MechWarrior 5: Clans

I've played Battletech games since the pen and paper days and this is my favorite Mechwarrior game so far. -great giant robot combat -great graphics -interesting level design -solid and stable coop for 5 -confusing but manageble upgrade and salvage system -interesting story despite it being about a bunch of violent, bigoted, eugenicist, authoritarian rich kids leading a devastating holy war because they were visited once by their neighbors and they DID NOT LIKE IT AT ALL. Good stuff overall.

A more focused story driven counterpart to MW5Mercs

Apart from the UE5 graphics and a coherent (however stupid) campaign, this is a direct downgrade from MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries in almost every way. In fact, it plays like a mobile cashgrab in most aspects, since most features feel slapped on as if just to slow down the player's progression and make them pay to skip the grind. [h1]Meta game:[/h1] Available mechs are limited by your reputation/honor/player level. You get an extra level for every 2 (later 3) campaign missions you complete. Your performance does not matter, but there are arbitrary numbers affixed to the progression to make it look like you're "earning more honor" from later missions. You [b]unlock new mechs with [strike]Kudos[/strike] Merits[/b]. You can't loot them. You can not have an assault mech until you're [b]this[/b] honorable. Your maximum mech weight is increased by 5 per honor level. There are 1-2 mechs per weight, more if you own the DLC. Each new mission increases your tonnage slightly. The total tonnage is almost always below 5x maximum available mech weight. Your mechs' upgrades and omnipods are purchased with Platform XP. Platform XP is gained for each platform individually, at a glacial pace, you never gain enough mech XP to max out a platform before a "Weight+5" platform becomes available unless you spend hours farming Platform XP in horde mode. For every run of Horde mode you get 150 platform XP for each mech, regardless of your performance. The optimal way is to run five of the same mech, periodically upgrading them all by 20-25 tons (with a couple mid-weght mechs to balance out the mission tonnage) Your research speed (because. you know, every separate star in a clan's galaxy needs to research all the gear upgrades on their own) is tied to the number of scientists you have and your science lab's upgrade level. The materials you need for research are looted from missions and you get roughly 200-300 of each per mission (plus any from caches you scanned), with the ability to redistribute numbers within your maximum amount. You buy scientists, upgrade levels and the ability to loot extra material with Merits. Your mechs are repaired by technicians, at most 5 per mech. You buy extra technicians and upgrade the mechlab with... [strike]Kudos[/strike] Merits, you guessed it. [i]So, Merits... You get a certain amount of them at every honor level up. There is no other way to get them. But you see how the game is absolutely designed around Merits being a premium currency you would be totally able to buy with real money, right? :D[/i] At least the horde mode for XP farming is free. [h1]Gameplay:[/h1] Your best weapon is the ER S Laser. Low weight, low heat, respectable range when upgraded, quite high DPS per heat/weight. Everything else is objectively worse. The Gauss feels like a potato cannon. SRMs are great but why waste valuable slots on ammunition when you have the almighty ER S Laser? You don't see actual stats after campaign missions, just a bunch of "XP reward amounts" for each of your pilots. How effective was the LRMboat captain? Eh, who knows... When on the missions, you are strictly herded in a direction and not allowed to move out of bounds. The bounds only change after some important dialogue has happened. But not always, sometimes you have to leave the area and come back for the game to witness you. You are limited to 2x zoom and that is final. No upgrades to improve that, no mods (because nobody is interested, I guess). On the other hand, you rarely have the chance to fight anything beyond 500-600 meters for any significant length of time, since the enemies just rush you like a Beheaded Kamikaze from Serious Sam. [h1]Final Thought:[/h1] Clans seems to be an attempt to appeal to the wider audience that falls on both sides of the tightrope at once, painfully so. It's nowhere nearly as freeform and deeply customizable as Mercs and it's nowhere as interesting and streamlined as most "kill it all with more dakka" games, as it demands following rigid yet pointless rules and jumping through hoops, but doesn't really offer anything in return. Best buy it at a large discount to play the campaign on Easy or skip it altogether. Unless you know better than me.

Scratches my Mechwarrior itch. The format is quite likeable and a welcome change to the Mercenaries sandbox. I appreciate the attention to the details of Battletech lore and the Mech gameplay works very well. Yes, there is room for improvement, especially with quality control, but overall the game is pretty good. I'm looking forward to the DLCs.

Love it, all three campaigns are awesome!

Amazing storytelling, Amazing design and overall an Amazing game. If you have ever dipped your toe into Battletech then you need to enjoy this game.

Hope they fix the crashes and Co-Op disconnecting between every single mission. Also poorly optimised, but otherwise a fun game once fixed.