MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

I am og mechwarrior player and love that this game is still going, thank you piranha

I've been playing this franchise since the 90s and it has had its ups and downs, but this entry is one of the better ones. I enjoyed it about as much as Mechwarrior 3. The DLC model is frustrating, as just the base game itself is lacking. I played a full campaign with the first two DLC and enjoyed it. I didn't bother picking up the most recent DLC as I find the succession wars era much more interesting than the clan invasion era. There's not much of a story, it's mostly a sandbox mercenary company simulator, which is great. My biggest complaint is that the enemies behave quite stupidly and predictably, and the game makes up for that by throwing large numbers of them at you. But I still had fun.

big. stompy. robots.

Mercenaries is a strange beast! The battle gameplay and missions are absolutely fantastic, with great pacing and missions lengths and a good hearty dose of boom boom, dakka dakka, pew pew!! But the stuff that happens outside of this looks like it was made in the nineties! But, the underlying mechanics there actually work fine. Don't be put of by some of the rough edges though, this is a cracking game and well worth playing!

Pilot Mech, Be satisfied, Fire laser, Feel bless.

In MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, you don't control the mech, per se; you control the pilot whose awareness of his mech's speed, direction, and position of its turrets in relationship to its legs are fundamental to success on the battlefield. This is a "sim" game that puts you into the cockpit of a towering 65-ton war machine strapped with enough firepower to level a small city within minutes. Outside of combat, you manage a mercenary company where your duties include hiring pilots, buying and equipping mechs, and negotiate contracts from various factions. The combat is excellent. Some mechs are better equipped for close-range combat, others for long-range engagements -- your skill as a pilot stems from your ability to maintain an appropriate distance from an enemy while remaining in constant motion to avoid taking hits. Additionally, your evasive maneuvering must be carried out at such an angle where you're able to point your weapons at the enemy and protect your vulnerable rear from enemy fire. While the combat is stellar, many aspects of the game outside of combat are rough. Mech customization is particularly disappointing. You can't swap limbs or cockpits or armor plates... nothing like that. The only major thing that can be altered on a mechs is the weaponry and even then the game designates the size and weapon type (missile, laser, ballistic) of each weapon hardpoint. This is in addition to an overall weight limit each mech can equip. The devs included dozens of mechs, but once separated into a handful of general roles (ie. long-range missile mech, brawler mech, fast burst damage mech, etc.), one mech is difficult to distinguish from another. When I think of mech games, I think of customizing, tinkering, and min-maxing -- this is below expectations. (Note: there are player-made mods that may add customization options and flesh out this aspect of the game, but I did not try them.) The campaign story is a generic tale of revenge that I did not find engaging. Missions can get repetitive. The graphics and audio are both pretty good. Nothing memorable, but nothing to complain about. Overall, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries has satisfying and engaging combat, but drops the ball in terms of mech customization and it's single-player campaign. If you've seen the trailers and this game looks interesting, I'd say it's worth trying, but wait until it's on sale.

Bought on DD, beat the vanilla campaign in about 70 hours. The DLC is really over priced so keep that in mind. Play with friends, it's so much better. The team AI is rough. You'll be at the end of the game and 2 of your AI are just spinning in circles still