechs instead of the enemies. Worse is the hit rate where something as simple as an unmoving turret will take your entire lance firing multiple full salvos to actually hit the turret, which normally only takes a single shot from one weapon to blow up, because their programmed accuracy is just that garbage. To top off this horrible bit of mechanics, your lance will literally bombard the hell out of enemy drop ships, that the devs knowingly programmed to be unkillable and take no damage, yet also knowingly programmed your lance mates to open fire on them, wasting ammo and heat in massive displays of idiocy. This doesn't even cover some of the other random stupidity like running ahead of their lance mates into the teeth of multiple assault mechs with the seeming purpose of wanting to take massive damage and lose components or ignoring formation orders to spin in circles or outright ignore enemies that are firing at them to instead lazily walk around as if nothing is going on.

So, do i enjoy this game? Yes, when everything is going right, stomping through in an Annihilator with 4 LBX 10 Solids and decimating everything in your path, including one shotting poor little Commandos and Locusts is awesome. Unfortunately, those moments are too rare while dealing with all the other garbage i outlined above. So if you enjoy mech combat enough to be a bit of a masochist, then yeah, go ahead and buy it, but if you're expecting a polished game after years of bug fixes and updates, well, you're not going to get that, because the devs just dont' seem interested in improving the mess, just adding to it with more bugs and issues.

Chrome Dragon
Chrome Dragon

This is the mech game you've been waiting for.

Jacketzod
Jacketzod

Big stompy robots, is fun.
Please add clan mechs, I miss my Timberwolf :

Corpse Rust
Corpse Rust

I cannot recommend the game as it is sold.

However, if you want to play with some friends and download a bunch of mods that fix the game then I could recommend it! It is a pretty chill/fun time with those two things involved.

But as a base game without 3rd party interference it is a janky, buggy, boring mess.

ronomann
ronomann

This game stays pretty true to the old mechwarrior games. nice face on a classic

lysinenation
lysinenation

Great game lives up to it previous incarnations! Love fighting in Mechs!

Kevlar_Hoplite
Kevlar_Hoplite

This is a fun game but has some very serious problems which significantly detract from the enjoyment that a player could have. In short, the difficulty balance from one mission to another is completely broken and your AI lance-mates are utter morons. There are other, smaller, problems, but for the most part you can fix those with mods.

There isn't much to say about the difficulty balance. It's just poorly executed by the developers. One mission can be a complete milk run and the next, in the same difficulty area, could be a complete nightmare. I believe the problem stems in large part from the fact that the vast majority of the missions in the game are procedurally generated and the consequent unaccountable factors that can affect mission difficulty aren't controlled in any way. Scripted campaign missions don't tend to suffer from balance problems because they've probably been play tested and balanced.

Sometimes you also experience a bug where enemy turrets exist under terrain and the friendly AIs just keep trying to shoot them instead of fighting the enemies they can actually see, which means you're doing all the work in that mission and it makes it much more difficult than it should be.

Your friendly AIs don't have any sense of tactical awareness; they see an enemy, they rush the enemy, they shoot at the enemy. They don't know to focus on one enemy until it's destroyed and tend to just switch targets all the time. You also have very little control over the friendly AIs and how they behave. You can issue commands but for the most part there is little benefit in doing so. The controls you really need, but don't have, are general orders to prioritize certain types of targets, target certain body areas of mechs of different size groups (this could even scale with the AI pilot skill level), and the ability to order them to either fall back during a battle or stay behind/with you instead of rushing the enemy (you can make them fall back by telling them to cease fire but then they can't defend themselves).

Also, sometimes you start missions standing right in front of a bunch of enemies and have no way of controlling that engagement using distance and terrain, which is just bullshit.

They should have put mechanics into the game to manage your company, like in Battletech - it would have been more fun. Speaking of Battletech, this game IS Battletech, just-first person and real-time instead of third-person and turn-based - otherwise, they feel like exactly the same game. The difference is that in this game your skill as a player, which you develop while playing the game, actually matters in the outcome of engagements. Speaking of skill, one of the most important skills you will develop is knowing when to switch to other mechs in your lance during a mission - that isn't just a gimmick game mechanic. You will be in front of your lance most of the time and you will also be doing the most damage to the enemy most of the time, compared to your AI lance-mates. Both of these things will make the enemy units focus on you, which means that the mech you are driving will almost always take the most damage. If you switch to the other mechs in your lance periodically throughout a mission then you can spread out that damage over the entire lance and reduce the amount of really costly damage you might take - weapon loss, structural damage, limb loss. You also need to learn to focus on destroying easy-to-defeat enemies first and also focusing on one enemy at a time until they are eliminated. You also need to focus on body part of enemy mechs - don't just shoot center-of-mass every time. Heavy mechs and assault mechs are slow and have big cockpits (heads) which are easy to shoot with precise weapons. That is always the easiest way to kill a big enemy. Whether or not to focus on the cockpit of a medium mech depends on the design and how easy it is to hit. Small, fast, mechs should have their legs shot off.

Another criticism I have of the game is that they don't inform you of important game mechanics and limitations, like the cost of traveling both in terms of time and money, the periodic cost of your battle-mech pilots, the periodic cost of your garage of active mechs, the punishing cost of upgrades to mechs, the fact that upgrades are stripped when putting a mech in cold storage (this makes no sense, shouldn't happen, and is a BS game mechanic), and most importantly the fact that the campaign will end in 3049 no matter what you do - so time is limited.

This game is worth playing, just know that there are going to be some frustrating moments. Buy it on sale.

Radioshow
Radioshow

you play it because its mechwarrior, but the mission structure sucks. its just the same random maps versus waves of enemy.

Dookie Twinkle
Dookie Twinkle

You're either a BattleTech/MechWarrior fan, or not. If you are, you've been waiting for a faithful mech combat game for some time. The Single Player is almost as clunky as as MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries from the 90s, but it won't matter once you power up from your first drop, or shoot your first ER PPC.

Graphics seem to be worse than the Crytech mod from a decade ago, somehow.

oneclipleft
oneclipleft

It's just not very fun. The UI is badly designed. NPCs never shut up for one second. Expect to take tons of damage no matter how careful or skilled you are. No clear damage feedback on enemies (they just kinda sputter out eventually). Doesn't feel much like Mechwarrior. Such a shame, I had high hopes for this. Back to MW4: Mercs instead.

mancub_91
mancub_91

I would only recommend this game with mods. the vanilla game has many flaws, the modding community has fixed many of them and the experience is far improved.

ShrekIsMyDad
ShrekIsMyDad

Is this a good game? I'm not sure. The gameplay is very repetitive and the level design can only be so interesting when largely relying on procedural generation. Mods help the game a lot, but the base experience is just that--base.

But with the Pilot Overhaul mod and the Kestrel Lancers DLC, the game becomes excellent. Picture a mercenary team made up of four core-members who have been with the company since the beginning, over a decade of in-game time. These four were taken by the jungles of Sarna, or as I like to call it: Mech Vietnam.

I lost my first two men in the first mission. Then I lost two more along the way to the climax, where I lost my final pilot. Some were dead, others were MIA. The pilot overhaul should have generated a mission to get them back, but due to it being set within a DLC campaign, their faces haunt the pilot record forever. I still thought the game would have mercy on me and tried every contract on the board when the game releases you at Sarna. In trying to save my men, I lost Jaguar, the last of my initial team. In addition to the personnel losses, I had about 25 million to my name, reduced to 3 million in combat repair and replacement. My company can't go on. We're insolvent. Mech Vietnam reduced me to a pauper.

In short: 10/10 would Platoon pose in a Black Knight again. Here's to Colonel Fyodor Patrichev! Shiny and Chrome!

Impressive Gopher
Impressive Gopher

Gee it sure is fun getting chipped away at by infinitely spawning enemies while being unable to hit them because you lost your main guns three waves ago

TinyLesbianRobot
TinyLesbianRobot

I wish I could rate the game as neutral, and I wish I could play Mechwarrior 4 with this engine and combat. Consider this review a 'recommended, but' with a heavy emphasis on the 'but'. More details to follow.

It's fun, it's functional, this is the best fighting in a battlemech has ever felt, and if that's enough for you, you'll probably love this game - but my god is it ever a poster child for 'minimum viable product'. What you get with this game is essentially a random mission generator with an entertaining-enough metagame layer applied on top, but the repetition sets in early, so it's relying entirely on the metagame to keep things interesting as you upgrade your lance, train pilots, and refit or repair mechs around randomized missions and randomized terrain that results in every mission feeling the same after you've run a few of them.

That's the core of the game's problem, if you ask me. There's no substitute for a hand-crafted story mission (though even those are lacklustre here, more later) but the mission generation here is unusually devoid of personality. There are no modifiers, no mid-mission twists, no changes of pace, no interesting or unusual objectives - it's all open fighting, all the time. The only substantial difference is in the 'defend a settlement' missions, and these are a nightmare as your lancemates' dumb AI compels them to stomp gleefully through the buildings you're supposed to be protecting. The consequence here is that the lack of any gameplay but 'slugfest' means that the only persistent strategy is to bring the heaviest tonnage you can field and make sure your right hook lands harder than the other guy's.

Story missions would've been a good opportunity to mix up the routine but unfortunately MW5's campaign is barely worth mentioning. The plot itself is a tedious revenge plot that gives you no chance to get attached to the protagonist's dad before unceremoniously offing him and expecting investment in exchange, and the same time, it takes an infantilizing approach to realizing the murky and complex battletech universe in stark, simple terms of good guys and bad guys that strips out everything compelling about the world in exchange for easily palatable action that seems afraid that the player might ever question the things they're doing. It certainly doesn't help that the missions themselves are only 'handcrafted' in the loosest of terms, essentially just a regular mission that plays out the same every time instead of being randomized, with a little more voice acting.

And a closing note about coop. It works fine, you can blow some shit up with your friends, but in a game whose core thrust orbits a loop of grinding, it seems nonsensical that only the host progresses in any way. If the participating players got *something* for it, something as simple as C-bill payouts scaled up or down to their level even, it would feel a lot better, but as it stands, either you or your friend is sacrificing their ability to progress in the game in order to play together.

TLDR: If you want a really satisfying battletech-themed simulator slugfest and don't care about variety, you'll have a great time with this. But if you want something more substantial, a better story in the setting or more mission variety, this is a step back from Battletech 2018 in every respect.

TransGirlMeow
TransGirlMeow

Oh no, my 20 year old mech habit is back with a vengeance

Fluffy Yaoguai
Fluffy Yaoguai

Plays like mechwarrior finally should. Leave it to pirannah -- pirana -- Leave it to small bitey fish games to make a solid single/small team co op experience. You gotta get used to torso twist mechanics but thats a given for an MW game.

snowcleric
snowcleric

Okay well it's like this. Buy it on sale, get the DLC and then mod it. This game will then do what is says on the tin, which is dish up a limitless supply of missions and Mechs for you to crunch through. If you're a serious Battletech fan then this is what you want. If you're here for a compelling plot and characterful voice acting, keep looking. This game is about running a Merc company until you're 80. If the near infinite amount of Mech loadouts and strategy combos aren't enough to satisfy you then go get some miniatures and some friends and enjoy Battletech the way it was meant to be played.

If you have to take just one DLC get Heroes for the career mode. A lot of the really good mods depend on the DLC but you can get by with just Heroes. And as for mods, well... they are pretty much required. YAML series are good, almost a must-have for the proper Mechbay.

SenorWTF
SenorWTF

Fun vanilla, but if you download all of the YAML mods, and the cheatsinks mod, you can make some stupid builds.

Sasha
Sasha

Game good
Stompy robot
Play with mods and friends

Anonymous
Anonymous

Loads of fun. If you like Battletech, the lore is pretty good, too. Just a fun game.

Areayea
Areayea

It's fun, good callback to the series.

Forsakentanker
Forsakentanker

I longed to play chrome hounds again and this game satisfied that itch. Because mechs are badass

IronKnee
IronKnee

Giant, stompy robots! Explosions! Murder! Mayhem! Invasions!
Basically, ever single thing that I've come to love and appreciate about the Mechwarrior franchise.

Zane Solomon
Zane Solomon

im glad this came out. its a good mech game where the weapons dont change in damage or firing speed every other week.
the downside when they added in melee weapons not every mech can use them even if they have hands. i want to give my cyclops a battle axe or katana just for the giggles. but cant ever find the variant that lets me equip the big melee weapon. melee is fun and i want my goofy mech configs that fit merc work.

ShockTrooper916
ShockTrooper916

This game is such an unsung gem. The whole process of building a mercenary company in the battletech universe is amazing

GamingTaki
GamingTaki

Fix your bots teammates. Have them act like my enemies. My enemies hit all their shots, but my bot teammates can't walk straight or shoot a target I assigned them to shoot. 6/10 on the game this is the only big complaint I have.

Freestyle
Freestyle

probably one of the best Mechwarriors, could benefit from new storyline or war maps where you can effect more things

Lee
Lee

I've only played the first mission, but this reminds of the fun I had play Battlemechs up through MW4. If you liked those, you'll definitely like MW5.

gordsnatcher
gordsnatcher

They kept the good things from the old days, and added new good things that they couldn't do back then. Nostalgic to old salts like me while still enjoyable and relevant to those new to the franchise.

THARN
THARN

Having fun with the game included first dlc.. no issues on crashes so far and using some mods.
If youre into this type of game with career/sandbox mode also following a campaign you will get some hours out of it.

Anonymous
Anonymous

The call to arms update was not ready for release and has made the game very unstable, frequently crashing and with a double soundtrack (plays the music twice overlapping simultaneously). While I appreciate new content for a game I used to enjoy this has effectively ruined it. Please do not purchase this update until it can be patched

Abysmal Dreamer
Abysmal Dreamer

Bottom Line:

MechWarrior 5 is at best a subpar, although recognizable as something set in the BattleTech universe it falls very short in many respects.

Pros

    • It's recognizable as a BattleTech/MechWarrior game (in style)
    • The keyboard/mouse controls are fairly simple (good for new players)

Cons

    • often buggy
    • poorly optimized
    • OpFor AI is stupid
    • team AI is stupider
    • controls are too simple*
    • maps and missions are all similar
    • too much "grinding"
    • lacks tactical variety
    • UI is meh
    • weapon "hard points" again

*Can't pick and fire weapon groups with the mouse scrollwheel, this is essential to the MechWarrior experience.

You basically have to use community mods to make the game more playable honestly, and although having unexpected events inserted into the middle of a mission isn't a bad idea, the way it's implemented in MechWarrior 5 seems like a bad afterthought.

This game is more like Mech Assault than past MechWarrior games, but lacks Mech Assault's faster pace even, being more of a ponderously slow robot shooter at times. Yes I am well aware that assault mechs isn't meant to be fast, I am referring to the usual pace of the game itself.

If you decide to pick it up, I'd recommend waiting until it's on sale. More hardcore BattleTech fans will most likely be disappointed in this title.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Stays fun. Love building my little dropship team.

Hand of Vecna
Hand of Vecna

Motion Sickness Simulator 3025.

I love Battletech. I forced myself to play this mess for 184 hours. Complete vanilla playthrough.

Tried dramamine, and some other folksy remedies suggested by the masses.

In the end, it absolutely wasn't worth it. I cannot remember a single element of the story beyond searching for some tech at the end. I think pirates killed a family member of mine. Frankly, story didn't matter in the table top game either.

Long story short, I ended up playing mechs based on the amount of headbob, or playing mechs in third person. The third person mechanics look as if the game was designed to be played in first person. I was constantly trying to enjoy their game, while avoiding motion sickness. Sound like fun?

Headbob that cannot be turned off. Great feature. Skip this mess. MWO is free, go play that.

Bodine Wilson
Bodine Wilson

I wanted to like this game but it's just too jank

lordslaughter17
lordslaughter17

Graphics and gameplay are very good. Co-op can be an exercise in patience, but is super fun when your actually in a mission. Somewhat limited, but it is definitely been entertaining with 150 hours played so far.

Ale
Ale

missed the mission feel in the online game,played it like old amazed at graphics,but no aim and dont like online gaming. this is back to roots,but everythimg improved,and a timeline,tons of ways to do what you want

Anonymous
Anonymous

if you like the Battletech universe, you will love this game

VOID_EMOTION
VOID_EMOTION

Mecharrior 2 was the very first PC game i ever played, and to this day, it is still my favorite game series. I LOVE playing this game and it lets me blur the line between perception and reality, the immersion is so good I did not notice a whole other person in the room with me for 40 minutes. So yeah, i would recommend this game to ANYONE that enjoys mech style combat games.

Aura
Aura

Throw massive mechs at each other and watch the destruction. It's perfect.

darkfirekeno
darkfirekeno

Great game, and rather decent on the customization.

chrisrogers2015
chrisrogers2015

Well it was a good game, but now they broke it...

Betty White's Gimpsuit
Betty White's …

Overall a great game for those who like Mecha. I wish they had a Gundam game like this. Still waiting for my Timbiki Dark from Fahad though.

[BC] xXdarkNERD420Xx
[BC] xXdarkNERD420Xx

Oh man, here we go guys.

I don't know what they were smoking in the PGI offices, but it must be some good stuff because they were convinced that this was more than a 5 out of 10 on a GOOD day.

AI? busted, dude.
Campaign? boring, dawg.
CoOp? janky, son.
Optimization? lacking, homie.

We waited 15 years, for what? GARBAGE. Modders have attempted to save the game, but why in the world does it needs to come to this?! WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS!? PGI needs this franchise ripped away from their inept hands and put somewhere nice where it can be treated like it should be treated: a classic franchise that's honored and respected. Big ups to the modding community for saving this half baked junk.

HephaestusTheRed
HephaestusTheRed

I would state the flak this game recieved early one was well deserved. However with mods and DLC's I would say this is more akin to an amazing game worth your time. That stated like how many of the XCOM games were tons better with mods. This is no Exception.

I've been a mechwarrior game player since I was very young. This game really was satisfying to play. Granted yes the AI is a little idiotic at times. So was the MW2 merc AI. Plus there are mods for that already.

dranor44
dranor44

Stompey Stompey robot time!
and the VR takes me to whole new levels of pilot fantasies as i crush some poor farmers silos for extra cash and find an ultra ac10 in his former garage.
!!11/10!!
would warcrime again.

Redblock
Redblock

I have spent hundreds of hours in every MW game since the first one was released, and I was reluctant to try MW5 since MWO was so obnoxious. I was wrong, this game is fun as hell. While this game is lacking some stuff as other reviewers have noted, its definitely a worthwhile way to scratch your "Skyscraper-sized robot as legitimate military tool" itch, the combat is fun, and the mods have made it even better.

Osprey207
Osprey207

My only previous experience with Battletech/Mechwarrior was with MW2 back in the 90s and collecting some of the technical readout books as a kid...

This game is good, but not great. I would have given this game an average rating, but Steam only allows thumbs up/down. If it weren't for the Mechs themselves and the already established Battletech lore, I would've probably skipped this game.
Complaints:
- Map designs are mostly too simplistic & small
- Missions are a bit shallow/repetitive
- Repairing mechs takes too long and it feels like there's too much downtime between the action
- Customizing mechs (weapons/armor/mobility etc.) is very limiting & unless a mech is perfect from the start it feels like you can never quite get the setup you want (there is a mod that takes it into much more detail)
- I was hoping jump jets would add more to the combat gameplay, e.g. you cant jump quickly sideways to dodge incoming missles or get into cover quickly--pretty much you're only able to jump forward/up (very slowly).
- Lots of the game just seems lazily made, e.g. the voice acting, the whole interior of the jump ship which is only utilized very briefly to progress certain missions, lancemates in the mercenary group you are building are just talking portraits that popup on screen in battle with no real character, traveling the galaxy is pretty much just clicking on a star and waiting for the load screen to finish (everywhere feels the same/traveling between major systems just changes what static portraits of employers you see), etc.

I pretty much play to find & build up different mechs and see how they handle in missions (sort of like unlocking & modding the cars in a Gran Turismo/Forza-style game). Community mods fix a lot of the games problems and can make the game what it should have been to begin with, but you shouldn't have to rely on mods to have fun in a game.

Fingers
Fingers

Memba Mechwarrior on SNES? It's that but better.

tcfunguy01
tcfunguy01

This game is a blast....brings back great memories....

nuttranger
nuttranger

This game is very disappointing.

Perspiring Butthole
Perspiring Butthole

I have played a lot of mech games before even mech warrior games but for some reason beyond me this game gets stupid difficult but like the 2nd or 3rd level and it just ceases to be fun, if you're buying this game to do some custom matches maybe its worth it but the campaigns are not fun due to the difficultyspike

diasho2
diasho2

This is a decent game but.....
For anyone just looking to scratch the itch of a good stompy robot game this will do the trick.

The good.
you can stomp around in a big mech and blow up or smash everything.
graphics are good
Mods are available that add tons of content

the bad
The base game is very bare bones and repetitive. without mods it gets boring fast

HGKR76
HGKR76

Simple, but decent Battletech experience. Recommended for setting fans, others could find it unispiring.

Lives
Lives

I waited until I finished the main campaign to write up a review. I will say that MechWarrior games, in general, are not for everyone. They are 1st OR 3rd person shooters (your choice typically) that are generally slow and methodical with a hint of business management (more so with the 'mercenaries' subtext.) This means planning out your (and your teammates) large mechanical battle suit with weapons/defenses that give you advantages with your next combat environment (heat/range/defense vs offence/ etc.) For those that like tactics, planning, mechanics, and thoughtful approach to combat, you will have a LOT of hours ahead of you in this game. However, if you want a quick run&gun game with little depth, this is absolutely not for you, hence the mixed reviews. Many players of the MechWarrior franchise have been followers since the mid 90s with MW2 (or even earlier), so it's not surprising to find a large cult following with such a series. But for those with new interests into such a series, if you have some patience, and enjoy premeditated destruction/combat on in-depth levels, I highly recommend you look into this game. Lastly- the lighter Mechs that you start with are typically more difficult to control by design. Give it time and the game speed slows down significantly, but increases in tactical decision requirements as you increase in Mech weight class.

Vindictive Ripper #Save TF2
Vindictive Rip…

I Remember playing MechWarrior on my dads Windows XP desktop in the very early 2000's with a joystick and thinking the graphics are amazing....Times have changed

PlugthruQ
PlugthruQ

88 Hours in, perfected game. Apologies in advance for being all over the place, English isn't my first language.

I grew up with Battletech. My father would come home, set up the table and spend hours with his friends either painting minis or rolling dice; so butchering a game this badly hit some emotional nerves.

To start, this is a carcass of a game. If you've seen MechWarrior Online, you've seen this game. Any other industry has a regulating body to prevent plagiarism to this extent, but PG's after $$$, not authenticity or customer experience. The sheer lack of interesting features in this game has been outsourced to it's modding community, which begs to wonder why PG wouldn't Open Source license a game whose entire customer base requires 20+ mods to fix bugs/glitches (like mission breaking stuck on walls/rocks) and add variety to game so clearly CtrlVCtrlC'ed into existence.

The difficulty progression of this game is based on AI, which might stand for Artificial Intelligence, but arguably, I'd call it Corporate Intelligence. The enemy AI will progressively develop snipping skills, through thick fog and across the map, simply because the lack of effort in coding made the mission more "difficult". If that's not enough, turning every mission into an anthill of Adds is the 'End Game', spoiler alert. The friendly AI is even worse; maxed out pilot skills are just funny numbers as the entire concept of the friendly AI is based on an If > Then script. The story itself is beyond horrible, any investment in a faction is useless as morality and immersion were never the goal of this game. As a Merc, you follow the same principles as a corporate office, max profits and **** everyone else. There's more lore in 3 pages of any Battletech book than MW5, but you just wait! DLCs will drain your wallet as you hope for better from this horrible company.

If you've read through this entire review, here's my golden nugget: get this game for free elsewhere, import it into steam and mod it until it feels like a Battletech game. That's if you're an old fart whose identity in the 90s was Battletech. Everyone else should add PG to their Ignored list on Steam, for their wallet and peace of mind.

Valkire
Valkire

jump on the discord and try it out with players

Bellu Prime
Bellu Prime

Great title in MechWarrior franchise. The DLCs are nice too, but for the infantry, you have to download a mod for it. My top favorite mode is Career. It is fun to run your own crew and forge alliance with factions.

Jemmer
Jemmer

The gameplay is great. Replay-ability is 10/10. The mods available are massive and amazing and so far no compatibility issues. DLCs are great too. I love this game and come back to it often for another fresh career or campaign.

ⓓⓞⓖ ⓢⓐⓤⓢⓐⓖⓔ
ⓓⓞⓖ ⓢⓐⓤⓢⓐⓖⓔ

It's a thumbs-down for the devs, rather than the game.

Firstly the vanilla game is quite underwhelming and must be heavily modded.

Secondly the Heroes of the Inner Sphere dlc, only adds content you'd expect in the base game. Particularly the sandbox "career mode": without it you're stuck in the campaign, so it's practically required.

So at full price that's £40 for a game that's dependent on freely provided mods, to make it look and play half-decently. Even at the current 33% off, you're paying £25 for something the devs expect someone else to fix.

Even the modded game is quite limited in scope and lacks variety in the major aspects: eg the various mission types don't play-out in markedly different ways.

So it's a half-arsed product, from a dubious dev, that's too expensive.

Lohi
Lohi

A good entry point for anyone who wants to try out MechWarrior.
With mods, even the most experienced player gets some good hours out of this game.

Seagrams
Seagrams

Mechwarriors doing mechwarrior things

Araya_XIII
Araya_XIII

The game lacks focus, and it feels as if you are continually fighting the game it's self. The games difficulty would be a completely manageable if MW:5 would give the players the tools they need. You're not going to fail a mission because you are an unskilled MechWarrior. You will lose because your are unable to procure the right mechs and weapons you need to survive the two lances of assault mechs the games throws at you in a single mission. Along with the 30 or so tanks, helicopters, turrets, and half dozen smaller mechs you had to deal with first.

Ladiesman
Ladiesman

Amazing game, true to the MW universe, but you definitely need some mods to enhance the experience.

nutbasket
nutbasket

Multiplayer co-op is comparatively hassle-free. Gameplay makes the mechs feel weighty and potent. I have not delved into the DLC yet, but the main game is very fun.

shadowfunhaus
shadowfunhaus

They apparently changed the game around, causing me to lose mechs and all configs. At this point, they lost me completely.

Panzerfanlol
Panzerfanlol

Annoying as HECK at first but after you get a handle on it, super super fun.
Haven't even gotten a heavy mech yet and there are lots of little nit-picks I can go into but when you get that "big hulking bad-ass machine" feel its the best.

Some nit-picks are:
how you don't have "modern" equipment in a "futuristic" setting (but it stays with the lore ig) (such as smoke screens, ERA, rpg cages etc as just a very very early defensive, cosmetic and simple upgrade to protect against long range cannon fire or LRMs/SRMs),

the AI is very stupid - the oldguard mechwarrior fanboys just answer with "cope" to this being pointed out or "oh you have to actually tell your lance what to do? boo hoo" like lmao imagine having to tell your long range mech to stay away from the enemy while you treat your other mechs like children too, its really quite bad.

small things like how the speed of your mech doesnt actually match the speed thats shown in the interior (movement of legs, sound, etc).

how your feet (the mech's) don't change depending on the terrain (ie, standing on a slope will have your feet normal instead of slanted, on uneven terrain your legs dont raise one above the other, so forth.)

It'd be nice in career mode if you could change your house more or customise your ship, these are absent. You cannot change your house / company name after you've set it nor can you change your logo. Very dumb design.

It'd be nice if was more.. roleplaying(?) ability too, like for example in m&b you can be a merc going from place to place, kingdom to kingdom, fighting and getting that dough but I'm left asking myself "to what end?", I think the campaign starts out with your father and your company on a planet and I'm left saying to myself "I want that. Wheres my planet? Why can't I give up the merc life for something greater like serving a house or better yet, having my own noble house and my own planet".

Its still a nice game but I hope the next mech warrior takes some of these into account, I would really like to settle down on a planet - a place for me and my (depending on circumstances behind you coming to own this planet) fellow lance members - and possible future retainers - to call home.
I know the more die-hard mechwarrior fans and the old-guard really don't like these sorts of ideas but expanding on something =\= changing it, it can be MORE than just being a merc company.

Scrodo_Saggins
Scrodo_Saggins

I played MechAssault when I was younger and This is literally nothing like that game haha. Only thing in common is mechs. However If you love mechs then this game is freaking amazing. I'm trying to coerce my friends to get it cause I bet this is a blast with your mates. the voice acting and story so far is unbearably bad. Combat is super fun however. I hope there are more mods to come from the modding community.

Sean
Sean

The base gameplay is passable and the only option for official singleplayer in-the-cockpit Battletech gameplay. However the game released exclusively on Epic Games in what I considered an alpha state. PGI dropped the ball to make something amazing.

The mechs themselves are alright, they handle fairly well, and the weapons feel like they should. Control ergonomics have gotten a lot better since release. The game looks alright for something that came out in 2018. However the vanilla game on its own is extremely repetitive, tedious, and the backdrop is overdone and uncompelling, to the point I have never bothered to complete it after the tutorial missions. The DLC leaves a lot to be desired as well. Vanilla Mech customization (which is what a lot of Battletech fans do to mess around) is also extremely limited. The game tries very hard to hold itself back.

A lot of effort was expended in making a dropship you can run around in that in reality does nothing but act like a fancy menu. It had nothing to interact with other than the story characters, and feels very placeholder. Most of the time you will ignore it and instead use the menu hotkey that actually has everything important in it (Mechlab, Missions, Map of the system, Pilot Roster). There are also completely unnecessary unskippable lengthy jumpship animations every time you move from one planet to the next, with no variation in the planet you're going to. Tacking on another half a minute of staring at nothing every time you move on the overworld map. Many people use Cheat Engines speedhack function to get around this because they are very intrusive on actually playing the game.

There is very little equipment to choose from when outfitting your mechs in vanilla. You can change weapons (as long as they have the correct slot), add or remove ammo and armor, and add or remove heatsinks. Thats it. DLCs added melee weapons you will only use once in a great while, and a few weapon variants you will usually drop in favor of the vanilla weapons. Being able to mod your mechs base speed statistic by dropping weight, swapping engines, or modifying your engine doesn't exist. Which makes some mechs borderline unusable (especially the Urbanmech) because they just cannot move and make missions take 300% longer than they should. It was such a problem they have released superchargers and MASC units to try and fix this, but they are limited use and can damage the mech if overused. Vanilla customization overall leaves a lot to be desired and feels half-baked.

As for combat itself, the AI completely and totally ruin a lot of the fun. The equipment and weapon feedback function well. But building for long range firefights does not work in this game. No matter what the AI is using (helis, heavy mechs, tanks, MLRMs) they will try to close the gap to within ~300m. Their aimbot is made so that when they go to fire (and it will always be the instant they see you) they will either miss horribly or hit with extreme precision. This means taking long range weapons for anything you don't plan to one shot from a mile away is LARPing. Most of the time you don't even get the opportunity to do that because the AI will spawn bomb you, or you will have too many things rushing you at once to destroy them at range. Again, mods help here. Short range rockets and rapid fire ballistic weapons win out everytime in vanilla. This further discourages experimenting with your builds.

Certain mission types, namely raid and assassination, are completely disproportionate to their difficulty rating. Defense, and Warzone missions are very laid back, you get a certain amount of enemies to kill and then you can leave. Raid and Assassination has you being rushed by 30+ enemies in mostly wide-open terrain. I avoid them like the plague. The sheer volume of things shooting at you means that the reward at the end, which will be comparable to just finding a defense mission, usually won't be worth it due to how much damage you take. Friendly AI is dumb as a sack of bricks even when you hold their hand. Not much to say other than they tend to waste your equipment.

All-in-all a very lackluster entry in the Mechwarrior series. You need to mod it in order to get close to a good experience once you figure out how things work. Misguided ambitions had the devs working hard on redundant things no one cares about in a Mechwarrior game. Like car combat games, its sadly a dying genre.

UPDATE: My experience returning on steam has been mostly shit in vanilla. Aimbotting mechs and enemy spam especially in the early game essentially make it a dice roll depending on what you face and if they hit their shots. If they get a hit they aimbot the shit out of you with lasers and you cant do anything about it. Frustrating and I recommend staying away if you aren't willing to tinker with mods.

Zoth
Zoth

I am a 45 yo father, probably one of the oldest people playing this game. I am a single farther to my Son, who is 14 now. My son got this game for Christmas from his uncle, so we installed it on his computer and he started playing. By the end of the week he had 24 hours on this game. This was horrible for me, as it was already hard for me to find ways to spend time with my son, as he is always out with his friends or just, watching YouTube. So i decided to make a Steam account and get this game to see if I could maybe play alongside him. loaded into the game, made my character and world and started playing but I was stuck on what you where supposed to do. I asked my Son for help and he hosted a game for me to join. loved it as it was the best time had spent with my Son since my wife had died. This game has ever since brought me and my son closer again and now we actually spend time together outside the house together as well. This game reminded me that there's fun to be had in everything, and it has brought both me and my Son many happy memories.

Screwbles
Screwbles

If the signature MechWarrior startup sequence immediately gives you a nostalgia woody, than this game is for you.

Fuklebark
Fuklebark

Not having played Mechwarrior since the days of PC-CDROM, I've gotta say I thoroughly enjoy this game. It needs mods to really shine, but once you have the right setup it's just... *chef's kiss* perfect.

Special shout out to the music for being great as well. When I run into battle, spraying SRMs and clutching a mech-slaying battleaxe, the soundtrack delivers exactly the right vibe.

Hood
Hood

Not fun at all sadly
thought sitting in a Huge Mech would be amazing but its just tedious

poomanchu
poomanchu

For me, it is both too difficult and very boring.

Grungle Snag
Grungle Snag

This game, even solo is very enjoyable but the four player co-op is where this game really shines. I've never had as much fun running a melee Black Knight with my friends LRMing me in the back with their catapults, and the Assassin running around stealing kills I worked for. 10/10 not even a joke review this game is actually fantastic.

Outhouse
Outhouse

DIFFICULTY 0-100000000000 in 3.2 seconds. Need to work on that.

BigRed Velvet
BigRed Velvet

The game its self is very fun with the exception of a few glitches but the main issue i have is the updates for this specific game always fail to install. I have too uninstall and reinstall every time there's an update which gets annoying.

Rogueelite
Rogueelite

Glorious and beautiful mech combat with RTX lighting and technically sophisticated gameplay. Skin-deep campaign that is basically RNG scenario maps with simple objectives. For a game without online multiplayer deathmatch the scenarios could really use more depth. Would recommend on sale.

Lukecis
Lukecis

I FUCKING LOVE MELEE- RIP AND TEAR, I PUT NOTHING BUT FULL ARMOR AND ENGINES 20 TONS TOO HEAVY FOR THE CHASSIS ON AND RUN DIRECTLY AT ASSAULT MECHS IN MY HATCHETMAN, ASSASSINS AND JUST OBLITERATE ENTIRE LANCES- AND GET AWAY WITH IT- THEN I SALVAGED A GRASSHOPPER ASSAULT MECH WITH A MELEE MOUNT, AND DID THE SAME THING- 111 KMH ASSAULT MECH WITH A GIGANTIC FUCK-OFF AX COMING THROUGH, NOW I CAN SOLO ENTIRE LEGIONS OF MECHS!

Ahem, with that out of the way- I wholeheartedly endorse this game- however wait for a sale, and ONLY play with mods and all the DLC, the base game is extremely barebones... so.... if you dont wanna play co-op with friends rip n tearing the enemy apart-... rattle me bones.

El C0RFucio
El C0RFucio

Enjoyable with friends.
Graphics feel great, explosion effects are nice.
In my honest opinion mechs could die faster, you can spend 5 minutes competing in dick size with enemies.
Mech designs are copy pasted.
Mech weaponry is quite limited and most ballistics only vary in fire mode (I am looking at you burst autocannon)
overall if your friend has WeMod and God mode on, it's a fine game to spend time in if you're bored of Titanfall 2 or just want to recall memories of Armored core.

MasterStrategist
MasterStrategist

Yep have me own ship Dad died I kicking ass now. 100,000 % better than the MMO that dosen't work anymore.

Fergas
Fergas

Great game just what i wanted in a mechwarrior game big stompy robots big guns lots of explosions well done devs.

Draglock
Draglock

if you like big robots play it :)

Jimmy_Jango
Jimmy_Jango

Lets be honest here co-op is the only way to play. AI is turd and stompy mech battles with mates is actually really really fun. Also Nexus Mods and Steam workshop will open up many more options for this. Or just play Vanilla like I do. Get on the MW5 Discord server!

I rate it: 7 VTOLS out of 10 medium lasers

skullraze
skullraze

From a Mechwarrior 3 fan, this really is a let down.

Bigems Binted?
Bigems Binted?

I wanna enjoy this game, i really do, but the amount of bullshit it throws at you from the very start is just not enjoyable at all, every combat encounter so far has been nothing short of frustrating and un-fun especially when you practically finish the mission only to get instakilled shortly before being able to extract

paganb
paganb

M:5 is an enjoyable sudo-sandbox. It does make me wonder about something more open.
Either way though, with mods to alter the perspective character, I have found it much easier to connect with the flow of the game. I do wish the game had featured a simple character creator, even if it had very limited options.

Repasy
Repasy

The base game provides excellent gameplay at a good value. If you like first-person shooters with a slower, tactical pace, consider getting this title even at full value.

The expansions, on the other hand, leave much to be desired in terms of content value. They do add some fun missions and mechanics to the game, but I wouldn't purchase them for any higher than $4.99 a pop.

SergeMan
SergeMan

Great fun, easy to pick up, intuitive.

Bristoling
Bristoling

Simply an amazing mech simulator

LCCX
LCCX

Stomp Stomp Pew Pew.
Similar enough to MWO and without the tryhards.

Baalzebul
Baalzebul

OK!

Now that I have played the game for several days, and after going through a slew of available mods for Mech Mercs 5, I now feel like I got what I paid for. Unfortunately a lot of these tweaks and mods could have actually been incorporated into the game BEFORE release, but better late than never, and thank you modders!

If you have played any of the other previous versions of this game (MW2, 3, 4) You're probably not going to be very happy with the vanilla MW5. I'm not going to go into all of the deficiencies of the base game (because other people have done that elsewhere) To be fair, Piranha did something right because we all have a game to play (MW5), and to play with (mods). Having worked in game design myself, I almost NEVER point the finger at the devs for something going wrong. Most games that are hamstrung or shoved out the door half finished are the result of management pushing producers to push the devs.

IMHO, Mechwarrior is a fine addition to the series, IF you hunt down the mods you want in order to make the game work better and have more features. vonBiomes, alone, almost doubles the number of biomes you can fight in, on the instant action page. There are dozens more mods that affect almost every aspect of the game. From weapons graphics updates to full audio make overs, to better missions in single player, new mechs (and a few old ones) , more mech variants, plenty of tweaks for NPCs. real glass for the cockpit windows, better weather effects, stronger tanks, a smarter AI, more realistic weapons velocities, better HUDs etc. etc. etc.

My recommendation is this:

- Try and get the game on sale if you can, and buy the expansions, if you can afford it. If you want to get the most out of MW5, I'd recommend having all 4 products. This is if you are already a fan of the series.

- If this is your first Mechwarrior Mercenaries purchase and you have NOT played any previous versions of the game, then I would recommend you just buy the vanilla version of MW5 and play it. See if you like it, and if you want to put more time into modding the game. That will teach you what kinds of mods you might need. Modding is usually as simple as dropping the mod's folder into the "mod" folder in the MW5 installation directory. (Read the instructions on some of the others)

Bottom line:

I give the vanilla base game without the expansions or mods a 7 out of 10.
I give the vanilla base game with the available expansions 8 out of 10.
I give the vanilla game + mods + expansions a 9 out of 10.

If you want to drive giant robots to destroy and blow shit up, this is your game.

Sir Jorbear
Sir Jorbear

Annihilator with 8X Pulse Lasers go pewpewpew

MarekK
MarekK

Played it with all of the DLC and some mods. In the beginning it was a little bit underwhelming, especially in the period between the first 5-15 hours, as there wasn't really that much new to do, and the mech/equipment variation wasn't very good either. But it really opened up around the 20 hour mark, with lots and lots of high quality scripted content and new equipment to choose. That's where the campaign started to work and really feel like a high quality sandbox.

All in all, it's much better than expected, plus it looks and runs great on my mid-range i5/3060 setup.

AegisWolf
AegisWolf

If you played previous Mechwarrior games, or like Mecha games in general. This one fits the bill. Between the updates and DLC items, the game is much more playable then when it first launched and alot of QoL features were added. Because of the timeline, you wont see the inner sphere invasion of the clans, nor see the omnimechs and variety of superior weapons they bring with them, but alot of the lostech weapons do make their appearance and the inner sphere tech is still good enough to impress. I myself have always been a "Warden" clanner at heart and await the day I'll get to see the Timber Wolf, aka "Mad Cat" or the Warhammer IIC, stride across the battlefield again.

Beethoven's Left Ear
Beethoven's Left Ear

It's not a great game, but it is a fun game. Feels satisfying. Mech go brrrrrrr.

Angel
Angel

big stompy mech shooting lasers at each other need I say more

Ishbalin
Ishbalin

Should release bug fixes and A.I. updates not DLC

drkarchong
drkarchong

The mod community makes this game amazing - get a few additions and this becomes the best Mechwarrior game of all time.

SavageJ
SavageJ

Played prior to Steam version, so I was on the Epic Game store (I'm not sorry, I'm a gigantic Mechwarrior/Battletech fan).

I grew up on Mechwarrior 2, and loved every single game afterwards.

I will say that this game isnt close to the lore or storyline, but it is definitely worth the love of a diehard fan like myself.

Noam
Noam

The basics for a mechawarrior game are done just fine. NPC design of story characters is good. Pilot NPCs are shallow in comparison. Voice work is a little over the top for a game which has not enough umpf in the actual game play and - to me most discouraging - the sound design. The soundtrack is pretentious, but not really bad and you can turn it off obviously. The AI is bearable.
Progression is alright. Story missions are alright. Random missions lack in randomness which makes them easy to forget and not very enjoyable over all.
By all means it is not a bad game. Fans of the universe will have fun with it I guess, but over all it is mediocre and the parts that are lacking are doing so in a not really obvious way. It is all done well enough, but nothing stands out, what would keeps me hooked.

I would have wished for a little more umpf in all of it. The base idea of the game is good, the overall execution is IMHO just mediocre.

jyves974
jyves974

MW5 is a... well.. MW4 is better. The best way to play MW is with a joystick. No matter what people say, there is nothing better playing with ForceFeed back joysticks that all new ones. FB joysticks work well with MW4 and it's really great to feel a hit, like in a real simulation. They are not made anymore because of troll patents, but they still work and supported by Microsoft. On that one, MW5 dropped the ball. Providing support for only 2 joysticks is really lame.

The gameplay is really like MW4. Not real HD, low resolution graphics, same kind of battles. The story is OK and could remind you MechWarrior (1989) where you can play Gideon Braver Vandenburg seeking revenge. You don't have tournaments like in MW4. The star map is horrible. It's huge, like in MechWarrior (1989) but you can't really scroll it and you can jump up to 10 planets at the time. And for the worse.. It's a game where you need to run inside your dropship, so you can talk to your favorite people.

Seriously.. stick with MW4 if you can. MW5 is just a MW4.5. There is really nothing new, simulation wise. All you get is You get a MW simulator and a maze for the price of one game.

Heimdall
Heimdall

With the addition of the offsite VR mod this game is fantastic.

Playing Co-op and it works wonderfully. A partner can drop out of
game and rejoin or be re-invited mid battle without much issue
while the A.I. takes over for them in the mid-term.

MaDJaMeS
MaDJaMeS

MechWarrior! What else needs to be said? Wish you could do more than just 4 player CO-OP.

Gremour
Gremour

Nice and addictive mech simulator (note that I'm only playing career mode). It reminds me MW1 a lot by its game play mechanics, which I've played extensively at the time.

skagzilla
skagzilla

Great fun, I have been playing coop, and using the Mod, Co-op Unlocked, which improves the multiplayer experience a ton. One annoyance is that it is really hard to view the capabilities of mechs, even one's you have owned before in that you can not see what size the hardpoints are. You can see if a mech has a Medium laser for example but you can't tell if it is large or medium energy hardpoint with a medium weapon in it. I feel like I must be missing something because this is very critical information and is nowhere to be found. The only way to tell is to own the mech and look in the mechlab. Basically forces you to look up Mech's in a wiki to see what hardpoints they have.

That gripe aside, highly recommend if you have enjoyed the previous games.

Decadent_Zombie
Decadent_Zombie

absolutely miserable experience without friends or mods, you are always in debt. DLC for some stupid reason is in game TIME SENSITIVE. that means you're getting locked out of campaigns because you haven't done the exact min maxxing needed to even begin to scrape by and even then you won't have enough money to buy anything so all those cool mechs are just window dressing to your repair bill.

I AM NOT ENJOYING THIS GAME, GET A REFUND

Anonymous
Anonymous

great game if you're in to the genre

Anonymous
Anonymous

adgrfsdffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffn

Gray Fox
Gray Fox

Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, a 25 year old game is objectively better than this game. Graphics aint shit, 4 has more weapons, Clan mechs and better missions, AI and game modes as well as a mechlab you can access without starting a new match.

Still, it's a Mechwarrior game and it game isn't bad, it's just not an improvement.

Animation
Animation

I was hoping this game was more like Titanfall .. cool game tho ... I should had watch the steam videos on the store page to have a better idea what to do ... really isn't much help when in game play ... didn't know there are points for destroying other stuff .. still not sure if I receive upgrades from just killing Mech or if I have to pick up or walk over their dead ... I would recommend playing this just be ready to speed hours of enjoyment. I know I suck at reviews :)

bronze_smith
bronze_smith

I've been waiting for a new MW game for years and I'm enjoying this one.

Lendari
Lendari

Nice to see this old classic revived. Overall it's a satisfying return to the MW universe, which if you're not familiar is a surprisingly vast and mature story line.

The mech combat felt pretty good. Some problems with the mech meta prevalent in older games was fixed. For example, each mech has a specific set of weapon mounting points. So every mech has a different feel to it rather than just being another (slightly bigger) box to fill up with as many lasers as possible. This also makes it so that some mechs have an exploitable natural weakness because they always have a powerful autocannon or a battery of lasers in a well known body location that can be destroyed. Which really brings the tabletop flavor back. I will also say that I didn't feel compelled to run a full lance of assault mechs to be competitive. There were compelling reasons to use medium and heavy mechs and even a Jenner or Urbie from time to time. Overall, I think they got a lot right as far as fixing some of the min/max meta that other MW games saw and overall this made it feel more strategic and true to the tabletop game.

The feel of the weapons are also improved over previous games in the series. For example, the ballistic properties of an auto cannon versus a laser are very distinct. They feel like different classes of weapons and not just the same gun with a different set of graphics. I also found shooting SRMs more satisfying as there was a little more skill lining up and delivering a satisfying shotgun blast of SRMs into the rear armor of a mech. Even the LRM lock on felt more balanced as it required some line of sight to work. So you couldn't just immediately send indirect fire on anything that dared to enter your radar range. Again much needed balance over previous iterations of the game.

There were some parts of the game that still needed some tuning. For example buildings falling down like they were made of paper was a little odd. Literally the best way to destroy a building was to drive your mech through it... and this really felt wrong to me. Likewise, I would have preferred some of the vehicles being a little more meaty as well. Especially if it meant that we wouldn't need to be surrounded by 10+ targets to present a challenge. Fewer, tougher enemies would have made more sense in some situations.

Overall though, it's satisfying and if you liked previous titles in this series, this will definitely be worth the money.

Leibowitz
Leibowitz

It's good with the Workshop.

A lot could be expanded for this game, someone bothering to write up interesting mission scenarios and mechanics would be stellar; Elementals would be interesting, a dynamic battlefield set piece with multi-phase branching battles would be better, etc.

Still, nothing else is the same as Mechwarrior, and for me this is the only game I can tolerate for a proper Mechwarrior pilot experience; oh, Battletech is fun, but commanding is not piloting.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Very fun. you can form alliances with other companys and destroy hostiles. I recommend you play it. its worth the money

Dio
Dio

While not perfect Mechwarrior 5 manages to be an extremely enjoyable blend of giant robot destruction derby sim and nostalgia.

This is what games were and should be! Not a microtransaction riddled mess filled with frustrating gameplay loops to force your wallet open.

I could easily spend 500+ hours on this game and I'm probably going to especially with mod support.

The things I want most is expanded sandbox mode with dynamic shifting borders and higher difficulty missions for low tonnage deployments (difficulty 100 for a 120 ton cap for example). These changes would really extend the life of the small and medium mechs which I find much more enjoyable.

superturboextragnarly
superturboextr…

MECHWARRIOR 5, or Battletech the Arcade Game
After waiting years for this Mechwarrior game to get to an enjoyable state, it's still not good. Piranha games has no love for Battletech, and it shows once again. Although mods make it playable and somewhat enjoyable, this game needs a complete overhaul to bring it any glory.
Unfortunately, everything about this game is trash:
- The mech models + animations look very similar to MWO, and those were made a decade ago.
- Mech cockpits\HUD\readouts are nowhere near simulator quality. Very arcade-y
- The environments are dated and lack any detail or life. Every biome is cliche and boring, none are gorgeous or inspired.
- Almost everything is destructible, but only with the same set animations and no physics.
- The mech effects on the environment, explosions and smoke effects are terribly bland or non-existent.
- Except for being slow, you don't really feel like you're in a mech.
- Campaigns and main missions written by hacks. There's plenty of cool Battletech lore and stories, but none here.
- Voice acting and dialog are terrible, even for an independent sci-fi game.
- Sound effects and design are weak.
- Metal-lite-cheesy-guitar-riff soundtrack.
- Non-campaign missions are cut and paste with the main differences being the amount of enemies.
- All missions have waves and waves of enemies that are mostly spawned.
- Tonnage requirements, repair times, travel costs, and the worst Mechlab of any Mechwarrior game suck any remaining
desire to complete this game.
- Slow progression turns this game into a tedious grindfest.
- You can't improve or upgrade your dropship/homebase, so it remains lifeless and inefficient the whole game.

Piranha games took so much money from fools playing MWO, then sign with Epic for this release, and then release it on Steam still in a rushed, unfinished state. The DLC's help a little, but it's clear that they don't care. Hopefully the Battletech universe gets another mechwarrior game that's awesome, but this ain't it.