The Smoke Jaguar animation was fantastic. The Jags are fantastic, because unlike most other factions they got punished for their crimes eventually annihilated and reborn.
Dude... Aiden Pryde was the poster boy for the theme of questioning the Clans from within the Clans and thinking slightly differently about tactics, history and society based on his reading of forbidden books he had stashed. His story paved the way for the writers of this well written story.
@@anesvick She's the "thinking man's" version of Joanna. Sort of like a mixture of Joanna's age/experience with Marthe's personality and then some soft edges. I think the saKahn has Joanna's spirit and anger. lol
@@MatteoB-gx1bo He still didn't like Horse's use of contractions though. lol I think Aiden being a romantic (to his detriment) helped him see freeborns more sympathetically. Plus, going as a freeborn for a while an living among them helped him see their value.
Reading through the comments and being a huge fan of Mechwarrior 4 and Black Knight, I think I'll get this game. Good to hear that Clans plays like an actual single player game and not a single player "online" game.
The game is abysmal. Most people on here are probably PGI employees. It's objectively bad. I wanted a good single player experience, too - this ain't it.
@@nicholasgordon4999 and how is that supposed to change my mind? i could care less what people prefer to play i only care what i like to play and i loved mw5 clans just like i love mw5m i have both so when i feel like playing one or another i just switch games and done. Besides i was there when people trashed on mechcommander 2 because it didnt felt like mechcommander 1, i was there when people trashed on MW4V because it didnt played like MW3, i was there when people trashed on mechassault because it didnt played like mechwarrior and i was also there when people trashed on MW5M because it didnt played like MW4M. So i could care less about what other people think on the games i love playing.
Solid review! As I said in my own review; I see this as a great baseline. Everything that the game is "missing" or needs "fixed" can certainly come in progression with the release of DLC and game modes. I'd rather play this version than have to wait another year to get a more "complete" game. Also having the game in the hands of players will make that endgame progression way more meaningful anyway.
MW5 Clans is a game I probably won't play through again, unlike MW5 Mercenaries. I have hundreds and hundreds of hours dumped into MW5 Mercs due to the more sandbox game and much larger mech roster. My pilots in MW5 Mercs are far less vocal and have less of a story versus the Clanners you get in MW5 Clans, but I felt a lot more attached to my pilots in Mercs because of the danger of losing them. The ability to loot mechs as salvage in Mercs really changed how I played, and the mechs felt "heavier" in Mercs versus Clans where it feels more like an arcade game. Not saying Clans is bad, I enjoyed my play through of it, just don't see myself revisiting it much in the future. Glad I played it, but really only needed to play it once.
Same although i have heard that there will be a Sandbox mode but that's not till 2025, Merc's sandbox mode was very limited when that first came out in Epic Games store and was nothing like what it is today. Mod tools are coming in the beginning of next year also. That's the problem i have with these sorts of games with it's story line is there is limited replayability. I am wondering what line they are going to go down with future DLC's.
@@raevenrises7595 Is that really the case though? Many games have something to encourage replayability. HALO has the Skulls system, Battletech and MW5 Mercs will offer a new experience each time, XCOM and almost any RTS/4X strategy game has each play through feel unique, the Nier games have multiple endings, and that is just the tip of the iceberg with games that have solid replayability. A game being a one and done experience seems to be not quite as common as you make it out to be.
I've played the game and while it's not perfect, it's a good effort. It's been more than 10 years since we've had a campaign-based MechWarrior game. PGI did their best to stay true to the lore and storyline, I could tell the voice actors also did their best to understand the lore. While the graphics and gameplay could be better, the storytelling was top-notch in my opinion.
It's a great game. I thought it needed Elementals and Clan Armored vehicles and Aircraft to add to the immersion!. Maybe some second line Mechs!. Liked the mech lab especially the Armor pods!. Wish every Omni mech had free slots in the center torso!. The cinematics were Awesome!.! Was really hoping for that jungle planet that got teased in the teaser trailer would have been awesome I guess that was huntress?.
Adding a battlemech mechlab might be in a future DLC but it would require quite some work, Russ Bullock said as much. It's not just a matter of taking IIC models from MWO and adding them. That said i would love combined arms but i fear MW games will Stick to their mech centric warfare. Maybe with some mods...
This is legit the best game PGI has ever put out. Maps look far better, mechs look better, story and the motion capture and voice acting all superb. There's purpose to everything we do. Missions differ alot from one another, although AI still needs alot of work. I think they needed to create AI system like in Alien Isolation, one for each mech, then one for the entire unit in order to achieve cohesion. Thats the worst offender imo. After playing MWO, you really feel the difference. 9/10 Game. Must buy for any MW fan.
That's an impossible ask. The alien in isolation is quite literally one asset with its own ai programming. Not multiple of different assets. Nor do mechs work like Xenomorphs... Such a weird ask.
@@TimberWulfIsHere nope, If Dota AI can exist and beat the literal best players on earth, we can have teamwork AI on other games as well. MW has far simpler ruleset by an order of magnitudes. You just need individual AI (which will determine their mech fighting skills)+ teamwork AI as the governing body guiding individual AIs. Double Layers, same thing happened on Alien Isolation but for different reasons. Likewise it guided Alien's positioning though it was much simpler in this case.
@@TimberWulfIsHere If/then programming can do it, so all the new languages can as well. Lazy devs is the answer why AI is bad. In 2001 the devs at Funcom tasked a group of college students to write a script to get a mob to go around a rock and EVERYONE uses this script now. copy/paste. No thinking involved anymore.
I'm still waiting for the return of controlling 2 lances/stars from MW4. Agreed on not feeling like I was a part of a huge battle. I hope we can get some missions with that feel in the DLC or mods. Coyote Missions in MW5 Mercs showed that that game was able to handle way more units in battle.
@foehammerE419 terrible ai is likely why as 1600 tons focus firing on the players mech isn't fun. Mw5 clans is just as bad. You are up against a company and they pick one to focus on.
I didn't. It's the opposite way it should be. Literally every time I looked at the indicator I had to remind myself that it's backwards from what would be logical.
One thing I think would be absolutely fantastic for the ''Training Missions" section, is player created scenarios. (Probably a 3rd tab). Would give it some replayability with the only real effort that the devs have to give would be setting up the framework for it.
Like many on this comment section, I have played a lot of Mercs. What MW5C offers is an immersive story told through the eyes of a clanner. A strong focus on narrative with nice combat makes Clans a really fun romp. The game has improved so much from the Mercs experience but I must say, that game caters to those who enjoy a more sandbox-experience. I dont doubt PGI will continue to improve and expand l the game to add replayability and a better feeling of progression.
I think it was fantastic to get a campaign focused game after all this time. Felt so much like the earlier editions all the way back to MW2, in the best way. Story and character rather than 'here is sandbox go nuts'. Keen to see what if any DLC drops.
I think it would make alot of sense to go into different clans perspectives for dlc because that way they could add some other clan mechs we didn't get to see
My biggest gripe is that your sibko act like whiny, sarcastic teenagers instead of disciplined chid soldiers. And smoke Jaguar is the last class that would tolerate any of that nonsense. It would have made more sense for these characters to act like SS soldiers. Disciplined, hateful towards spheroids, and aggressive broaching on suicidal.
I don't think we see in the fiction any smoke Jaguar sibkin or freshly-made warrior, but for sure, even Jade Falcon cadets, who might be the second or third more brutal clan, are still portrayed in the novels like actually being human. if you read the novels about the upbringing of Aidan Pryde and his fellow warriors like Horse, they don't feel that different from Jayden and Liam in their interactions, even if they didn't grow up in the same sibko and they were trueborn and freeborn.
Having watched the entire playthrough by Baradul to me this is one deviation I fully understand. With them beginning like whiny teenagers at least we got to see them change and "grow" as characters throughout the story.
The intention was probably to make them more relatable, and less tight-ass and arrogant like Clan warriors have been portrayed before. Can't have a story that works if everyone despises the main characters.
I expect only 2 things. Sometimes when I shoot enemy mech, the mech does not respond and I do not mean the powered down mechs. And as U mentioned, some equipment is fixed and can not be removed/replaced. Keep the fixed armor and structe but unlock fixed MASC, fixed DHS and fixed JJ.
I know people are upset about the Trial of Position, and honestly, I can agree, but the reason why has to do with a lore reason. From what I understand, if you get 3 or more kills, you become a galaxy commander, which as I understand it, would basically rewrite the whole plot of the game.
3 kills Is star captain, the max rank you can achieve. The host knows, i'm sure ;) i actually have no issue with It, since the trailer i already know how that was going down. The trial of position is literally my favorite mission to replay! I'd love to see more of clan rituals
@@MatteoB-gx1boLorewise some times two warrior are tested at the same time, which means that you can get more than 3 kills if you are willing to break zellbringen.
I really like the game. I thought the multiple story arcs was really neat, and the multiplayer is a great feature for handling the harder difficulties. I like the scaled down mechlab, and think this adds to the limited capabilities of the Clans to adapt to inner sphere warfare. Plus, nobody like the clan. I think works in the game’s favor, though, as you have the ability to see into the rigidity beyond the stories in the books and tv series (both of which I was a fan).
I thought this was very good. I would love for a roguelite version of operation revival where you are a star progressing through the invasion and you have an end date. Start the game and you get the line "the invasion will fail" you have to pick a clan and a star and you get certain mechs and ammo and you only get refits and repairs from how you progress. You can die at any point and the only thing that carries over is your pilot experience and perhaps a prestige that unlocks chassis
The game overall is good, MW5:Mercs felts souless by comparison. But Clans is far from perfect, but it needs some tweaks and some sort of mode to add replability. **edit I am honestly not really sure where they go with DLC leading up to the game I was imagining DLC would be the other Clans, but after playing I am not sure they can do that in a timely manor to make it viable for DLC
Despite it's flaws, I've really enjoyed this game. You know what I really miss from the MW4 days, thiugh? Passive sensors. It allowed a much higher degree of stealth options, which I used often.
Personally I wouldn’t mind a new take on the Mechwarrior 2 franchise with the team that made this game. Starting with the Wolf/Falcon Refusal War. Could add some great cinematic scenes for that game.
An incredible game for anyone who loves the lore and particularly the clan culture. For a non lore junkie this might be an OK game and nothing else, but it's also the best game for a newbie to become interested and immersed in the Battletech universe. It took them like 20 years but finally PGI made a great game.
Best PGI game i know. MWO is still a great game but it has its weakness. Mw5 mercs is okish And clans is as said the best PGI game so far. They really delivered with this game
Looking at it from a more linear perspective.... but the game doesnt have nearly ther same replayability as MW5 mercs, objectively speaking. While MW5 mercs had a very mediocre story really, clans is way better in that department imo. Clans isnt a sandboxy game like mercs is. There isn't much there to replay.
Yeah, Clans is by far the best of the bunch! Between replayability, all the options, and mods... Mercs is a much much better investment. I get 20 hours with Clans, and 200+ with Mercs... But Clans is a much more complete package at what it was meant to be.
I think the Yuichi story doesn’t fit with Clan Smoke Jaguar. Clan wolf sure. But the Smoke Jaguars would never let a guy who’s not true born become a warrior
For the DLCs, i would love to play with the Wolves BUT it would makes sense to play trough Tukayyid, even if you know it's a losing fight. The progression could have improved by having only honor and do a nod to bidding by giving the player more honor points to unlock and buy new mechs , weapons and camos by dropping with lower tonnage mechs and give more of a challenge as well.
Pilot skills probably should have been made assignable as new game + perk. Further, there is also the possibility of auto learning pilot learning where the more time you give the pilot with a certain weapon they themselves start unlocking proficiency/perks with those weapons(cool down/range/damage) and if you're not careful you can create a one dimensional pilot. Conversely you can purposely make a pilot really good with some weapons. Just a thought.
I wish they had brought a YAML style Mech Lab to the game, rather than what they had. Also, I wish they had more mechs, like Stone Rhino, Kodiak, etc. They are probably going to add that in future DLC.
Do you have to use the Simpod to replay missions? Can you not reselect a mission from Mission Central tab to replay a mission and possibly earn those rewards again?
And you can use the simpod to complete frame milestones (kill x heavy mechs, kill x vehicles, etc) which you can use to unlock omnipods and upgrade aspects of the frame (max speed, acceleration, turn speed, torso turn speed - very imporant).
Amazing game and I’m definitely wanting more smoke jag content but would be interested in playing as clan wolf and I really want to see infantry and elementals or pilot an elemental and I know many people would make the argument that infantry wouldn’t be much of a challenge but in numbers or in ambush, a few infantry with missile launchers could strip some armour and grab your attention away from the spheroid surats charging at you with a battle axe, I think the game incorporating a dlc with that sort of tactical option would be interesting and make for some difficult situations especially in some of the small cities
Pretty much only the Warrior castes of the Clans frown on the use of contractions. This is shown in the Jade Pheonix Trilogy by the Trueborns being offended when they hear freeborns from the Tech Caste use contractions freely. Even freeborn warriors use contractions at the pain of Trueborn anger and sense of discipline. Most freeborn warriors learn to curb contractions whenever they're around trueborn warriors (officers especially). The fact that the automatic curse of "you speak like a freeborn" whenever contractions are used shows that other castes do use them.
@@mementomori771 The Jade Falcons are too, but the other castes use contradictions. We just don't see the other castes very much and get the story from the warrior caste pov.
I expected more freedom in how you can approach each mission. Usually for every task there's the ritual biding before and the bravest with the least tonnage gets the job but it's a fine line between brave and brazen. Also the way the missions unfold during the storyline only knows one way: more tonnage. There are no side missions, scout, recon, escort, sabotage,... it's just max tonnage full power all in and destroy all and everything on every mission. There could have been so much more with little effort. Like moral decisions, spare or kill downed enemies, take the fight through a city or evade it to spare civilian casualities. Gameplay is good but after like half of the campaign it's clear that the best strategy is distance. Just go in with a ppc boat and take them out. It maybe lore accurate for the advanced ER clan tech but isn't it just the intriguing part of the invasion and clash of cultures, that the clanners are shocked by the dishonorful way the inner sphere fights and on the other hand the spheroids are desperate because they are completely outclassed on the open field and have to resort to ambushes and guerilla tactics?
I don't think you can tell in the first mission when you're going to get an affinity but I'm looking at my screen and it tells me how many more skill points I need to obtain before my next affinity
I enjoyed mw5 clans...it was nice to play the invaders...but as im inner sphere forever id like to play the defenders :-) i do think a conquest mode with more mechs (some second line ones would be nice) and a tactical inner spher map where you can choose where to attack and get to bid what youre sending would give this game more longevity :-)
Regarding mech unlocks and honor use etc: I think they should have just allowed ungated access to all mech purchases. Yeah when you first play MW/BT games you wanna just stomp around in a 100t mech with 12 gauss rifles but most people eventually outgrow that and find a play style that is their own. I like fast heavies that are built to brawl, some people like medium jump capable strikers etc. I dislike the system of making weight progression a linear grind. I'm the type to drop 250 tons whether it's a 100 or 400 recommendation in mercs. Just let people pick the play style they enjoy, add a drop weight system that gives a buff or nerf to honor award and turn honor into a currency for repairs, callins etc like you say. If I wanna do the first mission with 5 Dire Wolves, or the last mission with 5 Adders, that should be on me in a single player game.
Btw, while i love the stormcrow, the summoner does have jumpjets and especially the hellbringer has ECM, which is very powerful according to some players. If you have high evasion using a fast Gargoyle or a faster Executioner with MASC makes sense and it's lot of fun. The dire wolf may be the strongest in terms of firepower and armor but it's one of the most boring, especially when you have to wait for a star full of them... And feels cheesy😅
The amount of Mech XP was insufficient for all the Omni slots and the Mech upgrades. Really annoying. Also, I still contest that Duke Eric Dresari had a cameo in this game. ;)
The whole idea is that if you want to fully level up a mech you need to focus on it. If you could max out all the mechs you wanted in a single playthrough that would be bad design.
@@raevenrises7595 That is certainly one take. Another take is: most people will only play a game like this once and never touch it again. Since this is a game on rails with no sandbox or multiplayer, it's pretty much a one and done experience. There is no procedural generation, no nothing. You're playing the exact same thing every single time. Meaning the only thing you can change is your mechs. That's not reason enough to bring a player back.
@@raifsevrence why come back? What's wrong with enjoying the game and moving on? Y'know, like most people do with games? "It ends" is not a valid criticism.
Very good story and a good game. For a clan fan the Story can not be much better. Only the fakt that the firemoth and the ice ferred are missing was a disappointment for me
I LOVEDDDD the game. It didn't infuriate me like initial drop of mw5: mercs which I later put 900 hours into. What mercs lacked in story, clans wayyyyy supercedes. I loved the story, both of them. The leveling system needs some work. You have way too much money so you never have any economy issues. I've played through 4 times on expert and you can literally just keep buying replacement mechs if you don't have techs available. Also the mech roster was shockingly small, but if you account for each mech having diff load outs(omni) each chassis is 3-5 diff mechs. Still, I'd have wanted unlockable mechs through achievements or discovery. Blah blah I could go on. Bottom line I loved the game.
the campaign is fun and a much needed focus for PGI, but i do hope they compromise and incorporate a Mercs-style sandbox later to give this game more legs. not sure when they should set it (or if they should just set lore as a secondary priority and let you fanfic/powergame from either Clan or IS perspective to heart's content). only two 'complaints'. one that you mention: the tabletop balancing didnt work for MW5M and it doesnt work here in a real time shooter. armor is still king and whatever mech lets you stack ER-S or MPL while filling crit slots with armor is the way to go (granted you challenge yourself to only use stock omnipod loadouts, but that still leaves certain mechs as clear outliers). its slightly more balanced in Mercs in this regard because your armor is limited by crit slots rather than free tonnage, but the tradeoff there is that there are clearly tiers of mechs that have way more useful crit setups than others. the other is that there needs to be more AI commands/behavior. one advantage of Clan over IS is range, and i found if you tell the starmates to attack, they tend to knife fight lol. the alternative is you set them to guard, but then they stand still and lose alot of their evasion bonus. would be nice if you could set optimal strafe range per character (by least 100m increments or something) so that they would try to stay at cruising speed 400m away from their target for example.
I don't understand why PGI didn't make ECM units and AMS installable in every mech like Active Probes are. In the Simpod there isn't some way to skip the dialog, which on timed missions actually can prevent you from advancing until the characters get done with the dialog, very annoying. Otherwise I really enjoy the game.
The sell button is there so your buddy can accidentally sell 2 of your madcats when he meant to purchase 2, forcing you to redo all of your customizations. No, I'm not mad why are you asking?
The Executioner must be the most frustrating mech in the game to advance. 95 ton mech with a 380 class engine, jump jets and MASC. So much tonnage devoted to speed and manueverablity. Which would be fine, if the mech could be loaded up with heavy hitting close in weapons. But it's set up with a Gauss (not enough slots for an AC 20) 2 1 slot ballistic slots, and 2 2 slot energy slots. So basically, other then the two 1 slots ballistic which mostly means machine guns (which are terrible) all long range weapons. I think this mech could be decent with some of the other omnipods, but with the core pod it is terrible.
Jump sniping with the gauss and double ERLL is worth anything. And you can't do that with the slow, boring Dire Wolf ;) good luck also getting out of enemy fire and exploiting your evasion skill 😉
I think the Trial of Position 3rd match was handled really well. I took some damage from the first two fights. I worried about losing an arm because that Summoner Prime only has 3 weapons, and limiting ammunition - 2 of those weapons in the arms. I immediately gauged my surroundings to come up with a strategy that I could try to cheese the next AI opponent with. ...And then it became a cutscene instead. My twitch reaction was the cutscene harming my immersion through forcing a result, but then I realized it was the 'cheese strategy' mindset that had subtly cracked my immersion already; the cutscene was much better - it was an unexpected jolt back toward immersion. As gamers, it's been very poorly implemented all the time; there's a wide history of easy fights that are then lost via cutscene. I believe this has biased us against the idea entirely (rather than judging when it's actually done effectively or not).
1 kill they act like you got none, and he calls you a laborer, kinda offputting considering he already told you in the mission you have enough to be a warrior, but it's required you become star commander so oh well.
If you fail to get the 2 kills, it is the same as though you got no kills and treats the mission as a failure. I know because I did terrible using a gamepad the first time I did it, switched back to keyboard and mouse and didn't have a problem.
I think its a good game as a revitalization of BattleTech as a whole. Sure the animations are goofy, very goofy, but I like goofy so I give it a pass on that. I can understand hardcore players of the franchise want a bigger roster of mechs, but for a story narrative game like this, I think its ok. Granted it could've used a couple more mechs for more variety in your lance..I mean, Star, but with a focus on story and spectacle, its a decent pass, and is one that can ease new players in that have never heard of or played any MechWarrior or BattleTech game. Its not perfect by any means, but like Tex says, its good enough. I believe Piranha is trying something new they have never done before and though Clans is very goofy, it is good enough and should be welcomed for new players to play and in turn, wonder what the hell are the Clans and the InnerSphere and go look into it for themselves. That is the impression I do get from this game if I put myself in the shoes of a brand new player of anything BattleTech related, and I think people who are fans of this franchise should for the most part, do the same. Last thing I forgot to mention, I also think this game is geared towards us who know the universe as well, so that way we start talking about it and get people interested in the universe itself. Its my theory as to why there is no codex for information in the game about the lore and setting, but that is my theory at best.
I think a "codex" might have helped make new players interested, it's like having Sarna bits right in your game. Especially for things that can get confusing, like the fact that there are actually two Kerensky revered by the Clans and i feel it's not that clear from the narration 😅
@ oh I agree but I would also like to believe that piranha directed this game specifically towards us, the niche community surrounding battletech. I think they didn’t add a codex because they think they wouldn’t get a larger player base out of it with brand new players into the setting. At least that’s another perspective I see, because all of us who love the universe, knows what went down, but yea I don’t piranha believed they would get new players and so just made this game for us lore nerds instead.
We are Smoke Jaguar worst of the clans. I liked this game. nut I think it could have been longer and ended a Tukayid with Smoke Jaguar getting faced/bodied by Comstar. probably just a failed mission. yeah just tried it got mission failed screen. I also wish there were more mechs the big one I missed was the Ebon Jaguar/Cauldron Born. I think it would have been cool to have some kind of introduction or explanation of the mechs... just like a paragraph... I think it would have added in some lore for 1st time players.. after a month of play time in and beating the game I did not like the swerve at the end... I just think the character development was lacking for it... Mia is my Waifu I LOVED her development and arche as a loyal and fanatical mechwarrior. also I wish elementals where a more intricate part of this game... meny of these mechs are designed to work in tandem with them as they are actually designed to carry them the Ryouken/Storm Crow, and thor/summoner I know are for sure.
@@emiliodeguarda2005 forgot about that one... cougar too... but the one that came to mind was the ebon jaguar as it is the Totem from smoke jaguar. the other complaint is they went with the worst clan... would have prefered Ghost Bear or Wolf or Jade Falcon or Nova Cat... or any other clan then the worst one... it's why I wished they went to Tukayid... would have been a nice poetic ending for the biggest A**holes of the universe.
@@dustindussault2864 Cougar didn't exist yet, and if they did give us the EJ it would have only been on Luthian, it wasn't available for the first wave of the invasion
@@batchallbro ok 15 playable mechs are not enough though... 2c mechs could have worked then... hunchback 2c , Rifleman 2c, marauder 2c, steel rhino, and EJ would put it at 20... some second line mechs would have given the mech line up better and more diverse.
I think the Leo Showers speech was a pretty lame scene. Seemed weak. Would have been a more epic scene if Ulric Kerensky, the only Khan to vote against an immediate return to the Inner Sphere, had stood up and openly debated Khan Showers it could have been a very epic opportunity to set the tone on what a Crusader mindset is vs a Warden mindset. I feel there were several of these missed opportunities in the story to convey more of what Clan Smoke Jaguar is. Bringing Khan Lincoln Osis into the story would have done wonders for that aspect as Khan Osis was definitely the most Smoke Jaguar of all the Smoke Jaguars. He would have been a much better character for delivering on the brutality, savagery and oppression within the ranks of Clan Smoke Jaguar and would have been a better example of why no one would stand up to Galaxy Commander Cordera Perez. Also, within Clan Smoke Jaguar, the blood name Perez is normally given to Elemental Warriors (official lore does not state whether Perez was an Elemental or a MechWarrior) seeing him as an intimidating 7 foot tall slab of meat would have added more to the intimidation factor.
I liked the story (too whiny though), but went back to mercenaries because of the game play and animation. Mechwarrior should feel like a simulater, which means, no arcade bullshit enemies (a.k.a. industructible middle of vtols), and no "out of bounds, get back or you loose in 15 seconds", and animations that look stupid that instantly remove the illusion of really being a mech piolet. In many ways Mercenaries looks much better.
Uh, when you unlock a mech, it still cost you in Kerensky's as well as honor points. It's not free per say, it seems like it's free because most players get the mech they unlock right away, and when that happens, you have leveled up and each level up comes with a massive amount of Kerensky bucks with it. So the cost of the mech isn't noticed right away. But when selecting a mech to unlock, once selected, the next pop up screen shows you how many Kerensky bucks you're spending to get the mech in your inventory. But speaking of unlocking mechs, I would like to see an option to unlock a specific omni set when the mech becomes available vice just getting the prime omni set. Like you'd be able to choose the omni set that comes with the new mech coming to your inventory.
26:15: Gulf of Tonken moment. 34:38- "You know what we need? More Fahad." - no player ever The entire quirking/mechlab system could have been completely removed and those developer resources could have been better spent trying to emulate MW2's mechlab in Clans. This was my least favorite aspect of the game by far. Instead of going by the BattleTech template for a single-player game, every single release since MW3 has had to completely overhaul the mechlab and each one is more limiting and less intuitive than the last release. 1:15:50- To have a Starmate repair, you have to put your reticle/cursor on the repair bay. For QoL, this should have worked like Form on Me, where they navigated to compliance automatically.
I love MW5 Mercs well enough, but having my Starmap suddenly lockout while I stare in bewilderment for a minute before seeing "Speak to Fahad" on my screen, only to have him tell me: "Ayy mate that job you hired me for- fixing mechs? It's pretty hard. Try not to get shot up so much, fixing mechs is hard :( Cheers." ... really bro? I'll give you a raise if you'll just not waste my time with your whining. Less talky, more travel the galaxy and shooting medium pulse lasers.
I really think they should have stuck with MWO's OmniMechlab. It's by far the most interesting with the highest variety of weapons and loadouts while being restrictive enough to force creativity.
Each DLC should follow the invastion from one of the other clans, a dlc for being a merc against the clans, and dlc furthering the smok jaguar storyline.
It's amusing how around 24-25 minutes in there's a "Spoiler warning" and then host proceeds to vaguely describe the character. A minute later with no spoiler warning, he spoils one thing that happens in the trials, lol
Why are all the characters ugly? Was getting good looking actors going to be too expensive? Look at Baldur's Gate 3. Good looking characters = mega hit.
was a good story and game play was fun.... But has no replay value. Beat the game on my Day off in 1 sitting.... mercenaries is better for the fact it's never ending, with better progression and a sandbox....
I think the story is honestly quite bland, there isn't all that much going on except for the larger set pieces. This is where better characters could have significantly elevated this game and the story. As it stands now, the gameplay is fine the story is meh. 7/10
Truth be told aside from the fact you get to play at the clans, it kind of sucks. Story is bad. Missions are bad. Mechlab is horrible. No real point to resources or money. Game play is on rails. No strategy or tactics really, just follow the waypoints. I wanted to like the game but is mediocre and meh at best.
what other mechwarrior game do you play with focus on a single player campain that does not use waypoints and scripted gameplay to bring the story arc forward?
Thanks for the review. Respectfully, I think you're way too soft on how accurate this game is in depicting what Clanners talk and behave like, especially given that this was a Smoke Jaguar tale. I hasten to point out that I love the game overall (and am now playing my 2nd time through the campaign, and assisting a friend with his), but I found roughly half of the scenes and conversation in AND out of the cockpit throughout the game to be bland, flavorless, and inaccurate to a well-established body of lore. The ideas and statements that come out of the main characters in many places sound more like American college students, than people who are living a devout military life (much less Clanners, much less Smoke Jaguars). A few of the scenes aren't just inaccurate, they're exactly backwards from how they should have gone. I don't know exactly where it went wrong, but I can guess that whoever directed the actors' performances and whoever's job it was to take watch over the lore, is not a fan -- certainly not a well-versed one.
Well, they had to create at least marginally sympathetic main characters players could relate to, not a bunch of brickheaded brutes who speak portmanteau because they can't pronounce full words properly 😉
With respect, I don't accept this kind of explanation because this was done in the novels and other source material (including previous MechWarrior titles) without resorting to watering down the flavor of the lore.
@@TheVenge IIRC the only MechWarrior part that showed the Clans from within was MW2. I played it as teenager many years ago and I may be wrong but I don't remember any characterization at all (we played typical anonymous protagonist of mid-90s videogames). And Pryde (as the previous example of "sensible clanner" I remember) was quite a white crow among his peers and got recognition only after his heroic death at Tukayyid. Giving more literary spin to the story (and a touch of Deep Meaning Search Syndrome 😏) we can even interpret MW5:Clans storyline as a commentary on generational conflict. They _are_ -American- Clan Jaguar college students of the 31st century. Invasion of the inner spere with its totally zellbrigenloss warfare was their first real combat experience. SO due to their age they are much more eager to adapt by using unorthodox approaches and/or question the methods of their older comrades, whose reaction to unusual situations is either disdain, contempt or a fit of rage.
Sure, let's take just MW2. It had its training mission series, which while they have an element of "generic" to them, firmly snick into place with anything that a well-read fan would have encountered in the novels and source books. Also, everything else about the progression of experience in that game... the Trials of Position, and the written story (as this was before motion capture in games), all reinforce established lore, not take it off into a tangent. The Clan Wolf / Jade Falcon leadership, its decisions, and the circumstances and actions of its troops, all agreed completely with the narrative story told to us about who these Clanners are. All of this painted a picture of a martial society that was both self-isolated from parts of its own history (and thus patently naive), and possessed with its own *UNIQUE* culture, unlike anything in the Inner Sphere or which readers/players experienced from looking at real life. This is mostly lost in M5C, or paid token attention at best -- example: all the gung-ho radio chatter especially in the first part of the game doesn't ever translate into how they think about or treat others, especially freebirths. As for "white crows", the field is already full: you have the clearly unique case of Aidan Pryde -- a book-reader / test-cheater / freebirth-masker -- who really only is able to redeem himself because of the otherwise dire circumstances that the Falcons found themselves in at the times surrounding the destiny-bending battle of Tukkayid (and related events). Trent is the other one, though he contrasts strongly in that he is willing to leave Clan society and betray the Smoke Jags particularly because of the betrayal of character that their vicious and backward Clan culture visited upon him. Beyond this, you have a great amount of work that reinforces that those examples were starkly unique and unexpected. Even if we allowed that the Smoke Jaguars had yet another set of exceptions waiting to be told, the sheer amount of it in M5C suggests this is not an accurate explanation for the departure. Every defense of this game's lore missteps that I have seen making arguments for a supposedly necessary dilution of Clan culture falls flat to me; it simply isn't true that you have to water down the characterization of the Clans, pandering to modern sensibilities and/or attention, in order to tell an compelling story to a 2024 gaming audience. I still am not convinced they compromised in this way, as it looks to me as though the people doing the acting AND directing had virtually no Battletech-specific lore awareness at all, with the primary injection of what lore that did exist, coming from the writing submitted for the scenes. I imagine a project so busy that all the parts didn't talk to each other robustly, resulting in what we got. But even if I'm wrong on that, I strongly believe that a faithful depiction of how the aggressively rigid and prideful Smoke Jaguar culture looks from the inside it would generally capture MORE attention and appreciation from players, not less. My reasoning points to the many movies and games in the last 10 years that for various reasons have offered unfaithful depictions of the IP (and reaped diminished or even disastrous returns). Ultimately, it was never necessary to dilute anything to be marketable. A compelling story, told from an interesting perspective, are the requirements. Decades (at least) of successful movies and games exist where the protagonists are not particularly good guys, and yet the audience/player was pulling for them.
@MatteoB-gx1bo yes, but a broadsword or leopard wouldn't fly like they show it, the thrust wouldn't be so dramatic either. The thrust on the unions would not be 8 to 12 times longer than the ship either I caught onto the references to mw2 right away, but PGI doesn't understand physics
i am very impressed with this game. its pgi s best game yet. mech warrior mercs 5 was a big dud. but this , this great. i am happy that they kept the mechs lore accurate
Game is trash, lore was bastardized, gameplay like FPS MechAssault with no charm, characters awful and ugly, woke DEI and girl bosses galore, rips off Star Wars Jedi Knight 3 Jedi Academy, characters are like HS kid emos whining whole game, game is garbage
Some of the things you want is more in line with MW3 a game closer to simulator area. MW5 is more action arcady/realistic(realistic but not a simulator) game. I think pirania is not capable to do what you would want(I mean HUD is worse than it was in MW5 merc. IT is the worst HUD I have seen. Everything is in your face obstructing your view) or that they even want to do it. They are comfortable in this arcady/realistic spot.
An opportunity to fight clan mechs instead of Innersphere? Of course I went with Ezra. If they actually had expansions that would let you take the full death ride to the Jag's ultimate demise I would absolutely stay with the Jag's.
I have many issues with this game myself. One the game is unoptimized pile of trash. It does not run well. MW5M on UE4 struggles to run, UE5 MW5C? Worse. It has so much bad streaming of models that things will just randomly come into existence when the models start loading in instead of having been loaded prior so things will not exist, then exist in low poly version then pop in to full. This is an engine and dev problem. PGI can not optimize worth anything. UE5 is also a bad engine. Anyone who says well use FSR or DLSS doesn't realize that using this is the problem in the first place. The engine isn't optimized, its using fake stuff to make the game run stable while not actually running natively stable in the first place. This is a bandaid on top of a gushing wound. My next problem with the game is the characters are generally insufferable. All the women characters are absolutely grating. The men all act like idiots or have no guts to stand up. They just whisper behind the scenes like mewling pups. Then the fact we're skipping around with characters left and right out of the blue with no actual real introductions to some of them. Character permanence seems to have been an afterthought. I also was not a fan of a lot of the voice actors. The only ones I found decent were Perez and Ibrahim. The rest...i honestly could have done without? Next problem is the game is far too easy. Yes clan mechs are supposed to be OP but still, the game is far easier than MW5 was. Even on hard difficulty the game felt like, this is it? I'm bored. This isn't riveting gameplay. But things aren't always explained and that you should spend your mech xp first unlocking the omnipod variants first instead of chassis upgrades in research. Or not have them tied to the same thing pulling from the same pool, instead using the money system instead. My final problem is theres no way to fully complete the upgrades stuff for your mechs or your research stuff in the game once you beat it. Meaning going back to do stuff you can't regain more salvage. Its quite an oversight I feel and means if you don't unlock the specialty variants of the autocannons and lbx cannons you can't use them? And when the story split happens you can't actually go back to replay the mission to do it, it remembers the choice you did and bars you from actually making the alternate choice. Even though post game popup information told you YOU CAN do that. Misleading information much? Theres also no way to reread through messages sent to you about stuff. So if you didn't read it, well that sucks to be you cause only way to is by starting up a new save and getting to that point again.
DO NOT BUY. You can tell that this video is being conservative with the truth. The whole video is about the menus because there's nothing that can be done to save the rest.
What they should have done with the Trial of Position is let you fight the Timberwolf. If you beat it, you become Nova Commander instead of Star Commander and the game rewards you by giving you vehicles or elementals on your missions too. Rewards the player, gives a sense of achievement and makes missions a bit easier if you're playing on expert.
@@snakenbits4279 I work for a software company. The Woke mind virus is affecting us, too. What goes on in software companies now is governments bribe directors to hire or promote more women simply because they are women. They have no passion for the games that are being made, they despise their customer base and hate the men that play games about big robots. They see players as an inconvenience to the Woke message they want to tell - and Mech 5 Clans is the result.
The scripted narrative for Clans should have been mainly outside of the mission. The missions themselves should have been wide open areas with freedom on how you complete mission objectives - so the narrative is player driven.
They already did that with mercs. They wanted to try going all the way with hand crafting the experience. After all, the story progresses trough in-mission dialog as well. What you said could be yet another type of game design, but i don't think it would fit well enough outside of a Merc unit and when you have such detailed lore to give life to. Playing missions on the sidelines of the bigger story lets me really feel i'm a small part of it imho 😊
@@MatteoB-gx1bo Noooo - they did not already do that with mercs. In my above comment, I was politely suggesting they shouldn't have produced on rails crap for Clans.
@@nicholasgordon4999 There's nothing wrong with linear mission design, such was the case in MechWarrior 2, 3 and 4. It allows the designers to pace the mission properly and add in appropriate dialogue and player reactivity.
@@Shinhotep Ehm - Mechwarrior 2 and 3 do not have linear mission design - what makes you think they do? They have a large open area and you're free to complete the mission in any way you want. There are also primary, secondary and tertiary mission objectives. In Mechwarrior 3, you even have non mech assets like the Mobile Repair Vehicles that you can deploy and use as you see fit. If you lose a repair vehicle in combat, it's gone for the whole game and you can't carry as much salvage. Are you from a people farm in China or something - lol?
@@nicholasgordon4999 Yes, and what does doing the objectives in a non linear order actually do to the mission? Still ends in the same way with the same final result with no recognition of how you did it at all. Essentially linear. I love MechWarrior 2 but the vast majority of the maps are just wide open lands with nothing to do in them. Ghost Bear's Legacy had more linear design and was better off for it.
So you like whiney HES kids complaining about their coaches and thr big game instead of wanting hardcore MechWarriors who should be slaughtering and laughing. Like, idk you people are shilling so hard for this woke DEI TRASH title. Game is bad dude, it's bad. PGi failed in everything they claimed
If you take the MechWarrior label off it and had it as a stand alone game not related to the MechWarrior franchise. Then its an alright game, nothing that great, but nothing that awful either. The problem is, it is supposed to be a MechWarrior game and a Lore driven one too, but its not. This is because the story is supposed be of Clan Smoke Jaguar, which it sadly fails to deliver. Opting for the characters to have more "modern sensibilities" from the very start, rather than them being the ruthless Clan Smoke Jaguars they would have been raised to be. Now them growing a conscience about what they're doing in order to give different story paths would have been ok, had it been something that progressed as the story played out, but it didn't. Other small gripe, is the mech lab, why do they always have this limited restrictive design that literally needs mods like MechWarrior 5 does to give it more authentic MechWarrior feel.
They picked the wrong clan to do or they were just too scared or cowardly to go full villain aspect of the Smoke Jaguars, as you have the Wolfs as the poster boys of the clans and in the middle the Jaguars are on the far end scale and this game tried to make out that they were a bit off centre instead of the full on blood thirty warriors that they are. Like you said they gave them a conscience were in lore it would have been bread out of them by the time their trial of position was to take place. They choice the SJ cause they have two centrepiece moments during the invasion, there's not much lore about the beta galaxy to a point, but as stated before they were the wrong clan in my opinion with the way they did the story. Moving back on that point, the turtle Bay bombardment, the speech Weaver gave it had nothing to do with weakness, it was mostly that the Wolfs showed them up and made them look bad with their bidding off their warships. Battletech is GOT in space their a lots of political manoeuvring that happens and Osis taking command of the galaxy was just someone who saw an opportunity to rise his station.
I think they didn't "modernize" them, they simply made clan warriors a bit more human than they sometimes have been represented and toned down a bit of the weirdness of clan customs. While the last thing is a bit sad, i'd rather have this than mustache-twirling villains. The player wouldn't feel any empathy and it wouldn't be a great story.
@@MatteoB-gx1bo A bit more human? no you're applying modern sensibilities of what it means to be human. These are people from a culture far removed from what we know, understand and accept. For example look at ancient cultures and civilizations. Having another human being as property was normal for many of them. Raiding and pillaging was normal for others. Even human sacrifice was seen as normal in some. And this is my point, Clan Smoke Jaguar is a highly militaristic and ruthless Clan, what you see as appalling is normal to them. They grew up in it and know nothing else and this should be reflected in the story but wasn't. For instance why would they be offended by the pirates using other humans being as slaves, when they treat they're labor caste no better.
@@covahredro8370 Just because the vast majority of the writing for Smoke Jaguar was so two dimensional to the point of it being comical back in the day, simply because they had designated them as the proverbial whipping boy, doesn't mean they weren't still staunch loyalists to Nicholas Kerensky's dream and founding principles. Which they were always portrayed as. You can thank Blaine Pardoe and his characters of Paul Moon and Trent for the broader humanisation of Smoke Jaguar's. This game is simply a continuation of that.
Clans mechlab is absolute atrocious. Most weapon points on the arms leaving the customization flaccid. The command feature was badly designed and useless at the same time.
Uhhh well clans has a much better mechlab than Mercs, the weapon points on arms isn't a mechlab issue, that's literally just how basically every clan mech is
@@batchallbro that is such a lie, the Mech lab is god awful USE YOUR EYES. the arms are an issue when its main point of customization and its not fun to do with the new mech lab.
@@countphil1 you can change arms with different omnipods giving you the option to switch between weapon hardpoints and you can also add armor/ammunition/heatsinks. What else do you want?? should we just scrap the omnipod system based on your feelings?
The armor thing in the mech lab was the major turn off that stopped me from buying the game. Why was this not a thing in MW5 Mercs, where is the canon there? And why you can't at least redistribute front/rear (who uses so much armor in the back). Major NO NO,, for IS mechs there was no canon regarding this, but for Clan ones it is. Overall, i think the mech lab got worse, at least in some important to/for me aspects.
Now that they have shown they can handle narratives, I would like them to go back to older MW titles and show they can handcraft missions that are engaging and branching without being a 30 minute non-stop laser show. Take a shortcut over a rough terrain and intercept a convoy ... or face the failure and cover your retreat. Infiltrate the base, capture (unloading a star of elementals) and set up a defensive perimeter... or face a tough (but potentially more salvageable) opponent in a cutscene. This is a lot more expensive approach, but boy, that would be a lot more replayable compared to the PGI grind. The game looks great, but undercooked in everything but the main loop which is cutscenes and mech to mech combat.
I could kind of understand (still not really) that view on Mercs, but there's genuinely 0 reason to for clans. They're literally Omnimechs, it doesn't matter if the Stormcrow is YOUR Stormcrow, because you can make it the exact same in like two hours in-universe
![Battletech/Mechwarrior Lore- : Exodus to Elementals - A Primer on the Clans [Part 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3B165wbTnHs/mqdefault.jpg)
The Smoke Jaguar animation was fantastic. The Jags are fantastic, because unlike most other factions they got punished for their crimes eventually annihilated and reborn.
"I want combined arms and artillery!"
Noble trueborn warrior: "Khan! I think he is one of the Unnamed!"
Neg. He is merely one of the Hell's Horses.
Dude... Aiden Pryde was the poster boy for the theme of questioning the Clans from within the Clans and thinking slightly differently about tactics, history and society based on his reading of forbidden books he had stashed. His story paved the way for the writers of this well written story.
Yep, Naomi is a kinder, gentler version of Joanna it almost feels like.
@@anesvick She's the "thinking man's" version of Joanna. Sort of like a mixture of Joanna's age/experience with Marthe's personality and then some soft edges. I think the saKahn has Joanna's spirit and anger. lol
@@anesvicki think that if she kept going like that, in 15 years she would have become like Joanna 😂
And his interactions with Horse and fellow warriors showed the most human side of clan warriors.
@@MatteoB-gx1bo He still didn't like Horse's use of contractions though. lol I think Aiden being a romantic (to his detriment) helped him see freeborns more sympathetically. Plus, going as a freeborn for a while an living among them helped him see their value.
Reading through the comments and being a huge fan of Mechwarrior 4 and Black Knight, I think I'll get this game. Good to hear that Clans plays like an actual single player game and not a single player "online" game.
The game is abysmal. Most people on here are probably PGI employees. It's objectively bad. I wanted a good single player experience, too - this ain't it.
@@nicholasgordon4999you can comment on every single post liking the game and that’s still not going to change opinions.
@@wobblefoot7607 When I checked earlier, there were 1000 people playing mercs and only 500 playing clans. Who needs opinions when you have data.
@@nicholasgordon4999 and how is that supposed to change my mind? i could care less what people prefer to play i only care what i like to play and i loved mw5 clans just like i love mw5m i have both so when i feel like playing one or another i just switch games and done. Besides i was there when people trashed on mechcommander 2 because it didnt felt like mechcommander 1, i was there when people trashed on MW4V because it didnt played like MW3, i was there when people trashed on mechassault because it didnt played like mechwarrior and i was also there when people trashed on MW5M because it didnt played like MW4M. So i could care less about what other people think on the games i love playing.
@@nicholasgordon4999 Oh please, it's easily the best story-focused MechWarrior game since MW3.
There is around 120mins of cut scenes once you take into the account the two story arcs Crusader and warden.
Solid review! As I said in my own review; I see this as a great baseline. Everything that the game is "missing" or needs "fixed" can certainly come in progression with the release of DLC and game modes. I'd rather play this version than have to wait another year to get a more "complete" game. Also having the game in the hands of players will make that endgame progression way more meaningful anyway.
MW5 Clans is a game I probably won't play through again, unlike MW5 Mercenaries. I have hundreds and hundreds of hours dumped into MW5 Mercs due to the more sandbox game and much larger mech roster.
My pilots in MW5 Mercs are far less vocal and have less of a story versus the Clanners you get in MW5 Clans, but I felt a lot more attached to my pilots in Mercs because of the danger of losing them.
The ability to loot mechs as salvage in Mercs really changed how I played, and the mechs felt "heavier" in Mercs versus Clans where it feels more like an arcade game.
Not saying Clans is bad, I enjoyed my play through of it, just don't see myself revisiting it much in the future. Glad I played it, but really only needed to play it once.
I feel the same. I finished clans, tried to play it some more, but the surprises are gone, and I'm back to playing Mercenaries
That's a normal experience with a game ... Like most games, it's not intended to be played after it's beaten
@@LeeAnthonyDurbacz Same here except I am waiting for an update to TTrulez AI.
Same although i have heard that there will be a Sandbox mode but that's not till 2025, Merc's sandbox mode was very limited when that first came out in Epic Games store and was nothing like what it is today. Mod tools are coming in the beginning of next year also. That's the problem i have with these sorts of games with it's story line is there is limited replayability. I am wondering what line they are going to go down with future DLC's.
@@raevenrises7595 Is that really the case though? Many games have something to encourage replayability.
HALO has the Skulls system, Battletech and MW5 Mercs will offer a new experience each time, XCOM and almost any RTS/4X strategy game has each play through feel unique, the Nier games have multiple endings, and that is just the tip of the iceberg with games that have solid replayability.
A game being a one and done experience seems to be not quite as common as you make it out to be.
I want more lore stories be told. And not just simple battles, but with "plot twists", when u see things happening
I've played the game and while it's not perfect, it's a good effort. It's been more than 10 years since we've had a campaign-based MechWarrior game. PGI did their best to stay true to the lore and storyline, I could tell the voice actors also did their best to understand the lore. While the graphics and gameplay could be better, the storytelling was top-notch in my opinion.
It's a great game. I thought it needed Elementals and Clan Armored vehicles and Aircraft to add to the immersion!. Maybe some second line Mechs!. Liked the mech lab especially the Armor pods!. Wish every Omni mech had free slots in the center torso!. The cinematics were Awesome!.! Was really hoping for that jungle planet that got teased in the teaser trailer would have been awesome I guess that was huntress?.
Exactly this. 💯 Agree
They can give us so many add-ons they can have my money. Can't wait to erase clan smoke Kitty from the history books 🎉
Elementals absolutely should be added in the next update/DLC. They really should have been at least seen in the launch game.
Adding a battlemech mechlab might be in a future DLC but it would require quite some work, Russ Bullock said as much. It's not just a matter of taking IIC models from MWO and adding them. That said i would love combined arms but i fear MW games will Stick to their mech centric warfare. Maybe with some mods...
Was hoping for eles also.
I love that we finally get to play as Smoke Jaguar.
This is legit the best game PGI has ever put out. Maps look far better, mechs look better, story and the motion capture and voice acting all superb. There's purpose to everything we do. Missions differ alot from one another, although AI still needs alot of work. I think they needed to create AI system like in Alien Isolation, one for each mech, then one for the entire unit in order to achieve cohesion. Thats the worst offender imo. After playing MWO, you really feel the difference.
9/10 Game. Must buy for any MW fan.
It's so much better than their previous games!
That's an impossible ask. The alien in isolation is quite literally one asset with its own ai programming. Not multiple of different assets. Nor do mechs work like Xenomorphs... Such a weird ask.
@@TimberWulfIsHere nope, If Dota AI can exist and beat the literal best players on earth, we can have teamwork AI on other games as well. MW has far simpler ruleset by an order of magnitudes. You just need individual AI (which will determine their mech fighting skills)+ teamwork AI as the governing body guiding individual AIs. Double Layers, same thing happened on Alien Isolation but for different reasons. Likewise it guided Alien's positioning though it was much simpler in this case.
@@TimberWulfIsHere If/then programming can do it, so all the new languages can as well. Lazy devs is the answer why AI is bad. In 2001 the devs at Funcom tasked a group of college students to write a script to get a mob to go around a rock and EVERYONE uses this script now. copy/paste. No thinking involved anymore.
I'm still waiting for the return of controlling 2 lances/stars from MW4. Agreed on not feeling like I was a part of a huge battle. I hope we can get some missions with that feel in the DLC or mods. Coyote Missions in MW5 Mercs showed that that game was able to handle way more units in battle.
@foehammerE419 terrible ai is likely why as 1600 tons focus firing on the players mech isn't fun. Mw5 clans is just as bad. You are up against a company and they pick one to focus on.
I like the new hud which gives me an idea of my twist angle, heat, etc which is a good improvement.
I didn't.
It's the opposite way it should be. Literally every time I looked at the indicator I had to remind myself that it's backwards from what would be logical.
You also forget to mention Clan Warriors are slightly disgusted by old aged Warriors who haven't died in Battle.
Slightly?😂
Solhama
One thing I think would be absolutely fantastic for the ''Training Missions" section, is player created scenarios. (Probably a 3rd tab). Would give it some replayability with the only real effort that the devs have to give would be setting up the framework for it.
Like many on this comment section, I have played a lot of Mercs. What MW5C offers is an immersive story told through the eyes of a clanner. A strong focus on narrative with nice combat makes Clans a really fun romp. The game has improved so much from the Mercs experience but I must say, that game caters to those who enjoy a more sandbox-experience. I dont doubt PGI will continue to improve and expand l the game to add replayability and a better feeling of progression.
What a great job you have done. So many details. Thank you.
Good enough I'm excited for DLC. Mission accomplished by PGI.
Needs a open invasion corridor with galaxy commander mech requisition assets. Free open galaxy like mercs. Even if confined to clan invasion corridor
I think it was fantastic to get a campaign focused game after all this time. Felt so much like the earlier editions all the way back to MW2, in the best way. Story and character rather than 'here is sandbox go nuts'. Keen to see what if any DLC drops.
I think it would make alot of sense to go into different clans perspectives for dlc because that way they could add some other clan mechs we didn't get to see
My biggest gripe is that your sibko act like whiny, sarcastic teenagers instead of disciplined chid soldiers. And smoke Jaguar is the last class that would tolerate any of that nonsense. It would have made more sense for these characters to act like SS soldiers. Disciplined, hateful towards spheroids, and aggressive broaching on suicidal.
I don't think we see in the fiction any smoke Jaguar sibkin or freshly-made warrior, but for sure, even Jade Falcon cadets, who might be the second or third more brutal clan, are still portrayed in the novels like actually being human. if you read the novels about the upbringing of Aidan Pryde and his fellow warriors like Horse, they don't feel that different from Jayden and Liam in their interactions, even if they didn't grow up in the same sibko and they were trueborn and freeborn.
Having watched the entire playthrough by Baradul to me this is one deviation I fully understand. With them beginning like whiny teenagers at least we got to see them change and "grow" as characters throughout the story.
The intention was probably to make them more relatable, and less tight-ass and arrogant like Clan warriors have been portrayed before. Can't have a story that works if everyone despises the main characters.
NGL I was so excited to take my Trial of Position in a Summoner thanks to the Jade Phoenix books lol
I expect only 2 things. Sometimes when I shoot enemy mech, the mech does not respond and I do not mean the powered down mechs. And as U mentioned, some equipment is fixed and can not be removed/replaced. Keep the fixed armor and structe but unlock fixed MASC, fixed DHS and fixed JJ.
I know people are upset about the Trial of Position, and honestly, I can agree, but the reason why has to do with a lore reason. From what I understand, if you get 3 or more kills, you become a galaxy commander, which as I understand it, would basically rewrite the whole plot of the game.
3 kills Is star captain, the max rank you can achieve. The host knows, i'm sure ;) i actually have no issue with It, since the trailer i already know how that was going down. The trial of position is literally my favorite mission to replay! I'd love to see more of clan rituals
@@MatteoB-gx1boLorewise some times two warrior are tested at the same time, which means that you can get more than 3 kills if you are willing to break zellbringen.
@mathiasbartl903 true, but i don't think they can achieve a higher rank than star captain anyway
I just wish we didn't need to use a stock Summoner. That build was terrible for that area.
noone has ever gotten galaxy commander from trial. Best anyone managed was Natasha Kerensky, who downed 4 mechs. That earned her Star Colonel rank.
I really like the game. I thought the multiple story arcs was really neat, and the multiplayer is a great feature for handling the harder difficulties. I like the scaled down mechlab, and think this adds to the limited capabilities of the Clans to adapt to inner sphere warfare. Plus, nobody like the clan. I think works in the game’s favor, though, as you have the ability to see into the rigidity beyond the stories in the books and tv series (both of which I was a fan).
I thought this was very good. I would love for a roguelite version of operation revival where you are a star progressing through the invasion and you have an end date. Start the game and you get the line "the invasion will fail" you have to pick a clan and a star and you get certain mechs and ammo and you only get refits and repairs from how you progress. You can die at any point and the only thing that carries over is your pilot experience and perhaps a prestige that unlocks chassis
The game overall is good, MW5:Mercs felts souless by comparison. But Clans is far from perfect, but it needs some tweaks and some sort of mode to add replability.
**edit I am honestly not really sure where they go with DLC leading up to the game I was imagining DLC would be the other Clans, but after playing I am not sure they can do that in a timely manor to make it viable for DLC
Despite it's flaws, I've really enjoyed this game. You know what I really miss from the MW4 days, thiugh? Passive sensors. It allowed a much higher degree of stealth options, which I used often.
Personally I wouldn’t mind a new take on the Mechwarrior 2 franchise with the team that made this game. Starting with the Wolf/Falcon Refusal War. Could add some great cinematic scenes for that game.
An incredible game for anyone who loves the lore and particularly the clan culture. For a non lore junkie this might be an OK game and nothing else, but it's also the best game for a newbie to become interested and immersed in the Battletech universe. It took them like 20 years but finally PGI made a great game.
Ive been a casual battletech fan for awhile but this one got me really into the clans I really like how they have this pseudo manifest destiny
Best PGI game i know.
MWO is still a great game but it has its weakness.
Mw5 mercs is okish
And clans is as said the best PGI game so far. They really delivered with this game
Can not agree with it. In my opinion Clans are not as good as Mercs.
I'm split. I like the building yourself up from nothing in mercs but I love the narrative in clans. Would love a hybrid for mw6 mercs. Dare I dream?
Looking at it from a more linear perspective.... but the game doesnt have nearly ther same replayability as MW5 mercs, objectively speaking. While MW5 mercs had a very mediocre story really, clans is way better in that department imo. Clans isnt a sandboxy game like mercs is. There isn't much there to replay.
@@judgedread9724 hard agree, that's why I'd love to see them try to blend the best of both
Yeah, Clans is by far the best of the bunch!
Between replayability, all the options, and mods... Mercs is a much much better investment. I get 20 hours with Clans, and 200+ with Mercs... But Clans is a much more complete package at what it was meant to be.
I think the Yuichi story doesn’t fit with Clan Smoke Jaguar. Clan wolf sure. But the Smoke Jaguars would never let a guy who’s not true born become a warrior
They should've had more with him trying to earn his place post return of the armada
For the DLCs, i would love to play with the Wolves BUT it would makes sense to play trough Tukayyid, even if you know it's a losing fight.
The progression could have improved by having only honor and do a nod to bidding by giving the player more honor points to unlock and buy new mechs , weapons and camos by dropping with lower tonnage mechs and give more of a challenge as well.
Pilot skills probably should have been made assignable as new game + perk. Further, there is also the possibility of auto learning pilot learning where the more time you give the pilot with a certain weapon they themselves start unlocking proficiency/perks with those weapons(cool down/range/damage) and if you're not careful you can create a one dimensional pilot. Conversely you can purposely make a pilot really good with some weapons. Just a thought.
I wish they had brought a YAML style Mech Lab to the game, rather than what they had.
Also, I wish they had more mechs, like Stone Rhino, Kodiak, etc. They are probably going to add that in future DLC.
Yup, simpod definitely needs more attention
Do you have to use the Simpod to replay missions? Can you not reselect a mission from Mission Central tab to replay a mission and possibly earn those rewards again?
No, you do that in the simpod and you get some XP for winning challenges
yes, and it gives small XP boost to your piolets and mechs
And you can use the simpod to complete frame milestones (kill x heavy mechs, kill x vehicles, etc) which you can use to unlock omnipods and upgrade aspects of the frame (max speed, acceleration, turn speed, torso turn speed - very imporant).
Amazing game and I’m definitely wanting more smoke jag content but would be interested in playing as clan wolf and I really want to see infantry and elementals or pilot an elemental and I know many people would make the argument that infantry wouldn’t be much of a challenge but in numbers or in ambush, a few infantry with missile launchers could strip some armour and grab your attention away from the spheroid surats charging at you with a battle axe, I think the game incorporating a dlc with that sort of tactical option would be interesting and make for some difficult situations especially in some of the small cities
Pretty much only the Warrior castes of the Clans frown on the use of contractions. This is shown in the Jade Pheonix Trilogy by the Trueborns being offended when they hear freeborns from the Tech Caste use contractions freely. Even freeborn warriors use contractions at the pain of Trueborn anger and sense of discipline. Most freeborn warriors learn to curb contractions whenever they're around trueborn warriors (officers especially). The fact that the automatic curse of "you speak like a freeborn" whenever contractions are used shows that other castes do use them.
Smoke Jaguar is basically entirely a warrior clan so I think the emphasis made alot of sense tbh
The relationship between Joanna and horse is hilarious.
@@mementomori771 The Jade Falcons are too, but the other castes use contradictions. We just don't see the other castes very much and get the story from the warrior caste pov.
@@KHETTIUS I think she tolerates him because there is a link to Aiden in Horse and Joanna knows Horse is very talented.
I expected more freedom in how you can approach each mission.
Usually for every task there's the ritual biding before and the bravest with the least tonnage gets the job but it's a fine line between brave and brazen.
Also the way the missions unfold during the storyline only knows one way: more tonnage. There are no side missions, scout, recon, escort, sabotage,... it's just max tonnage full power all in and destroy all and everything on every mission.
There could have been so much more with little effort. Like moral decisions, spare or kill downed enemies, take the fight through a city or evade it to spare civilian casualities.
Gameplay is good but after like half of the campaign it's clear that the best strategy is distance. Just go in with a ppc boat and take them out. It maybe lore accurate for the advanced ER clan tech but isn't it just the intriguing part of the invasion and clash of cultures, that the clanners are shocked by the dishonorful way the inner sphere fights and on the other hand the spheroids are desperate because they are completely outclassed on the open field and have to resort to ambushes and guerilla tactics?
I don't think you can tell in the first mission when you're going to get an affinity but I'm looking at my screen and it tells me how many more skill points I need to obtain before my next affinity
The performance is so bad I haven't played it yet.
So the SJ are pretty much the Bebe's Kids of the Battletech universe? "Test tube babies"😂😂
Almost *every* warrior in all the clans are tube born 😆
I enjoyed mw5 clans...it was nice to play the invaders...but as im inner sphere forever id like to play the defenders :-) i do think a conquest mode with more mechs (some second line ones would be nice) and a tactical inner spher map where you can choose where to attack and get to bid what youre sending would give this game more longevity :-)
Regarding mech unlocks and honor use etc: I think they should have just allowed ungated access to all mech purchases. Yeah when you first play MW/BT games you wanna just stomp around in a 100t mech with 12 gauss rifles but most people eventually outgrow that and find a play style that is their own. I like fast heavies that are built to brawl, some people like medium jump capable strikers etc. I dislike the system of making weight progression a linear grind. I'm the type to drop 250 tons whether it's a 100 or 400 recommendation in mercs. Just let people pick the play style they enjoy, add a drop weight system that gives a buff or nerf to honor award and turn honor into a currency for repairs, callins etc like you say. If I wanna do the first mission with 5 Dire Wolves, or the last mission with 5 Adders, that should be on me in a single player game.
Btw, while i love the stormcrow, the summoner does have jumpjets and especially the hellbringer has ECM, which is very powerful according to some players. If you have high evasion using a fast Gargoyle or a faster Executioner with MASC makes sense and it's lot of fun. The dire wolf may be the strongest in terms of firepower and armor but it's one of the most boring, especially when you have to wait for a star full of them... And feels cheesy😅
Emilie Wimmer is mommy was my big take away from mechwarrior 5
One thing that irritates me about the omnipods, is that stripped, ALL CTs weigh the same, yet have different armour values. This is dumb.
My only concern about all this...will Navid1 will be around to fix Piranha's mistakes?
I’m hoping for a Clan Wolverine expansion pack. Could be a short expansion however….
The amount of Mech XP was insufficient for all the Omni slots and the Mech upgrades. Really annoying. Also, I still contest that Duke Eric Dresari had a cameo in this game. ;)
The whole idea is that if you want to fully level up a mech you need to focus on it. If you could max out all the mechs you wanted in a single playthrough that would be bad design.
@@raevenrises7595 That is certainly one take.
Another take is: most people will only play a game like this once and never touch it again. Since this is a game on rails with no sandbox or multiplayer, it's pretty much a one and done experience. There is no procedural generation, no nothing. You're playing the exact same thing every single time. Meaning the only thing you can change is your mechs.
That's not reason enough to bring a player back.
@@raifsevrence why come back? What's wrong with enjoying the game and moving on? Y'know, like most people do with games?
"It ends" is not a valid criticism.
Very good story and a good game. For a clan fan the Story can not be much better. Only the fakt that the firemoth and the ice ferred are missing was a disappointment for me
I LOVEDDDD the game. It didn't infuriate me like initial drop of mw5: mercs which I later put 900 hours into. What mercs lacked in story, clans wayyyyy supercedes. I loved the story, both of them. The leveling system needs some work. You have way too much money so you never have any economy issues. I've played through 4 times on expert and you can literally just keep buying replacement mechs if you don't have techs available. Also the mech roster was shockingly small, but if you account for each mech having diff load outs(omni) each chassis is 3-5 diff mechs. Still, I'd have wanted unlockable mechs through achievements or discovery. Blah blah I could go on. Bottom line I loved the game.
the campaign is fun and a much needed focus for PGI, but i do hope they compromise and incorporate a Mercs-style sandbox later to give this game more legs. not sure when they should set it (or if they should just set lore as a secondary priority and let you fanfic/powergame from either Clan or IS perspective to heart's content).
only two 'complaints'.
one that you mention: the tabletop balancing didnt work for MW5M and it doesnt work here in a real time shooter. armor is still king and whatever mech lets you stack ER-S or MPL while filling crit slots with armor is the way to go (granted you challenge yourself to only use stock omnipod loadouts, but that still leaves certain mechs as clear outliers). its slightly more balanced in Mercs in this regard because your armor is limited by crit slots rather than free tonnage, but the tradeoff there is that there are clearly tiers of mechs that have way more useful crit setups than others.
the other is that there needs to be more AI commands/behavior. one advantage of Clan over IS is range, and i found if you tell the starmates to attack, they tend to knife fight lol. the alternative is you set them to guard, but then they stand still and lose alot of their evasion bonus. would be nice if you could set optimal strafe range per character (by least 100m increments or something) so that they would try to stay at cruising speed 400m away from their target for example.
I don't understand why PGI didn't make ECM units and AMS installable in every mech like Active Probes are. In the Simpod there isn't some way to skip the dialog, which on timed missions actually can prevent you from advancing until the characters get done with the dialog, very annoying. Otherwise I really enjoy the game.
The sell button is there so your buddy can accidentally sell 2 of your madcats when he meant to purchase 2, forcing you to redo all of your customizations. No, I'm not mad why are you asking?
The Executioner must be the most frustrating mech in the game to advance. 95 ton mech with a 380 class engine, jump jets and MASC. So much tonnage devoted to speed and manueverablity. Which would be fine, if the mech could be loaded up with heavy hitting close in weapons. But it's set up with a Gauss (not enough slots for an AC 20) 2 1 slot ballistic slots, and 2 2 slot energy slots. So basically, other then the two 1 slots ballistic which mostly means machine guns (which are terrible) all long range weapons. I think this mech could be decent with some of the other omnipods, but with the core pod it is terrible.
Jump sniping with the gauss and double ERLL is worth anything. And you can't do that with the slow, boring Dire Wolf ;) good luck also getting out of enemy fire and exploiting your evasion skill 😉
I think the Trial of Position 3rd match was handled really well.
I took some damage from the first two fights. I worried about losing an arm because that Summoner Prime only has 3 weapons, and limiting ammunition - 2 of those weapons in the arms. I immediately gauged my surroundings to come up with a strategy that I could try to cheese the next AI opponent with. ...And then it became a cutscene instead. My twitch reaction was the cutscene harming my immersion through forcing a result, but then I realized it was the 'cheese strategy' mindset that had subtly cracked my immersion already; the cutscene was much better - it was an unexpected jolt back toward immersion.
As gamers, it's been very poorly implemented all the time; there's a wide history of easy fights that are then lost via cutscene. I believe this has biased us against the idea entirely (rather than judging when it's actually done effectively or not).
1 kill they act like you got none, and he calls you a laborer, kinda offputting considering he already told you in the mission you have enough to be a warrior, but it's required you become star commander so oh well.
He gave me the GySGT Hartman vibe @15:13
If you fail to get the 2 kills, it is the same as though you got no kills and treats the mission as a failure. I know because I did terrible using a gamepad the first time I did it, switched back to keyboard and mouse and didn't have a problem.
This did not make me see Clanners as human. They are not.
Enjoyed the game though.
I think its a good game as a revitalization of BattleTech as a whole. Sure the animations are goofy, very goofy, but I like goofy so I give it a pass on that. I can understand hardcore players of the franchise want a bigger roster of mechs, but for a story narrative game like this, I think its ok. Granted it could've used a couple more mechs for more variety in your lance..I mean, Star, but with a focus on story and spectacle, its a decent pass, and is one that can ease new players in that have never heard of or played any MechWarrior or BattleTech game.
Its not perfect by any means, but like Tex says, its good enough. I believe Piranha is trying something new they have never done before and though Clans is very goofy, it is good enough and should be welcomed for new players to play and in turn, wonder what the hell are the Clans and the InnerSphere and go look into it for themselves. That is the impression I do get from this game if I put myself in the shoes of a brand new player of anything BattleTech related, and I think people who are fans of this franchise should for the most part, do the same.
Last thing I forgot to mention, I also think this game is geared towards us who know the universe as well, so that way we start talking about it and get people interested in the universe itself. Its my theory as to why there is no codex for information in the game about the lore and setting, but that is my theory at best.
I think a "codex" might have helped make new players interested, it's like having Sarna bits right in your game. Especially for things that can get confusing, like the fact that there are actually two Kerensky revered by the Clans and i feel it's not that clear from the narration 😅
@ oh I agree but I would also like to believe that piranha directed this game specifically towards us, the niche community surrounding battletech. I think they didn’t add a codex because they think they wouldn’t get a larger player base out of it with brand new players into the setting. At least that’s another perspective I see, because all of us who love the universe, knows what went down, but yea I don’t piranha believed they would get new players and so just made this game for us lore nerds instead.
I wish they had in-game saves... :-)
We are Smoke Jaguar worst of the clans. I liked this game. nut I think it could have been longer and ended a Tukayid with Smoke Jaguar getting faced/bodied by Comstar.
probably just a failed mission. yeah just tried it got mission failed screen.
I also wish there were more mechs the big one I missed was the Ebon Jaguar/Cauldron Born. I think it would have been cool to have some kind of introduction or explanation of the mechs... just like a paragraph... I think it would have added in some lore for 1st time players.. after a month of play time in and beating the game I did not like the swerve at the end... I just think the character development was lacking for it... Mia is my Waifu I LOVED her development and arche as a loyal and fanatical mechwarrior.
also I wish elementals where a more intricate part of this game... meny of these mechs are designed to work in tandem with them as they are actually designed to carry them the Ryouken/Storm Crow, and thor/summoner I know are for sure.
Plus the missing Fire Moth.
maybe DLC, i hope so
@@emiliodeguarda2005 forgot about that one... cougar too... but the one that came to mind was the ebon jaguar as it is the Totem from smoke jaguar. the other complaint is they went with the worst clan... would have prefered Ghost Bear or Wolf or Jade Falcon or Nova Cat... or any other clan then the worst one... it's why I wished they went to Tukayid... would have been a nice poetic ending for the biggest A**holes of the universe.
@@dustindussault2864 Cougar didn't exist yet, and if they did give us the EJ it would have only been on Luthian, it wasn't available for the first wave of the invasion
@@batchallbro ok 15 playable mechs are not enough though... 2c mechs could have worked then... hunchback 2c , Rifleman 2c, marauder 2c, steel rhino, and EJ would put it at 20... some second line mechs would have given the mech line up better and more diverse.
I think the Leo Showers speech was a pretty lame scene. Seemed weak. Would have been a more epic scene if Ulric Kerensky, the only Khan to vote against an immediate return to the Inner Sphere, had stood up and openly debated Khan Showers it could have been a very epic opportunity to set the tone on what a Crusader mindset is vs a Warden mindset. I feel there were several of these missed opportunities in the story to convey more of what Clan Smoke Jaguar is. Bringing Khan Lincoln Osis into the story would have done wonders for that aspect as Khan Osis was definitely the most Smoke Jaguar of all the Smoke Jaguars. He would have been a much better character for delivering on the brutality, savagery and oppression within the ranks of Clan Smoke Jaguar and would have been a better example of why no one would stand up to Galaxy Commander Cordera Perez. Also, within Clan Smoke Jaguar, the blood name Perez is normally given to Elemental Warriors (official lore does not state whether Perez was an Elemental or a MechWarrior) seeing him as an intimidating 7 foot tall slab of meat would have added more to the intimidation factor.
I liked the story (too whiny though), but went back to mercenaries because of the game play and animation. Mechwarrior should feel like a simulater, which means, no arcade bullshit enemies (a.k.a. industructible middle of vtols), and no "out of bounds, get back or you loose in 15 seconds", and animations that look stupid that instantly remove the illusion of really being a mech piolet. In many ways Mercenaries looks much better.
Uh, when you unlock a mech, it still cost you in Kerensky's as well as honor points. It's not free per say, it seems like it's free because most players get the mech they unlock right away, and when that happens, you have leveled up and each level up comes with a massive amount of Kerensky bucks with it. So the cost of the mech isn't noticed right away. But when selecting a mech to unlock, once selected, the next pop up screen shows you how many Kerensky bucks you're spending to get the mech in your inventory.
But speaking of unlocking mechs, I would like to see an option to unlock a specific omni set when the mech becomes available vice just getting the prime omni set. Like you'd be able to choose the omni set that comes with the new mech coming to your inventory.
The issue Is that unless you want to max the stats of several mechs and buy 4-5 of each, you really have enough Kerenskies to never worry about them
Amazing game
26:15: Gulf of Tonken moment.
34:38- "You know what we need? More Fahad." - no player ever
The entire quirking/mechlab system could have been completely removed and those developer resources could have been better spent trying to emulate MW2's mechlab in Clans. This was my least favorite aspect of the game by far. Instead of going by the BattleTech template for a single-player game, every single release since MW3 has had to completely overhaul the mechlab and each one is more limiting and less intuitive than the last release.
1:15:50- To have a Starmate repair, you have to put your reticle/cursor on the repair bay. For QoL, this should have worked like Form on Me, where they navigated to compliance automatically.
I love MW5 Mercs well enough, but having my Starmap suddenly lockout while I stare in bewilderment for a minute before seeing "Speak to Fahad" on my screen, only to have him tell me:
"Ayy mate that job you hired me for- fixing mechs? It's pretty hard. Try not to get shot up so much, fixing mechs is hard :( Cheers."
... really bro? I'll give you a raise if you'll just not waste my time with your whining. Less talky, more travel the galaxy and shooting medium pulse lasers.
I really think they should have stuck with MWO's OmniMechlab. It's by far the most interesting with the highest variety of weapons and loadouts while being restrictive enough to force creativity.
Each DLC should follow the invastion from one of the other clans, a dlc for being a merc against the clans, and dlc furthering the smok jaguar storyline.
It's amusing how around 24-25 minutes in there's a "Spoiler warning" and then host proceeds to vaguely describe the character. A minute later with no spoiler warning, he spoils one thing that happens in the trials, lol
I'd love to be able to play this game but the xbox version is a nightmare
Why are all the characters ugly? Was getting good looking actors going to be too expensive? Look at Baldur's Gate 3. Good looking characters = mega hit.
was a good story and game play was fun.... But has no replay value. Beat the game on my Day off in 1 sitting.... mercenaries is better for the fact it's never ending, with better progression and a sandbox....
This or armore core 6
I think it’s worse and better than mercenaries in ways.
I think the story is honestly quite bland, there isn't all that much going on except for the larger set pieces. This is where better characters could have significantly elevated this game and the story.
As it stands now, the gameplay is fine the story is meh. 7/10
They needed small conversations between missions, getting to know them better outside of the cutscenes
I liked the game, but wow it spent wayyyy too much time on the second to last planet. I forget the name.
Cordovia? Korriban?
Oh wait, it was Courcheval or something. Yeah, that planet got boring.
Well you spend an entire year there, the entire invasion literally gets paused so why would you move on to a new planet
Truth be told aside from the fact you get to play at the clans, it kind of sucks. Story is bad. Missions are bad. Mechlab is horrible. No real point to resources or money. Game play is on rails. No strategy or tactics really, just follow the waypoints. I wanted to like the game but is mediocre and meh at best.
what other mechwarrior game do you play with focus on a single player campain that does not use waypoints and scripted gameplay to bring the story arc forward?
Thanks for the review. Respectfully, I think you're way too soft on how accurate this game is in depicting what Clanners talk and behave like, especially given that this was a Smoke Jaguar tale. I hasten to point out that I love the game overall (and am now playing my 2nd time through the campaign, and assisting a friend with his), but I found roughly half of the scenes and conversation in AND out of the cockpit throughout the game to be bland, flavorless, and inaccurate to a well-established body of lore. The ideas and statements that come out of the main characters in many places sound more like American college students, than people who are living a devout military life (much less Clanners, much less Smoke Jaguars). A few of the scenes aren't just inaccurate, they're exactly backwards from how they should have gone.
I don't know exactly where it went wrong, but I can guess that whoever directed the actors' performances and whoever's job it was to take watch over the lore, is not a fan -- certainly not a well-versed one.
Well, they had to create at least marginally sympathetic main characters players could relate to, not a bunch of brickheaded brutes who speak portmanteau because they can't pronounce full words properly 😉
With respect, I don't accept this kind of explanation because this was done in the novels and other source material (including previous MechWarrior titles) without resorting to watering down the flavor of the lore.
@@TheVenge IIRC the only MechWarrior part that showed the Clans from within was MW2. I played it as teenager many years ago and I may be wrong but I don't remember any characterization at all (we played typical anonymous protagonist of mid-90s videogames). And Pryde (as the previous example of "sensible clanner" I remember) was quite a white crow among his peers and got recognition only after his heroic death at Tukayyid.
Giving more literary spin to the story (and a touch of Deep Meaning Search Syndrome 😏) we can even interpret MW5:Clans storyline as a commentary on generational conflict.
They _are_ -American- Clan Jaguar college students of the 31st century. Invasion of the inner spere with its totally zellbrigenloss warfare was their first real combat experience. SO due to their age they are much more eager to adapt by using unorthodox approaches and/or question the methods of their older comrades, whose reaction to unusual situations is either disdain, contempt or a fit of rage.
Sure, let's take just MW2. It had its training mission series, which while they have an element of "generic" to them, firmly snick into place with anything that a well-read fan would have encountered in the novels and source books. Also, everything else about the progression of experience in that game... the Trials of Position, and the written story (as this was before motion capture in games), all reinforce established lore, not take it off into a tangent. The Clan Wolf / Jade Falcon leadership, its decisions, and the circumstances and actions of its troops, all agreed completely with the narrative story told to us about who these Clanners are. All of this painted a picture of a martial society that was both self-isolated from parts of its own history (and thus patently naive), and possessed with its own *UNIQUE* culture, unlike anything in the Inner Sphere or which readers/players experienced from looking at real life. This is mostly lost in M5C, or paid token attention at best -- example: all the gung-ho radio chatter especially in the first part of the game doesn't ever translate into how they think about or treat others, especially freebirths.
As for "white crows", the field is already full: you have the clearly unique case of Aidan Pryde -- a book-reader / test-cheater / freebirth-masker -- who really only is able to redeem himself because of the otherwise dire circumstances that the Falcons found themselves in at the times surrounding the destiny-bending battle of Tukkayid (and related events). Trent is the other one, though he contrasts strongly in that he is willing to leave Clan society and betray the Smoke Jags particularly because of the betrayal of character that their vicious and backward Clan culture visited upon him. Beyond this, you have a great amount of work that reinforces that those examples were starkly unique and unexpected. Even if we allowed that the Smoke Jaguars had yet another set of exceptions waiting to be told, the sheer amount of it in M5C suggests this is not an accurate explanation for the departure.
Every defense of this game's lore missteps that I have seen making arguments for a supposedly necessary dilution of Clan culture falls flat to me; it simply isn't true that you have to water down the characterization of the Clans, pandering to modern sensibilities and/or attention, in order to tell an compelling story to a 2024 gaming audience. I still am not convinced they compromised in this way, as it looks to me as though the people doing the acting AND directing had virtually no Battletech-specific lore awareness at all, with the primary injection of what lore that did exist, coming from the writing submitted for the scenes. I imagine a project so busy that all the parts didn't talk to each other robustly, resulting in what we got. But even if I'm wrong on that, I strongly believe that a faithful depiction of how the aggressively rigid and prideful Smoke Jaguar culture looks from the inside it would generally capture MORE attention and appreciation from players, not less. My reasoning points to the many movies and games in the last 10 years that for various reasons have offered unfaithful depictions of the IP (and reaped diminished or even disastrous returns).
Ultimately, it was never necessary to dilute anything to be marketable. A compelling story, told from an interesting perspective, are the requirements. Decades (at least) of successful movies and games exist where the protagonists are not particularly good guys, and yet the audience/player was pulling for them.
Oui c'est un très bon jeu, même si la rejouabilité n'est pas du même niveau que MW5M, mais c'est largement compensé par une histoire intéressante. 👍
so in the opening cinematic, PGI demonstrates that they dont understand flight nor thrust
Last I heard, "flight" and "thrust" are **spits** white supremacy.
They probably wanted more to give a call back to the Classic MW2 intro cinematics. At least they do show union dropships turn and slow
@MatteoB-gx1bo yes, but a broadsword or leopard wouldn't fly like they show it, the thrust wouldn't be so dramatic either. The thrust on the unions would not be 8 to 12 times longer than the ship either
I caught onto the references to mw2 right away, but PGI doesn't understand physics
i am very impressed with this game. its pgi s best game yet. mech warrior mercs 5 was a big dud. but this , this great. i am happy that they kept the mechs lore accurate
Game is trash, lore was bastardized, gameplay like FPS MechAssault with no charm, characters awful and ugly, woke DEI and girl bosses galore, rips off Star Wars Jedi Knight 3 Jedi Academy, characters are like HS kid emos whining whole game, game is garbage
@@normanred9212Sees one black person cries DEI go away 🤡
Some of the things you want is more in line with MW3 a game closer to simulator area. MW5 is more action arcady/realistic(realistic but not a simulator) game.
I think pirania is not capable to do what you would want(I mean HUD is worse than it was in MW5 merc. IT is the worst HUD I have seen. Everything is in your face obstructing your view) or that they even want to do it. They are comfortable in this arcady/realistic spot.
The hud is 100 times better what are you on actually being able to know my turning angle in 1st is goated
@@mementomori771 everything is so very centered you can bearly see. Turning angle is unnecessary its not helpful but distracting.
I took Ezras side, whose with me?
I'm with Mia.
Crusade everyday I cant disappoint mommy Wimmer
An opportunity to fight clan mechs instead of Innersphere? Of course I went with Ezra. If they actually had expansions that would let you take the full death ride to the Jag's ultimate demise I would absolutely stay with the Jag's.
@@justinarchibald3857 my man
I have many issues with this game myself. One the game is unoptimized pile of trash. It does not run well. MW5M on UE4 struggles to run, UE5 MW5C? Worse. It has so much bad streaming of models that things will just randomly come into existence when the models start loading in instead of having been loaded prior so things will not exist, then exist in low poly version then pop in to full. This is an engine and dev problem. PGI can not optimize worth anything. UE5 is also a bad engine. Anyone who says well use FSR or DLSS doesn't realize that using this is the problem in the first place. The engine isn't optimized, its using fake stuff to make the game run stable while not actually running natively stable in the first place. This is a bandaid on top of a gushing wound.
My next problem with the game is the characters are generally insufferable. All the women characters are absolutely grating. The men all act like idiots or have no guts to stand up. They just whisper behind the scenes like mewling pups. Then the fact we're skipping around with characters left and right out of the blue with no actual real introductions to some of them. Character permanence seems to have been an afterthought. I also was not a fan of a lot of the voice actors. The only ones I found decent were Perez and Ibrahim. The rest...i honestly could have done without?
Next problem is the game is far too easy. Yes clan mechs are supposed to be OP but still, the game is far easier than MW5 was. Even on hard difficulty the game felt like, this is it? I'm bored. This isn't riveting gameplay. But things aren't always explained and that you should spend your mech xp first unlocking the omnipod variants first instead of chassis upgrades in research. Or not have them tied to the same thing pulling from the same pool, instead using the money system instead.
My final problem is theres no way to fully complete the upgrades stuff for your mechs or your research stuff in the game once you beat it. Meaning going back to do stuff you can't regain more salvage. Its quite an oversight I feel and means if you don't unlock the specialty variants of the autocannons and lbx cannons you can't use them? And when the story split happens you can't actually go back to replay the mission to do it, it remembers the choice you did and bars you from actually making the alternate choice. Even though post game popup information told you YOU CAN do that. Misleading information much? Theres also no way to reread through messages sent to you about stuff. So if you didn't read it, well that sucks to be you cause only way to is by starting up a new save and getting to that point again.
held off buying so far..waiting for a career mode release. shame its not in...yet
DO NOT BUY. You can tell that this video is being conservative with the truth. The whole video is about the menus because there's nothing that can be done to save the rest.
It probably won't be in, this isn't that kind of game.
What they should have done with the Trial of Position is let you fight the Timberwolf. If you beat it, you become Nova Commander instead of Star Commander and the game rewards you by giving you vehicles or elementals on your missions too. Rewards the player, gives a sense of achievement and makes missions a bit easier if you're playing on expert.
The story wouldn't have really worked if you could become a nova commander right off the bat.
@@snakenbits4279 If story is going to get in the way of good gameplay, make a movie or a book.
@@nicholasgordon4999 I'd love the play the mechwarrior game you made, oh wait...
@@snakenbits4279 I work for a software company. The Woke mind virus is affecting us, too. What goes on in software companies now is governments bribe directors to hire or promote more women simply because they are women. They have no passion for the games that are being made, they despise their customer base and hate the men that play games about big robots. They see players as an inconvenience to the Woke message they want to tell - and Mech 5 Clans is the result.
Thats not how game design works
ew taking off camera shake for shame
The scripted narrative for Clans should have been mainly outside of the mission. The missions themselves should have been wide open areas with freedom on how you complete mission objectives - so the narrative is player driven.
They already did that with mercs. They wanted to try going all the way with hand crafting the experience. After all, the story progresses trough in-mission dialog as well. What you said could be yet another type of game design, but i don't think it would fit well enough outside of a Merc unit and when you have such detailed lore to give life to. Playing missions on the sidelines of the bigger story lets me really feel i'm a small part of it imho 😊
@@MatteoB-gx1bo Noooo - they did not already do that with mercs. In my above comment, I was politely suggesting they shouldn't have produced on rails crap for Clans.
@@nicholasgordon4999 There's nothing wrong with linear mission design, such was the case in MechWarrior 2, 3 and 4. It allows the designers to pace the mission properly and add in appropriate dialogue and player reactivity.
@@Shinhotep Ehm - Mechwarrior 2 and 3 do not have linear mission design - what makes you think they do? They have a large open area and you're free to complete the mission in any way you want. There are also primary, secondary and tertiary mission objectives. In Mechwarrior 3, you even have non mech assets like the Mobile Repair Vehicles that you can deploy and use as you see fit. If you lose a repair vehicle in combat, it's gone for the whole game and you can't carry as much salvage. Are you from a people farm in China or something - lol?
@@nicholasgordon4999 Yes, and what does doing the objectives in a non linear order actually do to the mission? Still ends in the same way with the same final result with no recognition of how you did it at all. Essentially linear. I love MechWarrior 2 but the vast majority of the maps are just wide open lands with nothing to do in them. Ghost Bear's Legacy had more linear design and was better off for it.
Barrels of the guns are closed off even on that opening screen. They just don't care.
It's not a perfect game but my simplest comment is: i would buy the game movie even without the game 😎
So you like whiney HES kids complaining about their coaches and thr big game instead of wanting hardcore MechWarriors who should be slaughtering and laughing. Like, idk you people are shilling so hard for this woke DEI TRASH title. Game is bad dude, it's bad. PGi failed in everything they claimed
@@normanred9212yes, i do like it. As someone might say, "go cry, snowflake"
If you take the MechWarrior label off it and had it as a stand alone game not related to the MechWarrior franchise. Then its an alright game, nothing that great, but nothing that awful either. The problem is, it is supposed to be a MechWarrior game and a Lore driven one too, but its not. This is because the story is supposed be of Clan Smoke Jaguar, which it sadly fails to deliver. Opting for the characters to have more "modern sensibilities" from the very start, rather than them being the ruthless Clan Smoke Jaguars they would have been raised to be. Now them growing a conscience about what they're doing in order to give different story paths would have been ok, had it been something that progressed as the story played out, but it didn't.
Other small gripe, is the mech lab, why do they always have this limited restrictive design that literally needs mods like MechWarrior 5 does to give it more authentic MechWarrior feel.
They picked the wrong clan to do or they were just too scared or cowardly to go full villain aspect of the Smoke Jaguars, as you have the Wolfs as the poster boys of the clans and in the middle the Jaguars are on the far end scale and this game tried to make out that they were a bit off centre instead of the full on blood thirty warriors that they are. Like you said they gave them a conscience were in lore it would have been bread out of them by the time their trial of position was to take place. They choice the SJ cause they have two centrepiece moments during the invasion, there's not much lore about the beta galaxy to a point, but as stated before they were the wrong clan in my opinion with the way they did the story.
Moving back on that point, the turtle Bay bombardment, the speech Weaver gave it had nothing to do with weakness, it was mostly that the Wolfs showed them up and made them look bad with their bidding off their warships. Battletech is GOT in space their a lots of political manoeuvring that happens and Osis taking command of the galaxy was just someone who saw an opportunity to rise his station.
I think they didn't "modernize" them, they simply made clan warriors a bit more human than they sometimes have been represented and toned down a bit of the weirdness of clan customs. While the last thing is a bit sad, i'd rather have this than mustache-twirling villains. The player wouldn't feel any empathy and it wouldn't be a great story.
@@MatteoB-gx1bo A bit more human? no you're applying modern sensibilities of what it means to be human. These are people from a culture far removed from what we know, understand and accept. For example look at ancient cultures and civilizations. Having another human being as property was normal for many of them. Raiding and pillaging was normal for others. Even human sacrifice was seen as normal in some. And this is my point, Clan Smoke Jaguar is a highly militaristic and ruthless Clan, what you see as appalling is normal to them. They grew up in it and know nothing else and this should be reflected in the story but wasn't. For instance why would they be offended by the pirates using other humans being as slaves, when they treat they're labor caste no better.
@@covahredro8370 Just because the vast majority of the writing for Smoke Jaguar was so two dimensional to the point of it being comical back in the day, simply because they had designated them as the proverbial whipping boy, doesn't mean they weren't still staunch loyalists to Nicholas Kerensky's dream and founding principles. Which they were always portrayed as. You can thank Blaine Pardoe and his characters of Paul Moon and Trent for the broader humanisation of Smoke Jaguar's. This game is simply a continuation of that.
Clans mechlab is absolute atrocious. Most weapon points on the arms leaving the customization flaccid. The command feature was badly designed and useless at the same time.
Uhhh well clans has a much better mechlab than Mercs, the weapon points on arms isn't a mechlab issue, that's literally just how basically every clan mech is
@@batchallbro that is such a lie, the Mech lab is god awful USE YOUR EYES. the arms are an issue when its main point of customization and its not fun to do with the new mech lab.
@@countphil1 you can change arms with different omnipods giving you the option to switch between weapon hardpoints and you can also add armor/ammunition/heatsinks. What else do you want?? should we just scrap the omnipod system based on your feelings?
The armor thing in the mech lab was the major turn off that stopped me from buying the game. Why was this not a thing in MW5 Mercs, where is the canon there? And why you can't at least redistribute front/rear (who uses so much armor in the back). Major NO NO,, for IS mechs there was no canon regarding this, but for Clan ones it is. Overall, i think the mech lab got worse, at least in some important to/for me aspects.
Now that they have shown they can handle narratives, I would like them to go back to older MW titles and show they can handcraft missions that are engaging and branching without being a 30 minute non-stop laser show. Take a shortcut over a rough terrain and intercept a convoy ... or face the failure and cover your retreat. Infiltrate the base, capture (unloading a star of elementals) and set up a defensive perimeter... or face a tough (but potentially more salvageable) opponent in a cutscene. This is a lot more expensive approach, but boy, that would be a lot more replayable compared to the PGI grind.
The game looks great, but undercooked in everything but the main loop which is cutscenes and mech to mech combat.
They need to give us the ability to bring our own mechs into the host's lobby in Clans and Mercs.
I could kind of understand (still not really) that view on Mercs, but there's genuinely 0 reason to for clans. They're literally Omnimechs, it doesn't matter if the Stormcrow is YOUR Stormcrow, because you can make it the exact same in like two hours in-universe