Early last week, game stores around the world published their reviews MechWarrior 5: Clansand while Polygon wasn’t among them, it’s not for lack of trying. Over the past few months, I’ve encountered some hardware issues with my bruised and battered gaming laptop. This is not unexpected, but remember that it is very inconvenient when you are working to a deadline. But that’s how sausages are made on this side of the Internet, and things like this happen.
For this reason, I have refrained from making the most harsh criticisms of the game since its release. For example, I can’t determine whether the creepy movement of the characters’ lips and teeth while chewing lines of dialogue is my problem or the creator’s. The same goes for screen tearing, low frame rates, and overall destitute game performance on my personal device prior to launch. Things are going much better for me at this stage – although it’s not uncommon for the videos to lag significantly behind the audio during cutscenes. However, when it comes to gameplay, the day one patch seems to have fixed the most glaring issues I had with the client.
And yet, one part still feels unpleasant to me, almost as unpleasant as when I first mentioned it in 2020 with the release MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries…and again with DLC. In particular, the game’s AI MechWarriors are really bad at being MechWarriors.
In my experience, the allied AI – that is, the remaining members of your five-person Clan Star that you’ve been fighting alongside since the beginning of the game – are virtually useless when the virtual shit hits the fan. I felt diseased and tired of watching them wander into my line of fire, only to be peppered by a stray Gauss rifle shot. Sometimes the AI character driving my missile boat will run screaming into close combat with a flamethrower before firing a single long-range salvo. When things really get started, they look more like a group of heavily armed children playing post-apocalyptic soccer than a post-human cadre of genetically modified super-soldiers. They simply eject themselves from badly damaged mechs and escape into orbit, condemning me to the same missions over and over again. There’s not even a way to save progress during a mission, which completely eliminates brute-force saving.
So even on the game’s lowest difficulty setting, I still find myself restarting missions and running through missions two, three, four, or more times before I get worked up. So last week I called up a few friends, let them download the game for free with Xbox Game Pass, and set out with a team of three real people to take on the game’s “normal” difficulty setting.
What followed was an hour of absolutely stunning action
What followed was an hour of absolutely stunning action. We defeated the enemy, crushed all opposition before us, and looked good doing it. More importantly, though, I found that the game began to tell a much more satisfying, action-packed story – one that I could finally find time for.
Until then MechWarrior 5: Clansalmost all of my time was spent micromanaging my AI teammates, hitting the “shoot enemy” button and hoping for the best. This is because the tactical command system in the game is extremely circumscribed. The game does not allow you to change your ally’s tactical stance, for example between attack and defense. It also doesn’t allow players to dictate what weapons they employ to attack an enemy in a given situation or at what range they employ them – which has been a key feature of both BattleTech and MechWarrior since their tabletop births in the 1980s. Instead, players have a circumscribed set of options: you can tell your allies where to stand, and you can tell them to shoot or not shoot at the target. That’s it.
But last night was different. From her direct-firing mech, Polygon’s Alice Jovanée was able to fire off shots with pinpoint precision. When we needed her to disable the enemy’s most devastating weapons from a distance, she did it expertly. Then, when her own primary weapons system was disabled by enemy fire, she was able to change tactics on the fly, moving in close with a devastating battery of ballistic machine guns. Meanwhile, myself and another friend fell at the enemy’s feet – all while avoiding Alice being hit by genial fire thanks to careful communication.
Later, when my primary weapon was disabled, the same friend was able to come to my aid in hand-to-hand combat, knocking down the enemy mech with a shoulder strike like a 40-ton defender.
Not only has the game become easier, it has also become more cinematic. Without the idiotic noise of the baby AI clogging the foreground, I could finally see the well-done terrain in the background. Freed from the momentary terror of watching my team get chewed to pieces, I was able to observe the tactics the enemy AI used to continue the fight. Taking a moment to breathe, I could finally appreciate the enormity and scale of this phenomenon MechWarrior 5: Clans it really is. This is so much better than MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries.
However, it’s not a perfect multiplayer game – certainly not in the long run. Firstly, there is no integrated voice chat, so you’re on your own. To play cross-platform, you’ll need to employ a Nintendo Switch-style friend code. Additionally, only the host can advance the plot with their own copy of the game. Everyone else is just along for the ride.
But I assure you that this journey will be much more enjoyable when you have several people on your side. Whether this hefty caveat is worth the $49.99 asking price is up to you, but if you have an Xbox Game Pass subscription, here’s a multiplayer game you won’t want to miss.
MechWarrior 5: Clans was released on October 16 on PC, as well as on Xbox and PlayStation consoles. The game was previewed on a Windows PC using a pre-download code provided by Piranha Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.
