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

It’s been 17 years since we’ve seen a single-player MechWarrior game, with the last one releasing back in 2002. Thankfully, this release marks a triumphant return to the series, and yes, I get to smash the hell out of stuff in giant mechs.

Who doesn’t like that, right?

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

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries takes place in the Battletech MechWarrior universe, right in the middle of the Inner Sphere. You play as a pilot who happens to be the son of a famed war hero. Early on, you’re introduced to a beat-up mech that you’ll take out for training maneuvers, get some battle practice, and then watch your father get blown to pieces. He’d been hiding a significant secret, and he took it to his grave. As next of kin, you want the people responsible to pay.

But not so fast. First you have to find them, and to do that you need money. Money means contracts, and contracts mean planet hopping throughout the vast Inner Sphere. Those contracts range from assassinations and raids to demolitions and more.

For those wondering if this takes place during the Clan Invasion, it does not. The story unfolds several years before that, keeping you busy dealing with the Great Houses: Davion, Marik, Kurita, Liao, and Steiner. You’ll work with many of these factions, and earning their favor rewards you with free mechs, supplies, and better negotiation rates. Side against them, though, and they’ll hit you where it hurts by charging higher rates for parts and repairs or offering lower contract payouts.

As the map shows, there are a massive number of planets and locations to visit, so you’re not going to run out of things to do anytime soon.

This Ain’t No Lone Wolf Affair

Sure, you can go it alone, but why would you? You’ll want a buddy or two watching your back. You’ll have to pay them and maintain their mechs, but it’s worth it. Having a couple of extra laser cannons on a mission never hurts anyone who isn’t in the crosshairs. You can recruit up to three AI-controlled pilots, each with their own skill sets that complement different situations. They actually pull their weight, too. During some of the earlier battles, I’ve sat back and watched my team wipe out entire waves of enemies. The more they do, the more they level up, and the more useful they become.

There is a downside, though. You have to look out for them in the field, because a wrecked mech can put a pilot in traction or kill them outright. You’ll want to pull them back when their mech is held together with duct tape, but sadly there’s no option to order them to retreat. I can’t count how many times I’ve called for my squad to form up on me, only to watch them dart back into a firefight half-destroyed. Good times.

Mech 101

The mechs here aren’t like those found in more recent mecha titles. They don’t turn on a dime, they won’t come to a complete stop, and most of them are ugly as sin. But they can take a hit, they’re armed to the teeth, and they do a great job conveying just how massive they are. Movements aren’t graceful, and there’s a satisfying sense of heft when you’re crashing through buildings or stomping across a battlefield. I was worried Piranha Games wouldn’t get this right, but they nailed it.

There’s also a wide variety of mechs to choose from and purchase. Small, nimble ones great for scouting or drawing fire. Medium mechs that are the jack-of-all-trades. And massive, lumbering giants that can absorb and deal a ridiculous amount of punishment. They all cost money, of course, money you may not always have.

Weapon loadouts offer a solid amount of flexibility as well. Autocannons, lasers, missile launchers, machine guns, and more, each with their own tradeoffs. Lasers fire quickly but generate heat fast. Autocannons hit hard but are slower and require ammo. You’re free to customize your mech however you want, but going about it the wrong way will absolutely bite you during a mission.

Here’s the thing, though. This isn’t just about going out and blowing stuff up. Your mech is going to take damage, and fixing it costs money. Everything on your mech can be damaged. Limbs, weapons, systems, all of it. Repair and replacement costs add up fast, and this is what causes the game to slow down at times, since you’re often grinding through missions just to keep your mechs operational. My advice: pick up multiple mechs and rotate them so you’re not stuck waiting on repairs. You can also sell mechs that have outlived their usefulness. Plan ahead, or you’ll find yourself scraping by.

Parts and mechs can also be salvaged from contracts depending on your standing with a Great House. If you’re a fan favorite, you can demand what you want. If you’re on their bad side, you’ll be lucky to get scraps.

Story progression is gated behind reputation, and you’ll need to grind out enough rep before moving forward in the campaign. This is where the game can become a slog. There were stretches where I put it down despite genuinely enjoying everything else about it.

On the visual side, though, the game looks incredible in motion. Screenshots don’t do it justice. Watching mechs tear into each other in the middle of a battle is genuinely breathtaking. Laser fire glows as it melts through metal. Missile barrages blacken and scar your previously shiny mech. The cockpits are well-detailed too. It’s the little touches that make a difference, and the longer I played, the more I appreciated what I was seeing.

Instant Action and Co-op

If story progression isn’t your thing and you just want to watch the world burn, Instant Action has you covered. You can drop into any mission type, pick from any available mech, set the difficulty, and go. Nothing carries over to the main campaign, but it’s a great stress reliever and a solid way to test out mechs before committing money to them in the campaign.

Co-op is in the game too, though it works a bit differently than you might expect. You need to have spare mechs and pilots available, since co-op players use those resources rather than bringing their own. It’s an interesting design choice that prevents players from power leveling through the campaign, but it also means if you don’t have any spare pilots or mechs, co-op is off the table.

Some Assembly Required

Despite Nvidia hyping the game as an RTX showcase, ray tracing didn’t make it in at launch. Piranha Games confirmed it would come later, though no ETA was given at the time of this review. Keyboard and mouse controls feel natural, and I never felt the need to switch to a gamepad. HOTAS support is limited at launch to certain models, but if you’ve got one, this is absolutely the kind of game that warrants it.

I would have appreciated more HUD customization options. Your weapon status is locked to the bottom right of the screen, and while you can enable a cooldown indicator near your reticle, it doesn’t display damage. Being able to reposition or customize the HUD would have been a welcome addition.

The build I originally played was rough, but Piranha Games has put real work into optimization, and it shows. Frame drops during heavy mech combat are far less frequent than they were early on, and more performance patches were planned post-launch. The Unreal Engine 4 foundation looks great overall, hiccups aside.

Piranha Games has done a commendable job with MechWarrior 5. If you’ve been waiting for some serious mech-on-mech action, this one is right up your autocannon. I’m looking forward to seeing the MechWarrior community dive into co-op missions and make some noise.

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