While I can’t truthfully call myself a diehard MechWarrior fan – I’ve by no means performed the pen-and-paper roleplaying game, as an example – I’ve loved many of the video video games through the years, from MechWarrior 3 to each MechAssault video games on Xbox. I skipped the unique model of MechWarrior 5 as a result of, whereas it was by most accounts a good game, its content material was all procedurally generated. It wasn’t narrative-driven. And I really like a good story-first MechWarrior marketing campaign.
MechWarrior 5: Clans, then, seems to be precisely what I’ve been asking for: a narrative-led MechWarrior marketing campaign that additionally occurs to offer five-player co-op. It picks up instantly the place 2019’s MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – itself the primary single-player MechWarrior game of any variety since 2002 – left off. I obtained a first-look demo of Clans and actually appreciated what I noticed.
Clans casts you as Smoke Jaguar clan in, as common, the Thirty first century amid ongoing clan-based Mech warfare. You’ve obtained 5 teammates to work with: Jayden, Liam, Mia, Nasir, and Ezra. You’ll hear probably the most from Jayden, the star’s chief (a star is a group of 5 Mechs within the BattleTech universe, when you weren’t acquainted). When enjoying in single-player you possibly can both take direct control of any of them at any given time, or you possibly can challenge orders from both a rapidly accessed radial menu or a battlefield map you could pull up anytime – all of it in real-time with none pausing of the fight. For what it’s price, they appear moderately good at executing these orders when you go away the pleasant AI to do the work.
Naturally, all of the standard MechWarrior options are right here: soar jets, tons of Mech selection (my demo driver was piloting a Shadow Cat, although I’ve at all times favored the slower however harder-hitting Assault class Atlas myself), and many of weapon loadouts, from weapons to missiles to lasers to gauss cannons. As ever, you possibly can strive to scattershot enemy Mechs with as a lot harm as attainable with no regard to the place these photographs land, or you possibly can pinpoint particular areas of every Mech, reminiscent of making an attempt to blow off its arms or inflicting it to topple over by blasting off one of its legs.
Speaking of controls, mouse and keyboard enter and output regarded easy, from what I may see, and developer Piranha Games guarantees slick gamepad controls as nicely, which ought to please of us who plan to play Clans on Xbox or PS5. On that observe, Piranha goals to ship each the PC and console variations of Clans concurrently. Furthermore, you possibly can go for a first-person digicam or see your Mech from a third-person perspective.
While the underlying action appears strong – as you’d count on after Piranha’s already taken a chunk on the MechWarrior 5 apple – it’s the Thirty first-century sci-fi battle I’m most keen to see from the story. I loved seeing orders are available from Sarah Weaver via a picture-in-picture window as you stomped across the battlefield, and I’m keen to see the place this MechWarrior’s story takes us. Gameplay, in the meantime, appears quicker than what I keep in mind from the joystick-preferred older MechWarrior choices on PC, however actually not as speedy because the Xbox’s basic MechAssault video games.
It’s great to see single-player take heart stage as soon as again in a MechWarrior game, although the truth that you possibly can deliver alongside up to 4 associates in five-player co-op is a good bonus for Clans. It’s due out later this yr. I, for one, can’t wait to get back to the longer term.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's government editor of previews and host of each IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey man, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.