MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

 PC
User Score
5.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 292 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 106 out of 292
  2. Mixed: 63 out of 292
  3. Negative: 123 out of 292

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  1. Haddadm
    Dec 14, 2019
    3
    I was hype and after liking MWO I was hoping for at least good mech game. if it had mods it would be great but there are so many problems caused by non caring dev team.
    Only people who cared about the game were those who made the management and space map.
    Everybody else phoned it in: The missions are samey, the levels contain huge parts of copy pasted areas, massive glaring bugs like    I was hype and after liking MWO I was hoping for at least good mech game. if it had mods it would be great but there are so many problems caused by non caring dev team.
    Only people who cared about the game were those who made the management and space map.
    Everybody else phoned it in: The missions are samey, the levels contain huge parts of copy pasted areas, massive glaring bugs like control remapping doesn't remap the keys, story not just being bad but actively hidnering your enjoyment of the game, mission scripting being absolutely terrible and only working if you rush into the objective otherwise you can softlock the game, AI being stupid and limited, enemy forces teleporting into 300m range of the objective(that means if you find good battlefield they can spawn literally 20m behind you and double aC20 your back).

    Not to mention GLARING lack of polish and poor performance.

    And worst of all it's casualized: theres no radar system, no optics, no way to command your lance, customization is simplified, biomes don't affect heat of your mech at all.

    Feels like early access made by an indie dev team.    … Expand
  2. Syndr
    Dec 13, 2019
    4
    Not Impressed, and not made for serious Battletech / Mechwarrior fans. I have been playing the tabletop version since it's inception, and have played every iteration of it on the PC. Mechwarrior 4, still stands head and shoulders above this.

    PROS: The look, feel, and movement of the mechs is superb. I think most would agree. The problem is everything else. Where to begin: CONS: 1.    Not Impressed, and not made for serious Battletech / Mechwarrior fans. I have been playing the tabletop version since it's inception, and have played every iteration of it on the PC. Mechwarrior 4, still stands head and shoulders above this.

    PROS:
    The look, feel, and movement of the mechs is superb. I think most would agree. The problem is everything else. Where to begin:

    CONS:
    1. The game music is just bad.
    2. Story, meh.
    3. Enemy mech gets legged, drags leg for 10 seconds, starts running around as if there were never damaged.
    4. Missiles look like garbage when fired. More of an aesthetic thing, but to my eyes it looks cartoonish.
    5. We have better radar in WWII than the 31st century. Mechs / vehicles spawn in within a few meters right behind you. Mechs have 360 degree radar, not Direct LOS only. If I did not know that these devs made a Mechwarrior game already, i would guess they had never heard of Battletech / Mechwarrior before.
    6. The missions are uninteresting, repetetive, and boring.
    7. The mechbay, and mech customization....Holy lord what the hell is this? This was made for casual 10 year olds. There is no real mech customization, imo, at all in this game. The Battletech game by Hairbrained does it light years better, and even that is not that fantastic by comparison to actual Battletech, but at least you have a little wiggle room.
    8. Maps areas are small.
    9. When map is enlarged it looks like old tiled desktop wallpaper.
    11. Terrain, like the missions, are boring, lifeless, and repetetive.
    10. Lancemates run through the very buildings you are tasked to protect.
    11. Economy is almost arbitrary. I have yet to find myself in any kind of position of "Oh no, I'm about to be bankrupt." I rake in the dough as if I was playing GTA V.

    I am sure i have likely missed 10 more things, but you get the picture. I do not mind PGI retaining their current MWO licensing, but for the love of god, limit them to only that, and license it out to someone else to make a real Mechwarrior game.    … Expand
  3. Salamari
    Dec 11, 2019
    4
    I was so excited... Mechwarrior 4 is one of my all time favorite games, but after the intro missions and a few contracts I'm pretty disappointed. It seems the way the developer chose the make missions challenging is to spam smaller vehicles, while also giving them better range than your star league era battlemech built with lost tech... I keep getting shot by tanks I cant target orI was so excited... Mechwarrior 4 is one of my all time favorite games, but after the intro missions and a few contracts I'm pretty disappointed. It seems the way the developer chose the make missions challenging is to spam smaller vehicles, while also giving them better range than your star league era battlemech built with lost tech... I keep getting shot by tanks I cant target or damage because of range, most of the time they are at double my tactical overlay's sphere. Just in case that wasn't bad enough enemies will randomly spawn all around you so you have no ability to tactically move a "front line" within a mission. Squad command is limited and they don't seem to listen to you very well either. It appears that the ratio of small vehicles to mechs is 30ish/1, so you get chewed up by tanks before you even see a mech. The mech AI... close to point blank and run in a circle around you. All of this makes the inability to save within a mission truly game breaking. If the mechwarrior franchise is ARMA this is CoD.

    Over all this is gonna need a lot of polish. It kinda feels like a beta, right down to a couple of ctd's.    … Expand
  4. Rellin
    Dec 12, 2019
    2
    Low budget garbage. Terrible textures. Atrocious story dialog/writing. Repetitive quests. PGI are absolute sleaze balls and should never have been given the rights to this game. What a waste, what a shame.
  5. Harag
    Apr 30, 2021
    2
    No surprise PGI was unable to pull this off. The core game play, actual mech fighting is fine. The AI is useless in every form. The user interface suffers from the EXACT issues MWO has, in other words its terrible. This game is literally sabotaging itself no one who hasn't already played MW is going to find this game inviting or easy to learn. The terrain pop in is still present evenNo surprise PGI was unable to pull this off. The core game play, actual mech fighting is fine. The AI is useless in every form. The user interface suffers from the EXACT issues MWO has, in other words its terrible. This game is literally sabotaging itself no one who hasn't already played MW is going to find this game inviting or easy to learn. The terrain pop in is still present even though they have changed engines. This is a fundamental failure of the development team and an unwillingness to identify those issues by the management. If this is what they produced after delaying the game a year and taking all of Epic's money i shudder to think what they had planned to release prior to this...

    EDIT: 2 years later, games still buggy and none of the issues were addressed. Someone needs to take over the Mech Warrior license so it can actually be turned into a successful franchise.    … Expand
  6. Xalon
    Dec 10, 2019
    4
    More Mechwarrior is finally here, sadly, it's not great. While the combat is fun, there is a lot of cringe throughout (I seriously think a 12 year old wrote the script) and some poor design decisions. That the game is Epic exclusive and the studio has a history of bad decisionmaking makes me wish Microsoft had locked down this license.
  7. pleblah
    Aug 15, 2020
    9
    I had a lot of fun with this. It could have done with more hand crafted missions but overall the random missions are pretty decent and the combat feels great. The game definitely had some short comings (most notably the ai) but thanks to mods most of these have been addressed.
  8. cmfrip
    Jul 14, 2020
    8
    *If not obvious: a great -detail- shooter*

    I think this game is great. At first I was not so convinced and was sceptical, but over time, I have grown to like MechWarrior(MW) 5 alot! I like how it does in fact play like MW and most aspects of those games pan in with any other that was made. Procedural style of design is not so good in-comparison to MW4's linear Missions - which    *If not obvious: a great -detail- shooter*

    I think this game is great. At first I was not so convinced and was sceptical, but over time, I have grown to like MechWarrior(MW) 5 alot!

    I like how it does in fact play like MW and most aspects of those games pan in with any other that was made.

    Procedural style of design is not so good in-comparison to MW4's linear Missions - which is much more polished - but it works and I am enjoying playing the game.

    Its true, Most other design out side of Combat is like BattleTech or even Xcom -Enemy Unknown.

    I also like the characters and the way the story is laid out - though not the best- It is fields ahead of BattleTech imo.

    The one thing it handles better than MW4 is how AI teammates respond - sometimes - as it at times it just breaks... not sure if tha tis deliberate

    Game could be better optimised graphics wise and certanly does crash.

    I dont like : Mech editor's- Hard-point system
    the way the HUD illustrates a target mech's health – that is just not legible.    … Expand
  9. Ludewich
    Jul 22, 2020
    9
    I have just finished my second campaign play-through and the Epic Store reports a play time of "9 d" (which includes little to no AFK time).

    What I really like about the game is * excellently implemented combat * lots of ways to customize mechs (Reloaded mod, see below!) * high level of immersion * it feels good to be part of a team, even if it just consists of the AI lance mates *    I have just finished my second campaign play-through and the Epic Store reports a play time of "9 d" (which includes little to no AFK time).

    What I really like about the game is
    * excellently implemented combat
    * lots of ways to customize mechs (Reloaded mod, see below!)
    * high level of immersion
    * it feels good to be part of a team, even if it just consists of the AI lance mates
    * weather system and bioms works well
    * lots of "kaboom".
    * good visuals
    * great support for modding + great modding community

    It is the first game where I actually _use_ lots of mods: mods are such a big improvement over the base game which appears to be lacking in many aspects. Interestingly, much of which has been added by mods appears to be already hidden somewhere in the base game (like customizable engines, armor upgrades etc)... maybe it will eventually become part of the base game.

    What I do not like is
    * Something about the scaling is off. I am pretty sure that this is due to the scaling of the grass: it is too large. It makes mechs look... small. This might be fixed by mods, I do not know.
    * dull characters. The great mech hangar is essentially dead; I never felt any kind of relation to the characters (including the own figure and the lancemates).
    * the mission loading times are ... obscene. On my (mediocre) system, it takes about 2 minutes (!) to load a mission. This applies to every mission. It must be CPU bound since a friend of mine has a slower graphics card and a slower hard drive, yet it loads much faster on his intel CPU.

    My review is based on the following set of mods:
    * reloaded mod (mandatory!)
    * tabletoprules lance mate aI mod (mandatory!)
    * tabletoprules AI mod (mandatory!)
    * hellfire and brimstone (missile trails, smoke)
    * realistic weapon velocities 128
    * Kh0rns Sound mod
    * paint style savings
    * Weather fix mod
    * better spawns

    If you like mechs, destroying things, PvE combat, custom weapon loadouts then I strongly recommend this game!    … Expand
  10. ComandanteCobra
    Jan 6, 2021
    8
    Good!...not awesome...but good enough.
    It fill a void for a Battletech single player simulation game and in that aspect center his objective.
    I recommend it to old players and battletech fans...if your'not in those 2 categories lower the score a little toward "Mixed". I buy it on Sale on Epic , ended it and it keep me entertained for at least 2 months. I hope there will be DLC with    Good!...not awesome...but good enough.
    It fill a void for a Battletech single player simulation game and in that aspect center his objective.
    I recommend it to old players and battletech fans...if your'not in those 2 categories lower the score a little toward "Mixed".
    I buy it on Sale on Epic , ended it and it keep me entertained for at least 2 months.
    I hope there will be DLC with additional contents like iS faction Campaign or Clans addons.
    You can read about some limitation in other review..some of them i agree with (like enemy spawning, general lack of polish and dated npc interactions) but others not at all.
    I didn't have problems with graphics, AI, grinding, bugs, few cut-scenes, tonnage limit, few npcs, difficulty, missions variety...because those things wasn't bad enough to ruin my game.
    My expectation was maybe more realistic than others .
    I was looking for a sci-fi simulation game (a underground genre in this days especially about Mechs) and I find it.
    I wasn't expecting a AAA single player experiences of the calibre of Wing commanders series of 30 years ago...because that games had a different budget and those was different times.
    For a sale price it's a solid game, I buy it and will play this and other battletech game for time to time to support this project...maybe in this way this kind of game (and Battletech in general) will have a revival.... if there are enough interest and less complains.
    Like most buyer of this game i'm and old player and i'm into Battletech franchise...old Mecharrior or Mech Commander games, Fasa manuals, Ral partha miniatures, Mechwarrior online, youtube channels about Battletech lore Like Tex Talks Battletech, Mega mek...ad so on.
    Peace    … Expand
  11. EerieDemonble
    Dec 6, 2021
    6
    It's not a great game for sure.

    - Graphics are average to bad - Story is boring and full of cliches - Game balance are all over the place +++ Soundtrack on the other hand is absolute banger 10/10! I'm not sure when we gonna see next Mechwarrior game. At this moment this is the best we have. But after patches, 2 DLCs and some awesome community mods, I'm not gonna lie - I'm having    It's not a great game for sure.

    - Graphics are average to bad
    - Story is boring and full of cliches
    - Game balance are all over the place
    +++ Soundtrack on the other hand is absolute banger 10/10!

    I'm not sure when we gonna see next Mechwarrior game. At this moment this is the best we have.
    But after patches, 2 DLCs and some awesome community mods, I'm not gonna lie - I'm having fun with carrier mode.    … Expand
  12. Gere1987
    Feb 15, 2020
    10
    Engem leköt a játék, számomra tudja adni azt az élményt amit a régi részek is adtak és amit elvártam a játéktól, megérte az árát, főleg ha még lesz hozzá content.
  13. VoidWinter
    Jun 5, 2021
    5
    Ok, ok. The actual combat is fun, but really, that's where the good stuff stops. WHERE IS THE MOST ICONIC OMNIMECH IN THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE? You SERIOUSLY made a friggin mechwarrior game without the Mad Cat / Timber Wolf? WHAT THE EFF WERE YOU THINKING??? INEXCUSABLE! Really, looking at the lineup of mechs in the game just makes me grumble. Almost all my favorites didn't make the cut.Ok, ok. The actual combat is fun, but really, that's where the good stuff stops. WHERE IS THE MOST ICONIC OMNIMECH IN THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE? You SERIOUSLY made a friggin mechwarrior game without the Mad Cat / Timber Wolf? WHAT THE EFF WERE YOU THINKING??? INEXCUSABLE! Really, looking at the lineup of mechs in the game just makes me grumble. Almost all my favorites didn't make the cut. There are a few good ones here and there but by and large, the list is dominated by weaker, less fun-to-play mechs. There are parts that just boggle my mind, like being unable to both repair and refit a mech at the same time. It just feels like extra, unnecessary steps to slow you down and pad things out. Even how the mechs are organized gets on my nerves. You sort them by mass, not alphabetically. The tutorials also left a lot to be desired. FAR too much was left out, leaving me frustrated trying to figure out how to hire pilots, organize my mechs, and even put weapons on them. The mechs are far less flexible than in previous games and the execution of playing with your loadouts (what little you can do) was overcomplicated and difficult to understand initially. But when it comes down to it, it IS a mechwarrior game, even if only just barely. A game with good meat, sandwiched in terrible bread and strange, inappropriate condiments.… Expand
  14. ZoSo425
    Apr 9, 2020
    9
    It does what it sets out the do and satisfied my craving for a new single player mw mercs game. Any lack of depth in the game currently will improve as modding expands and new DLC comes out.
  15. quetzal1
    Oct 3, 2020
    7
    I understand why people are disappointed. In my opinion this game was saved by the modding community. I enjoyed playing with mods to remove all the annoying aspects, have a user-friendly interface, and acceptable AI. Would've given 10 if all the work by the modding community were already done by the developers.
  16. Urye
    Jun 21, 2022
    6
    the story is only okay and the battle map size isn't very impressive and too small
  17. valrond
    Jan 16, 2020
    4
    A very poor Mechwarrior entry.
    I have played every Mechwarrior game. I backed Mechwarrior Online and I've been playing it since 2012.
    This game has the same combat engine than Mechwarrior Online (but using Unreal instead of CryEngine), so it feels very similar than MWO. However, the rest of the game is quite lacking. First, the IA is laughably bad. Not even MWO noobs play this bad.    A very poor Mechwarrior entry.
    I have played every Mechwarrior game. I backed Mechwarrior Online and I've been playing it since 2012.
    This game has the same combat engine than Mechwarrior Online (but using Unreal instead of CryEngine), so it feels very similar than MWO.
    However, the rest of the game is quite lacking.
    First, the IA is laughably bad. Not even MWO noobs play this bad.
    Then, the enemy IA spawns in top of you.
    3rd, there is a lot of grinding. Yes, the maps are created procedurally, so they aren't the same, but they feel the same, as they are made from the same building blocks. So after a few missions, it feels very repetitive. And you have to play a lot of games to earn enough coin, and the expenses and time for repairs are really big.
    The UI is clunky and it takes a lot of time to do the most basic things.
    It is a shame, cause it could have been a really great game. I was looking forward to it, but, it didn't deliver.
    Keep playing MWO.    … Expand
  18. MagusGW1
    Dec 15, 2019
    4
    Knew this was gonna be a beta test until mod support and ai tweaks as well as additional missions and a second lance are added when steam release comes out. The AI is ATROCIOUS. not just enemy AI but your teams AI is seriously stupid. During defense missions your team will destroy more buildings than the enemy trying to get to them. Mission are bland and enemy spawns out of thin airKnew this was gonna be a beta test until mod support and ai tweaks as well as additional missions and a second lance are added when steam release comes out. The AI is ATROCIOUS. not just enemy AI but your teams AI is seriously stupid. During defense missions your team will destroy more buildings than the enemy trying to get to them. Mission are bland and enemy spawns out of thin air usually right on top of you. The times they do use a drop ship its right on top of your defense target but you had to walk all the way to said defense target. I got this for free so I don't really feel cheated but a lot of others are PISSED off. the one thin I can say is all the different mech variants were nice to see and the game does look pretty good but nowhere near what the first trailer showed. Wait until the steam release by then mod support and all the fixes that are needed will be included.… Expand
  19. acid_kiss
    Dec 15, 2019
    4
    The foundations of a good game are there. Combat is fun, plowing through buildings is a blast. Game looks great and weapons are beautiful. The game play and missions themselves are horribly repetitive. The maps feel small, even compared to the original MW2. Bad guys will literally pop into existence within view, at least in 1995 they came in on drop ships. Fun arcade experience, butThe foundations of a good game are there. Combat is fun, plowing through buildings is a blast. Game looks great and weapons are beautiful. The game play and missions themselves are horribly repetitive. The maps feel small, even compared to the original MW2. Bad guys will literally pop into existence within view, at least in 1995 they came in on drop ships. Fun arcade experience, but campaign and mission variety are abysmal.… Expand
  20. RynCage
    Dec 11, 2019
    6
    MechWarrior 5 does little more than provide the bare minimum to meet expectations, while doing very little to innovate or move the franchise into the modern era.

    While the game looks and sounds decent, you'll often be met with some awful pop-in and generic rock soundtracks. The story is serviceable enough to introduce newcomers to the setting, but nothing to write home about. The    MechWarrior 5 does little more than provide the bare minimum to meet expectations, while doing very little to innovate or move the franchise into the modern era.

    While the game looks and sounds decent, you'll often be met with some awful pop-in and generic rock soundtracks. The story is serviceable enough to introduce newcomers to the setting, but nothing to write home about.

    The gameplay while solid, is brought down by AI that somehow manages to be worse than games from 20 years ago.
    Such features include: Friendly AI getting stuck on terrain. Stuck on one another. Never using jump jets, Shooting you and each other in the back. Moving into your line of fire and blocking you constantly. Running into and damaging structures you are supposed to be protecting. Randomly decided to stop following you or engage in targets. Teammates just barely managing to follow instructions, if they aren't outright ignoring them.
    Let's not forget that enemy mechs and tanks will spawn out of thin air mere inches away from you during some missions.

    The mechlab is bare bones and a step backwards in the franchise. A system of hardpoint, size and slot limitations [multiple smaller weapons cannot fit into larger slots. 1 slot, 1 weapon.] mean that a very clear meta develops and you often find yourself ignoring or glossing over a large variety of mechs due to being limited to terrible loadouts. Neither is the progression system polished enough to really ever force you into using these less than optimal units outside of what the game starts you with.

    Since mission variety only ever boils down to "destroy the everything" and PGI's idea of difficulty is "throw more tonnage at you", Light mechs are quickly left in the dust and forgotten about, So you can go ahead and forget about buying that rare spider hero mech, it belonged in the trash before you ever even found it.

    Co-op is completely unbalanced due to the fact that the AI is sub 100 IQ, and with no other way to adjust difficulty outside of "take a light mech instead of a medium", you'll never be challenged outside of self-handicap.
    Never mind that the game is EGS exclusive for a year and lacks every quality of life feature you can think of.

    The framework for an amazing game is here, but what we were given is held back by various shortcomings that show that the project wasn't ready for release, The money behind it just ran out. Modding has the potential to turn this game into something incredible, but that might even be asking too much. As much as i love the franchise and wish to see it do well, i can't earnestly recommend the game in its current state. You'll be better off waiting for the steam release and seeing what mods are available at that time.    … Expand
  21. Fherot
    Dec 15, 2019
    2
    This game was released after 4+ years of development after originally debuting as a gameplay trailer in 2016. Which looks better than the current release game by far. Everything is mediocre at best and feels incomplete. The campaign was added on top of a repetitive ‘5 mission type’ sandbox Career mode and seems to blend in unnoticed. Lackluster UI/sounds/voice acting/graphics.

    The only    This game was released after 4+ years of development after originally debuting as a gameplay trailer in 2016. Which looks better than the current release game by far. Everything is mediocre at best and feels incomplete. The campaign was added on top of a repetitive ‘5 mission type’ sandbox Career mode and seems to blend in unnoticed. Lackluster UI/sounds/voice acting/graphics.

    The only redeeming point is that yes the mech combat can be really fun, but the lack of all the other polish just takes too much away from it to be enjoyable.

    Game might have potential with a lot more development to be worth picking up.    … Expand
  22. ace7five
    Dec 15, 2019
    1
    I created an account *just* to review this game. I've been waiting since MW4, have played 2, 3, 4, MWO, and Battletech.

    I've logged 20 hours of saddle time thus far and I'm amazed at how "phoned in" this game feels. Just unreal how they managed to make a vastly worse interface than MWO, generate a completely repetitive series of boring missions, a wholly absurd enemy spawn system    I created an account *just* to review this game. I've been waiting since MW4, have played 2, 3, 4, MWO, and Battletech.

    I've logged 20 hours of saddle time thus far and I'm amazed at how "phoned in" this game feels. Just unreal how they managed to make a vastly worse interface than MWO, generate a completely repetitive series of boring missions, a wholly absurd enemy spawn system (seriously, things spawn on top of you literally all the time, no concept of preset enemy pieces on the map, just waves of spawn around you with no option to work through in any remotely tactical fashion), useless sensors, and utterly boring weapon systems, mech concepts, and mobility/armor/damage. My impression is that a *ton* of time went into evaluating systems that could have gone into this during the silliness that MWO ultimately degenerated into. We're left with this ridiculously poor compromise between an action game and a sim with no real imagination and a grotesquely bad interface.

    That said, at it's heart, there is a great amount of potential. Revamping the economy, removing the "first person hangar experience" (what the hell were they thinking with that?), fixing the spawn system, re-balancing weapons, armor, sensors, and adding variety to mission types (which to my uneducated and admittedly simple thought process *seems* achievable?) would make this a pretty exciting and rewarding game to play.

    Who the heck tested this, signed off on it, and said "yeah, let's ship it, people are going to like it?"

    Or am I maybe answering my own question here and realizing just now that Piranha is pretty terrible, doesn't care, and shouldn't really be the caretaker of this franchise (as they kinda demonstrated with the tone deaf continual roll-out of new pay-to-win mechs rather than re-working the in-game experience as the player base died a slow painful death as the much-hoped-for faction play failed to deliver on what could have been a ton of fun)?

    Shame on all of us for supporting studios like this and shame on literally *anybody* who makes a product in any industry with such a lack of care for the end user and final appearance.

    Hey, they get a 1 for potential though! Keep chasing that rainbow! : )    … Expand
  23. Octomort
    Dec 15, 2019
    6
    OK, could have done better, after 17 years!

    This is an update from my review 24 hours after release. will leave the original. Imagine the Mona Lisa, all the elements of a classic. Grace, beauty, mystery, plus blowing the crap out of things!. Now imagine the Mona Lisa drawn with Kindergarden Crayons. Not a Christmas treat. Perhaps Easter or Summer Hols. I suggest you wait till the    OK, could have done better, after 17 years!

    This is an update from my review 24 hours after release. will leave the original.
    Imagine the Mona Lisa, all the elements of a classic. Grace, beauty, mystery, plus blowing the crap out of things!. Now imagine the Mona Lisa drawn with Kindergarden Crayons.
    Not a Christmas treat. Perhaps Easter or Summer Hols. I suggest you wait till the price drops at least 8 GBP/EURO/USD.
    Worth playing just not at the release price.

    below my original release day review.

    The intro is long and uninteresting.
    The voice acting is OK but the scripts are bland.
    Visually not magnificent but good for the genre. ( I have a PC which easily runs everything at max graphics)

    I do not feel as fully immersed as with previous titles. Ok 17 years later but I'm a middle-age gamer so not that much of a change in my outlook as say from 13 to 30 yoa.
    Mek AI bloody awful! they close and run around in a circle centred on your mek, most of the time.
    Lance mates have a habit of stealing your kills, which is OK as they, Lance mates, are much more effective than in previous titles. Oddly they seem to use dance (for position) and dodge tactics as you would in a mek, not running around in circles. So why don't the opponent AI's do the same?
    Mission always seem to end up in a base either defending destroying or assassinating. In bases you are constantly demolishing buildings as manoeuvring space is far more tight than even the city combat in MW4.
    After each mission you have to do a first person walk through the mek hall up the stairs to get to the bridge (where all out-of-mission management takes place) every time, every sodding time!

    Burst fire projectile cannons are now worth having, good in mission sound and graphics when firing them. There is a version of the Auto cannon (5 and 10 and 20) that fires a burst of shells in one go and it is actually balanced, heavy on the ammo but not so as to put you off tweaking your mek.
    The mission landscape feels small. I know I am in a 10m tall mek but mountains are usually a bit taller than that. The scale feels wrong. Quite easy to get stopped by pieces of landscape.
    The pilot interface works for me. All meks now have a 2x zoom on the mouse wheel by default.

    The star map is huge, I mean really big, I mean huge!
    i like the way the actual contract side works. you can negotiate between extra money, extra salvage or insurance for damage to meks. yep you can get your employer to pay for your repairs.
    The star-map is divided into the various houses/factions but there are also clearly defined war zones. The latter is where you get contracts. But in a war zone materiel is scarce and so repairs and upgrades cost more, maybe even a third more. There are industrial planets where things are cheaper, but this takes you out of the warzone and away from C-bill making contracts. So far I would give the strategic side an 8/9.

    I will soldier on (pun intended) with the campaign (had it just 24 hours at time of posting this).

    if you have not yet bought it hold back and see what others say or if the price drops.    … Expand
  24. itmo
    Dec 17, 2019
    3
    This game is complete crap compared to the previous games from 20+ years ago. The people that worked on this should be ashamed of releasing such an underdeveloped and lazy attempt of a modern version of a series that had a lot of potential. Some of the issues I have listed below, which the previous games had, but due to complete laziness this game doesn't.

    -You only get one lance = 4    This game is complete crap compared to the previous games from 20+ years ago. The people that worked on this should be ashamed of releasing such an underdeveloped and lazy attempt of a modern version of a series that had a lot of potential. Some of the issues I have listed below, which the previous games had, but due to complete laziness this game doesn't.

    -You only get one lance = 4 mechs, and in some missions you go up against, not kidding 29 mechs
    -The A.I is dumb and runs around in circles
    - You can't make way points and make strategic decisions on how to tackle each mission
    - You can't pick where your drop ship lands or picks you up from
    - Mechs and tanks spawn all the time behind you, within a few feet = Great immersion
    - You can't run passive radar, a basic feature from previous games that allowed you to stay
    undetected
    - I have never seen any A.I use jump jets once in over 30 hours of play time
    - The enemy can continuously send drop ships down to unload more mechs, but the spare 8 pilots
    and 8 mechs you have, you can't call down to assist you
    - The laziness of the difficulty increase = Just throw more and more Mechs at the player, and send the
    biggest ones in last, when your lance is just about dead from killing 25 mechs prior

    The core of this game is very poor, and this has not progressed the genre in any way what so ever. It is in fact a massive backwards step. There are also plenty of bugs, but even when they fix those, the core of the game is complete garbage. There is no hand crating to the missions, its just the same thing for 30+ hours. The campaign is truly stupid, but you can't expect much when the rest of the game is garbage. DO NOT BUY, even if you love the Mech series and Lore.    … Expand
  25. Fistan
    Dec 12, 2019
    3
    Jesus, what a terrible game. Its the same studio that made MechWarrior online but for some reason they made combat feel far worse than it was in MWO. (Which is a shame because combat mechanics was the only reason people played that game that had literally no content). Movement is janky, UI is terrible, AI is complete garbage so they resort to having dozens of them and spawning themJesus, what a terrible game. Its the same studio that made MechWarrior online but for some reason they made combat feel far worse than it was in MWO. (Which is a shame because combat mechanics was the only reason people played that game that had literally no content). Movement is janky, UI is terrible, AI is complete garbage so they resort to having dozens of them and spawning them literally behind you to provide challenge, voicework subpar and writing is so terrible, i think studio just tried to do it amongst themselves to cut the cost. And the music, jeez man, it was so bad that i preferred silence over what game had the offer. This game is a travesty. Should be the tombstone of Piranha games.

    Man, all they had to do was carry over the assets and the animation/movement they built with MWO into a good random map designer + kickass AI and music. That is it. That would've made the game but no. They failed at everything, literally. Even things they've accomplished in the past. Dont buy it, just play the previpus game, Mech Warrior 4 (oddly enough the game microsoft made in 2003 was also named mercenaries, unlike this one that game is still playable and quite enjoyable as well.)    … Expand
  26. Pinkiesbrain
    Dec 12, 2019
    3
    TLDR: Long loading times, sub par graphics, dull environment, out of proportion assets, VERY repetetive game loop, idiotic spawning of enemies.

    MWM5 does not succeed in any of its genres basics. The graphics look like about 8 years old, the mechs feel all similar, the environment is dull and without detail and so are the mechs- still it takes a hell of resources and long loading    TLDR: Long loading times, sub par graphics, dull environment, out of proportion assets, VERY repetetive game loop, idiotic spawning of enemies.

    MWM5 does not succeed in any of its genres basics.
    The graphics look like about 8 years old, the mechs feel all similar, the environment is dull and without detail and so are the mechs- still it takes a hell of resources and long loading times. You change a sector in tactical view? 20 seconds loading time. Serioulsy, the only thing that changes when cahnign a sector is fonts. How can that need 20 seconds loading?!

    The grind is real. The missions are procedually generated without any love or thought. It plays like an arena shooter against very bad AI. Most enemies spawn just beneath you or in your back. So it often happens that you check your surroundings just to get shot in the back from three tanks and a mech 1 second later since the engine stupidly just spawns enemies where you are currently not looking at. This renders long range rockets and other long range builds almost useless since everything spawns in close quarters.

    The only thing fun in the game is "hunting" for new mechs, and trying different outfits and lances.
    If the missions would at least be of minimal quality then the game could reach maybe a 5 or 6.

    I really hope they skip the planned raytracing patch for january and instead make the game less of a pain in the haleluja    … Expand
  27. rshoff
    Dec 14, 2019
    4
    On par with the online game in terms of combat. Missions are overloaded with tanks, vtols, scripting bugs, path finding bugs and there seems to only be 3-4 biomes that look like they belong or came from earth.

    Game feels like it was made with a skeleton crew and no budget.

    No way to review the game on epics site which is interesting...
  28. Kazurath
    Dec 10, 2019
    7
    Are you a Mechwarrior/Pilot Sim fan? Guess what, no big surprise, you'll enjoy this game. It's Mechwarrior, it's a pilot sim, it exceeds no expectations and meets most.

    It needs major improvement in 3 areas: 1) HOTAS control management, recognition, and customization. While present, it feels like a grudging addition. Personally I want one-directional throttle control with a reverse    Are you a Mechwarrior/Pilot Sim fan? Guess what, no big surprise, you'll enjoy this game. It's Mechwarrior, it's a pilot sim, it exceeds no expectations and meets most.

    It needs major improvement in 3 areas:
    1) HOTAS control management, recognition, and customization. While present, it feels like a grudging addition. Personally I want one-directional throttle control with a reverse modifier. I can't do this in the base settings.

    2a) Targeting. HOTAS targeting is an insultingly bad joke. There needs to be a targeting reticule for auto-lock inside said reticule. Mouse targeting is superior as if comparing it to controller targeting.
    2b) Target acquisition. I'm not sure if radar is a thing in this game. It is, but it isn't. You can only track what's actively shooting you or if it's in your LoS. Did it move behind a building? Might as well have a cloak engaged. The game also has an annoying habit of spawning enemies in behind you.

    3) "Human" piloting. I would have been happy with a copy/paste of mech controls for the human walk about portions, but no, not even that is there. You need to break out WSAD if you're using a HOTAS for these sections.    … Expand
  29. Hawkcircle
    Jan 5, 2020
    4
    It's simply overwhelming hard, too many enemies, an non intuitive interface, etc etc. Just too much of an exercise in frustration.
  30. ltdaryth
    Feb 22, 2020
    0
    Lifeless game. So majorly disappointing after a 20 year wait... A Remastered version of Mechwarrior 4 would of been so much better. It's a shame they didn't have a quality development team working on it.

    - In game characters are lifeless mannequins. - Quests are procedurally generated kill & defend quests - Main story quest line is boring and so cliche'd - AI works the same as the    Lifeless game. So majorly disappointing after a 20 year wait... A Remastered version of Mechwarrior 4 would of been so much better. It's a shame they didn't have a quality development team working on it.

    - In game characters are lifeless mannequins.
    - Quests are procedurally generated kill & defend quests
    - Main story quest line is boring and so cliche'd
    - AI works the same as the original doom. Magnetically attracted to your position... So no AI.
    - Thoughtless enemy additions to the map has the teleport in on top of you..

    Piranha Games doesn't deserve to hold this IP. They should release it so a decent developer can make some quality Mechwarrior games again.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

30
#30 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. ZTGD
    Oct 7, 2021
    65
    While I am glad to see MechWarrior make a return; its just not the one I’ve been waiting for. While the latest expansion Legend of the Kestrel Lancers adds new mechs, biomes and a linear story missions its still more of the same, so if one doesn’t like the base game…. Then the expansion isn’t going to do much to change that.
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  2. Hey Poor Player
    Jun 1, 2021
    70
    Mechwarrior 5 is for the detail-oriented mech fans who are willing to sacrifice immediate excitement and gratification for a more grounded simulation of what it would be like to pilot a massive mechanical monster. The career mode provided with this new expansion might please those who are craving more action from the base game, but there’s no new story to be had or any major gameplay additions to hook in anyone else. For the weighty price tag – Heroes of the Inner Sphere is only worth a purchase for those truly addicted to this more thoughtfully paced mecha-mercenary-em-up.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 28, 2020
    80
    An excellent mech simulation, sophisticated management and a return to the old days in a modern form. Only the graphics could be better. [Issue#301]
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